Nazia F. Rahman's Blog, page 2

25. Disney World Employees

I wish I was best friends with a Disney employee. Seriously, they are the coolest kids I can think of. Not only do they get to spend their entire summer in Walt Disney World, but they deserve much respect. You know that Disney is forcing them to be annoyingly happy and welcoming all the time…and call you "Princess" when you know you are in your 20s and way to old to be a Princess. The Disney Corporation likes being world renowned for some of the highest quality customer service and they do have some excellent service and employees.

Yes, Disney emoloyees. I am talking about the French girls at Epcot that notice your friends decent French accent when she orders somehing from a boulangerie and the Chinese girls that talk to her in Cantonese and the Snow White, Peter Pan and Mulan who spend a couple of minutes talking to you, in character, about wishing wells and the directions to Neverland (second star to the right and straight on 'til morning).

Here's a perfect example: We were running around Tom Sawyer's Island adventuring in a Fort when these two guys joined us in shooting some guns  (consists of pushing a gun trigger that makes some pew pew pew noises) at passerbyers. When we later walked out of the fort and walked into the woods the same guys pointed out that we had to be careful (since we were in range of where the guns are aimed at). While rafting the river back to the mainland, I overheard the guys chatting with a 7 year old about how Spash Mountain was an awesome ride and I also found out that they knew all about Splash Mountain because these guys actually worked at Disney and had the weekend off. Um, what? Yes, we were totally just playing Tom Sawyer with Disney Employees.

They are awesome, that's all.

English Tourists

One of the best parts about going to Disney World when you are not a kid is noticing how interesting different people are. We were riding on one of those huge trolleys that take you from the parking area (for example from Parking Area D for Daisy) to the acutal park. A British family consisting of some parents, grandparents and teenage kids were directly in front of us. The younger teenage girl was whining about how her calves hurt when her dad bent over to fake massage it in a teasing way. “Leave it… Leave it!” she shouted instead of “Don’t touch me/Buzz off/Leave me the $s%$  alone.”  I was totally hooked and I really wanted to continue to hear them talk with their proper English fanciness…unfortunately, you know, we made it to the Disney park.

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24. English Tourists

One of the best parts about going to Disney World when you are not a kid is noticing how interesting different people are. We were riding on one of those huge trolleys that take you from the parking area (for example from Parking Area D for Daisy) to the acutal park. A British family consisting of some parents, grandparents and teenage kids were directly in front of us. The younger teenage girl was whining about how her calves hurt when her dad bent over to fake massage it in a teasing way. "Leave it… Leave it!" she shouted instead of "Don't touch me/Buzz off/Leave me the $s%$  alone."  I was totally hooked and I really wanted to continue to hear them talk with their proper English fanciness…unfortunately, you know, we made it to the Disney park.

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Diner Waitress

Have you ever gone to a 24/7 diner (found everywhere but prominently in New Jersey) at around 10:30pm because it was the only place that was not closing soon?

You decide that you are not really hungry, and want something ridiculous, just for its high quality munch factor, like late night waffles.

Unfortunately, the waitress, who is your typical older lady diner waitress type, tells you there is no waffle mix left in the entire diner! But it’s okay, she is ready with an alternative suggestion – pancakes. Now you could get them with a blueberry or strawberry topping but, as she suggests, you could get them cooked with strawberries right in the batter. The pile of pancakes come to you with thinly sliced strawberries tucked right into the pankcake. It is fluffly, fruity, delicious, and oh so heavenly.

What would we do without late night diner waitresses who know their late night breakfast diner food?

Probably order fries.

23. Diner Waitress

Have you ever gone to a 24/7 diner (found everywhere but prominently in New Jersey) at around 10:30pm because it was the only place that was not closing soon? You decide that you are not really hungry, and want something ridiculous, just for its high quality munch factor, like late night waffles.

Unfortunately, the waitress, who is your typical older lady diner waitress type, tells you there is no waffle mix left in the entire diner! But it's okay, she is ready with an alternative suggestion – pancakes. Now you could get them with a blueberry or strawberry topping but, as she suggests, you could get them cooked with strawberries right in the batter. The pile of pancakes come to you with thinly sliced strawberries tucked right into the pankcake. It is fluffly, fruity, delicious, and oh so heavenly.

What would we do without late night diner waitresses who know their late night breakfast diner food? 

Probably order fries.

