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Strange and Embarrassing Moments: Italy: Land of Homoerotic Escapades

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Posts

  • KronusKronus Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    bowen wrote: »
    It's annoying when you go into some restaurants and they go, "what would you like to drink?" and you say, "coke" and they say "what kind?" and you go o_O.

    At that point you go, "What do you have?" and they say, "pepsi, sprite, root beer, ginger ale."

    But pop just sounds so... 1800s or frontiery. Or something you'd hear the kid in Where the Red Ferm Grows.

    D: Using coke as a generic name for pop is silly to the silliest of cailbres. Despite the fact that coke is the right choice when it comes to choosing pop.

    In fact I think I'll go get me some pop right now!


    Pop.
    (I'm Canadian)

    Kronus on
  • adytumadytum The Inevitable Rise And FallRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Kronus wrote: »
    I'm Canadian

    Now that's embarrassing.

    adytum on
  • Sir CarcassSir Carcass I have been shown the end of my world Round Rock, TXRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    bowen wrote: »
    It's annoying when you go into some restaurants and they go, "what would you like to drink?" and you say, "coke" and they say "what kind?" and you go o_O.

    At that point you go, "What do you have?" and they say, "pepsi, sprite, root beer, ginger ale."

    But pop just sounds so... 1800s or frontiery. Or something you'd hear the kid in Where the Red Ferm Grows.

    That's why you should order a Coca-cola. They don't make Coke anymore. :P

    But yeah, it seemed perfectly normal growing up, but you'd hear most people use "coke" to refer to sodas.

    Sir Carcass on
  • GungHoGungHo Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    bowen wrote: »
    It's annoying when you go into some restaurants and they go, "what would you like to drink?" and you say, "coke" and they say "what kind?" and you go o_O.

    GTFO, ya damn yankee

    GungHo on
  • ebotasticebotastic Going Gonzo In People's HeartsRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    bowen wrote: »
    It's annoying when you go into some restaurants and they go, "what would you like to drink?" and you say, "coke" and they say "what kind?" and you go o_O.

    At that point you go, "What do you have?" and they say, "pepsi, sprite, root beer, ginger ale."

    But pop just sounds so... 1800s or frontiery. Or something you'd hear the kid in Where the Red Ferm Grows.

    Tonic gets no respect.

    ebotastic on
    Please, call me ebo.
  • BursarBursar Hee Noooo! PDX areaRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    ebotastic wrote: »
    bowen wrote: »
    It's annoying when you go into some restaurants and they go, "what would you like to drink?" and you say, "coke" and they say "what kind?" and you go o_O.

    At that point you go, "What do you have?" and they say, "pepsi, sprite, root beer, ginger ale."

    But pop just sounds so... 1800s or frontiery. Or something you'd hear the kid in Where the Red Ferm Grows.

    Tonic gets no respect.

    Yeesh. If I ordered a tonic, I'd expect some unflavored seltzer water. With the smooooth taste of quinine!

    (My dad loves drinking seltzer water. I find it horrid.)

    Bursar on
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  • admanbadmanb unionize your workplace Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Bursar wrote: »
    Yeesh. If I ordered a tonic, I'd expect some unflavored seltzer water. With the smooooth taste of quinine!

    (My dad loves drinking seltzer water. I find it horrid.)

    That's what tonic is. Anything else is a bastardized use of the word. :P

    admanb on
  • ThanatosThanatos Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Guys, topic?

    Thanatos on
  • SevorakSevorak Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    bowen wrote: »
    map

    It's weird how almost all of California says soda, and then Trinity County is vehemently coke. It's like they're saying, "Fuck you state, we'll be rednecks if we damn well please."

    Well fuck you too Trinity County.

    Sevorak on
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  • ScalfinScalfin __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2010
    ebotastic wrote: »
    bowen wrote: »
    It's annoying when you go into some restaurants and they go, "what would you like to drink?" and you say, "coke" and they say "what kind?" and you go o_O.

    At that point you go, "What do you have?" and they say, "pepsi, sprite, root beer, ginger ale."

    But pop just sounds so... 1800s or frontiery. Or something you'd hear the kid in Where the Red Ferm Grows.

    Tonic gets no respect.

    The difference between north and south: Northerners figure out that their term is already taken and adjust, while southerners never learn.

