We went to the North Beach section of San Francisco to get an Italian dinner. I ordered my chicken parmigiana and we thought a glass of wine would be nice to go with it. I ordered a nice Riesling and the waiter turned to me and asked, "could I see some ID please?". ID? What ID? They took my Korean ARC at the airport in immigration when I left
Incheon, I left my passport in my hotel room, and my Vermont license was sitting in my
jewelry box in Boston, expired, over a year ago. "How about a photocopy of my passport?" I asked, since I carry that around with me when I'm out of the country at all times, just in case. "Sorry, ma'am, I can't serve you tonight."
What a far cry from Korea where I'm fairly certain you could get served in your high school uniform at the right place. Oh well, I just saved myself $8.00 on a glass of wine I didn't really need.
Since we're on the topic of culture shock, though I'm feeling there is a severe lack of
convenience stores in this country. Where's my Family Mart on every corner???
In SF your best luck would have been drug stores on the corner. They usually have all the kwick-i-mart stuff.
ReplyDeleteI remember that after leaving Japan!!
ReplyDeleteFirst night out all I had was my passport. The server had no idea what I was holding and whether or not it was legal identification...
It was a small town in Indiana. It happens.