'Can I help you find something maa'm?' I heard myelf repeating these words for the millionth time. 'No....I am just browsing'. Came a terse reply from a middle age woman. Who would have thought a genteel female in her forties with a Louis Vutton purse and prada shoes would actually sound so acrid. But then it is how it always is in Ocean city Maryland. Salesperson never give up and customers never give in. I did not know what took me there during one of the past summers. My tuition was waived, I was living modestly and was quite successful in making both ends meet....but perhaps I wanted a fine toyota and get rid of my rickety chevy or wanted to wear armani colognes and sport a nautica polo....reasons were plenty...I can see it now. I sometimes hate myself of being so materialistic. I worked on a store which sold almost everything....from diapers to dentures.It overlooked the azure atlantic...each morning me and my boss used to gape at the blue water....eyes half closed....trying to find a dolphion or two...as if they would make or day. My boss was a funny little jewish man who never got tired of his libidinous jokes...and thought it exhibited his good sense of humor. Ocean city becomes more secular than the city of Baltimore during summer.Nepalese people dominate the working crowd along with Russians, pro-russians, Irish, Israelis, Bulgarian, Romanian and few other east european countries which you thought never existed.Shrewed jewish businessmen hire and sack them more often than a six month old peeing in his pants. I still wonder how they try to make a better salesperson out of people who never spoke english before. I lived in an apartment with seven others. Soon there would be four more.I worked like a zombie and devoured my food as if I were dungeoned hungry for years. I had tried to keep the apartment clean .... I succeeded for few days. There were some bravehearts who tried to cook too...but failed miserably. There were differnces in opinion all the time...but then there was one thing in common.....drinking together....thanks to heineken....it bonded all of us together. We had a few females working in our stores...one of them was Jana, a Bulgarian belle who never understood what customers spoke and vice-versa. Needless to say, she was in awe of my immaculate English ( at least she thinks so). 'Jaownhy, let's go see spiderman', She used to ask me out....our relationship was simply platonic...don't get any ideas....she was a vulnerably innocent girl who wanted to learn american slangs and some swear words too. Good for both of us that our day day offs did not match....I prevented her from profanity and myself from felony. We never saw a movie together....later I discovered that she thought leonardo di caprio was playing spiderman and couldn't help smiling. She was a good friend...and I had hard time protecting her from my fellow nepalese people. By the time summer was over I realized nepalese people came to ocean city to two major motifs....earn money and get laid. Some people get both....people like me only earn...and some unlucky fews end up getting none. I can still remember some angry faces. I loved visiting Maryland, it is a beautiful state. But for some reason, while crossing cheasapeake bay...I vowed never to return back again. I would visit Baltimore, Annapolis, Bel-air, Hagerstown, even blairwich (????) but not Ocean city. All I earned was a few thousand dollars at a cost of bristling feet, sore back and tanned skin. I care least about my back or skin, but I love my feet (hehe), always kicked butts. Can't afford to ruin it.