Читать книгу Russian She-bear in American and British Settings - Юлия Кузьменкова - Страница 6

Living in a hotel could also be a problem for a newcomer in the country because you’ll never know what surprises are there in store for you. Neither you’ll be able to master all the intricacies involved – especially when you are tired after a long flight and not very keen on observation. During the first stages of living in unfamiliar premises we made up a simple list of taboos which facilitated the necessity to cope with our ignorance of different regulations.

1. Don’t toy with TV switch buttons – even quite innocent searching for a good film could lead to turning a commercial channel on to be paid for afterwards.

2. Don’t use hotel telephones unless you know which calls are free – sometimes even dialling numbers from a phone card is registered by computers, the price being further included in your bill.

3. Don’t smoke in a non-smokers room – you could set a fire alarm on or simply be fined.

4. Don’t rely on enjoying a swim in a three-four star hotel swimming pool, especially in cold weather – although most of the hotels have swimming pools they are often outside the building.

5. Don’t use fire exits unless in case of emergency; once I tried it – the elevator was out of order – and found myself locked in the back stairs; I managed to escape just by chance.

“Didn’t I warn you at home that you should always be on the alert?” I heard the long forgotten voice. I had but to agree – over-relaxation might cost dearly.

6. Don’t forget to remove don’t disturb sign when you leave the room in the morning – otherwise your room wouldn’t be cleaned.

7. Don’t put things to dry on the conditioner; one of us was once woken up at night by a nasty smell of something burning – her socks in this case – just in time to prevent the alarm being set on.

8. Don’t completely ignore reading hotel instructions; brace yourself to at least leafing through whatever papers you are given at the reception desk – sometimes they might contain useful information.

The underlying idea was just to be careful and watching. Once on arriving at Charlotte, tired though she was, my colleague made an effort to open a small envelope – to find out that our status had risen to that of VIPs’. The revelation gave us a surprise in the form of a free meal (needless to say how we welcomed it after five hours of flying) and also a free access to the lounge bar and we enjoyed an excellent supper with a selection of refreshments. That was really a fine example of Southern hospitality.

We got amused with our being raised in status and took to experimenting. In our bathroom there was a note informing us that if we’d happened to forget any toiletries we’d immediately be supplied with any items we needed. In about five minutes after we called room service there came a maid and displayed for the astonished ‘VIPs’ (‘Very Impoverished Persons’ would be a much better name under the circumstances) what I’d call a weekly supply of toothbrushes, combs, soaps, shampoos etc. all nicely wrapped and ready. My roommate was the first to come to her senses and began making signs that the girl wanted to be tipped. In fact, the maid didn’t reject her dollar but more enthusiastically she welcomed our filling a service evaluation form with compliments for her efficient work.