The Rental Car - Part 1

A while back, my friend Haruna got me a client in need of IT services in Kauai. Since this is an entirely Japanese office, where no one spoke any English, I asked that she fly out from Taiwan to Lihue so that we could initially meet the client together.

She flew from Taiwan to Honolulu, where I met her, and from there we both flew out to Lihue on the island of Kauai.

After we arrived, we walked to the rental car stop, where we waited for our shuttle to the Budget rental car counter.

"你沒事吧？[You're all right?]" I asked.

"沒事。 就有點累。你跟你老婆打了電話嗎？[It's okay, just a bit tired and hungry. Did you call Yumi?]" replied Haruna.

"嗯。我們降落的時候就打了。[Yup I called as as we landed.]" I said. "你也跟Ronnie聯絡了嗎？[Did you call Ronnie?]"

"嗯。 剛打了電話。他要我多買一點可愛島咖啡帶回去。[Yup. I did just now. He wants me to get some Lihue coffee before I return.]" she said while binding up her long hair. "我好餓耶！！！[I AM SOOO HUNGRY!!!]"

"我們到了飯店登記後了就立刻去吃飯。可以嗎？[As soon as we get to the hotel, we'll go get some food. ]" I replied back.

"嗯。好啊。[OK.] she replied. "我好餓ㄟㄟㄟ[I'm SOO hungry!!]" she muttered again ...

As we are waiting for the Budget shuttle, a group of elderly women walked up to the shuttle stop. They looked around sort of confused.

"Excuse me, do you know if this is the bus to the Avis rental car office?" asked one the ladies.

"Yes it is." replied Haruna in her flawness UK accent. "I think all the rental buses stop here."

The lady smiled and nodded. "Thank you".

I looked at the ladies luggage tags which said they flew in from CPH .. or Copenhagen.

"Did you all fly in from Denmark?" I asked.

"We changed planes in Denmark." replied another lady. "We actually flew in from Oslo."

"Really! Så fint! Jeg bodde i Norge i fortida! [I lived in Norway in the past]"

The three ladies (who were named Anne-Marie, Siri, and Silje) suddenly lit up in excitment!

"AHHHH SÅ FINT!!! Hvor i Norge var du? [that's nice!!! Where in Norway were you?]"

It's interesting when you try to talk to Norwegians that you don't know IN NORWAY ... they look at you like you are insane.

But when you speak to Norwegians that you don't know OVERSEAS (especially in Norwegian), they suddenly become your long lost relatives.

We continued talking for the next few minutes. All three ladies were from Sandvika, which is in the western part of Oslo.

Anna-Marie, then turned to Haruna.

"Bodde du i Norge også med John? [Did you also live in Norway with John?]" asked Anna-Marie.

"Um, I am sorry. I don't speak Norwegian." replied Haruna timidly.

There was suddenly a brief moment of awkwardness. It seemed that these ladies were not used to language "context-switching."

"Oh that's all right." replied Silje. "I guess you didn't live in Norway."

"Um, no I didn't" replied Haruna. "I lived in London."

"Oh you poor thing... " replied Silje "But we will not hold that against you!"

It was a back-handed slap. All three women laughed. I wanted to laugh also ... but I knew I would end up paying for that.

Haruna then gave the ladies her "I'M GOING TO PRETEND I'M HAPPY BUT I'M REALLY EXPLODING IN ANGER ON THE INSIDE" smile.

The AVIS shuttle finally pulled up. OH THANK GOD! I thought to myself.

The ladies then get on the bus and say good-bye to me... and _REALLY_ awkwardly, they don't say good-bye to Haruna....

So how I'm sitting there at the shuttle stop with Haruna.... who is livid.

JUST LOVELY. I thought to myself. This is going to be painful....

"YOU THINK YOU'RE SOOOOO BLOODY SMART, DONT YOU!!!" Haruna shouted at me.