Anthony Had 2 (write this down)

The Funny Thing About Recycling

achamy — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 18:53:06 +0000

So I’m on my way to a trade show in downtown Montreal, at Place Bonaventure (one of the largest convention center we have here)… and as usual, I didn’t have time to eat lunch because of work so I grabbed a sandwich so I could eat on my way there… from the moment I finished my sandwich in the subway and started heading towards the trade show, I looked for a recycling bin to throw my napkin and paper sandwich wrapper (it’s nice when quick eateries think of giving you recyclable packaging that doesn’t last 250 years since you will have devoured the food for which the package was manufactered in the first place, in about 5 minutes)… – This seemed an easy task: “To find a recycling bin” (wasn’t that a famous book that we all had to read n High School? Ah no, that’s To Kill A Mockingbird, but I was close…)…

I’m crossing the street in the Old Port and I get to the Palais Des Congrès (translated as the Congress Palace – ha! What a hilarious name don’t you think?), a HUGE convention center (I went there by accident, since I always get the two mixed up)… “no problem”, I think to myself, I’ll just walk to the other convention center (Bonaventure), which is just 5 mins away. As I’m still holding my napkin and now empty sandwich wrapper, I’m thinking “it would really be nice to get rid of these…where is that damn recycling bin?”…

Well just so you know, the Congress “King” doesn’t seem to recycle since his main hall in the “Palace” has no recycling bins that I could find… they did think of putting separators to make 2 lines in front of the Tim Horton’s (Starbuck’s main competitor here) as well as couches in a lounge area… how thoughtful… I make it to the 2nd Convention Center, Bonaventure, and think, I’ll finally get rid of this stuff I’ve been holding for no reason for the last 10 minutes… I look around… no recycling bins… OK, maybe it’s just me, I might be blinded by the fact that I am in a hurry… so I make my way to the Information Desk:

“Hello there” I say with a big smile…”can you direct me to the closest recycling bin please?”…

The man at the desk replies with a confused look on his face:

“Recycling bin?”… as I can see his eyes going to the back of his brain looking for that folder that contains the information…

“They are not exactly easy to find” he tells me…

Ant: “So…. what… you HID them?”

Info guy: “Well, uhm, not exactly, we just don’t have many of them… I have seen one in the basement, past all the cafeteria kiosk restaurants, when you go all the way down the hall, right next to the bathrooms… it is hard to find, but if you look hard for it, you’ll find it…” he tells me, with a smile on his face, as if he accomplished his mission and feels good about his job…

Ant: “Wow, ok thank you sir…” and I actually turned into Sherlock Holmes and took the 7 minute walk to find that damn recycling bin, that looked nothing like a recycling bin at all, it was a garbage with a converted opening that was made small enough to only accept cans.

Let me repeat that: “Wow” because that’s exactly what needs to be said here… WOW. Date: 2010. – Location: Montreal, North America, Planet Earth.- Traffic: humongous- millions of people pass through this building every year, for trade shows of all kinds. – Recycling: uhm no, not really… they didn’t think it necessary?

Is this for real? The city of Montreal hasn’t imposed one of the most highly visited buildings in the city to get freaking recycling bins?…. SERIOUSLY? … WOW. Very impressive guys… How about we wake up and start making it less of a MISSION IMPOSSIBLE to recycle so people can really start making it part of their daily routine… I know of many multi-apartment or multi-condo buildings that have no recycling bins in Montreal… and I’ve also seen the touristic area garbages completely overflowing with recyclable and non-recyclable garbage on big weekends in the summer… (but you can’t ask the city to pay workers to pick up the garbage on the weekend… they have a collective agreement with the union, right?!)… It’s funny how in Tokyo I saw less garbages yet no garbage on the streets, and in Japan, if the city catches you throwing recyclable stuff in your garbage, they’ll fine you! (Yes they actually go through people’s garbages)… Now THERE’s a good WOW… maybe the next mayor of Montreal should be a Jean Guy Fukiyama or Pierre Yakozama…

The Funny Thing About Yoga

achamy — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 02:28:24 +0000

So here I am telling this amazingly beautiful woman, that happens to be a yogi – “yes of course I’d like to do a yoga class”… I had done a class once before, a LONG time ago, a power yoga class, and it was… let’s say… interesting…

The fact that I was in London, UK and happened to have mistimed my transport via the “tube” (London’s subway system) made me arrive 3 minutes after the class had started… a big no no in the yoga world… nevertheless, I walked on eggshells all the way to an empty area in the back, WAY in the back where I would try to hide from the teacher and just hope I don’t look too much like a fool… (by the way, for future reference, never walk in front of other yogi’s, you are “interfering” with their self image in the mirror – it’s not yoga etiquette) here’s where the unexpected happened:

For an hour and a half, the Bikram yoga teacher got me to completely focus on the task at hand, made me sweat almost 2L of water and got me stretching in positions I had never imagined… only to leave me feeling GREAT at the end of class… a feeling of regeneration is the best way to put it… and then I thought huh – maybe I would actually LIKE doing yoga after all!

