I am on a campsite with a swimming pool. For campers, the pool can be included in the price. In this case, the campsite reception will give you a wristband. The pool is also accessible to people from outside the campsite, but they have to pay.

One day, we decide to go to the campsite swimming pool. Before us, there is a couple that we meet coming out of a house outside the campsite.

Man: “But we paid for the pool when we came.”

Pool Employee: “In that case, we would have given you wristbands.”

Man: “But we left them in the mobile home.”

Pool Employee: “The campsite is not that big; you can go and get them.”

Woman: “But it’s the mobile home at the other end. The first one!”

Hearing this, my father interjects:

Father: “Oh, that’s funny! That’s our one!”

The couple pays and goes to the pool. We show our wristbands.

Employee: “Well, that was a coincidence about the mobile home.”

Father: “I was bluffing; we’re in a tent, not a mobile home.”

I’m on a bus with my boyfriend and two friends. We’re all from the same university and going to a university defense in another city. At some point, we’re stopping in Marseille, which in France has a kind of “bad” reputation for thieves and similar issues.

One of my boyfriend’s friends lives there, and since he lives not too far from the train station where the bus is going to stop, he comes to say hi. We all go to chat with him quickly while some people are leaving the bus and others are coming in. The bus driver has opened the baggage compartment of the bus and is helping people reach their luggage.

Boyfriend: “Hey, isn’t that our luggage this guy is taking?”

We’re a bit slow to react, so we don’t chase down the guy directly. I go to the driver and try to get our luggage only to realize that it is indeed missing.

In this bag, there is my boyfriend’s suit and, more importantly, our end-of-study project, which we have been working on for almost two years and have to show at the university.

We start to panic — while our two friends decide to just stay near the bus in case it leaves without us — and rush out into the train station, each of us taking a different side.

I didn’t even see the guy’s face, our bag is not easy to look for — just a big black bag — and there are a lot of people, trains leaving, and other ways out. I’m starting to think it will be impossible to retrieve our bag.

And then I see it; a man is sitting in the waiting area with our big bag on the ground. 

Me: “Excuse me, sir. I think you got my bag instead of yours. Can I check?”

The man looks at me without saying a word, so I open the bag and, sure enough, I find our project and my boyfriend’s clothes.

Me: “I’m sorry, but that’s my bag.”

The man was still silent, so I took the bag and got back to the bus.

We informed the bus driver and he asked the other passengers to check their luggage. We did not leave our bag unattended after that.

I can’t even imagine how horrible it would have been to discover our bag missing at the end of the journey!

My grandmother can be pretty stubborn sometimes, and she can get worried about a lot of things. When her daughter, my mom, was just a kid — around seven years old, I think — she was worried because my mom was “too thin” and did not eat a lot of meat.

She went to the village doctor, who checked her weight.

Doctor: “Your daughter is fine; she’s in good health.”

Grandmother: “But she’s too thin!”

Doctor: “Okay, well, there’s a specialist from [Big City far away] coming into [Big City close to their village]. You can try going to see him.”

And that’s what she did. She managed to get an appointment and went to see this specialist. I can’t remember if he was a pediatrician or a nutritionist. He did some exams and came to the same conclusion as the doctor.

Specialist: “Your daughter is fine; she’s in good health.”

Grandmother: “But she’s too thin!”

Specialist: “Why does that bother you so much? Are you planning on selling her by weight?”

With that, my grandmother finally understood that she’d gone a little bit too far and stopped going to doctors for that. She sometimes tells this story, laughing about her stubbornness and the witty response of the doctor.

I’m a dentist. Sometimes we can’t fix teeth without extractions. When that happens and there’s no other viable option, we make prosthetics for the patients — basically dentures. It’s never a perfect option, but in the vast majority of cases, the patients are happy with them after a necessary touch-up and around two weeks of wear to get accustomed to their new prosthetics. You absolutely NEED to bear the discomfort for those two weeks if you ever want to get used to them.

I have this conversation on a weekly basis.

A patient calls in two weeks after being given the dentures.

Patient: “Those dentures don’t fit me. I can’t eat/talk/do backflips with them, and they hurt.”

Me: “Pain is normal during the first few weeks; I’ll fix that for you. How long did you wear them for?”

Patient: “I could only handle three hours!”

Me: “Yeah, I might see why they don’t seem to work…”

I work at a gas station. At around 7:00 pm, a lady walks in and goes into the bathroom. About a minute later, a kid who’s around nine or ten years old also goes to the bathroom. A few minutes later, the lady comes out of the bathroom and walks out of the store, gets in her car, and drives away. A few minutes after that, the kid walks out of the bathroom, goes outside, and comes back in.

Kid: “I think my mom left without me.”

Me: “Do you know your mom’s phone number?”

The child says yes and tells me. I phone the number and it goes straight to voicemail. I’m not surprised; I live in a small village with bad service. I leave a message.

Me: “This is [My Name] and I’m calling from [Business, Gas Station]. I’m just letting you know your son is here and he is safe. When you get this message, please call us back at this number. We will be here until 9:00 pm.”

An hour later, the lady phones back.

Lady: “Hi! I’m an hour away! I’m coming right away!”

The kid was very well-behaved while waiting for his mom, sitting at one of the tables we have in the store. And around an hour later, the lady came into the store and got her son. She offered to give us money for our troubles, but I said no.