The world is an amazing place. Really. Most of us think that the world revolves around us or that the rest of the world lives, thinks, eats, and breathes just like we do. Some people may never meet a person from a foreign country or someone who has traveled outside the United States. Some, like me, get the privilege of having the world come to them.
Allow me to explain. For the last two years, I've been working part time as a sales associate for Macy's in the St. Louis Galleria. The Galleria is a busy place and wanderers will come through Macy's looking for something that they can't live without. It's no surprise that customers come in all shapes, sizes, colors and personalities. I won't get into the frustrations of dealing with the public here. I'll simply describe the customers who have passed through my line. Ready? Here we go . . .
I had a woman visiting St. Louis on business who lives in Switzerland. She had a delicious accent and was a delight to help. Another woman was from Italy and described her hometown (can't remember it now). She also had a yummy accent and comes to St. Louis frequently on business.
Countless Middle Eastern women, some accompanied with their overbearing husbands. Don't get me started on that subject. Some were easy to get along with, others seemed to think they were in a Pakistani street market and could argue the prices of everything they were buying. Wait, didn't I say I wasn't going to get into the frustrations here? Sorry. Not sure which countries these folks were from, but I would guess Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq/Iran, Saudi Arabia, and a few from India.
About equal in number to the Middle Eastern ladies would be the Asian ladies. Once again, I couldn't begin to guess where they were from, but China, Korea, Vietnam and Japan sound pretty good to me. Sometimes, I found it interesting that the older ladies were accompanied by the younger "Americanized" family members and they act as the translators. Language barrier is a real issue on my job.
An American woman came through and told me she was heading home to France. I asked her if I could go with her and she laughed. Turns out she is a missionary and living in France. I tried my hand at French and failed miserably. She was very gracious about it and I told her to have a safe trip "home."
If the customers weren't colorful enough, our employees easily add to the pallet. Two employees hail from South Africa, another from Spain, a manager from the UK, another employee from Bulgaria and another from Croatia. The gal from Croatia really sounds like she's from Brooklyn, but who am I to judge?
Maybe I should get a job at the United Nations.
Nah.
