求遊其巡

Not Going Home.

http://www.chinasmack.com/2012/pictures/migrant-worker-waits-in-line-for-6-days-for-train-tickets-home.html
Reading an article like the above, it makes me glad to know that I won’t be taking a bus back home for the Lunar New Year. It’s better to just stay where I’m at, rather than fight with old ladies for seats on a bus, and then sit for ~7 hours, listening to “Paris By Night”. Also, I just realized. Whenever you type in “Chinese New Year”, Google actually gives you the date. AWESOME!

Back in Texas.

So lately, I’ve been traveling quite extensively for my corporation. Today, I’ve reached Dallas/Ft Worth Airport, and I can only laugh. So after explaining 3 different times, why I couldn’t rent a car from a certain company, this happens:

INT. Dallas/Fort Worth, Consolidated Rental Center, Alamo Counter – DAY

Counter Guy

Sorry sir! We can’t rent to you.

Me (V.O.)

Ah shit! You’re on the Same Network as Enterprise!

COUNTER GUY hands ME a pamplet with a number written on it.

Counter Guy

Call this number, and they should be able to figure out what’s wrong.

I call. Get to a machine, get to an actual person, get transferred, and then am asked a bunch of questions that don’t apply.

Lady

OK, let me check your information, you mind being put on hold?

Me

No.

Me (V.O., CONT’D)

That is the least of my worries.

Lady

Oh wow! This is an old one! ’03! Wait… This doesn’ make any sense! “Member is prevented from renting from Enterprise until insurance information can be verified?! I’m gonna’ go ahead and delete this for you. It’ll take 24-hours to take affect.

Me

That’ll work. Thanks!

Luckily, there was a guy who’s going to the same training session, who’s in my unit. So I called him, and told him the situation. Basically, he has now been enlisted to be my chauffer for the weekend. Poor guy! But he wanted me to go back to the next terminal, and get picked up there. So…

EXT. Dallas/Fort Worth, Consolidated Rental Center – DAY

A bus is sitting right outside. I run for the larger, middle door. It shuts on me. I dash to the front entrance, and get in.

old woman

Which terminal are you going to, Sir?

me

Whichever terminal you’re going to.

old hag

No sir! You don’t understand! Which terminal are you going to?!

This goes back and forth several times. A guy tries to chime in and help out:

guy

This shuttle is going to Terminal A.

I can’t hear this however, because the OLD HAG cuts him off and says:

old hag

Shut up, sir! Let me handle my own business!

me

Look, I’m waiting for a friend to pick me up at the next terminal. Just drop me off at the next terminal, OK?

old hag

Fine, go to the back of the bus! Or at least get out of my way or something!

At this point, all I can do is just laugh. At least she softened it with “Or at least get out of my way or something!” Rather than leaving it at “go to the back of the bus!”. That’s some nice Southern hospitality for you right there! “We got worse words for you kind here in our neck of the woods!”

Done With the Cow Herd

I used to like travelling. Travelling on the government/company’s dime was especially great, because you could go to random places you normally couldn’t afford on your own while racking up frequent flier miles, ultimately giving you more free trips you normally wouldn’t be able to afford. Now? It’s really not worth it. You get herded around like a cow, going through random lines from one spot to another. Except, instead of ultimately getting your head chopped off, and then cut into various pieces to be packaged and distributed to markets, you now have to pretend to be social and care about people.

I had the luxury of being spared from suffering the same fate actual cattle do, by sitting down and waiting for my flight, only to be surrounded by Korean girls –from Korea. It went something like this:

INT. San Francisco Airport

I’ve been sitting down for over an hour, reading a book. Then, a bunch of Korean girls come over and sit around me.

앞에 썅년

우리나라보다 여기 있는 사람들이 너무 불친절해.
The people in this country are not as friendly as ours.

오른쪽 씨빨년

이 사람은 정말 재수 스러워! 사진 찍지마! 이 사람의 머리때문에!
This person is really ugly! Don’t take my picture because his head will show!

I continue to stare at the book.