So a few months later, fortunate for me, I get to see mademoiselle again and we plan some yoga classes – since she’s a yogi of course… in a 10-day span I took 5 yoga classes with 4 different teachers and anyone that says that the yoga teacher doesn’t make a difference is really, really wrong: there were big differences in the experiences between the Polish military gymnast and the granola rasta-haired buddha-chanting latino and the nerdy Bill Gates with a beer belly white boy and the ideal half-Indian half-caucasian Montrealer who knew exactly how hard to push us and told me I did an amazing job (ok ok, maybe that influenced my rating system – but I did do a good job… I think ?!)…

So I never thought I’d say this but I grew to really appreciate that feeling of complete regeneration after class… maybe it’s the constant sweating (Bikram yoga is done in a studio heated to 105 F or 40.5 C!) or maybe it’s the fact you are doing physical “labour” at a rate of slow motion which makes it hard but allows for you to stay in control and work your body in ways it seems it should always have been…

I actually went to my first hot yoga class on my own yesterday (not by choice, I would always rather have my senior yogi to stare at when I’m lost in a pose or simply to appreciate her attractive curves – what? don’t you girls think we (us, guys) check you out in class when your stretching and twisting etc? duh…

BUT since this time she wasn’t around, I had to actually focus 100% of the time on my mirror image and work on perfecting my poses… and it was great… of course I still feel like I’m made of brittle wood and will break at any moment – but I’m starting to trust the teachers who are always pushing us “Bend more! Stretch further! Squish harder!”…

As I was changing after class a baby boomer rushed in and as he was taking off his pants asked me “Where do I put my clothes?” … ah, a newbie, I thought to myself

“Just leave it here – you can’t take it into the studio… and make sure you take lots of water with you…” he he here I was giving advice!

“Just relax and you’ll be fine…” I told him as his face had an expression of “what the hell did I get myself into?!”… maybe he had been trying to impress a beautiful woman as well?…

But he wasn’t -

“I don’t know HOW to relax, that’s why I’m here…!”

… and off we went our separate ways…

Sometimes you'll feel like your teacher is expecting you to do this...

The Funny Thing About Greece

achamy — Sat, 15 May 2010 09:10:51 +0000

First of all, Greeks put their bathroom lights OUTSIDE the bathroom… So you might be in there, doing number 1 or number 2 and anybody can easily turn off the lights… Can someone remind me why it is logical to put the light switch of ANY room outside the room itself?

Anyway, things don’t necessarily follow one’s logic here and that’s OK, that’s what gives it its charm… With the financial crisis happening everyone realizes how: (1) Greece was never ready to take on the Euro and (2) the G8 always knew that yet are happy to now send the IMF to suck the country dry of its resources… isn’t it how it always works on this planet anyway?

Let’s stay away from politics and back to this blog: Greeks are loud and party hard and they like to enjoy life… A good frappé in the summer days ensures their average five doses of caffeine per day… And Greeks have a tendency to continuously surprise me: either by their dryness and aggressive tones or by their contrasting warm welcomes and big smiles – you don’t get any middle ground Greeks around here… Either you get treated like some piece of dirt or you get treated like royalty – I guess it is a good way to always keep you on your toes…

The most memorable moments were:

1) Going out with my cousin and his friends for some drinks for a supposed early Sunday night where each of us had to work early the next day: from the lawyer having a court appearance to the doctor having to see his patients to the teacher giving a class and the “guide” meeting his school group at the airport … We ended up meeting some people at a bar and going to a beachfront club for drinks and sone dancing and then continuing the party at one of our apartments with some more drinks and good music and many many jokes … Until 6am! Everyone was easily convincing each other how easy the other person’s job is and so sleep was not necessary hehehe… (I told you Greeks like to party!)

