Don't Give Me the Finger!

So I plan to get writing about our day to day life here, but we can't stop laughing about our little adventure with my finger so I am going to share that first. It's actually not what probably comes to mind. I haven't started flipping people off, nor have any gestures been misinterpreted. I'm talking about my finger TOOL, which I use for massaging tension out of my neck or back. That actually sounds just as weird, I guess, and certainly that has been the reaction of security teams who have come across it.

The actually do look a little creepy in person.

I'm not sure how these little babies made it past US and London security tucked in my backpack, but the Vienna airport security was on top of it. Of course, they also tried to detain Kara for mistakenly entering a store that was past the unmarked do-not-return-without-passing-through- security-again line as well, so they are apparently serious about their security.

The little bit of metal inside must  be what draws attention!

I first noticed there might be a problem when the security personnel kept passing my backpack through the scanner, obviously concerned by something they were seeing.. By the time they handed me my backpack and motioned for me to open it, I had figured out what they were probably confused by.  It must appear like a chopped off finger on the screen.  I pulled it out and motioned with it by pressing it on my neck and moving it back and forth so they would see what it was used for.  The serious looking guard suppressed an obvious desire to laugh and walked back to her coworkers, telling them something in German that probably included a derogatory term about Americans. They all laughed, she gave me back my finger and we were on our way.

We all had a good laugh about it and I forgot about it until we went to the Real Madrid soccer game last week. Feeling a headache coming on, I wisely placed my finger in Cassie's purse to take with us. Getting into the game through our particular gate, where the opposing team also enters, proved to be somewhat of a nightmare, as they pat down every person who comes through. Cassie was already looking a little pale as we neared the top of the stairs and somehow Stan, the only competent Spanish speaker among us, ended up a little way ahead of us. I decided to go through immediately before Cassie, thinking nothing of it until I turned around to see her panic stricken face and a confused guard in front of her holding up my finger and firing rapid Spanish questions at her. By now Stan is long gone and it falls on me to, once again, try to explain to the guard what she looking at. I tried my basic Spanish, "para un masaje," but that made her even more confused so I resorted to the same gestures that won over the German guards. Again, a suppressed smirk, the sharing with other laughing guards, and the free pass was given.
We went to the Royal Palace on Saturday which also has security. I thought about sneaking into Stan's backpack, or even Cassie's purse again, but decided it wouldn't be enough of challenge for Stan and Cassie hasn't quite recovered yet. Maybe I will see how one of the students can handle it on a future visit somewhere. :)