Every culture has its own logic (or in some cases, "logic"), which often differs greatly from the logic of one's homeland. There are two internet cafes near my apartment. One is about a 3 minute walk away. The other is nicer (and faster!) but it's about a 10 minute walk away. Now, I have a 4 hour break between my morning class and my afternoon classes, so you'd think this time difference wouldn't matter. However, (and this is Jane-logic here) as I prefer to use my 4 hours to check email, eat and (most importantly) nap, I usually opt to head for the closer one.
I arrived there today and was assigned a computer, as usual. I sat down and tried over and over again to get yahoo mail (and then several other sites) to load, but with no success. I realized that other patrons were having similar troubles. Two women who had arrived shortly after me got up and attempted to leave without paying. Their argument was that they came to use the internet, and it wasn't working, why should they pay? (I agreed, although I did so silently.) The fellow manning the place retorted that he had turned on the computer for them, and they had sat in front of it for two minutes - they needed to pay for those two minutes. It wasn't his fault that the internet wasn't working. Eventually they threw down their money in disgust. I left then, too, meekly paying my 3 soms (whatever pittance that amounts to) before trudging 10 minutes to the *other* internet cafe.
4 comments:
Even in foreign countries usually thought of as ultra logical (say, Germany and Switzerland) I have often felt a bit like Alice in Wonderland. And it would be a lot funnier if those puzzling sitations didn't always end up costing you either copious amounts of time or money.
Spam, courtesy of "omar cruz" above. Jane, can you delete it please? :)
The fellow who is running the internet cafe doesn't appear to understand the concept of "repeat customers". I think you should get a bike and go to the 10-min one.
Adi
Ugh. I am sick of this "Omar Cruz" fellow and his Costa Rica related spam. The condos he always links to are owned by Ramada... I actually wrote to them and complained and was told I'd be "taken off of their list" although the spam hasn't stopped. Grrrr.
Now that I've discovered this faster internet cafe, I've begun thinking it's worth the walk when I have the time... All of the computers here have USB ports, as opposed to the other place where only about 1/4 of the computers have them... can't use my flash drive w/o a port!
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