The Earthquake Lady

The east coast just had the biggest earthquake since 1987, a 5.8 magnitude, which was felt from Virginia all the way north to some parts in Canada.

To me, it was confusing. The ceiling lights in my office started shaking and I wondered if I should maybe duck beneath my desk in case it fell down (I was too lazy, and pretty much stayed in my desk chair. I think I might have eventually stood up, during the end, so that I was not directly beneath the lights.).

During the aftermath, my colleages and I got kicked out of the building (fear of aftershocks), let back into the building, and then got an early dismissal from work to avoid traffic. Pretty awesome, since I didn’t really want to be at work until 6pm.

I get home to my apartment, and another resident comes up to a bunch of us waiting for the elevator and says, “Did you feel that earthquake earliar?” Only one of us, a middle aged man, answers that yes he had. The woman, a middle aged office lady still in her work clothes, jumps up with a surprising amount of energy and lands to illustrate. The jump really does shake the floor a bit. 

“So you are the one that did that!” the male middle aged resident jokes in a playfully accusing voice.

We all get in the elevator and go up a couple floors talking and joking some more. As I leave the elevator with the middle aged male resident, he calls to the woman “Don’t you do that again!”

“I won’t!” The lady calls back.

Guess we don’t need to worry about aftershocks. I love the residents of my apartment.

22. The Earthquake Lady

The east coast just had the biggest earthquake since 1987, a 5.8 magnitude, which was felt from Virginia all the way north to some parts in Canada.

To me, it was confusing. The ceiling lights in my office started shaking and I wondered if I should maybe duck beneath my desk in case it fell down (I was too lazy, and pretty much stayed in my desk chair. I think I might have eventually stood up, during the end, so that I was not directly beneath the lights.).

During the aftermath, my colleages and I got kicked out of the building (fear of aftershocks), let back into the building, and then got an early dismissal from work to avoid traffic. Pretty awesome, since I didn't really want to be at work until 6pm.

I get home to my apartment, and another resident comes up to a bunch of us waiting for the elevator and says, "Did you feel that earthquake earliar?" Only one of us, a middle aged man, answers that yes he had. The woman, a middle aged office lady still in her work clothes, jumps up with a surprising amount of energy and lands to illustrate. The jump really does shake the floor a bit. 

"So you are the one that did that!" the male middle aged resident jokes in a playfully accusing voice.

We all get in the elevator and go up a couple floors talking and joking some more. As I leave the elevator with the middle aged male resident, he calls to the woman "Don't you do that again!"

"I won't!" The lady calls back.

Guess we don't need to worry about aftershocks. I love the residents of my apartment.

21. Hollywood Blvd Rapper

Hollywood Blvd is slightly underwhelming. Not sure what I was expecting, maybe some red carpets or snazzy old movie theatres, but in actuality it's a pretty plain street. There are stars with movie star names embedded in the sidewalk for a couple of blocks, sure, and there are a couple extravagent buildings but only like three.  If you blindfolded me and brought me there I would only be able to tell it apart from Philly or NYC or Atlantic City because of the palm trees.

There is a wax museum and a snazzy chinese movie theatre (it has all the famous star hand prints in front of it). There are also tons of cosplayers. Well, they would be nerdy cosplayers at one of numerous anime conventions I go to. But on Hollywood Blvd, people tip them and take pictures with them. That's crazy, if you ask me- who tips cosplayers? But I have to admit the Edward Cullen had something on his face that made his skin sparkle in the sun, i.e. it was awesome cosplay. (Tipping cosplayers is ethically wrong, if you ask me, because cosplaying is so much fun for the person that is dressing up…I don't see why they want to get paid)

Anyway, I was walking by pretty quickly because I had already spent about an hour there dodging the tour bus guys. They stop you and ask you where you are from to build some rapor and conversation so that they can convince you to pay them about 30 bucks to see some hollywood star homes. (Okay, so I eventually said yes and got suckered out of 20 bucks but my friends were late and it was a good way to kill time and I thought I was getting a deal…although I probably should have haggled). They are pretty nice kids though, in their late teens or early twenties. One of them gave me really thorough directions back to the metro when I eventually left my Hollywood experience.

