So this is the first time I saw this thread, are we still telling stories? I hope so cause it was fun reading everyones.
Anyway I wanna share now so here goes:
Last March I went to Italy by myself to visit my old roommate from freshman year of college who happened to be living in Rome. There are so many stories from this trip, but I'll only pick two to share. The following both happened in airports, the first in JFK when I was heading to Rome. The second at the airport in Rome on my way home.
Story #1:
On my way down to JFK, my flight got delayed out of Rochester and I ended up missing my flight to Italy that night. JFK has one flight to Rome everyday and it leaves at 9PM. So now I'm stuck in NYC for 24 hours and most of that time I spent waiting in the airport for the flight out the next night. It was about 1PM and I'm sitting in the food court of Terminal 1 eating some McDonald's and trying to get ahold of my friend in Rome on my computer to tell her I missed the flight. As I'm eating my cheeseburger, this guy comes up to me with this pen that has a little flag on it and says,
"I am deaf, please donate what you can".
And I just look at him for a second.
I go to RIT which is home to NTID - National Technical Institute for the Deaf - so in all of my classes there are sign interpreters for the deaf kids. So in my years here I managed to pick up a few words - one of which being "Platapus". So I sign to him "Platapus" which is kinda like putting one hand on top of the other and wiggling your thumbs. So I'm doing this, like and idiot, and he's looking at me like WTF? And then, I don't even know why, I was thinking this but didn't mean to say it, and I blurt out:
"You're not deaf... are you?"
and he goes,
"No, ma'am, I'm not."
Hah! But then I gave him $5 anyway.
Okay and story #2:
On the day I had to go home, I got up kinda early so I woulnd't risk missing my flight back to JFK (after what happened on the way TO Rome). I get there with plenty of time to spare and kinda studied the layout of the airport so I wouldn't get lost. At the airport in Rome, after you go through security you have to take a little monorail thing to the terminals. So I'm standing on the monorail minding my own business. All of a sudden this old lady with a southern accent comes running up to the tram and screams,
"IS ANYBODY GOING TO JFK!?!?"
and I just raise my hand. So then the lady hops on board right before the doors close. Then she looks at me again, and starts blabbing,
"Where's the gate, what's the gate number, when's the plane board, where's your seat?...."
and I'm like overwhelmed so all I do is show her my ticket, but I never say anything. Then she looks at me and says,
"speaken ze deutsch?" and I just shake my head, and the Italian guy next to me starts laughing. She says something in like 5 different languages, and I just keep shaking my head. Honestly, I didn't mean to not tell her I spoke English, but after the German thing it got hard to admit who I was. So then the Italian guy next to me says (in Italian) that he speaks English and he'll translate to the old lady for me. So I just try to pull off in my BEST Italian accent,
"Tell her to follow me".
And he does and the lady said she would. So I have this old lady following me around the terminal for 2 hours before our flight leaves. I found the gate pretty fast cause I studied that one map of the layout before I got the lady. So anyway, I didn't sit by her on the plane and didn't see her again for a while. But, fast forward to that night back in NYC. The lady is RIGHT BEHIND ME in customs,
in the "Citizens" line.
Ha. Busted.