My first culture shock encounters started in the airport. People actually smoke inside of the building. I was shocked. There is a place, that may have a special ventilation system, in the middle of the floor with the Camel logo on it and people stay around that thing and smoke. It was getting time to eat and I was looking for a place to sit down and eat. One thing that I noticed is that if they are selling cold cut sandwiches, they don’t just make it once you ask, they make 10 to 15 of each kind of sandwich and you just go there and pick yours. I have to agree that this cuts the time of serving customers but I do not know about freshness; I do not think Americans would embrace this system of serving food. After looking for a good place to sit down, I found this restaurant and since I had a lot of time to kill I decided to go in and sit down. First of all, I sat down and I was waiting for a waiter (the restaurant was a very nice one so I did not think it was the type that you serve yourself). So the wonderful me, I was waiting, waiting for a waiter or a menu that never came. I realized that I needed to get my own food. They had good things but since I was hungry I decided to go with what I knew, cold cut sandwiches. I did not like coleslaw and it seems that they eat this a lot here.
I was asking the guy if he could make me one without this stuff - just cheese and ham, but before I finished my sentence he responded “nein”, but I tried again because I did not think he understood what I was trying to say (because it is natural in America to order something, especially sandwiches, without one or two ingredients) so I said it again and he said “nein”, and I said it again and he said “nein”,……until I realized I was not getting my sandwich without the coleslaw. So I got the sandwich, chocolate cake and a soda (of course, that did not come with ice). The glass was very small compared to a regular restaurant in America.
Soda is cheap in the USA. Here the glasses are small, I even thought I was getting a shot of Sprite (because generally I drink more than this, actually I need more than this) and when he charged me 3 euros for a shot of Sprite, I thought to myself, I guess I will be on a soda diet for 6 months. Well this is my first contact with European culture in a airport, so I will see in the next few days whether my perceptions were right or wrong and as well as double check the soda price outside the airport. One thing that I love here is the immigration system. Fast, not too complicated.
