I live in Japan teaching English, but had gone to Amsterdam and Berlin for my winter holidays. On my flight from AMS to ICN, Amsterdam to Seoul, I met a kind old Korean woman sitting in the aisle seat in my row. I don’t speak Korean, and she didn’t speak English or Japanese. (Un)Fortunately, we did have one language in common – German – and neither of us had practiced since college. Her pidgin Austrian dialect and my stunted heavily accented attempts at Berliner German (un)fortunately had enough overlap that we could talk.
She was a real friendly one, and apparently a doctor. In classic old Korean woman fashion, she was aggressive and assertive as hell, constantly poking me, grabbing my arm, touching my hair and asking me every question humanly possible. I’d put my headphones on and feign sleep, but this was obviously nothing to her. She wrote down her address and demanded mine, told me her life story about how she studied abroad in Vienna 50 years ago, and all sorts of treasure which I only half-understood. Finally I got sort of annoyed and moved not-so-subtly to the front of the plane, where a dude I’d chatted to in Amsterdam was sitting, and remained there for the rest of the flight. Occasionally the flight attendant would walk by and nod sympathetically in my direction, as Old Korean woman was constantly grabbing her arm to examine her jewelry.
Fast forward a few hours, we’d landed in Seoul and we all got on the train to get to the Arrivals terminal. Old Korean woman somehow finds me and hands me a giant Milka chocolate bar. I smile and thank her profusely.
Then she drops the bomb: “Haben Sie Religion?” (“Do you have religion?”) and pulls out a Bible and a rosary necklace.
Aw hellllllll no. I thanked her again politely and started to run. She was lost in a sea of other old Korean women.
Postscript: My chocolate bar was fantastic, and she’s never tried to contact me.
- Krampus
Tagged as:
chatty,
senior citizen
Just this past March I took a school trip from Detroit, USA to Frankfurt, Germany. I didn’t think it would be so bad because all the people I went with are my friends. To my dismay, however, all of our seats were in completely different sections of the plane and I had no one to talk to the entire flight.
The flight was transatlantic so it was around 7 hours long and the plane was huge. This particular plane appeared to be older so there was minimal leg room and the TVs weren’t working. I was also, unfortunately, placed in a seat that was sandwiched between two aisle seats. This made for a very, very long flight.
To make matters worse, I was seated next to an old man who thought blond women were the sexiest things he’d ever seen. I am blond. I am also 16 years old. For almost the entire flight he stared at me and attempted to make awkward conversation about blonds. Apparently they are rare in Arab nations. When I tried to take a nap, he insisted that I put my head on his lap so I could be more “comfortable.” I politely said no and used my tiny dining table as a head rest for the remainder of the flight.
By the time we landed, with the combined factors of terrible airplane food (and usually I like airplane food), boredom, lack of space, lack of conversation, and being hit on by an old Arab guy… I couldn’t wait to get off that flight.
Tagged as:
senior citizen,
sexuality
My mother recently came to Colorado to visit and help us pack for an up coming move. She was flying Delta airlines from Buffalo to Cincinnati, then on to Denver. My mother is 67 and has issues getting around airports, especially seeing how she rarely flies. She boarded her first flight at 5am (Buffalo time). She specifically requested a wheelchair while still in Buffalo to be there in Cinnci when she landed as she only had 45 mins between flights. When she landed in Cinnci she waited in the gate area for 20 mins for the wheelchair to arrive, finally giving up and trying to hoof it to her next gate. When she got there, the gate had closed and the plane was already pushing back. She explained the situation to the gate personal and they rebooked her on a flight headed to Atlanta, and finally on to Denver.
Before she boarded the Atlanta flight she again requested a wheelchair to meet her at the gate and help her get to her next gate. For those of you who have been to Atlanta, normal ablebodied people have issues getting from gate to gate there. But again, when she landed there was no one there to help her get to her next gate. Just as she was about to give up and try hoofing it again, the wheelchair guy showed up. He checked which gate she had to go to and when her flight was leaving, saying they had plenty of time. He apparently stopped a few times in route to talk with his fellow Delta friends. When they finally arrived at her gate, the doors had closed and the plane was pushing back. The gate attendant had been calling my mom’s name for a few minutes but finally had to close the flight.
By this time my mom is a nervous wreak, she doesn’t handle stress well, and was about to fall apart. The gate agent took pity on her and rebooked her AGAIN to a later Denver flight. The gate agent also told my mom that because of the issues she had they would allow her to board the plane first. Wow, so for screwing up my mother’s entire day and probably raising her blood pressure through the roof, they extended her a common courtesy EVERY OTHER AIRLINE DOES ANYWAYS to the point it’s common practice in the industry!
She again asked for a wheelchair to meet her in Denver; she didn’t know I was meeting her at the gate. When her plane landed, I was standing there when the gate agent walked back up the jetway (after speaking with the FA) and then phoned for a wheelchair. Umm, Delta apparently does not have modern tech-like phones to call ahead and have things ready when passengers arrive.
For her return trip she was flying United, via Chicago, which made me cringe a bit. But she said when she landed in Chicago the guy with the wheelchair was right there and got her to her next gate ASAP.
Tagged as:
delta airlines,
gate agent,
missed flight,
senior citizen,
united airlines
Last summer a friend and I were on an Alitalia flight (Boeing 747) from Milan to London. Passengers were boarding and we took our seats in the emergency overwing exit row (I am quite tall and had asked for these seats). Across the aisle from us, in the two seats closest to the emergency overwing exit on the other side, sat an elderly couple.
After the doors had been closed and while the captain was making the preflight announcements, I noticed that the old lady across the aisle had taken off her jacket and had attempted to hang it up on what she assumed to be a coat hook, but what in fact turned out the be the door handle for the emergency overwing door. The door came away from its hinges and fell inwards on her lap. Rather than alert the staff, she surreptitiously tried to push the door back into place. By this time, another passenger sitting in the aisle seat next to the elderly couple became very upset. She had noticed the old lady trying to push the door back into place and summoned the purser. He was very annoyed and disappeared into the cockpit.
The plane was halted and the the purser appeared with the captain. They both fiddled with the door and pushed it back shut. The captain then proceeded to talk to everyone who had seen the incident and explained to us that the door was manufactured to enable it to come away easily. He assured us all that the pressure in the cabin would create a seal that secured the door in place. We were all much relieved, but quite a few people watched the door with a hawk’s eye for the remainder of the flight.
Tagged as:
pilot,
senior citizen