오른쪽 씨빨년

이 사람은 왜 여기 있어? 사진도 못찍어!
Why is this person here? I can’t even take my picture because of him!

오른쪽 씨빨년 and the friend to her right leave for a bit, and then return.

오른쪽 씨빨년

이 사람 없이 사진 찍어 잘 나와!
Taking pictures without this guy in the way, will make the pictures look great!

오른쪽 씨빨년 and the her 씨빨 friend to her right sit back down.

오른쪽 씨빨년

여기서 사진 찍어봐 ! 조심하게! 이 사람의 머리를 나오지 않도록!
Try taking some pictures now! Be careful! Try not to take any with this person’s head!

오른쪽 씨빨년의 오른쪽 친구 takes some pictures.

오른쪽 씨빨년의 오른쪽 친구

오…! 이 사진에 그 사람의 머리가 나왔어요!
Aw… His head’s in this picture!

Holding in anger, I lay the book down, purposely avoid eye contact, and check the hanging LCD TVs for flight status. Everything is a blur. I take out my touchscreen phone, and flip through pictures and to re-focus eyes. 앞에 썅년 imitates my thumbing motion.

앞에 썅년

뭐가 그렇게 재미 있냐?!
What’s so interesting about that?!

ME (V.O.)

이 씨빨 개 썅년들이! 여기서 자리가 많는데 하필히 내 주위에 앉아 있어야 했냐?! 그래! 핸드폰에 사진을 보는게 니들 가짜 얼굴들보다 훨씬 더 재미 있다!
Yeah, you fuckin’ bitches! Of all the places here, why the hell did you have to sit around me?! Yeah, looking at pictures on my phone is much more interesting than looking at your fake faces!

.

So back to the 앞에 썅년’s comments about how “unfriendly” Americans are. I’ll tell you why: Americans are good at knowing “If you’z a bitch”, they’re gonna’ treat you like “you’z a bitch!”. It’s also people like this that give other 한국사람 and 교포s a bad rap among the rest of the Asian community in the US. In other words, girls like the ones described above are what would be called 국치(國恥).

Paris and my Eurotrip 2010 Overall.

Despite some major crappy experiences, I liked it overall. It was good to see my old buddy, and despite the fact that we didn’t go out partying all that much, it was alright.

Yesterday (or shall I say 2 days ago), I was back in Paris, and this time, I actually got to see the city. And as with Lille, it was pretty friggin’ dirty. Plus, it still smelled like piss and crap. But that’s ok. Because, instead of taking the subway station (which was much quicker), we were stupid enough to follow the information we received at the tourist info center. Stupid, but cool at the same time. Sure, we wasted a shit-ton of hours in traffic, on a smelly bus filled with dirty windows and smelly people. But you know what? It was cool! We saw how this bus driver narrowly skimmed his way through a traffic of people going the wrong way. At some points, he had to stop, but in doing so, used some highly negotiative skills (very loudly), and got other people to move out of the way. Heck, it was even more cool, when we saw another bus (also going the wrong way) pass by us. I wasn’t scared for my life, but damn, that was amazing!

We dropped our stuff off at the hotel, and then went to see the Eiffel Tower. That was pretty awesome! There were a crap-ton of peddlers trying to sell us stupid little trinkets. It was funny when we all saw them running away in giant groups though. We were like, “What the hell is going on?” But when we turned the other way, one of the guys was getting a pile-drive from a group of police. Then I thought, “Ah… Peace and quiet at last!” But I was wrong. Within a minute, they all came back as if nothing happened. This guy behind me got 7 little Eiffel tower keychains for 1€. For a moment, I even thought of getting something too. The guy’s name was Seung-Hwan, and he was actually studying in Thailand. Pretty cool guy!
It sucked I didn’t have a girlfriend to come with me. But oh well! It was so cold, and the wind was blowing so hard, my buddy said the most romantic I’ve heard in a while: “You know? I’m just about ready to open up your coat, and climb in it! I don’t care what other people say!”
Wow, how romantic! Unfortunately, why couldn’t one of the other hot girls that were part of the crowd tell me that instead? No, I had to be stuck there with two guys. Luckily, I didn’t have to share my coat, keeping it all to myself. But yeah, it was so cold and windy, that two German girls who paid the 13.50€ ($20.88 USD) price to go all the way up, stopped half way, got out of the line and just went down.

