Customer Service and a different world

It's amazing sometimes to realize how much customer service and serving others is a part of American culture. We often learn more about our own culture only when we are knee deep in another one.

Today Sasha and Zhanna invited me over for dinner after ch^rch and on the way there, we stopped by the bank (yeah, they're open on Sundays here). We were in line and Zhanna was next to be served. There was a sign posted that the teller's lunch brake was at 2pm. It was 1:56pm. The woman literally looked at Zhanna and said that she should come back in an hour because she was taking her lunch break. Zhanna very kindly asked if any of the FOUR women in the back of the office would be opening their windows soon. (Their lunch breaks were from 1pm - 2pm). So we left without being served.

It's not wrong, it's just different. I tell myself this often. It is sometimes difficult, especially if you have a bill that NEEDS to be paid on a specific day (this is how Russians take care of business - where we would send a check in the mail, here you pay at the bank and get a stamp on your receipt that you can then show as proof of payment).