Friday, April 4, 2008

Funny foreigners

Martin has been getting accustomed to life in the United States. It's not until you've lived with a foreigner, do you realize some of the things we say and do really makes little sense when taken at face value.

Episode 1: Martin and the movie ticket machine.
Martin and I go to the movies, and he gets to buy tickets out of the ticket machine for the first time. Martin gets through without any problems, and paid with a credit card.

Machine: "Do you want cash back?"
Martin: "Yeah, sure."
Shan Shan: "You do?"
Martin: "Why not? It's asking me if I want money back!"
Shan Shan: "It's not *free* money back! You have to pay for the money back!"
Martin: "Oh... Well you've got to admit the phrasing is a bit ambiguous."

Episode 2: Massage
Martin and I go to get a massage. Things went well. It was Martin's first massage and he enjoyed it. The massage therapists at the wonderful Pearl Day Spa wrap warm wet towels around your feet at the end of the massage. I didn't think much of it, other than it was a nice touch.

Martin and I went to dinner afterwards, and we were discussing how wonderful the massages were. Martin comments that the massage lotion felt a bit sticky, and that he thought it was weird that the massage therapist only "washed" his feet.
Shan Shan: "What?"
Martin: "They washed my feet with hot towels."
Shan Shan: "I don't think that's what that was. They were just making you comfortable by putting your feet in something warm!"
Martin: "Oh... I was seriously expecting her to wash me, and I was surprised when she just did the feet!"

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Funny Americans: they add *water* to an espresso, resulting in something like filter coffee. They call it an 'Americano'. If you ask for a double espresso, they either 1) ask you three times what you're saying, 2) assume that you actually want an Americano or, 3) charge you more than an Americano with same number of shots!!

It's my mission now to educate my fellow Americans on how to drink coffee properly.

Arthur said...

Haha,Shan Shan, great stories! Keep'm coming!

And Martin: it's not only difficult in the US. The trouble I've had here in ordering a 'double cappucinno' in normal bars...

p.s. You should try a cortado of caffè macchiato once. Espresso with a drip of hot milk/foam

Arthur said...

sorry, that's cortado *or* caffè macchiato [..]