Afterwards the whole ordeal, I got a chocolate crepe, and we tried to head back on the subway. Unfortunately, it was closing on us, and when we got to an open entrance, the police officer just said, “No entrance!” And closed it just like that. So we were forced to walk back, and ended up taking a taxi (which other people were fighting for as well) back to the hotel. Most expensive hotel right I’ve ever had –almost 49€($66.02USD). This beats that cab ride I took from Kadena to Naha in Okinawa ($44USD) back in 2007. But it was pretty cool, seeing the way this guy weave his way through slow traffic, onto oncoming traffic, and even going around people in the loop. Almost rivaled the bus ride we had earlier (but the bus ride was still way cooler).

Then I flew home, and had a late layover in Houston where I went through Customs again, and had my baggage checked for the second time (apparently, they didn’t trust the French who also checked everything twice in the same airport). Then our connecting flight got delay another hour. I didn’t get back home until 9:24pm. Wow!

Overall, the trip had many bad moments. But it was okay. Renting bikes and riding them around Frankfurt was pretty awesome. Heck, Germany in general, was just pretty awesome! It was clean (for the most part), and the wilderness was beautiful. Plus, it really makes you appreciate the things you do have that much more. Helps put many things in perspective. There’s still a lot more I haven’t seen of Europe. Next time, I’ll hit up Southern France, the Iberian Peninsula, and all those Mediterranean states. (I’ll save Eastern Europe for another trip, when I go to central Asia).

Little Things

So yesterday, I missed the early train to get to the main station that would get me to Milan, Italy. So when I finally did wake up and tried to catch a later train, they were all out of seats. Apparently, I’d forgotten about Easter Day Weekend (Unlike in America, it’s an actual holiday here), and apparently Milano’s the place to go during this time.

Because here in Frankfurt, Germany, almost EVERYTHING shuts down. But according to my buddy, they all go out, party, and get drunk during Christmas. So why not Easter too?

In Europe, everything shuts down early, and it fuckin’ blows. But now, especially after yesterday, I realize why: Customer service sucks balls. It sucks so bad, people want to stay home and not deal with these fuckers. Fuck! Should’ve just gone back to Griesheim, and ate at that pizza place close by. If I’d known that they were miraculously open….

That restaurant that we did go to though, was pretty bad. The food was mediocre, and it was the second time that day, that I asked for plain old water, and the mineral water I got was more mineral than water. Then, the guy kept saying that I ordered a beer for my buddy. No, I ordered a Cola Light (“Diet Coke” for the Americans)! But he insisted we ordered the beer, and then, charged us up the ass $20 more than the actual price of everything. We only found this out, after checking the prices with the menu up front. GREAT! So we were ripped off too!

So that’s why shit shuts down early in Germany. Because customer service sucks so bad, people would much rather eat at home. So it’s probably safe to say that the businesses that stay open late enough, usually don’t get enough business and HAVE to stay open to try to attract a few more customers.

Amsterdam

First thing I noticed was that I shrunk about 3 inches. Damn, Dutch girls are tall! Only had an hour there, and that was more than enough. It was dirty, and all their “modern” buildings actually looked like they were from 1970s “postmodern” designs. Wierd.

But the people that worked at the Amsterdam station were pretty damn mean. AND it was the dirtiest and oldest-looking train station I’ve seen thus far. Then, it all came together over the loudspeaker, when it was announced that the cleaning crew was on strike. Usually people dump so much shit onto cleaning crews anyways, that it doesn’t matter. Because people that work that kind of job unfortunately just take it. So someone REALLY fucked up on this one when those guys have decided to strike. What do you have to do to piss off one janitor, let alone the whole damn crew?

Honestly, aside from the hookers and potsmoking, what else does Amsterdam offer?

