When Geography Goes Bad

[chaosvizier]

(from a phone conversation, earlier...)

ME: Yes, you can get the flight tracking information from Newark Airport's website. If you know the flight number or the point of departure, they can tell you the flight status.
THEM: Oh, that's good to know.
ME: When do they get here?
THEM: 9:10 tonight.
ME: Hmm. Ok, five hour time difference from-
THEM: No, six hours. They're coming from the Netherlands.
ME: Ah, where from?
THEM: Shithole.
ME: *much longer pause* ummmmm... whah?
THEM: That's what it says.
ME: I... whah?
THEM: It's here. S-C-H-I-T-H-O-L.
ME: ...okay then.
MY BRAIN: Those wacky Dutch.

(much later)

ME: OOOHHHH, SCHIPHOL. WITH A P. JESUS CHRIST.

Comments

[cheezdanish.livejournal.com]

NIIIIIIICE. *dies*

[chaosvizier.livejournal.com]

My hearing might not be quite what it used to be. And it used to be pretty bad.

[katieledge.livejournal.com]

Names were changed to protect the innocent I suppose!

[chaosvizier.livejournal.com]

Just being subtle and casual-like!
Besides which, I totally misheard it. Oh eardrums, how you mock me!

[the-wanlorn.livejournal.com]

I need to move there. And mumble whenever I say where I live. Heh heh heh.

[chaosvizier.livejournal.com]

Cruel! Evil most foul!

[heyorion.livejournal.com]

I live about 2 miles from Schiphol. Trust me, you don't want to live here. Also, it's almost impossible to mumble because of the strange hacking noise of a Dutch 'ch'.
So, having surgically extracted the fun from your plan, I'd like to remind you that this country does have a large selection of other amusements.

[chaosvizier.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've heard Amsterdam is quite nice once you get away from the schiphol of an airport. ;-)

Plus, one of my linguistics professors always used 's-Graevenhage as an example of... whatever he wanted to examplify. It drove us mad, but eventually we all learned how to properly pronounce it. Or at least mimic him pronouncing it.

[edwardina.livejournal.com]

Schiphol is actually the name of the airport in Amsterdam. I suppose you could always be like the guy from The Terminal.

[chaosvizier.livejournal.com]

Airport life can't be all that bad. Being Tom Hanks though... that's bad. ;-)

[jacesan.livejournal.com]

I think Shithole would be closer to Newark than the Netherlands.

[chaosvizier.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm quite familiar with Newark The Shithole. It truly is.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

You know, "Schiphol" doesn't come off much better.

[chaosvizier.livejournal.com]

It doesn't, per se, but technically it withstands public scrutiny better. Slightly better.