    Scalfin on
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  • DeciusDecius I'm old! I'm fat! I'M BLUE!Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Thanatos wrote: »
    Guys, topic?

    Decius on
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  • Catullus 16Catullus 16 Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Decius wrote: »
    Thanatos wrote: »
    Guys, topic?

    This one time, I was in a thread where everyone was talking about carbonated beverage nomenclature, so I posted about that, and then I looked at the thread title and it wasn't about carbonated beverage nomenclature at all! I was very embarrassed.
    What happened to "soda pop"? Or is that like being the bat in the war of birds vs. animals?

    Catullus 16 on
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  • FodderFodder Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    To bring the thread back on topic, I will now regale you with one of my terribly awkward and embarrassing moments. First off, a bit of backstory. I'm an American spending a year abroad studying at a uni in Scotland, and seeing as how we all speak English, it seemed like I would manage to avoid many awkward misunderstandings. However, there are enough words that do not mean what I think they do that I have strange and/or embarassing conversations on a somewhat regular basis.

    The worst one I've had so far though, was while trying to find a fancy dress costume in a charity shop. I wanted to go a party as Paul Bunyan, the mythological lumberjack, and therefore would need a flannel shirt, some suspenders, and perhaps some lumberjackish pants. The town I'm in has far more charity shops than you would expect, and I wasn't looking for anything too outlandish, so it definitely seemed doable.

    The charity shop I went into first had a couple of very old women working there, as you'd expect, and after seeing me come in and browse for a bit asked if I needed any help. I didn't see anything that exactly matched my needs, and said something along the lines of "Well, yes actually. Do you know if you've got any flannel shirts and suspenders?"

    The woman helping me seemed somewhat taken aback, and a bit scandalized, but replied, "Well, we probably do... Is this for a fancy dress party then?" I thought it was a bit weird that she found it so odd, as students dress up on a fairly regular basis for various parties and events in town, and it wasn't all that strange a request.

    After she spent a couple of minutes in the back conferring with the other elderly woman working that day she came back with a few flannel shirts and asked if I was sure I wanted suspenders, and maybe if I wanted braces instead?

    It turns out that American suspenders are called braces, and that suspenders in Britain actually refer to garters, which would be a significantly more bizarre article of clothing to go with a flannel shirt. This happened a few months ago, and now whenever I go into that charity shop the woman still asks me if I need any translation help :(

    Fodder on
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  • OptimusZedOptimusZed Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    bowen wrote: »
    It's annoying when you go into some restaurants and they go, "what would you like to drink?" and you say, "coke" and they say "what kind?" and you go o_O.

    At that point you go, "What do you have?" and they say, "pepsi, sprite, root beer, ginger ale."

    But pop just sounds so... 1800s or frontiery. Or something you'd hear the kid in Where the Red Ferm Grows.
    Pop was the only thing I ever heard it called growing up. I don't know that I've ever encountered a human in person that called it "Coke" generically.

    And Suicides are either a) a very specific mixture of Pepsi and Orange Soda or b) football conditioning drills that start you on one goal line and run you to the ten and back, twenty and back, 30 and back, etc until you make it to the other goal line and start over going the other direction.

    OptimusZed on
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  • finnithfinnith ... TorontoRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I have had a few interesting from my door-to-door sales position that I've just entered.

    Just in her first week on the job, one of my colleagues had a person answer the door naked. I had a similar one where an old guy answered the door with only underwear.

    This is only my first week, so if I end up staying (which I don't think I will) I'll probably have more moments to share.

    finnith on
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  • rad4Christrad4Christ Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I'm a youth pastor (I guess that would qualify for the Strange and/or embarrassing to some of you), and we play games like wall ball and dodgeball all the time. In fact, I think I'll play anarchy ball next week.

    The best game. Four-Square. Pure awesome. Until, that is, I was introduced to NINE-square, with the king in the middle. It's just crazy.

    rad4Christ on
  • SkeithSkeith Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Four square always came down to a pissing contest of who could cherry bomb the highest at my school. Kinda preferred tetherball. How's nine square work?

