"It's a Juicy Contradiction" >>>Mike and I recently visited Germany. We drove for too many hours the first day and we were heavily fatigued. The last thing we had on our mind was eating dinner; that is until we stopped off in the lobby of our hotel for real German beer. The first one was so good that we had to try another. These are not the conventional 12 ounce cans/bottles that we are use to in the US. These were huge 20+ ounce bottles of liquid heaven. We could tell that we needed food to counteract the effects of the German nectar.
We were staying in a town that I had previously stayed in so I was familiar with where the restaurants were. The alcohol had impaired my time-space continuum and I didn’t realize the time. Not many of the restaurants were open but we did find a sushi restaurant that was not only open, it had several patrons casually munching away from a conveyor belt of prepared sushi, sashimi, soups and such.
Not know what the rules were, we elected to sit at a full service table. All the employees looked to our direction and scampered about getting menus and serving sets. All the employees were Asian, complimenting the genre; something that I always wondered if that helped the ambiance of the restaurant or not. Our server came to greet us fully decked out in an Asian inspired frock to match the décor. He handed us menus and began speaking in clear, concise German. My mind could not grasp the cultural irony of the moment. I asked if he had English menus and he walked to a colleague for assistance.
I never thought of myself as a bigot or a racist. This event has made me think that I could lean toward pigeonholing. I expected him to have an Asian accent. I think I could have handled him not understanding me that way. Throw in the German and it was too much for me to handle.
I need more time for self-reflection.