Threats

So after merely spending an hour in Amsterdam, I went back home. Along the way, I heard a couple speaking in Mandarin. Specifically, they were northeastern. Plus, I noticed they were playing cards. I was contemplating whether or not to ask them to include me, but then I heard the guy make a snide little comment, “不知道那小子到底在瞧甚麼！再瞧的話。。。”. So much for finding compatriots. Maybe I was being creepy like that other guy, or maybe people should learn that what they say in public should be kept to a low volume. Even with that creepy guy from two days ago, when my buddy and I were talking, we were already lowering our voices a lot, and anyone who knows me can testify that I really don’t have a projecting voice.

But back to these FOBs… This fucker was loud enough, that I could hear he had a eurail pass that goes until April 30th. Only rich fucker’s could afford that kind of shit. I’m already tightening the belt after just a few days in Europe. So most likely aside from being born rich, he was probably an only child that received a shit-ton of attention and appeasement from his parents and grandparents. Or else he wouldn’t be quick to make cocky comments like that. Plus, I rarely judge people by their physical appearance, but seeing that this kid has unkempt hair, and really thick glasses, he’s trying to sport the “sheeky geeky” look. And if anyone is trying to give themselves any type of look, then that means they’re douches.

And what the fuck was that threat at the end from that guy? Shit man, if you’re trying to scare someone, talk to someone who hasn’t had a gun pointed to his head at the age of 10!

Money!

So I forgot to take out some cash beforehand, and because I couldn’t go to London (the very city my bank is based from), I’m forced to freeload from my friend. That feeling sucks! Moreover, most of these places don’t take Visa. Great! So now I have to wire myself some money, and pay a wiring fee. Hopefully the Germans don’t give me too much crap over this.

UPDATE:
After I’d gotten off the wrong station (1 station before the right stop, got off, then got back on to the right one) only to walk around in circles to the next train station in the next line, took the train back, walked around some more, realized I’d been walking in the wrong direction, and then I walked back again. All this time was being wasted, and I thought: “Oh no! It’s past 3pm, and the banks here close early! I gotta’ get to this thing FAST!”

So I’m walking around, getting lost some more, and then, I found it…

I went inside, and asked a lady, if she could help me in withdrawing some money from my account. She said, “We don’t do retail banking at this HSBC like you’re used to in your country.” B2B investing, funds, and all that, just not the thing I need. So my buddy Barry was right. Just call up my bank, and tellem’ to wire the damn money over to me. I’ll do that the next morning. -_-, Defeat.

Bad Wild Bad, and the outlying areas of the Blackforest

BEAUTIFUL! Need I say more? Most of all, it’s called “Bad Wild Bad”! Can’t get more Bad-ass than that!

It reminds me of the Pacific northwest, but without the giant redwoods that you drive your cars through. It was pretty cool that there was a tram that used energy from the other tram to pull us up. No electricity used at all. Just gravity. Nice dinky little town with cafes and shops, and natural spring water spas for old people to soak themselves in, in attempts to heal their arthritis. If you hate the sight of nearly naked old people, Japanese tourists like to come for the natural spring waters too! Yes, that means young Japanese women who’re probably rich enough to afford to travel outside their island chain.

wierd people

So on my way from Stutgardt to Pforzheim, there was a wierd British guy that kept looking straight at me. It was very uncomfortable. I mean I’ve had people that tried to look away because my face was that ugly before. However, it was like this fat old Brit wanted my Asian cock meat or some shit. It was fuckin’ wierd. He didn’t even try to hide the fact that he was eavesdropping onto our conversation. He just kept staring. My buddy Barry noticed this first, and I thought maybe he was just looking out at the window or something. No. I’m sitting in the aisle seat, and this fucker is looking straight at me. Even when me and Barry were trying to keep our voices low, this fat fucker with a bald head and molestacchio, leaned in towards us and tried to listen to what we were saying. What the fuck is wrong with this fucker? I actually decided to leave this cart and take up a different seat. First the Brits don’t let me into their country, now they send a gay perv/shitty spy to track me down? Fuck you!