Sunday June 7th, 2009. There would be zero issues getting back home…until we had to encounter agents from our own country. Woke up on time, checked out promptly and caught the train as planned. We even found a place to mail our postcards at Schiphol. This had turned out to a real pain as selling postage stamps is one thing CitizenM does not do. After learning this on Wednesday I tried several gift stores but they refuse unless you buy the postcard there (so why didn’t they tell me that where I bought the postcards originally?), just as a random hotel refused us because we weren’t staying there. Finally scored some at a grocery store Friday afternoon and was disappointed again when CitizenM couldn’t even get them in the mail! Fortunately Schiphol had a mailbox and we gave the postcards a half hour head start on the journey back to the United States.
We had asked Rudolph when he would be visiting America and his reply was that my country had become rather unpleasant to get into these days. I would appreciate that comment more fully after touching down in Philly. The officer reviewed both of our passports and then asked me how many days I had been in Oman? Did you meet anybody there? What was the purpose of your visit? …and a few more questions.
Then he repeated the exact same litany of questions for the UAE stamp on my passport, and once again for Jordan. I had nothing to hide so it wasn’t uncomfortable, though I was astonished when I received a blank stare after simply responding to his “the purpose of your visit to Jordan question” with “Petra”. After a prolonged silence I elaborated that Petra was one of the new seven wonders of the world, and an ancient masterpiece.
Although I was seething that someone tasked to interrogate incoming travelers could be so ignorant of our world, it occurred to me how broad the world is and how very little I still grasped. Though it felt as if I had traveled so far, there was still so far to travel and I had no grounds for complaint.
The exchange did cause me to reflect on a different take-away from the latest adventure. Before the trip began I devoted quite a few hours to learning some Dutch – my first true stab at a foreign language.
Trying to speak Dutch was futile because everyone in the Netherlands seemed to speak superb English. It occurred to me what a loss it is to not to master another language and gain the ability to understand another culture much more deeply. It was the simple act of talking with Rudolph that helped me recognize how limited my few catch phrases of Dutch were. While it might help me get by with pleasantries and common tasks, I had no depth and was utterly unable to gain any real nuance, unlike Rudolph.
One of the reasons we were so comfortable with Rudolph was that he could pull off witty word play. Rudolph’s grasp extended beyond identifying English words to an ability of making brilliant, playful connections. Earlier in this blog is the tale of the dhow trip in Musandam and how Mohammed, our pilot, abandoned the rudder to serve drinks during the cruise. When I shared this story with Rudolph, he replied “I’ll bet you were glad it wasn’t served on the rocks”. Isn’t that amazing? In fact, it is such a great line that I stole it and inserted into this blog --> Rocking Remark
Rudolph impressed upon me how small we make our world when we insulate ourselves from other cultures, so if I successfully get beyond the marathon in March and can commit to Reunion, I will endeavor to learn some French in preparation. Reunion is a part of France, but Creole is its official language and at least French is close. I’m not kidding myself that I can become fluent as Rudolph is with English, but his friendship has taught me the value of learning another language.
And thank heavens there are people on this planet who are multi-lingual. I really don’t know very much about Reunion or Le Grand Raid and most of the available info is in French, so I will be obliged to ask Rudolph’s wife Jacomien for assistance in gleaning necessary details and reaching out to folks on the island. Jacomien is fluent in French as Rudolph is with English, so the probable path of my communications for this trip will be to send Rudolph something in English, which he will share with Jacomien in Dutch, which she will transpose into French and deliver to folks on Reunion (who speak Creole).
Even if things get lost in translation, it is better than not communicating at all and makes me sincerely appreciate the generosity of friends around the world…
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