and

2) In Loutro, Crete – taking 7 high school kids with me on an 8-hour trek up and down mountains, through tiny villages and along the beautiful rocky Greek shoreline for some 20 Km… With none of them being used to long treks but all of them working hard to make it back safely and enjoying the incredible sights that nature had to offer… Apart from a few scrapes and bruises I think they really enjoyed their first ever full-day nature trail

Well I’m off to my gate… Just had 2 write this down…

The Funny Thing About Japan (3)

achamy — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 06:10:43 +0000

You know those white pebbles/rocks that some people put on the ground in front of their houses to decorate the property slightly? Well as I walked past some that happened to have 2 pebbles that had left the pack and were a few cm onto the sidewalk, my eyes automatically zeroed in on them like a fighter jet’s radar locking in on enemy aircraft and I gently kicked the two outsiders back into homogeneosity… My 2 weeks on this planet (Japan IS on another planet) have trained me well… Everything and everyone have their specific place here… Everyone dresses in dark or neutral colors so as to fit in – there are umbrella racks at every doorway, sometimes with cylindrical plastic bags to put your wet umbrella in – there are extra rolls of toilet paper on racks in most public toilets, which are found in all subway stations and small malls and cafes and restaurants, even the tiny little restaurants the size of a North American closet – When a teacher utters 1 syllable the whole class quiets down and listens carefully – nobody runs into anybody even at five-road intersections where 1000 pedestrians can cross the same sidewalk at a traffic light change – I have yet to find a rotten fruit or veggie in a store or a dirty corner of either Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima or Osaka – stores are constantly cleaned and clothes folded without delay – NOBODY walks across a red light even if there is no car in sight – finding a scratched car is almost mission impossible – almost all cars are black, white or grey – every character’s stroke from their 3 alphabets (of hundreds of characters each) has a specific way of being written and for calligraphy to be considered perfect it can take a skilled artist many years of practice until a single letter is written properly…

What I don’t understand is the absolutely mind boggling crazyness that Japanese tv puts on the air or the small completely ridiculous details that people here have learned to live with: women with baby carriages are NEVER helped in public places, not even to go up or down stairs – the red light district has clubs specifically for prostitutes to drink away their sorrows – quitting your job is unacceptable no matter what your boss does to you – everyone has the same mobile phone design no matter what the make or network you are with (considering this is a high tech country… this is surprising)… – it is normal for a store’s salesgirls to be dressed in maids uniforms (i.e. the jeans store I bought my Japanese jeans in) – you won’t be given anything other than chopsticks in a restaurant even if you need to cut something and a knife would have been handy…and finally: it is accepted that men like their women to look like 12 year old school girls… Did I mention that kids eat dried squid as a snack (you’ll find them next to the nuts and candies in the supermarket)…? Or the donut box I bought that contained hard-to-open individually wrapped donuts?…

Anyway, just had 2 write this down… back to Montreal I go!

The Funny Thing About Japan (2)

achamy — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 20:48:27 +0000

I have finally had a good night’s sleep on my fourth night in this amazing country… Tokyo’s huge population in a concentrated area almost goes unnoticed (unless you are in Shibuya, the famous 5-road crossing in the middle of downtown) since many of the buildings are small, the streets are spotless (I have yet to see anything lying around on the ground such as a wrapper or even cigarette butts) the mass transit system is unequalled (the metro/trains cover the whole of Tokyo even going all the way to the airport, with trains coming and going every 5 minutes and the large masses lining up and crossing paths without bumping into each other and by hardly making any sounds – 200 people in a train wagon make less noise than 2 high school kids from Montreal!)… and the cute little noodle or sushi restaurants have kept their modest old-style wooden facades from many years back…

I’ve noticed some cute/funny facts: Everyone leaves their bicycles UNlocked right outside on the main street sidewalks… Also, most of the streets do NOT have street names! I’m talking about downtown Tokyo, one of the most modern/advanced/expensive cities in the world – and they survive with few street names… I also noticed how, just like in the movies or cliches, all Japanese take great pride in what they do – the best example would be the ground crew at the airport facing the planes, bowing and waiting for the airplanes to take off before moving onto their next task… Incredible no?

The are vending machines EVERYWHERE and you can buy beer, sodas, hot or cold coffee and tea, and cigarettes – densely visited areas have outdoor smoking areas that are walled up like cubicles so passerbys don’t get bothered by the smoke… EVERYONE goes to work in a suit, and the elderly work into their 70s cleaning and doing other odd jobs…

Another thing: super markets will sell nuts, chips, dried fruits and rice cookies right next to dried squid, dried shrimp, dried fish and dried octopus snack bags! I also saw a HUGE beef jerky – almost the size of a samurai sword!

