It's been a looooong time since we wrote a blog post...

And that is very culturally appropriate to where we live!

So there, that's our excuse.

If you are wondering about the random picture, it is here to help prove the point I just used as an excuse to be very late with our blog update.

To be late, to use a lot of time, or even a lot of someone else's time, is not considered offensive here.

Ok, here's the story;

Mr D (in the picture) and I went to a store to buy a couple of Jerry Cans, we need those here to store fuel for the generators, because of the very high frequency of power cuts).

We went into the store, and could not find Jerry Cans anywhere, and finally asked one of the many people working there to help us.

She showed us that the Jerry Cans were on the shelf with the toothbrush holders (obviously), so Mr D found the size cans he wanted and took them of the shelf, but before he could start walking down to the cashier, the employee that helped us took the cans away from him and said that she'd take them down there in case we wanted to buy something else, when we tried to say that we could carry them, because we weren't going to buy anything else, she still insisted on carrying them for us. She walked slowly down to the cashier, put them on the counter, chatted a bit with the other cashier that was manning the till, and the 5-6 other employees standing behind her not doing anything. After they were done talking, with us waiting right there, they started scanning the items. 

At this point yet another employee came over from the information counter and watched the cashier scanning it and printing our receipt.

After being told the price Mr D paid, but before he could grab the Jerry Cans, the employee from the information counter took them, and the receipt, and walked slowly back to the information counter, put them on the counter, pulled the receipt back out from his pocket and started thoroughly checking if the items we had bought were actually the ones on the receipt...

After that was done, he wrote something on the receipt, and kept a copy in a drawer, and then asked if we wanted to have the cans in plastic bags.

After saying that was really not necessary, Mr D finally got the cans and we could go back to the car.

All of this ended up taking 20 minutes and 3 employees helping us, and 4-5 watching them helping us.

It's the same story if you buy an electrical appliance, except that then they ad another step by unpacking it carefully, rolling out a extension cord, plugging everything in to check if it works, checking every different setting, if they all work and then try to put everything back in the box.

Basically, when we lived in Norway, I'd say to Anne "I'll run to the store, be back in 10 minutes."

Here I have to say "I'm going to the store, see you sometime between 10 and 14 o'clock

Our conclusion is that the people here in AP are very service minded, and we do appreciate that, but being quick is not a part of the service.