Some old stories

So I was inspired by XUP's post this past week. It reminded me of some of the hilarious tourist stories that i experience during the 16 months I worked at the NCC's info-centre across from Parliament Hill. It was a lot of fun, got to brush up on my spoken French which has really served me well, and I got to deal with tourists, which is fun until that effect wears off.

So here is a small sampling of stories.

The time I was called a racist

So this guy comes in and i greet him. He asks about tours of Parliament. Well, it turns out they are done for the day (it is like 6pm on a weekend). I give him the times for the next day, provide one or two options, and then send him to the counter where he can get a map and more details. He's quite upset because he's leaving tomorrow and now won't have a chance to see Parliament. (My thought... well uh should've planned better)

Anyways he walks to the counter and I proceed to talk to some other tourists. I'm showing one woman where she can go on our map model, and pointing out a few things. The man comes up to me and says "Is it because she's blond?" I stare at him in disbelief for a few seconds. After I recover I say "excuse me?" and he proceeds to gets really upset, claims I didn't help him at all, etc. I tell him he can write comments in our comment box if he wants, and then he ask for my supervisor who comes out, and has to deal with him.

After a brief conversation with my supervisor the guy storms off, starts yelling at his kids and leaves. Turns out he accused me of being racist while speaking to my supervisors. I thought it was kind of ironic as I was the only non-white person on our entire team that summer.

Is that building across the street a church?

This was a very common question. But one woman was so frustrating to deal with. I explained to her that no, those were the parliament buildings. She didn't know what that meant. Anwyays, after 3 or 4 tries, she leaves saying, what a nice church.

How do I get to Toronto?

This happened so many times, it was hilarious. I never figured out how people could drive from Toronto, and never know how they got there.

When ask about concealed weapons..

So another time, I was working late one night, and this guys comes in from New Zealand. Nice guy, asking away and then he says, so I have a concealed weapon, what documents do I need within Canada? My colleague and I looked at each other and then as we were about to look into, it he laughed and said he was joking.

Anyways that's a small sampling. I actually have some notes about the funny stories. I'm sure I'm forgetting some.