When new students are moving into a university, it is often very busy with students and family rushing around to get things done.

What would you do if you were standing around with friends and a rude lady set her bags down next to you and told you to carry them for her?

That is what happened to the students in this story, and even after trying to say that they didn’t work there, she refused to accept it.

NO. I don’t work for the university, I’m not going to carry your bags, leave us the heck alone!

Backstory

I live in a town in the Netherlands which has a university that is also internationally known.

Sounds like a wonderful place.

As a result we get a lot of foreign students here which, in my opinion anyway, is what makes this place so nice to live in. When shopping for example you can easily run into people speaking English (obviously), German, French, Spanish and there are even Chinese and Japanese students here.

I kind of enjoy that international character, especially when you keep in mind that my hometown is actually rather small.

This is very exciting for them all.

Anyway, my gf has an overseas cousin living in Japan who got accepted to attend the university. And since my gf hadn’t seen her cousin for many years she was obviously really looking forward to meeting up again once we learned of this.

Things to know: my gf and me don’t live together, but we go visit each other every weekend (either her or my place). Obviously she came over to me this weekend.

No big deal, it’s a fashion choice.

Another thing is that I often enjoy wearing a bodywarmer vs. a regular coat which apparently sometimes makes you stand out a bit.

But really not that much more from someone wearing a red or bright yellow jacket, which is sometimes also a thing over here.

Alas… When this incident took place the cousin had been here for roughly a week or so.

The meet

They are setting the scene here.

So, it’s Saturday, the weather is very nice and so off we go. Now, the university doesn’t really have a “dormitory” as you often see in the US but from what I heard they do maintain a few buildings around town where some students are invited to.

Most students need to take care of their own housing though. But the cousin got lucky and was invited to stay in one of the buildings maintained by the university itself.

New students moving in always makes for a busy day.

When we got there it was somewhat busy because there were a few new students moving in, so we met up outside in front of the building.

My gf and cousin were very happy to actually meet in person again so yah, first moments there was a lot of Japanese going back and forth but eventually they decided to switch to English because they figured this was more fair towards me and now I could also join the conversations (I didn’t really mind though, I actually learned a few new Japanese phrases!).

Wait, what!?

So, here we were, talking in English about stuff when we’re suddenly met with: “Finally some service. You can stop talking to those bimbos now and get to work, here!”

When the three of us look over to where this tirade was coming from, we see a filled-out woman with… “that” hairstyle, sunglasses, the works as she drops two suitcases right next to me, followed by a bag she was wearing over her shoulder and then proceeds to walk towards the building. What the heck?!

It is nice of them to try to warn her.

“Madam, what are you doing? You shouldn’t just leave your bags here!“, I tell her but to no avail, she completely ignores me and just walks inside the building.

“Bimbos?” my gf says/asks. I tell the ladies that we’re just going to stand somewhere away from the suitcases since these aren’t ours.

If someone steals them, it is not their problem.

When the cousin asks if that isn’t dangerous because someone could steal them my gf and me basically tell her that “screw that!”, we’re not going to look after someone’s luggage after they just insulted us.

My gf excuses herself to me and explains to her cousin (in Japanese again) that the culture in the Netherlands is very different from that in Japan and that she needs to be careful about this because some people might otherwise take advantage of her sense of morale.

The twist

Who is this now?

Because I couldn’t really participate in that conversation, I started paying more attention to our surroundings again and noticed that a student had come out of the building, noticed the suitcases and was now looking around.

When he noticed me looking at him, he asked me if I knew whose suitcases they were, and I told him that “Een of andere arrogante Amerikaanse trut heeft die achtergelaten“. Translation: “Some arrogant American has left those behind“.

This is too funny.

And the very moment I told him I noticed that he immediately knew who I was talking about.

He tells me that she was the mother of one of the new students and she had been nothing but trouble for the past days.

Sometimes you have to endure family members.

However, because they couldn’t really do anything about her, they just tried to ignore it as best as possible. Also because the daughter was nothing like her mother at all and even profusely apologized several times for the sometimes mental behavior.

