The other day we decided to go on an afternoon drive to Algonquin Park to admire the autumn colours. We were not the only ones to think this would be a perfect way to spend an early fall afternoon and as we arrived at the park's visitor centre we were surprised at the amount of cars and tour buses in the parking lot. We enjoyed a pleasant couple of hours touring the facility and then returned to the car for the one hour drive back to Matthew's. As we were putting kids in car seats (a time consuming activity), we noticed a white Toyota backing out of a spot close to the entrance just as someone else was pulling in. The person pulling in stopped and waited for the Toyota to finish pulling out but the driver of the Toyota stopped, blocking all traffic, and sat there and waited, we're not sure what for. We all stopped what we were doing to watch. The Toyota just sat there for the longest time and then finally moved. As I got into our car I overheard derogatory comments about Asian drivers. I don't care much for stereotyping people because of their gender or race, I gave that up in about grade six or seven when I discovered that boys didn't actually have cooties nor were they especially stupid (well the jury's still out on that one). On the ride home though, I bean to think there was some credence to the idea that Asian drivers...hmmm... how do I put this nicely?....sucked! We got stuck following behind the Toyota for a fair while driving on roads that were windy and narrow with very few opportunities to pass. The posted speed was 90km but we often were slowed down to 40km and on the crest of hills we were practically stopped. Perhaps the driver was nervous because of these signs.
There were plenty of them around (the signs that is, not the moose).
As we were finally able to pass, I glanced over at the female, asian,driver who sat hunched over the steering wheel intent on the road ahead, white knuckles clenched, and clearly nervous.
The whole situation reminded me of one of my favourite episodes of the Office.
While driving behind the Toyota I noticed the license plate and snapped a picture.
BMAD? We were after driving a good fifteen minutes behind her, we were also afraid.
I totally had a boss once who had me type up a letter to try and get him out of a parking ticket - he played the "everybody knows that asian drivers are bad" card and tried to blame his bad parking on that of an asian driver saying that the asian's bad parking had forced him in turn to park badly (I just don't park next to people who can't park personally). I think typing that letter was probably the most embarassing thing I have ever had to do. SO embarassing. I wish I could've known the outcome - although prob pretty predictable :P
I totally had a boss once who had me type up a letter to try and get him out of a parking ticket - he played the "everybody knows that asian drivers are bad" card and tried to blame his bad parking on that of an asian driver saying that the asian's bad parking had forced him in turn to park badly (I just don't park next to people who can't park personally). I think typing that letter was probably the most embarassing thing I have ever had to do. SO embarassing. I wish I could've known the outcome - although prob pretty predictable :P
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