Have you ever been traveling internationally and when you look at a sign in plain English, you just scratch your head as you can’t understand it? Have you ever overheard another guest in a hotel or restaurant talk sternly to a waitress and see the waitress respond with flying colors? This past Sunday, I had to laugh to myself as I witnessed both scenarios. I arrived in Seoul, Korea on Sunday at 5 a.m. I felt fresh and awake as I traveled across the Pacific on Asiana Airlines. I arrived to the Lotte Hotel and checked in with no problem, a great start to an annual business trip. I had one meeting and took the rest of the day to relax. Around 4 p.m. I started to hit the brick wall, as I call it, or jetlag. I mustered up all the energy I had inside me and headed to the gym in an effort to awaken some energy and stay up until at least 8 p.m.! I made my way to the gym and as I approached the entrance, I noticed the gym looked a little too dark for midday. There was a sign that stopped me in my tracks. “Every 4th Sunday of the month, the gym is closed.” Why the fourth Sunday, I asked? Why not the first, or a Wednesday? Why at all in a huge hotel with international guests? This is a question I may never know the answer to as I returned to my room, after a little disappointment, but more with a laugh and a shake of my head, and fell into a deep sleep. The second story I will leave you with is one from when I was sitting in the club lounge. I heard a fellow guest not ask, but demand, a bottle of room-temperature water. The attendant returned with a cold bottle of water and a very hot cup of water. Just as the guest was about to jump down her throat, she explained they had no room temperature bottled water, but suggested mixing the cold and hot water. I heard the guest pause and then actually laugh and smile at the attendant. I’m glad he laughed, because it covered my own laughter and applause for the polite, diplomatic demeanor of the hotel employee! -Alexandra Young, associate publisher and vice president