My parents are Vietnamese, but I was born and raised in Norway. For my dad’s 50th birthday, my parents, along with my godfather and I, made a trip to London to celebrate. We were staying at this hotel near Hyde Park that apparently was popular among Scandinavians. After a long day out exploring the city we returned to our hotel room.

The elevator up to our room was tiny and could barely fit the four of us, but as the doors were about to close, two blonde Norwegian girls squeezed their way in. My mom, as mischievous as she is, said quietly in Vietnamese; “Let’s be quiet and listen to what they’re saying.” So we all went quiet, which I guess isn’t weird in Asian culture so the girls didn’t seem to think anything of it.

At first they were just talking (in Norwegian) about normal stuff, like what they had done today and what they liked about London. And then suddenly one of them noticed how uncomfortably crowded the elevator was, and got concerned.

“There are many of us in here. I hope the elevator doesn’t stop halfway up.”

Her more arrogant friend looked around and spotted the maximum allowance sign.

“Oh, it says maximum 1000 kg (1764 lbs). I don’t think we weigh that much.”

She then turned around and glanced at us, turned back to her friend and scoffed.

“I mean, those tiny Asians probably don’t weigh more than 10 kg (22 lbs) combined.”

As soon as she said that all four of us just bursted out laughing. We couldn’t stop laughing for a while, and the girls looked so confused, until I collected myself and said, in Norwegian;

“I think we weigh a little more than that...”

Their faces went through so many emotions right there and then, from confusion to horrified to embarrassment. They apologized over and over, but the more they apologized the more we laughed. As soon as the elevator opened they just ran away while yelling “We’re so sorry!”

Totally made our trip.