Day before yesterday, Wendy and I left Cappadocia and arrived in Izmir close to midnight. We checked into our less than charming airport hotel where no one spoke English. Our less than charming room had a non-functioning air conditioner so we slept with the window open to the hum of highway traffic and airplanes landing and at dawn, the melodious loud speaker announcing the call to prayer from the nearby mosque.
Our less than charming bathroom had a puddle of water on the floor, where I dropped our only roll of toilet paper. The internet worked though and we got so into our correspondence that we missed breakfast (and I was hungry having had no dinner on our cut rate flight the night before). Getting the picture? I was not happy.
But one of the emails Wendy and I received from our friend Yukia included a cute little animated youtube of Pharell Williams’ Because I’m Happy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=205&v=Q-GLuydiMe4
We packed up our stuff and headed to the lobby, looking forward to checking out but knowing it would be a challenge to ask for transport assistance to get to our next stop (an hour away).
One of the cheery men who checked us in was still on duty and still remarkably cheery. He mimed that I should have called him to help us with our luggage. I lamented to him in English and hand-signals that we missed breakfast. He cheerfully brought us coffee and two oranges. I tried in vain to ask the woman on duty whether we should take a taxi or bus to Cesme. I sat down in a defeated huff to drink my coffee when Wendy started singing “Because I’m happy… clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth.”
We both burst out laughing and everything changed. The lovely woman behind the counter with the aid of Google translate became our ally in finding us the best solution. She called us the nicest English-speaking driver who figured out a way to let us pay by credit card. And we were on our way to the seaside. Happy happy happy.
What changed exactly, you might ask? Only us – that was enough. The less than charming hotel became charming and the “unfriendly” staff became delightful. Same people. Same place. Different us.
