Lost in translation

I have been away from the military community too long, apparently.
I was told I said "the most pretentious thing ever" when I mentioned something about when I went to elementary school and said something like "when I was in Germany ..."

Maybe it sounds pretentious to civilian types, but that was just a fact of life in military conversations. Every story growing up and at my job at Stripes started with "When I was in Japan..." or "When I was in Mississippi ..."

Never once did I think any of them were being pretentious. They were just giving context to their story. A story that included "I was wearing a kimono at a store" gives a very different visual if it took place in Tokyo than if it took place in Biloxi.