Finally, the games and toy figurine sections of the stores are filled with grown men and women lining up to buy things for themselves (and not their kids)…

I’m kinda liking the bowing and saying “haiii, arigatooo, haiii” everytime I interact with someone, even the cashiers at the 7/11′s (and they do it back!) – makes me feel like a character in the movie The Last Samurai

We’re off to Kyoto so I’ll update you in a bit…

The Funny Thing About Japan

achamy — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 06:04:26 +0000

As I got off the plane at Narita International Airport (I was excited since it is my first time in Asia!) the first interesting things I see are the baby blue and baby pink toilet signs for men and women… in North America we are way too politically correct to even imagine using pink for the women’s toilet… Yet for an international airport, when you think about it, it makes perfect sense… I also noticed an infrared temperature scanner, like what you see in spy movies… I assume there is an illegal substance that shows up warmer on the scanner? Interesting indeed… I also noticed Japanese men’s long hair: they either look like they needed a haircut 4 months ago (kinda afro-ish) or they look like samurai with nice long thin hair tied into neat ponytails… My first photo in Japan is of a 70-80 year old man logging onto MSN Messenger on his Sony VIAO laptop…

The Funny Thing About Bobsleighing

achamy — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:27:10 +0000

Well for starters, the name… a Bobsleigh… a sleigh that is named Bob, or Bob’s sleigh… not that “curling” is a more intellectually stimulating name… but as Nacho Libre says, “let’s get down to the nitty gritty”:

We have 4 guys, dressed in Robin Hood outfits wearing motorcycle helmets that push a sleigh for about 5 seconds, jump in and…

- this is where it gets interesting….

—

wait for it…

—

Apart from the guy in front who is driving, they do NOTHING (or seemingly so) for the rest of race… (kinda like the curling guys with the brooms… one guy throws the rocks and the others clean the ice….)…

So let’s RECAP: Millions of people, no no wait – hundreds of millions of people around the world are hooked onto their television screen as 3 of my friends and I push a sleigh for 5 seconds and then sit and wait for the guy in front to steer this thing down the admittingly dangerous tube to the finish line…? Not only is this ridiculous, (excuse me I forgot to mention that if you are a bobsleigh athlete you probably should not be reading this blog) but it is even more ridiculous to try and understand why in the world someone would want to see not just one type of bobsleigh race, but EXACTLY the same race, with 2 guys instead of 4! And then the SAAAAAAAME race AGAIN – this time with 1 guy in the sleigh… does anyone actually WANT to see these different races? … that’s the equivalent of wanting to watch a NASCAR race with passengers in the cars (where they would all stand outside their cars and RUN into the automobiles when the race started…)…

And if you’re gonna try and convince me that these guys, while stuck in an extremely tight spot in the sleigh are able to contribute to the outcome of the race… don’t – did you see how much space they have in there? Are they tilting their eyeballs towards the left or the right to sway the sleigh?!? C’mooooon……..

Do hockey fans demand to see 5-on-5, 3-on-3, and 2-on-2 hockey games? Do we ask for 3 period, 2 period and 1 period games? No we do not. Why? Because IT WOULD NOT MAKE ANY FREAKING SENSE……..

Can anybody explain the difference between the 2-man bobsleigh and the 4-man bobsleigh? “Well yes I can, uhm, in the 2-man bobsleigh, 1 guys sits and does nothing whereas in the 4-man bobsleigh 3 guys just sit there and do nothing”… I see I see… Ok well in that case I should just shut up and stop complaining then?… UHM…. NO.

It drives me insane how in the same sports line-up you have hockey, curling, figure skating, ski jumping, alpine downhill skiing, biathlon (I kinda get the different distances for races such as speed skating and the biathlon and the downhill vs the giant slalom) but the 3 bobsleighing events, c’mon guys… why don’t we make the bobsleigh athletes compete on different distances while we’re at it!? The 3-man 2.5 km track, the 5-man 1.7 km track, the 7 man 3.4 km track… C’mon! C’mon! This is ridiculous and you know it…

Please explain to me what team members #2, #3 and #4 are doing right now?

