So the Jerk Store Called

Anyone who is a Seinfeld fan has undoubtedly seen the episode: The Jerk Store. In this episode, George is inhaling a plate of shrimp at a meeting, and his coworker takes a shot at him by saying, "Hey George, the ocean called, and it said it's running out of shrimp." Everyone laughs at George's expense, and George is not quick enough to think of a comeback. He thinks of a comeback 10 minutes later, but alas, at that point it is too late. His comeback: "Well the jerk store called, and it said it's running out of YOU." He then goes to extreme efforts to re-create the scene so that he can employ his clever comeback.

I had a similar encounter Friday night. I went to one of Ana's friend's birthday parties a little bit outside of Geneva. It was cool. There were a bunch of people in their mid-20s, many of them interning with the UN or World Health/World Trade Organization. Everyone spoke perfect English, and most people spoke at least 2 other languages fluently. Pretty impressive.

However, there was of course the ass of the party who was pretty drunk and may or may not have been under the influence of other drugs. He was wearing sunglasses at night, and when he passed I joked with him (in French) "It is pretty sunny tonight." He retorted with a slur of a sentence, which I did not understand. Then he said, "Just admit it, your French is not good." I guess his slurred words were implying that I don't speak clearly in French. I was kind of taken aback. Most people are friendly and complimentary when I use my French here. Then he rambled off some sentences quickly in French trying to embarrass me. But I understood and shot back the response to which he said, "Oh well, speaking and understanding are two different things aren't they?"

I didn't have a clever response, but 5 minutes later I found myself like George wanting to re-create the moment so I could use one of my surefire insults that were sure to hit where it hurts. I'm anxiously awaiting the moment where I can attempt to re-create the scene and employ one of my witty comebacks.

On another note, I hate my neck hair. My close friends all know that the hair on the back of my neck grows in a bizarre pattern: two vertical columns and a bald spot in the middle. I normally shave my neck with my electric razor or have a friend do it for me. When I lived in Spain, I used to make Stephanie or Ahyoung, my roommates, shave it for me. They hated it. However, I fried my electric razor in the outlet here because I forgot the voltage was not compatible. So I am without a razor to shave my neck.

As a result, I dared to ask Ana to wax my neck hair for me. I was curious about it, and girls are always talking about how waxing is way better than shaving. I figured I could handle it no problem, right? Wrong. It hurt so damn bad when she ripped that first piece of wax off the back of my neck that I wanted to cry. I managed to get it together and let her finish, but it was so painful and left my neck bright red and sore.

I'm debating on whether or not to switch back to shaving it.