linesstoriesfromlife - Tumblr blog

linesstoriesfromlife · 4 years

Text

The Time I Had A Face-off With My New Teacher - And Won

Before we begin, I need to give a little background info. My mother is a senior manager at this huge toy factory, and she is a part of an international team, which means that she has to travel to places like China and Mexico every year to meet up with her colleagues. Both my father and my older sister also work at this company and has been to Mexico on the factory over there. Please keep this in mind. Okay, start!

I was starting a new course that focused on working internationally with a specific look into intercultural communication. There was no one from my major (Japan Studies) but there were a few I knew from China Studies, and since I am a chatterbox, I wasn’t too concerned with the social aspect.

The course started with an introduction of why intercultural communication is important, and I was getting a little iffy with the lecturer, because he was all high and mighty with his whole “what I say is the truth” attitude. He showed us a video that were supposed to prove how the lack of understanding for other cultures made it difficult to corporate internationally because of miscommunications. Well in the video it was McDonald’s they pretended to be a part of (it was all stages of course) and as the video came to an end, I couldn’t help but raising my hand.

This is how it went:

Me: “sorry sir, but wouldn’t you assume that a big corporation like McDonald’s with have some sort of cultural education course for their employees? I mean, *toy factory mom works at* has it”

Lecturer: “You would think that, but no. And *toy factory* actually doesn’t has it”

Me *confused*: “yes they do. You take a course before going abroad”

Lecturer: “No they don’t. I know someone from HR there”.

Me *feeling a little annoyed*: “Well I know my mother! My mother is a senior manager in the international production department”.

Yes, I probably sounded really snotty saying it, but I was getting a little fed up. It stopped him though, and I continued.

Me: “they have cultural education, where they learn about the country they are going to go to”.

Now the thing is, I wasn’t exactly 100% sure of this. I knew my sister had just been preparing for a trip to Mexico, and she kept talking about cultural differences and some meetings she had been to to prepare, but I hadn’t actually asked about it. The lecturer acknowledged it though, but then he said that he wanted my mother to come and talk about her work.

After class I called her and begged: “please say you have some sort of cultural education at your work, because I just talked back to a lecturer, and I need to know if I should fear the rest of the semester”.

Mom: “of course we do! We even take a personality test to see if we are compatible with one another, though it more focuses on the individual”.

Me: “great, can you come and tell about it?”

And that was how I ended up bringing my mother to school at the age of 22. It was awesome, and the rest of the semester went without too many confrontations.

#university #story time #face off #go mom #storytelling #linesstoriesfromlife

0 notes

linesstoriesfromlife · 4 years

Text

That Time When I Got Kidnapped By A Drag Queen, Who Wanted To Steal My Hair

Okay, this might sound weird, and it kind of was, but in a hilarious way!

I went to Thailand to enjoy some much needed vacation-time before going to study abroad in Japan for half a year. I was traveling with two friends, and as we arrived in Bangkok we were dying from the heat as soon as we set a foot outside the airport (Danes don’t to heat. We start melting at 22 degrees).

We arrived in the evening, so besides going out for delicious food and fighting jetlag, not much happened on the first day. The second day though, we decided to go out for a drink in the evening, when we were sure not to evaporate in the sun. One of my friends I was traveling with is bisexual, and after telling them about my experience with the nightlife in Bangkok (this was my second time being here at this point) he wanted to go out and party at this gay club we had found on google. It was a Wednesday night though, so we all just agreed to just go out for 1 drink (you can already here where this is going).

Well, two mojitos and three beers later, we were suddenly all in a party mood, and as we sat there at Hooters and I was enjoying my fourth beer, we found out that the street was only a small walk away from where we were. So as the sensible tipsy people we turned out to be, we headed over to the gay club.

It wasn’t just one club though, it was a small alley with 6 clubs and you bought access to the alley! We payed 200 baht (around 6,5 dollars) and got two free drinks as a part of the entrance fee. The clubs were playing catchy music, there were only guys walking around, talking with one another and the atmosphere was so relaxed as the night was only beginning.

It. Was. Awesome!!! As a girl, when I am out in the nightlife, I am always some kind of tense when I am out partying (unless I am completely shitfaced) because I always have this irrational fear for my life. I have heard so many stories about straight guys who: drugs girls, shame them in public, tries to kill girls if they reject them etc. so I always fear that that will happen to me (even though I am rarely hit on when going out. Probably because I suck at hiding my tenseness).

So coming to this awesome alley I had never felt more safe, since I knew I wasn’t exactly their type (even though I might seem masculine at times). So I downed my drinks, talked with strangers, danced with everyone, and everywhere I looked there was someone smiling back at me.

Looking back, I should probably still have been precautious, or at least refused to drink when one guy forced me to drink from his drink for 5 seconds, but drunk me clearly saw no problem in drinking from strangers’ drinks. But thankfully, nothing bad happened to me, and I was dancing and having the time of my life, while getting more and more drunk.

Now, the night life in Thailand ends pretty early, so at 12 or 1 in the night, the clubs closed and we were suddenly all standing outside. I found my friends, and my other friend was talking with a drag queen when I walked up to her. The drag queen was talking about loving curly hair (she was dressed as Marilyn Monroe, with the blond, curly wig) and since I have curls (and we’re drunk) I started whipping my hair around as if I was having a kink in my neck I was trying to get out. It worked and she looked at me and said “omg I love your hair! Shaved it of and make a wig for me please!”. Drunk me giggles and agreed (not cool drunk me!) and suddenly she grabbed me and my friend’s wrist and started dragging us along, talking about a party we had to go to.

The thing is, when the clubs closes in Thailand, the back-alley clubs opens, so we got dragged to this shady back-alley, and led into a room, where the music was loud and no one was wearing a shirt (and they were really fit guys!).

This is where drunk me took over and made the horrible decision to drink vodka-sprite. Now, due to past bad decisions concerning consumption of alcohol, my stomach refuses to accept vodka, and can detect it no matter how much I try to mask it. So my drinking these drinks, I made a date with the bathroom at my hostel.

We partied until 4 o’clock, before going home, and since they let drunk me lead, we had to stop and get 7/11 toasts. Drunk me tried to make it right with the stomach by drinking lots of water, but it was too late. So I spend the morning with my face in the toilet, before venturing out later in search for food.

The funniest thing though was, that one of the people from the club, who drunk me had talked to but sober me didn’t remember, recognized me. I was putting my shoes on in the entrance when a guy came out of the hostel to put on his shoes as well. I nodded at him, trying not to look to sick, even though my hangover was killing me, and he just stared at me. His posture was pretty stiff, but as I saw the recognition in his eyes, his whole demeanor changed and he leaned on his hips and hit me with a loose wrist. “Omg it’s you! You so silly!”. I was in shock, not knowing who he was nor why he was freaking hitting me. He kept on hitting me while talking in broken English and since I am this awkward person when not entoxicated with booze, and just pretended I remembered him.

In the end, I went for toast again, before returning to my airconditioned dorm room. Moral of the story? It’s awesome to party in Thailand, but I still can’t drink vodka.

#travel #story time #drunk #drunk story #getting drunk #thailand #bangkok #linesstoriesfromlife #tales from my travels

0 notes