The Popcorn Button

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When summer winds down and fall takes shape, we tend to get a lot of European travelers. The broken English explanation I usually get concerns the weather - in Europe it starts to cool down, so they head to Beach Town USA to get some last rays of sun before the cold, dark winter (that may or may not include Icelandic volcanic ash blocking out the sun for weeks at a time).

The majority of our travelers come from Germany, Sweden, Finland, Italy, and France. Every so often, however, some eastern Europeans wander in making the few words we've learned in Italian and French useless.

There was one gentlemen that came in a few Octobers ago from Ukraine. At check-in he seemed nice, unassuming, and he spoke English better than most so it was a smooth process. I gave him his keys and sent him on his way.

About 15 minutes later I get a call from his room. "I vant a deeferent microvave." Sir I apologize, is there is something wrong with your current microwave? "Yeees, it does not have all the buttons." Uh...I don't quite understand. "I vas valking to my room and I vent in deeferent room and saw better microvave. It had button for popcorn. I vant this. I need this." Uhh....

First, he went into a different room? How the hell did he do that? Also, why does he care about the popcorn button so much? I agree to find him that microwave and exchange it out for him. I head up to his floor and start looking for open doors - sure enough, it seemed as though a maintenance worker had left a door slightly ajar. I went in, grabbed the microwave with the popcorn button, and walked it over to the gentleman's room.

"Ahh I thank you so much. I come from Ukraine, and vee do not have microvave with button only for popcorn! Do you sale popcorn? Where can I get popcorn?" Sir, there's a grocery store within walking distance. "Then I go get popcorn now!"

Needless to say, for the next week the Ukranian made popcorn every day, making that whole floor of the hotel smell like the movies. I lost count of the number of times guests asked me if I sold popcorn at the front desk for those few days.

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