“Anthony, you just don’t get it – why are they in the Olympics then? They are the best in the world – so they are worthy of our attention…” WHAT? The three best guys in the world that can sit behind a driver and not move? Are you serious? They are the best in the world because they ARE THE ONLY ONES in the world that actually practicing the sport! I would be curious to know how many people actually tried out for the Canadian Olympic team… like what there are some bobsleigh athletes out there that bobsleighed for 4 years and didn’t make it into the Olympics?! This is a joke I’m sorry to say… I enjoyed the speed skating, the skiing, the jumps, the biathlons… the hockey of course (notice how I didn’t mention curling?)…. but 3 different bobsleigh events is an insult to my intelligence…

Drives me nuts and had 2 write this down… next post will be about women’s hockey (don’t get me started!)…

Had 2 write this down…

The Funny Thing About the Gym

achamy — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 01:18:04 +0000

I was at the gym the other day (isn’t that a cool thing to say, “hey, I was at the gym the other day, yeah, I was, I really was!” it’s so hard to follow a regimen and wake up early and go to the gym in the morning, but when my friends ask me to join them I’ll never say no, a man has got an ego to uphold…) and I’m minding my own business, I finished working out and checking myself (or women in tight clothing) out in the mirrors… so I start getting ready for my shower. Now whenever men are changing in the locker room, there’s the whole “I have naked men all around me and I don’t wanna look” thing going on, where you walk around naked (so you don’t look like you’re still in high school) but you still kinda feel uncomfortable… after 15 yrs of going to the gym, it’s still there – I thought I’d get immune to getting tunnel vision as scores of naked men walk past me, but I just can’t shake it – I don’t wanna see naked guys! I LOVE looking at naked women… and women, even though they don’t admit it, MUST love looking at naked women… but naked guys, it’s just not right, the male body ain’t sexy when it’s naked and walking around and things are all over the place…

ANYWAY so I see this guy, combing his hair, mafia style (you know, like both hands on the comb, fully concentrated on each and every hair as it gets placed by the passing comb…) except, he’s totally naked, in front of a full body mirror.

Ok, did you read what I just wrote? Go back and read it, or here it is again: the guy is nude, combing his hair as if he was going to his wedding, and he is in front of a full mirror – and it’s 8:30am and the locker is full of men getting ready for work…

UHM….. WHAT THE HELL?!

Put on a freaking pair of underwear pal, I didn’t look at his crotch, but the scene was absurb and obscene all at once, even from the back… it would have made for a good parody of a tacky calendar for women… but c’mon on man, have some decency.. it reminded me of the man I saw in the metro that was clipping his toe nails… yes, he was sitting there in the Montreal Subway system (which seems to have a glitch: the new tourniquet’s are 1 second late, causing everyone to slam into them after swiping their passes, a funny observation until it happens to you, over… and over…anyway -) so he is sitting there, clipping his toe nails – the fact that there happened to be someone sitting across from him eating a sandwich just made it all seem even more surreal… the crap people do in public… shouldn’t there a law against disturbing people’s visions?

Speaking of visions, apparently there are unisex locker rooms in Austria and Germany! I actually lived in Austria for 2 months, and had I known about this, I would have spent most of my time at the gym, in the locker room, more specifically, the showers… visualizing… yes yes, the showers, ladies and gentlemen (how fitting) are for men and women, to share! So you’d be bench pressing at 8:05am, then waving at the cute girl next to you at 8:07am, then at 8:10am you’re SHOWERING’ naked, right next to her… nice nice very nice, as Borat would say “I liiike!” I think this is where I’m supposed to stop fantasizing and get back to work… just had 2 write this down…

I'm grateful for not being a member at THIS gym...

The Funny Thing About Banks

achamy — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:08:46 +0000

Online banking is great, I can log in and check my account, make payments without writing checks or going to the bank etc… that’s awesome … But if ever you need to speak to a “human” (I use quotation marks not because I am NOT referring to the homo sapiens but rather some of the people that work at the bank are sometimes too dumb to be considered as part of our race, as you will see shortly)…

So I logged in and saw a debit which I could not identify (of only 49$, but still… I am referring to my commercial bank account) and picked up the phone and left a message for my account manager. 24 hrs later I get a call from her and she tells me she doesn’t know… (it took her 24hrs to figure that out?) and that I need to send a fax to another woman at the bank (in the SAME building) so she can call me back and give me the details of the transaction. Yes, yes, you read correctly: my commercial bank account manager at a bank (in downtown Montreal), is asking me to send a fax, to her colleague, who works 2 floors down from her, so that person can call me to tell me why I have an unauthorized debit in my account. Ok… so I keep my cool, and I write the fax: “Dear so-and-so, please call me I would like to ask a question about a debit on Nov 16, etc…”.

