Confessions of a taxicab addict
Jeff Haxer '07
Issue date: 12/5/06 Section: Student Life
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Traveling, as any good consultant will tell you, can be a major hassle. As a former consultant I should have been better prepared for the headaches involved in traveling, but during my recent recruiting adventures, I found that I had forgotten the little things that make traveling a bit easier.
For instance, most people get into a cab, tell their destination to the driver, and never say another word. I know this because when I was on the road as a consultant, I made a point to talk to cab drivers. When I moved to Boston, I found that it's almost impossible to do this in Boston because most of the cabbies are unfriendly and obsessed with breaking as many traffic laws as possible. As I recently found out, however, if you try it in most other cities, you may be in for a treat.
My` interview adventures recently took me to Chicago where I learned some amazing things from a cab driver from Somalia.
Quick, where can you find the largest population of Somalis outside of the Middle East? Don't know? I'll bet that if your not from there, you would never have guessed it's Minneapolis. While Minneapolis may boast more Somalis than any other city in the U.S., several thousand Somalis also call Chicago home. I'll bet you didn't know that the Midwest was a bastion of diversity that Boston and New England cannot even come close to matching; I certainly was taken by surprise.
This particular cabbie wasn't a very good cab driver, as he pulled into the gas station and filled up with the meter running, but he seemed nice enough. As we pulled onto the freeway, I noticed that he was about to fall asleep. Terrified of the oncoming traffic, and used to Boston drivers, I decided I'd keep him awake by talking with him. After a few minutes of small talk, my Midwestern roots began to show: "You're from Somalia?" I asked half surprised that he made it to Chicago, and half stunned that he wasn't gunned down by all of the warring we read about or killed in the famine as portrayed by the American media. He replied affirmatively as his head snapped back from dozing.
For instance, most people get into a cab, tell their destination to the driver, and never say another word. I know this because when I was on the road as a consultant, I made a point to talk to cab drivers. When I moved to Boston, I found that it's almost impossible to do this in Boston because most of the cabbies are unfriendly and obsessed with breaking as many traffic laws as possible. As I recently found out, however, if you try it in most other cities, you may be in for a treat.
My` interview adventures recently took me to Chicago where I learned some amazing things from a cab driver from Somalia.
Quick, where can you find the largest population of Somalis outside of the Middle East? Don't know? I'll bet that if your not from there, you would never have guessed it's Minneapolis. While Minneapolis may boast more Somalis than any other city in the U.S., several thousand Somalis also call Chicago home. I'll bet you didn't know that the Midwest was a bastion of diversity that Boston and New England cannot even come close to matching; I certainly was taken by surprise.
This particular cabbie wasn't a very good cab driver, as he pulled into the gas station and filled up with the meter running, but he seemed nice enough. As we pulled onto the freeway, I noticed that he was about to fall asleep. Terrified of the oncoming traffic, and used to Boston drivers, I decided I'd keep him awake by talking with him. After a few minutes of small talk, my Midwestern roots began to show: "You're from Somalia?" I asked half surprised that he made it to Chicago, and half stunned that he wasn't gunned down by all of the warring we read about or killed in the famine as portrayed by the American media. He replied affirmatively as his head snapped back from dozing.
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