Most interesting would be a tossup between assisting the Pathologist in performance of a post mortem, and anything else observed in the OR.
Wow. These pale compared to most of the stuff posted here, but:
Worked as an interpreter for an international beauty contest (World Miss University or some such nonsense) which involved being protected by bodyguards, translating bribes, and being threatened by the Korean mafia.
Participated in a rally in Seoul and come nose-to-nose with riot police.
Traveled alone in Europe at the tender age of 20.
Heh, I’ve had a gun put to my head as well but it wasn’t anything special, just a robbery (it wouldn’t have even occurred to me for this thread, and it’s not something I did anyway). I was also selling drugs at the time and it kind of comes with the occupation. One of many reasons I stay far, far away from illegal drugs nowadays.
Ditto. My little teaser line above is probably more interesting than the actual story. I was robbed at work. The gun coming my way wasn’t the scary part. The scary part was when the robber made me, a coworker, and a guy visiting from the neighboring store lie face down on the floor in the back room. At that point, I knew that I was dead.
Being a Peace Corps Volunteer in Bulgaria sounds more interesting than it really is…but I’ll say that, just cause it sounds cool. In reality, I get up, go to work, come home and putter around the house, just like all of y’all.
The real most interesting thing I’ve ever done is swim with wild dolphins in the Red Sea, at Nuweiba’, Egypt, which is in Sinai. That was fucking amazing.
Performing on the street as a preacher for Cthulhu.
Selling toys at collectibles shows. You haven’t lived til you’ve seen a man threaten to kill somebody over a number four Barbie. Or bought something for a dollar and sold it for over a hundred.
Getting to know a man who was convinced he was a werewolf. He turned out to be a great guy and I miss him.
Being in a mental hospital for nine months.
Getting to know a ninety two year old great uncle.
It might be…
Going to a native american sun dance to support my cousin-in-law, who danced for three days in the sun with no food or water. Helping carry a huge tree probably weighing multiple tons to the ceremony site and hoisting it up only with ropes–a tree which the men would stake themselves to during the ceremony. Surviving a real sweatlodge with real Lakotas (it gets bloody hot in there). Playing with my adorable half-indian baby cousin, the first blood-relative baby girl I’ve known.
Was the nudist place in the OP the Terra Cotta Inn? It really is a beautiful place (a little too quiet for my tastes, but very nice). As to the swinger’s party - yep, those can be either very, very interesting or boring as hell (depends entirely on the crowd).
Pushed an unmapped passage in a cave in Waitomo - I got freaked out when we dropped a torch 3 meters down into a dry fissure. My companion insisted on dropping down to get it. I was pretty sure that the space was too narrow to get in or out, but I inhaled, breathed shallow, and we made it (he had no problems, skinny as a rake and I am sure he had hinges on his ribs). These days, I couldn’t even begin to get down somewhere like that - my belly would smear up over my face and suffocate me.
Si
Cool. Waitomo is the only place I’ve done “wild” caving. We had a scare when we arrived at the exit we planned to use (a vertical sinkhole), and found that a rope that was supposed to be there was missing, so there was no way to get out. We had to scramble to get back to our original entrance before our carbide ran out.
I have to say, “went to India, four times, two of which I went alone”. I know it probably doesn’t seem like much but I still look back at it as one of the most exciting and intriguing things I’ve ever done. Visiting a country which was both my mother country and also the most exotic and beautiful locations I’ve ever seen has been one of the defining moments of my life.
We did one cave with two ends, so the party split in two. We absailed in, met in the middle, then intended to climb back out using the ladders at the other end. We got there, sent someone up the ladder with a safety line, which he promptly dropped down a shaft, and then proceeded to get hypothermic under the waterfall while he figured that without the line he wasn’t going to get out. He finally came back down and I ended up keeping him warm (and he wasn’t the sort of person I would spent time hugging) while we worked out what to do. We couldn’t go back, because the others would have lifted the rope out, and we didn’t carry ascenders anyhow. So we waited till someone from the other party came to find us. He dropped a line and we got out pretty easy, but it was worrying and cold for a while.