A few hours later that day, (still no call) I end up going at the bank to make some deposits, and the cashier talks to the person in question who recognizes me:

Bank woman- “Mr. Chamy, are you the one who sent me the fax earlier today?”

Anthony – “Yes, that’s me “

I have a big smile on my face since I realize that the issue will most likely be resolved in the next 30 seconds. I continue:

Anthony – “I wanted to identify this debit, but first, I wanted to know, is there no way for my bank account manager to reach you? I don’t understand why she called me and asked me to send you a fax for you to call me, I mean, it is… (and I was going to say ridiculous but I held back)…

Bank woman – “Well of course, Mr. Chamy, I mean, she is on another floor, she works in another department!”

…

My smile slowly fades away…

…

What I would have liked to say at this moment is: “You mean to tell me that it is simpler for her to pick up the phone, call her client (me), then have the client send you a fax asking you to have you call them back, and then you pick up the phone and call – instead of having her just contact you (by phone, e-mail, or just walk down 2 floors)?! You work in the same building for crying out loud! Are you serious? What freakin’ planet do we live on here? You guys are a major bank, how can you possible function properly this way? I am at a loss for words, this is insulting my intelligence…”

But I end up holding myself back (I assume thanks to Daniel Goleman’s book: Emotional Intelligence) since I know that to upset the ladies that deposit your company cheques must not be a good thing and I just swallow my anger and respond very calmly (with a new and improved smile of course):

Anthony – “Ah ok, well… what is that debit anyway, I did not authorize it so I’d like to know what it is”…

Bank woman – “Ah well yes, I was going to call you Mr. Chamy, to tell you that I do not know what this debit transaction is, you will have to talk to your account manager.”

My smile quickly disappears for good…

…

At this point I just squeezed my mouth shut so as not to scream any profanities, and walked away…

To be continued…

Funny Things About Morocco

achamy — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:06:01 +0000

Ok so here I am in Casablanca with my gf for 1 day (we’re on our way to Egypt for a wedding)… so I say to myself, we’ll spend the day in Morocco, see another country a bit, and be on our way with a big smile…

Think again: hehehe… there is something about Moroccans in Morocco (I specify in Morocco because, I know a lot of Moroccans in Montreal, and they are all cool, smart, quick, interesting, etc… no complaints at all)… but the ones in Morocco…. well, they are kinda different:

First of all, if you go visit the Sultan Hassan II Mosque, note that you need to pay a tour guide to show you around with explanations etc (you cannot visit this supposed site of worship without having someone generically explain to you the commercial touristy stuff about the place…. not my kinda thing!)… so I ask “where is the door?” (since my arabic is limited, i asked about the door since i don’t know how to say entrance)… and I am pointed in a direction… so I follow it, and find a door indeed, but the door leads to the bathroom. So I return to see the man who works at this mosque, to confront him about the door he showed me. So I say: “Uhm, excuse me, I asked you where the door is, and you showed me the bathroom door…” and he says “well, yes… that is a door isn’t it?”… Now, I don’t know about you, but things like this drive me freaking nuts… if I was alone, I would have made a big deal out of it, but since my gf was with me, I tried to stay calm and here I am stuck expressing myself in this blog…

Example #2 of Moroccans’ frustrating ways of thinking: My girlfriend asks me: “Anthony, can we see one of the king’s palaces?”. Determined to show her a good time in this country, I ask my taxi cab driver, and he responds: “Sure we can see the palace nearest Casablanca, it is a beautiful palace and I can take you there…” So I pay him extra, he tells me it is only a few mins away… and we drive.. after driving through a nice neighbourhood, with big houses, mostly hidden behind trees and walls, I notice we end up on the highway on the way back to the airport. So I ask him: “Uhm, excuse me, aren’t we on our way to the airport? When will we see the palace?”… so the driver tells me: “I just took you to see the palace sir…” …… uhm OK OK…. wait a minute… this man, charges me extra to take me to see the king’s palace, and I speak a bit of arabic so he can communicate with me, so it’s not like I was a japanese tourist and we weren’t at all understanding each other… but he actually finds it logical to drive me through the NEIGHBOURHOOD where the King lives, and then take me to the airport… “Can’t we see the palace?” I ask him. “No of course not, you can’t actually see it sir…”….. ah wow. What can I say, another waste of time and money… great.

So, again, I kept my cool, and I just smiled, knowing I was on my way to Egypt for a beachfront wedding and a Kepri trip… something to look forward too….

The airport actually looks exactly like this (jk!)

Just had to write this down…