Today, I’m participating in the Please Re-Introduce Yourself Blogfest. It’s a chance to tell something about yourself that we don’t already know.
When I was twenty-one, I decided to spend the summer with my grandparents who live in Finland, and participate in a work exchange program through my university. I ended up working at a recreation center for seniors in Helsinki even though I knew very little Finnish. One of my duties was to clean the sauna at the end of the day. This was a very hot job, as you can imagine, since the saunas had only just been turned off for the night.
During one shift, several gentlemen came in while I was cleaning. I was wearing my uniform (which was already sweaty) and rubber boots. They were completely naked. I tried to tell them in Finnish that the sauna was closed, while strategically positioning myself so the wooden railings covered their, um, man parts. And trust me, my red face had nothing to do with the heat in the room.
They eventually got the idea and left. Turns out, they thought I was an Estonia refuge because of my poor Finnish language skills. They laughed when they found out I was really Canadian, because, naturally, they spoke perfect English. Groan.
Have you ever had an embarrassing situation like this? *grins*