    Skeith on
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  • CrownAxeCrownAxe Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Its 4 Square, you start at Square 1 and move up when someone gets knocked back to square 1. You do this until your at 9, the center, where you are KING. Where we played, whoever was king at the end of the day was the winner


    I loved playing Wall Ball. We had to call all of our special shots like cross country and baby bounce. You got some ridiculous ones like Shoot the Moon where they hit it upwards against the wall to make it fly, which was followed by Moongrab where you cupped you hands behind you back and if you caught the ball you win (or something, this was like 8 years ago)

    We also played Hand Ball, which was Wall Ball with a Racquet Ball. Now that was a fast game which always ended with bruises and black eyes. It was AWESOME.

    CrownAxe on
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  • Catullus 16Catullus 16 Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    CrownAxe wrote: »
    We also played Hand Ball, which was Wall Ball with a Racquet Ball. Now that was a fast game which always ended with bruises and black eyes. It was AWESOME.

    Ah, yes, handball.

    I actually do have a strange and embarrassing story related to this game, although it's more of a strange and embarrassing routine phenomenon. It goes like this.

    Fact: People tended to play handball against the outer walls of my old high school, particularly to either side of the main exit to the schoolyard for some unfathomable reason.

    Fact: I am the most oblivious person in the entire world, and to compound that, I often used to wander the school grounds with my nose in a book.

    Fact: Despite the above, I tended to miraculously avoid getting hit by the tennis balls that were being vigorously flung past me as I strolled, oblivious, through the game area.

    Usually when I reached the other side I would finally notice that people were shouting, look up, and commence feeling like an idiot. This didn't stop me from doing it again, of course.

    Catullus 16 on
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  • 1/2 man 1/2 bear 1/2 pig1/2 man 1/2 bear 1/2 pig Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    What happened to me today might have been the most awkward moment of my entire life...

    I'm in the student center at my college, and today was the last day of classes, so that meant that all of the seniors were giving their presentations for their research class. I see this one kid who I have class with and he's suited up for his presentation. He's walking up the stairs and I see his face is beat red, and I call out to him "Hey man! Nervous about your presentation today?"

    He gets up the stairs, I see his beat red face tears streaking down and he says "No...my grandfather just died."

    I'm already standing there 5 feet away from him and he is now crying is eyes out. I had no idea what to do except say "I'm sorry man, that sucks. What happened?" He tells me that he fell down a flight of stairs. And then there was this horribly awkward pause and I say I'm sorry again, I shake his hand and tell him sorry again but I gotta run.

    I walk into the little convenience store they run in the student center and I was totally stunned and confused and had no idea if what I did was alright or if what I did was wrong everything is running through my head, and I totally let everything that was on my mind to the clerk. I told her exactly what happened, asking her "what do you do in that situation!?" kinda freakin' out and telling her how awkward it was. And how horrible I feel because I don't know if I did something wrong, and just horrible for him because he just lost a grandparent then...

    He walks through the door of the store. And the clerk asks me another question about who he was and I make a head motion towards him because he just walked in and go "shhh, that's him." Then as soon as I pay the clerk looks at him and says "YEAH IT'S REALLY TOUGH LOSING A GRANDPARENT!"

    My jaw drops and my eyes go wide and this guy just looks at me and just yells "YOU TOLD HER!? WHY WOULD YOU TELL PEOPLE!?"

    After standing there for a few seconds of just the most painful awkwardness I just shirked out and apologized four or five times.

    1/2 man 1/2 bear 1/2 pig on
  • RoyceSraphimRoyceSraphim Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    jakobagger wrote: »
    bowen wrote: »
    800px-Sodavspopvscoke.png

    I was about to post that!

    Is it weird that it makes me laugh?

    RoyceSraphim on
  • GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    edited May 2010
    He walks through the door of the store. And the clerk asks me another question about who he was and I make a head motion towards him because he just walked in and go "shhh, that's him." Then as soon as I pay the clerk looks at him and says "YEAH IT'S REALLY TOUGH LOSING A GRANDPARENT!"
    ...D:

    Glal on
  • Sir CarcassSir Carcass I have been shown the end of my world Round Rock, TXRegistered User regular
    edited May 2010
    Wow.

    Sir Carcass on
  • SpawnbrokerSpawnbroker Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    So this strange moment just happened to me today:

    My girlfriend and I were enjoying some time alone together. Her mother lives nearby and has been staying over for the past couple of days, basically annoying the crap out of us at every opportunity. I'm talking yelling up the stairs to ask my girlfriend what that loud noise is outside at 1:30 in the morning because she thinks it's a gunshot, stuff like that.

