Traveling with the Malaysians

I wrote a few posts while I was traveling with the Malaysians last week, but didn't have a chance to post them in the midst of all the conference craziness that followed. I'll post one of the updates below - just be warned that I wrote this a week ago...

As I mentioned earlier, I’m traveling with a group of 18 people from Malaysia this week. All of them have been to the United States before, many of them several times and a few have even lived here, so they are fairly familiar with the American culture and speak English quite well. That said, there have been some moments when the cultural differences have been apparent, and sometimes amusing.

For example, many of them have been trying to figure out my story. They are having a hard time grasping the fact that I work for the association that is based in Ohio, yet I live in Maine. Perhaps the issue lies in the fact that they are not familiar with Maine. On Monday, I was chatting with one of the men and mentioned that I live in Maine, and he asked me what state Maine was in. I finally just settled for the explanation that Maine is quite close to Boston, and he was satisfied.

On Tuesday, we headed to a facility in San Jose, so we spent more than an hour on a bus. As we drove through San Francisco, the guy in the next seat started chatting with me about Coach purses. He was comparing Coach to Prada, and talking about how Coach is such an affordable option. I wasn’t sure how to respond, though I certainly wondered why he knew so much about purses.

We headed to St. Louis on Wednesday, and I sat next to one of the three women in the group while we traveled from the airport to the hotel. Shortly after we settled into the van, she leaned over and whispered “The men on this trip aren’t very gentle.” I had absolutely no idea what she meant – how were the men being rough with her? It wasn’t until she continued talking that I understood what she meant. “They didn’t even try to help me with my suitcase,” she said. Ah – she meant they were not gentlemen.

Fun times, fun times…