Ashley's Arabian Adventure

As I was sitting at the gate in the Athens airport waiting to head home, I reflected on my time in Greece and then about what I have learned since living overseas. After interacting with some not so nice American tourists, I thought to myself about how I'm not really a typical American anymore. I think that Americans are taught to be arrogant about being American and being from the most powerful and well-known country in the world. Of course we do everything better than other countries, so why wouldn't we feel that way? As I sat there thinking about how much I've grown into this amazing citizen of the world, a lady comes and asks me to put my bag into the metal hand-luggage size checker of death. In case you are unaware, EasyJet charges you extra to check a bag and it isn't much if you do it ahead of time, but last minute you really don't want to pay for it.

As I am walking over to the size checker thing, I am thinking that my bag might not fit and this is going to suck. Of course the bag doesn't fit and the lady tells me I have to check it. I told her I was not going to check it. She explains that I can either leave the bag behind or check it or give it another go in the sizer thing. Well I decide to try again and tell her once more that I was not going to check the bag. When I set the bag up there, it was obvious that the wheels were the problem and I tell the lady that the wheels are the problem and she says too bad. I then tell her that she is welcome to break the wheels off because I am not checking the bag. She says she doesn't care what I have to do, but the bag is not going on the plane until it has made it's way into the thing. As I am considering putting all of the clothes from the suitcase on my body to get them home, I give it a couple of big shoves and it goes in. Then it wouldn't come out. Great. The airline lady made some comments and ended up getting it out and I went back to my seat.

As soon as I sat down embarrassment washed over me. I couldn't believe that I had acted like that. And how much more ridiculous am I that I thought I was better than other American tourists because I knew how to behave abroad. I laughed at myself and knew that I had to apologise to her. So as I boarded the plane and sheepishly handed her my American passport I told her how sorry I was for being rude. At first she looked at me like she didn't understand me so I repeated myself and her face lit up with a smile and she informed me that she experienced the same thing everyday. I wonder if anyone else has ever apologised to her. Have you ever acted a fool and had to apologise afterwards? It's pretty humbling.