The word for today is...

“language barrier.” Okay, so that’s two words.

Had one passenger waiting to go to Boston, who was from Germany or Austria or someplace like that. Knew some English but used rather literal translation. He held up a cigarette and asked me if he could “take some fire.” If he hadn’t had the cigarette in his hand, I don’t know how long it would have taken me to figure that one out… next were a Canadian couple who not only spoke little English, but were very soft spoken. They wanted help using the pay phone outside with a calling card, but the directions for the calling card were in French so I was not much help. They showed me the number they were trying to call, which was local, so I let them use the phone in the office. No one home, so they asked how to get to the Canadian border. As luck would have it, they had missed the last northbound bus by half an hour. Luckily I found a taxi service that would take them up there – for $200. Then the gentleman asked me for the waste room. Somehow I didn’t think he meant the trash area, and the way he looked embarrassed about it told me he needed the bathroom. I pointed it out to him just as he said, “WC.” Heh.