Saturday, November 7, 2015

The Tourist Experience

So one time me and my family were staying at a hotel in Rio Mar, me and my father are pretty white and it's not uncommon for people to come up to us and speak in English because they are unsure of our nationality. But on this occasion I was walking alone in the hotel bored and decided to put on as many touristic clothing I could find like the ugly tropical shirt, the khaki shorts and some crocs. I walked around the gift shop area for a while and people didn't bat an eye, it seemed normal for them as if it was just a normal customer that was just looking around. After  the gift shop I started walking towards the beach when suddenly this person started screaming "!Amigo espera!" I didn't realize that they we're screaming at me so I just kept walking when I heard someone say "lo mas probable es gringo y no te entendio" that's when I realized I had by luck or coincidence I had played the part of tourist perfectly. The person caught up to me, it was a small pre teen aged girl, and started speaking spanish telling me that she wanted some of my "quenepas" (I don't know how else to call them) I tried to stay In character but when she asked me If I understood what she was saying she also started using gestures to tell me that she wanted some fruit so I busted out laughing in a very awkward way and explained to her what was going on that I was pretending to be a tourist. We had a laugh and of course I gave her some quenepas for her troubles and then we parted ways. It was a very awkward experience because I froze and I really couldn't speak and she didn't try speaking english but oddly enough I had a similar situation in which I sort of pretended to be a hot topic employee but I think it was because I was wearing the "hot topic" look with the all black look and the band shirt. So I was looking at a few shirts when one of the shirts fell down and as i was putting the shirt back in it's place a woman came up to me asking me If we had any merchandise for a specific band shirts for her son as if I was an employee. I kind of went along with it and actually helped her out and she found what she was looking for, after that when we're leaving I tell her that I'm not an employee adn she looked shocked. After her shocked face I literally just left...

3 comments:

  1. Hahaha I remember when you told this experience in the class, you don't know how to said "quenepas"(a Puerto Rican fruit) in english and you said "queneps". It was a unforgettable moment.

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  2. Never heard this story of yours man ... This was very sneaky (the Hot Topic one). What if the woman had gone to the manager to give you some kind of recognition for your kindness? You could have won an employment if she have thought of it. Dam ... would have been fun to see you work there haha.

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  3. Pretending to be a Hot Topic employee, good one. Sadly, I didn't get to hear you reading your story aloud in the classroom that day, but afterwards I got to hear the story from one of the Freelancers, funny thing that "queneps" hahaha.

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