Travel

Forgive the light posting. I attended a conference last week in, um, central Florida.

Twinkerbell. You've come a long way, baby!

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The clerk at the rental car agency where I picked up my rental car was wearing a nametag that said, "Nada". "Do you know what 'Nada' means in Portuguese?" I asked.

"Yeah, the same thing it does in Spanish," she replied, "but in Arabic it means 'Morning Dew', which is way cooler."

"You're Arabic?"

"I'm from Morocco."

"What brought you to the U.S.?" I asked.

"School. I have a master's degree in computer science. Unfortunately, all the jobs require a security clearance, which in turn requires citizenship. But my citizenship should be approved in a few months."

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Actually, it's amazing the extent to which the vacation industry in Florida is staffed by ESL types, especially by the region's largest employer. And not just Mexicans; their domination of the nation's housekeeping industry is hardly worth remarking on anymore. But there were an extraordinary number of Asians and East Europeans working the parks, which, to be fair, largely reflected their clientele.