    So we're hanging out in our room trying to have some alone time, which inevitably leads to sexy times. Because hey, why not? Well, while we're doing this her mother is calling up the stairs for my girlfriend to try and ask her something. This is at 10:00 in the morning, so we just pretend we're both asleep and hope she forgets about us. About every 5 minutes, we hear my girlfriend's name being called up the stairs. It's getting pretty annoying by this point, as it completely ruins the mood.

    So while this is pretty strange and embarrassing so far, it gets better. Right when I'm at the point of climax, my girlfriend gets a text message. From her mother.

    This wouldn't be terribly strange, except my girlfriend's incoming text sound is the Wilhelm scream.

    Spawnbroker on
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  • AngelHedgieAngelHedgie Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    Fodder wrote: »
    To bring the thread back on topic, I will now regale you with one of my terribly awkward and embarrassing moments. First off, a bit of backstory. I'm an American spending a year abroad studying at a uni in Scotland, and seeing as how we all speak English, it seemed like I would manage to avoid many awkward misunderstandings. However, there are enough words that do not mean what I think they do that I have strange and/or embarassing conversations on a somewhat regular basis.

    The worst one I've had so far though, was while trying to find a fancy dress costume in a charity shop. I wanted to go a party as Paul Bunyan, the mythological lumberjack, and therefore would need a flannel shirt, some suspenders, and perhaps some lumberjackish pants. The town I'm in has far more charity shops than you would expect, and I wasn't looking for anything too outlandish, so it definitely seemed doable.

    The charity shop I went into first had a couple of very old women working there, as you'd expect, and after seeing me come in and browse for a bit asked if I needed any help. I didn't see anything that exactly matched my needs, and said something along the lines of "Well, yes actually. Do you know if you've got any flannel shirts and suspenders?"

    The woman helping me seemed somewhat taken aback, and a bit scandalized, but replied, "Well, we probably do... Is this for a fancy dress party then?" I thought it was a bit weird that she found it so odd, as students dress up on a fairly regular basis for various parties and events in town, and it wasn't all that strange a request.

    After she spent a couple of minutes in the back conferring with the other elderly woman working that day she came back with a few flannel shirts and asked if I was sure I wanted suspenders, and maybe if I wanted braces instead?

    It turns out that American suspenders are called braces, and that suspenders in Britain actually refer to garters, which would be a significantly more bizarre article of clothing to go with a flannel shirt. This happened a few months ago, and now whenever I go into that charity shop the woman still asks me if I need any translation help :(

    You should have just played that off as that you were going to go as Paul Bunyan as interpreted by Monty Python.

    AngelHedgie on
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  • Captain CarrotCaptain Carrot Alexandria, VARegistered User regular
    edited May 2010
    So you know how you see a cute person, and that person waves in your direction, and you eagerly wave back, and then someone walks past you and the cute person starts talking to them and you realize the wave wasn't to you, and you feel like an idiot? Yeah, the opposite happened to me at rehearsal a week ago. I was sure she was waving to someone else, but I figured it out after several seconds, and we laughed about it afterwards.

    Captain Carrot on
  • ArrathArrath Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    Today I was walking past a guy in the hallway, and he said my name in greeting. I had absolutely no idea what his name was, so I just nodded and said "Morning."
    It was 4pm

    Arrath on
  • FalxFalx Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    It's really odd how the smallest little gaffe's can sometimes stay with you for the whole day.

    Falx on
  • saint2esaint2e Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    Fodder wrote: »
    To bring the thread back on topic, I will now regale you with one of my terribly awkward and embarrassing moments. First off, a bit of backstory. I'm an American spending a year abroad studying at a uni in Scotland, and seeing as how we all speak English, it seemed like I would manage to avoid many awkward misunderstandings. However, there are enough words that do not mean what I think they do that I have strange and/or embarassing conversations on a somewhat regular basis.

    The worst one I've had so far though, was while trying to find a fancy dress costume in a charity shop. I wanted to go a party as Paul Bunyan, the mythological lumberjack, and therefore would need a flannel shirt, some suspenders, and perhaps some lumberjackish pants. The town I'm in has far more charity shops than you would expect, and I wasn't looking for anything too outlandish, so it definitely seemed doable.