Anyway, there are also other guys that try to talk to you. These guys hand you their CD because they are budding artists and want to pass along their R&B or rap. I didn't know what to do – I mean was it a free sample or did I have to pay (for the CD)? Sounded like I had to pay so I handed it back and tried to kind of cold shoulder one of them and walk by without talking much more to him. He was like "Hey only LA girls do that. East coast girls don't do that come on. You live in LA now don't you?" Well, that worked and I had to correct his misconception because no I was not from LA and what the hell did he mean because NJ and NY people are very unfriendly and of couse they ignore you. Even MD people, I know they ignore people, because I once replied to this guy asking me for money at a gas station and he was really quite thankful that I even replied to him instead of ignoring his existence.

The dude was from Georgia, which of course explains it. People from the South are legitamitely nice and they say hello good morning to strangers and stuff (which is totally not normal in the north, I didn't want to burst his bubble so I didn't really explain that to him).

By the way, when you are on vacation walking around by yourself at a tourist trap- everyone, and I mean everyone, either asks you why you are alone or pities you for being alone. The tour bus salesmen, the random artists, the tour bus guide…the random people who offer to take your picture for you with Leonardo Dicaprio's wax statue when they see you sadly taking a picture of the statue by itself. Etc.

Talking to GA dude, I explained that I was waiting to meet up with friends because I had to come to LA earliar to return a rental car and he totally tried to get me to go to lunch with him later. He seemed like a pretty nice polite guy from GA and I wish I remembered his name so I could look up his music but I totally was not going to have lunch with him. I ended up walking off explaining that I had to grab lunch right away before I met my friends. On my way back from In and Out, the coolest CA burger joint with a secret menu and animal style fries, I totally ran into him again. He joked about why I didn't bring him any lunch. It was funny because he was totally kind of a friend at that point.

So Hollywood, ya, kind of lame but cool peoples (except the cosplayers that want money, they are just okay peoples).

20. Japanese Flight Attendants

I am currently trying to kill time during a 4 hour layover in San Francisco International so I just finished walking through as many terminals I could find post security (no way am I standing in that line again…). I went past all the US flight terminals, saw some three or four Boudin sour bread dough places and  Ghirradeli chocolate places. I also stopped and tried some San Francisco Soup company chili (personally I prefer Panera). I eventually made it to the International terminal, which made me feel super poor and unfashionable with their Chanel,  Coach, and diamond jewelry stores.

The end of this particular International flight hallway was a set of escalators. I went down them, expecting to find more hallways to other terminals. Instead, it was a dead end area where just two flight gates were loacted. At that point, I decided to sit down for a second and check my droid for directions. Too seconds after I sat down, I realized I probably shouldn't have stopped at that particular location at all because …everyone is Asian.

Why is that weird, you ask? Well, I was at the gates for the Tokyo and Beijing flight and everyone was SUPER asian and the Japanese travelers were especially Japanese…  I stuck out like a sore thumb and they all probably knew I was lost! (At least, it felt that way.) So I high tail it out of there and take sudden notice of all the Japanese people walking by me toward those escalators- especially the Japanese Flight Attendants…

Good god. They were ALL super hot ladies, wearing super cute outfits with bluish gray skirt suits and pink shirts and gorgeous makeup. I swear they must have come from a J-pop video. I mean, the flight attendants on my flight had been a very nice middle aged woman who gave me free cokes and an older man I said good morning to and I liked them but they were so very different. I wonder if Chanel is right there especially for them too. We U.S. travelers just get soup, bread, and chocolate in our SFO terminal. Yay San Francisco! 

19. Gumball Machine Boy

I was waiting in a line in a movie theatre for a free movie screening. My place in line happened to be in front of the candy/toy/gumball machines. I tried standing for about 10 minutes before I gave up and plopped down on the carpet like everyone else had. There I was, sitting on the movie theatre floor, waiting for the staff and security to let us into the theatre, when this three to four year old came up right next to me.  He started twisiting the knob of each machine, hoping to find some money, candy, or toys that had been accidently left behind. And this kid was thorough, he tried every machine which such narrow motivation that I had to keep dodging him so he didn't run into me. After all I was just some lame grown up sitting in front of the candy machines and blocking his mission. Unfortunately, he had no luck this time and his mom, who was carrying a baby and finally noticed my crazy dodging, called him over in a disapproving voice. "But mom.." he said in this whiney tiny adorable squeak. She had to call him again once or twice before he finished checking every machine and walked away.

 The other girls in the line and I looked at each other, impressed, and kinda sad that we hadn't offered the kid a quarter or two before he walked off. You have to teach kids early on that persistance pays off, right? Next time, if any of us see a kid using the forgotten quarter in a gumball machine strategy – let's hand him some extra quarters.