a fit in fnac

Sept 30, 2007

I believe there are two kinds of culture shock. The first kind is a phase one goes through for a period of time as you adjust to living in a new place. I went through this back in May, when I didn't want to leave my house. I went on an internet boycott. I cried alot. It really didn't have much to do with France or culture or being shocked by things here. I was just more homesick than anything was all.

The other kind of culture shock are these little episodes one can have, I believe, even after years of living some place, where your old tendencies from back home kick in and you find yourself upset about something, which may be related to culture or may not be. Like my fit about public transport the other night. I've been riding public transport in foreign countries for years. I know how it works, and so I don't really have a FIT about it often.

Well...I had another fit yesterday. This time in FNAC. Here's what happened...

You will recall that my camera (the new one) broke back in July. While I was sick with the amoeba, I went to FNAC to have my camera repaired. (FNAC is a 'Best Buy' and 'Barnes and Noble' combined, and one really cool store.) I waited for probably an hour to turn my little camera in and have it mailed off for repair. The nice FNAC man explained to me that they would mail me an estimate and I could accept/reject that price before they fixed it.

Six weeks later, I hadn't heard anything, so I went back to FNAC. I ended up waiting two hours only to be told by another nice FNAC man that I would receive the estimate in the mail, and that I just had to wait for it. It was in my mailbox that day...and stated that it would cost MORE than the value of the camera to repair it. Grrr...

I was pretty busy after that and didn't have hours to spare to wait in line at FNAC, so I hadn't had the chance to go back and tell them I didn't want to pay half my monthly budget just to fix my camera. This week, I received another letter in the mail from FNAC...which I didn't understand a word of what it said. So I finally made my way back to FNAC (hey, that rhymed!) yesterday.

They have one of those machines where you press a button for why you're there (exchange, repair shop, picking something up, etc), and it gives you a receipt with a number on it. I press my button and am DELIGHTED to see that it says 043. The screen says that my particular queue (b) is on 042. Yippee--I'm next! No waiting two hours! Or so I thought...

I hear a ding and look up at the screen. Queue #a advanced. Ding. Queue #c advanced. Ding. Ding. Ding. Everybody was advancing expect #b--mine! Why?! Why do they do this to me? Ding. Ding. Ding. More advances.

I contemplated getting up and getting a number from the other queues, but I'd managed to get a chair in the waiting area...and I didn't want to give that up. And I thought, surely they'll ding me soon. I looked around me and saw that nearly everyone had several receipts in their hands...they'd all been smart enough to get a number from each queue. I was the only one who'd only pressed the button for what I was really there for.

Ding. Ding. Ding. Still no queue #b.

The man next to me told me he'd give me his extra ticket once his number got dinged. Perhaps the worker from queue #b was at lunch?

Ding! Queue #b! I thanked the man next to me and jumped up.

"Parlez-vous anglais?" I asked.
"Yes." (Thank goodness!)
I pulled out my repair receipt from July, and the two letters I'd received since then, and explained that I didn't understand the last one. He told me that since I didn't respond after the first letter, the repair shop had mailed my camera back to FNAC.

"Great! May I have it back, please?"
"Yes, of course. But you have to pay 43 euros first."

Enter culture shock.

I quickly calculated in my head that I'd spent at least five hours of my life waiting in their little ding-operated lines, only to receive my camera back still broken, and they wanted me to PAY THEM 43 euros for that!?

I thought of the pretty little brown shoes I'd like to buy with those 43 euros.
I thought of the vacations to India, to Morocco, to America that would take me 43 euros longer to save for.
I thought of the cool places I want to take my brother with those 43 euros.
I thought of the new camera I want and can't afford because I live in a country that is rich enough not to need my 43 euros, and they're rich because they double the price of everything and play on the willing foreigners like me who will pay 43 euros for a broken camera!

And my eyes welled with tears, and I said, "That is ridiculous! Why should I have to pay 43 euros for you to give me my camera back still broken?"
"Because, madam, you must pay for the one hour of work the man did to look at your camera."
"Work!? What work? He didn't fix it!"

He began speaking in French to the other man working next to him, and I wanted to go off in French that I understood what they are saying and to not talk about me like that. But I can't speak French fast enough to "go off" on someone. And then I realized, I was the one being rude. Not them. I took a deep breath, willed myself not to cry, apologized for being rude, and asked where I needed to go to pay.

So...is that culture shock? I'm not sure. It could just be that I was tired of waiting in line, upset (still) about my camera being broken, and frustrated that I had to pay 43 precious euros for pretty much nothing. I think all that would have had the same effect on me in the US. But then again...in the US, I'd have a warranty on that camera, those queues would work differently, I would have understood the letters that came in the mail, I could have called to find out the status of my repair, and things wouldn't cost twice as much as they should. And I would be able to afford to go to the other section of FNAC (or Best Buy or wherever) right at that same moment and buy a new camera.

The difference between this "episode" (and the metro one earlier this week) and May...once the moment has passed, I'm okay. I still love it here. I still can smile and laugh and be happy. I don't well up in my apartment for days because of a fit in FNAC. And today, just to prove it...I'm going to go out and enjoy the fall sunshine in this beautiful city.