    The charity shop I went into first had a couple of very old women working there, as you'd expect, and after seeing me come in and browse for a bit asked if I needed any help. I didn't see anything that exactly matched my needs, and said something along the lines of "Well, yes actually. Do you know if you've got any flannel shirts and suspenders?"

    The woman helping me seemed somewhat taken aback, and a bit scandalized, but replied, "Well, we probably do... Is this for a fancy dress party then?" I thought it was a bit weird that she found it so odd, as students dress up on a fairly regular basis for various parties and events in town, and it wasn't all that strange a request.

    After she spent a couple of minutes in the back conferring with the other elderly woman working that day she came back with a few flannel shirts and asked if I was sure I wanted suspenders, and maybe if I wanted braces instead?

    It turns out that American suspenders are called braces, and that suspenders in Britain actually refer to garters, which would be a significantly more bizarre article of clothing to go with a flannel shirt. This happened a few months ago, and now whenever I go into that charity shop the woman still asks me if I need any translation help :(

    Do yourself a favour and don't mention "fanny packs" or ask someone to go "Cottaging". Cottaging totally does not mean what we North Americans usually mean.

    saint2e on
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  • chamberlainchamberlain Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    I am probably going to regert this, but what does "Cottaging" mean in Scotland?

    chamberlain on
  • Salvation122Salvation122 Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    bowen wrote: »
    It's annoying when you go into some restaurants and they go, "what would you like to drink?" and you say, "coke" and they say "what kind?" and you go o_O.

    At that point you go, "What do you have?" and they say, "pepsi, sprite, root beer, ginger ale."
    I have lived in The South my entire life, and I have never had this happen to me at a restaurant.

    Salvation122 on
  • bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    bowen wrote: »
    It's annoying when you go into some restaurants and they go, "what would you like to drink?" and you say, "coke" and they say "what kind?" and you go o_O.

    At that point you go, "What do you have?" and they say, "pepsi, sprite, root beer, ginger ale."
    I have lived in The South my entire life, and I have never had this happen to me at a restaurant.

    I don't know where you're going with that.

    bowen on
    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • saint2esaint2e Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    I am probably going to regert this, but what does "Cottaging" mean in Scotland?

    Basically picking up gay partners in public restrooms, or other public areas.

    saint2e on
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  • Captain CarrotCaptain Carrot Alexandria, VARegistered User regular
    edited May 2010
    What does 'cottaging' mean anywhere else? I've never heard it used as a verb.

    Captain Carrot on
  • Sir CarcassSir Carcass I have been shown the end of my world Round Rock, TXRegistered User regular
    edited May 2010
    If I had to guess, I'd say it was visiting cottages, like going to a little bed and breakfast for the weekend.

    Sir Carcass on
  • saint2esaint2e Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    What does 'cottaging' mean anywhere else? I've never heard it used as a verb.

    It's a stretch, but I've used it to say "I'm going cottaging this weekend", meaning going up north to a cottage. I invent a lot of verbs though.

    saint2e on
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  • bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    Maybe the process in which to make cheese curd for cottage cheese?

    bowen on
    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • FodderFodder Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    I've always thought fanny packs were worthy of mockery anyways, so haven't had any issues with that.

    Another rather embarrassing moment was while I was having a nice tea party with my academic family that I found out after my adoption was a bunch of the christian union people on campus, and additionally, is basically all females. It was one of the first family things we'd done and as sort of an ice breaker they wanted everyone to introduce themselves and describe their favorite pair of pajamas. Most of the people had excessively soft and pink descriptions, and basically all I could really claim was a pair of plaid pajama pants.

    Unfortunately, it was only several minutes later that I realized how terrible describing my pants must have sounded to a room full of semi-uptight girls sipping tea...

    Fodder on
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  • bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    edited May 2010
    Fanny packs. I like the Batman style waist belt fanny pack things they have now. Those are great.

    bowen on
    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • ScalfinScalfin __BANNED USERS regular
    edited May 2010
    When my dad was first living in Boston, his roommates would ask him is he wanted to join them at the "spa" every morning. It took him two years to figure out that "spa" was Boston slang for "mom-and-pop breakfast counter."

    Scalfin on
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This discussion has been closed.