Cruisin' B

That is the nickname I gave our current house guest, Birgit: Cruisin' B. We've had lots of houseguests over the years, but never someone we'd met while swimming with the dolphins. In Mexico. While we were on a cruise with Royal Carribean. While she was on a 4.5 month contract as a nurse with another cruise line. Which happened to be docked in the same city that day.

The past few days she's regaled us with (completely anonymous of course - don't worry if you've ever pissed off a Carnival nurse, Birgit would never tell) tales of ornery passengers, interesting crew members, and even more interesting rules (did you know that officers on board cruise ships have to pay for the crew to clean their cabins? Or that the ship distinguishes between crew (people who clean rooms, wait tables, cook meals) and staff (people who directly interact with guests, such as the entertainment people), and that they're technically not supposed to eat together?

Besides being an absolutely perfect house guest, she's also been great in reminding of all those little things that make life down here in the south so interesting. Birgit is German/Australian, and as this is her first visit to the US (not counting those single port days in Miami or Cape Carnaveral), she raises lots of questions.

Butterfingers, for instance. In German, or Dutch for that matter, one might say one is clumsy. Or an idiot. Or not paying attention. But when I almost dropped something today and remarked how I really had "butterfingers" today, Birgit wasn't quite sure what to think, as I certainly didn't have butter on my fingers.

Or sweet tea. When we out to dinner last night, and husband-dear ordered "sweat tea", Birgit wanted to know what that was. When Dennis explained it was cold tea, Birgit asked, quite incredulously, "With a flavor, right?"
"No, just plain tea."
"And it's cold?"
"Yes."
"Oh..." As a lover of hot tea with milk (and thus a woman after my heart), Birgit didn't quite see the use of this at all. And really, people, why would -anyone- in their right mind drink -cold- tea? When you thin about it that way, it does sound kind of disgusting. Or cheap. Or perhaps both.

And then there is the matter of adjectives. When husband-dear asked Birgit how she liked her dinner, Birgit said, "Oh, it's no problem."
For those of you who speak German, or are familiar with German discourse, you know that means the meal is just fine. Delicious actually. But to my darling all-American, it sounded as though Birgit's food just plain sucked. He was about ready to call the waiter over, when Birgit explained that her food was really, very, very good. It was just like that one time my sister-in-law said that husband-dear's steaks were "pretty good", which to any American means they're only so-so, while any Dutch person knows that "pretty good" translates to "really pretty damn fingerlickin' good". It's like saying "sure", which in Dutch means, "yeah, let's go ahead and do that, awesome!", while in American-English it's saying, "Well, OK, if you want to".

And then there is the locals' inability to drive (although I've yet to forget that), the low price of gas (again, grateful for that every single day), and the way the heat wafts off the pavement (it's just something you really can't forget).

So yeah, sometimes having someone's else eyes to look at the world around you can be very helpful. Not to mention funny.

So here's to cruising houseguests!