Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Geography was never my forte, but still....

Maria's post reminded me of an incident

that happened at the post office the other day when I was sending out wedding Thank You cards.

Although most of my family members are in Malaysia, my brother is here in the States with his family in Virginia, and I have an Aunt in Arizona.

I also have an aunt in Brunei Darussalam, whom I got close to while I was studing medicine in the part of Malaysia that is on Borneo Island. Because of the relative proximity ( there was no South China Sea separating us, but many many miles of land, nevertheless ), she visited me at the university and brought me out and about a couple of times and we've been keeping in contact via email and letters, especially since I've moved to the States.

I have visited Brunei only once when I was a student, and that was mainly to go to Jerudong Park, a kind of Disneyland that the Sultan had built for his wife and ENTRANCE AS WELL AS ALL THE RIDES WERE FREE!!!!!!! You can imagine how crazy we went in the Park..



( They have started charging about a USD$8.00 all day entrance fee since then, with a minimal sum for rides etc.)

Which brings us back to the post lady..

Scenario:

Letti and David go into the post office with a bundle of Thank You notes, to be sent all over the world - Malaysia, Singapore, Australia etc.

Post person weighs cards one by one, taking note of the different countries that the cards are going out to.

Post person comes to the card that's addressed to aunt in Brunei.

Post person looks puzzled and asks "Is that a country? I've never heard of it!"

Letti tries hard not to roll her eyes but turns to David and raises an eyebrow instead.
( David always loves to refer to the Sultan of Brunei as being one of the richest people in the world - Brunei has one of the highest GDPs in the developing world and has oodles and gobs of Petroleum - and if something is overly expensive, he would say, "who do these people think I am, the Sultan of Brunei???" ).

David bites his tongue and holds back any comment.

Forbes magazine put the Sultan of Brunei as the world's wealthiest man in 1997, but Bill Gates has since surpassed him in worth.

*sigh*

Update: P/S didn't mean to offend anyone..I'm quite the ignoramus about a heckuva lotta things out there myself, but this was a post person, for pete's sakes..*smiles*

20 comments:

makuahine said...

America's school systems at work for ya...

I've encountered the same reaction when people ask where my stalker girl is from (Brunei)

Anonymous said...

Hehhehehehe!! how ignorant eh..?? but better than here leh..! ppl here insist that i'm from china.. even though i tell them upteen times.. that i'm from singapore.. hahaha!!!

Monica said...

darn that bill!!!

Miss H. said...

Hey, I HAVE heard of Brunei, unlike the postal worker in your post. Yet, honestly, I didn't know EXACTLY where it was located on a world map. Thanks for the geography lesson :)

Jaxon S said...

brunei o brunei, it is sometime known as the country the abode of peace. nice work on the map there..

Jaxon S said...

typo...
brunei o brunei, it is sometime known as the abode of peace. nice work on the map there..

letti said...

er, Jaxon..i have a confession..I ripped the map off from somewhere else..*shhhhhh*

K. Restoule said...

Ummm, I never heard of Brunei either, so the Canadian school is as faulty as well.

But I can explain what icing call in a hockey game is *Shrug*

letti said...

ah, you see..i'm ignorant about sooo many things..and one of which is ice hockey..i am absolutely clueless..

Anonymous said...

I would probably roll my eyes too..but then again there are so many places that I probably don't know anyway. Only difference is that I aint working in a post office :p Anyway, some people I have met thought that Malaysians's main mode of transportation was using rafts and that we lived in huts...oh boy..

Sarah said...

I havent heard of it - But you would think someone at the post office would have. Lol

Hope you are having a good week
Hugs

sweetspirits said...

hehe well yes eye roll from me too sweety bcoz , i think its a habit tsktsk. Im gonna mail ya this week some time okz ....
hugs tcz

Gene Lim said...

The funny part is the postal guy dare to ask u guys the question. hehehehe...
Oh well, I have being asked where is Malaysia.
They only know Singapore.. whenever i mention Malaysia is next to Singapore..then they will go like "ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i cccccccccc"
derrrrr!

Laura.Y said...

Oh this is just too funny!

lynnee said...

that guy is the proverbial "frog under the coconut shell"...

*rolls eyes*

dreaming-neko said...

* gasp *
i thought david was the sultan of brunei! darn... :)

Harmonia said...

Hi there! Your fresh veggies pics made me munchie! :)

The pic of th hurricane radar was creepy...my hearts go out to all those affected. We are getting rain and winds up north, but nothing like that.

Monica said...

Now I know why you put on the word verification on the bottom, I keep getting spammed with comments for the past two days!!!!

vagus said...

i can understand.
when i was in canada, my canadian friends had never heard of brunei and malaysia before either.
never mind that canada is a commonwealth nation too.

SooHK said...

How come? I remember there is once a newspaper report that us malaysian lives in trees... hahaha after Dr M... on board everything heard of Malaysia