One of the reasons the daughter decided to attend this university was also to get away from her mom in the first place!

I’m sure everyone will be relieved when she is gone.

Fortunately enough, the mother would be gone in a few days and that would be the end of it, so people just figured they’d cope while it lasted. Next he grabs the suitcases, declines my offer to help, and tells me that he’ll take ‘m inside the building to keep them safe and he’ll let the student know about it.

“Say, if anyone other than the harpy lady asks, please tell them that “name” has them. Otherwise, could you please just ignore her or something? I know I’m asking a lot!“, he tells me.

I’m guessing this isn’t the end of it.

I smile, nod but tell him no promises, and meanwhile the ladies had switched back to English again. This time we’re talking about shops that are available. The cousin tells us that she’s lucky to have found a discounter (“Aldi”) but it’s somewhat far away.

After which gf & me tell her that there’s a Lidl closer by which is also not too expensive. One thing leads to another, and we soon decide to go over there, also because gf and me had to do some shopping anyway. So, the cousin runs inside to grab her bag and some other stuff while gf and me wait outside.

The fallout

Of course, she is back.

Sure enough “harpy lady” shows up again, spots me and storms over: “Hey you, where are my bags?!“, she yells.

I tell her: “How should I know, maybe try asking inside?“

She really thinks he is there to serve her?

And she looks mad: “No, that is YOUR job, you go get my bags already, right now!“.

Is this for real? Are we actually experiencing a Karen in the wild?

He is making himself perfectly clear.

It was then and there when I decided that I would write this up, especially when I replied: “Madam, this isn’t my job, I don’t work here.“.

She almost cuts me off: “Shut up, of COURSE it’s your job. You’re wearing the uniform!” at which point my girlfriend completely loses it in laughter, which visibly annoys the harpy lady even more.

Clearly it looks nothing like a uniform.

“You call THAT a uni…. omg… THATS a uni… UNI-FORM?!!“, my gf stammers (she now officially has the giggles, poor me! 😁): “How stupid are you?!“, and she laughs some more almost doubling over.

See… we actually had a small argument about my choice of pants that morning. I wore a rather worn out pair of jeans of which the end of the pipes (?) were basically torn in half because I figured I’d just wear it despite it being a little bit too long for me.

Nothing wrong with that.

Strong boots + little disregard for puddles + “just DO it” eventually took their toll on the pipes. I think it looks kinda rough/rugged, better than people who wear pants with holes in them. But my gf disagrees (though she does respect my choices, bless her).

But yeah, what uniform? 🤣

She is just not letting this go.

Alas, now we had an enraged harpy lady: “What’s your name, I’m going to report you to the management!” she yells at me.

My gf’s giggles, now also started to have their effect on me so I go: “You don’t need to know our identification“, even briefly making the gesture a bit which obviously triggered my girlfriend even further which in its turn enraged the harpy lady a whole lot more. She actually turned red!

Honestly, this lady sounds insufferable.

“How DARE you make fun of me, this is all YOUR FAULT, I’ll have your job! I’ll sue, just you wait, you’re going to pay BIG time for my damages and once my lawyers…..”

And then I followed up on something that I actually remembered more people mentioning on this very same channel (which was already fully in my mind by then): I raised my finger and moved it straight into her face.

Finally, she is shutting up for a minute.

Much to my surprise (this was the very first time in my entire life I ever did that!) and it actually worked! She actually piped down, giving me the opportunity to retort: “I told you, I do NOT work here. I don’t work for the university, I don’t work for this building.. I am a visitor. I even tried to warn you about this but you chose to ignore me. What kind of idiot just dumps their suitcases next to a complete stranger in front of a building?“.

Oh, I hope it took her a good long while before she realized the other guy had her bags.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about this funny story.

Most Americans are wonderful people.

Sadly, sometimes the stereotypes are there for a reason.

I can just picture it.

This lady was mentally ill.

The Netherlands is a beautiful place.

“Karen” is really living up to the stereotype.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.