I really enjoyed those uni days. We did Black Water rafting before it really became a commercial operation (after spending an evening in the Waitomo Pub). We went climbing out Kihikihi way. We went down caves all over the show. It was pretty cool.
Si
The most interesting thing I’ve done so far is assist with the excavation of a wolly mammoth in the Black Rock Desert.
Showed up in Shanghai expecting to be met by someone for an internship. Someone screwed up the paperwork or something because no one was there. It was a Friday night I had no hotel, no idea where I was (except of course that it was an airport), tired after almost 20 hours of flying, and not a clue what to do. Ended up getting a hotel in some small city close to Shanghai’s airport, and then taking a long ass taxi ride on Monday to the company I had an internship with.
I do mean long ass taxi ride. Pudong airport is a good 45 min SE of Shanghai, and my job was a good 30 min west of the city. Of course I knew none of this at the time. The taxi ended up stopping at like this high way interchange on ramp after 45 minutes or so. The driver got out of the cab and started saying stuff to me. Since I spoke no Chinese and he spoke no English, I hadn’t the slightest clue what he was saying. Having no idea where I was, no idea what he was saying, I had nothing to do but sit there and smile. About 10 minutes later a lady showed up on a scooter, and the guy that was driving hopped on and scooted off, and the lady started driving. Shift change I guess.
Anyways, after a 2 hour or so cab ride I finally ended up at the company I was going to work for. Piled out of the cab with my bags at the security gate with all my bags. Of course the guards at the gate did the only sensible thing, and immediately burst out laughing. Since I am an idiot, and naively thought everything was taken care of I neglected to bring something written in Chinese explaining who I was and why I was there.
The guards didn’t speak any english so they pointed me inside. The receptionist didn’t speak English, and the guy she called down (who I later found out was the HR director) didn’t speak English. He found a guy that only spoke broken English, who understood enough to figure out who I was and why I was there. They finally united me with my boss who spoke excellent English, and all was well.
The most interesting thing I’ve ever done is “assist” while my two daughters were being born. Well, and concieving them.
No, it was a place called Desert Shadows (main page is SFW, links are not). It, too, was beatiful and a little quiet. Our group actually wasn’t “allowed” to leave the resort, although I hear there’s not much to do in the area anyhow.
The food was fantastic, too. 
I moved to Germany when I was 19 to work as an au pair/ranch hand. I had about $50, a backpack, a five year old picture of some people (who I had never spoken to) who were supposed to meet me in Frankfurt, and a command of the German language which consisted of Ich bin ein Berliner… I ended up staying for two years.
I spent six months excavating burials out of a mortuary cave - and I got paid for it!
I was part of a group of people that set 3 state records (for largest skydiving formation) in one day- on 3 consecutive jumps.
There’s a skydiving center in Richmond, IN, that is very close to the Ohio state line. A group of 54 jumpers, in 2 large cargo planes, took off from Richmond and flew east while climbing to jump altitude. 30-40 miles away is another skydiving center in Xenia, Ohio. We bailed out over Xenia and successfully built a 54-way formation, setting the Ohio state record.
After landing, “woo-hoo’s” and high-fives all around, we packed our parachutes and got back in the planes. We flew back to Indiana, bailed out and built the same formation, setting the Indiana state record.
After more celebrating, we added 6 jumpers and took off again. We stayed in Indiana this time, and completed a 60-way formation, breaking the record we had just set.
Much alcohol was consumed that evening!
I guess mine would be giving a speech (and then singing) for the first time at Carnegie Hall, in front of 2500 people. That was pretty unforgettable.
I was sitting on the back steps of a NYC club talking with the oringinal Blues Bothers while they smoked a joint. Nobody else around.