<< Previous Page

In my travels I’ve managed to visit almost half the states in the U.S. and nine foreign countries...a couple of these twice. So far I’ve been to Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Finland, France, Mexico, Taiwan, Thailand, and Turkey, and now Germany. Having grown up in a small beach town I never would have imagined that one day I would have the opportunity to travel all over the world and see the sights I have. In my profession we talk about traveling to the other side of the globe like anyone else would think of taking the bus to the other side of town. I’ve been in my office, in Florida, chatting with a co-worker about meeting for lunch in Taipei, Taiwan that following Sunday. As luck would have it we just happened to be working on completely different projects, in the same country and providence, at the same time.

How did the "Lighter Side" get its name?

While on the road, I would keep in touch with my office via trip reports...or during a discussion about technical problems, which could sometimes get boring. To make things more interesting, I began to add a paragraph at the end of my e-mails, a quip that included my observations and experiences of whatever foreign land I was in. To set it apart from the rest of the letter I would call it “The Lighter Side of...” After a while I started getting comments from co-workers about how much they liked my stories. Apparently the manager who received the e-mails was passing them around the office and before I knew it, they were a staple that most looked forward to.

Since so many people have enjoyed these tales I decided to make a compilation of my travel anecdotes. I hope you will take the time and enjoy them also. Click on the links below to read about each place and see some pictures I took while there.

We wonder why foreigners don’t like Americans. I think I know.
The typical American:
Expects people to speak English.
Somehow believe if you just repeat the same phrase louder the recipient will automatically understand.
When around foreigners Americans think the one speaking the best English is the most intelligent.

My favorite joke to tell foreigners:
What do you call a person who speaks two languages? Bilingual.
What to you call a person who speaks three languages? Trilingual.
What do you call a person who speaks only one language? American.

~Evan Scott

Turkey

Taiwan

Thailand