Serious culture shock moment

Mexpat's recent post about her nice neighbors helping her "thaw out her car" lighted a little spark in my mind. Today I paid more attention and I did indeed notice that people here are down right friendly. I'm not about to make an assumption of the type "all Americans are nice and all French are raleurs", but I will point out that I doubt very strongly anyone in France will wish you a"Merry Christmas" after you've accidentally bumped into them at the supermarket.

Yesterday, I went to get my drivers' license renewed and that's when it hit me the first time. We were all waiting for our name to be called and since I'd forgotten to bring "something to do while waiting" I was left no choice but to carry on with one of my favorite pass-times: people watching. I was highly engrossed in shoes when I suddenly started to notice something else. Every time one of the desk clerks would call the next in line they would ask "how may I help you today?", that is their greeting!! HOW MAY I HELP YOU TODAY? How many times have you heard a public server greet you with this question in Mexico? I know for sure that if I ever came across a French fonctionnaire and he asked me how he could help me I would probably just stand there dumb folded and not knowing what to do. I've never heard anything else than suivaaaaaaant! (next!) or avancez! (move it people!).... and if you're really lucky you get a bonjour. But never a downright question that simply implies what can they do to make your life easier! But that wasn't the end of it. When the next person in line would get to the teller you would suddenly start to hear a string of "hon" and "sweety" and so forth.... "Don't worry hon, we got it all sorted out" or "sure sweety, I can take another picture if you don't like the first one" ........... I ask my French readers, would you know what to do if the woman at La Poste would suddenly start calling you cherie or chou-chou??? I'd probably faint on the spot.

But it didn't end there..... for the rest of the day I kept coming across random and anonymous nice behavior and sincere smiles all over the place.... the girl at the shoe store in the mall didn't mind going back and forth until we found my right size (I couldn't remember what my american shoe size is) all this without a hint of exasperation .... the guy at the jewelry shop offered to clean my engagement ring even though I was clearly only looking around and it was obvious I wasn't going to buy anything.....the waitress at the Mexican place my grandmother took me for lunch kept calling Mimi "granny" and asking how my grandfather was doing (I get the feeling my grandparents are regulars at that place though).....

But it was the man that I bumped into a little while ago at the HEB that convinced me I had to blog about this.

First of all a little parenthesis here....... walking into the supermarket here for the 1st time in 4 years was highly intimidating... I've gotten used to our little Monoprix down the street where we live in Paris (all the big Walmart-type supermarkets are in the outter limits of the city because of lack of space and land prices).... Monoprix is considered a supermarket in France but here, HEB's fruit 'n' veggies section is probably bigger than the entire Monoprix store back home! At Monoprix you usually have a choice of 3 kind of apples to choose from, at HEB you have 12! (I counted!) ..............you get the picture.... (I did however notice HEB has a poorer selection on good wines than Monoprix does ;D)

Anyway, I had just gotten one of those HUGE caddies you can fit two grown men in (so different to our little pick nick-sized baskets with wheels and a handle that they use back home) and I was having a little trouble maneuvering it and at the same time trying to find the right kind of orange juice among the 18 different Tropicana choices you have, when I suddenly bumped into this little old man. Luckily I wasn't going very fast and the caddie was pretty empty, but just the shock of hitting him with this HUGE thing made me feel so so bad....I immediately started to apologize and ask him if he was alright.... but he just smiled and said "don't worry hon, I'm fine.... have a Merry Christmas"!.................. What can you possibly say after that? All I could stutter was a pathetic "Th-thank you sir, you too" and kept walking.... after a few seconds I felt a wave of embarrassment wash over me and felt so angry at myself for being so negligent that I might have hurt this man who's probably the same age as my grandfather... but I also couldn't help feeling an extreme awe.... if this had happened to me in France I'd probably would have had to stand there and listen to a good deal of ranting and name calling and what's worse, even after you've apologize for the n'th time and you think they've vented out their anger, you'll probably still see them while you continue your shopping (the store is so small you're bound to probably end up at the same check out line anyway) and they'll still be cursing you under their breath, but quite conveniently, just loud enough for the people around to hear and stare at you with a mixed look of pity and disgust! ............

Oh, and don't hold your breath waiting for that "Joyeux Noel" either......

Fned - the clutz