House projects. The bain of every Westerner's existence over here.
One of the areas of hidden culture shock when moving overseas is how to take care of your stuff. And I don't mean in a greedy or self-focused way....just in a you-spent-money-on-it-and-it-needs-to-function sort of way.
In the US this process is almost glorified as a hobby and an identity - are you handy around the house? Do you have all the cool shiny tools and the gear? Do you spend your weekends at Lowes?
Here it is a battle for basic survival oftentimes....and I'm not being dramatic. Electricity is so random here that anytime Tom goes near a plug to fix yet another melted socket we all just sort of hold our breath. Even if you've turned off the electricity in the whole house....you just never know. Or the water suddenly dries up and you have to climb to the very tippy top of your house on a horrible rickety ladder to peek in the water tank (much less get IN tank and clean it out like Tom did earlier this year.....he took advantage of a bad situation and got so much gunk out of the empty tank that I don't even want to think about).
Car problems are another story entirely. I'm not sure you remember, but last July the kids and I were in a pretty bad car wreck - we were fine but the car was NOT. It took a full month to get that repaired. The DAY AFTER we got it back, Tom's car - get this - was attacked by dogs and had the front bumper pulled off and the wiring yanked all over the place! No one had ever heard of such a crazy thing. The one bright spot was the insurance man that Tom is now friends with. More on him here....
THEN....when the car was almost ready for pick up after the repair, Tom called the guys and they hemmed and hawed and finally told him why the car was not ready for pick up. While they were working on the electrical system the car "somehow" popped into reverse, shot out of the repair shop, crossed a small street and crashed into two other cars. Oh yes.
So now the back bumper had to be repaired. And folks, it JUST got finished this week. That is EIGHT MONTHS and I've already subtracted the 3 months we were in the US. Eight months of having to bug this person or that person to just fix the crazy problem...calling and not being able to communicate with the staff..arranging drop off and pick up with me and my schedule...calling again and not being able to communicate about whether anything was done or whether it is time to pick it up again.
I say all this not to complain. Frankly we expect it from life here now, but I just felt like trying to explain it to someone back in the US. Quality work, quality materials and any shred of service-mindedness just is not common. Now don't get me wrong, there are many other WONDERFUL things about living here that I also love. One of the main ones being the "drive up and honk" culture where I can buy just about any food or household item from the comfort of the front seat of my car. Love.That.
One of the areas of hidden culture shock when moving overseas is how to take care of your stuff. And I don't mean in a greedy or self-focused way....just in a you-spent-money-on-it-and-it-needs-to-function sort of way.
In the US this process is almost glorified as a hobby and an identity - are you handy around the house? Do you have all the cool shiny tools and the gear? Do you spend your weekends at Lowes?
Here it is a battle for basic survival oftentimes....and I'm not being dramatic. Electricity is so random here that anytime Tom goes near a plug to fix yet another melted socket we all just sort of hold our breath. Even if you've turned off the electricity in the whole house....you just never know. Or the water suddenly dries up and you have to climb to the very tippy top of your house on a horrible rickety ladder to peek in the water tank (much less get IN tank and clean it out like Tom did earlier this year.....he took advantage of a bad situation and got so much gunk out of the empty tank that I don't even want to think about).
Car problems are another story entirely. I'm not sure you remember, but last July the kids and I were in a pretty bad car wreck - we were fine but the car was NOT. It took a full month to get that repaired. The DAY AFTER we got it back, Tom's car - get this - was attacked by dogs and had the front bumper pulled off and the wiring yanked all over the place! No one had ever heard of such a crazy thing. The one bright spot was the insurance man that Tom is now friends with. More on him here....
THEN....when the car was almost ready for pick up after the repair, Tom called the guys and they hemmed and hawed and finally told him why the car was not ready for pick up. While they were working on the electrical system the car "somehow" popped into reverse, shot out of the repair shop, crossed a small street and crashed into two other cars. Oh yes.
So now the back bumper had to be repaired. And folks, it JUST got finished this week. That is EIGHT MONTHS and I've already subtracted the 3 months we were in the US. Eight months of having to bug this person or that person to just fix the crazy problem...calling and not being able to communicate with the staff..arranging drop off and pick up with me and my schedule...calling again and not being able to communicate about whether anything was done or whether it is time to pick it up again.
I say all this not to complain. Frankly we expect it from life here now, but I just felt like trying to explain it to someone back in the US. Quality work, quality materials and any shred of service-mindedness just is not common. Now don't get me wrong, there are many other WONDERFUL things about living here that I also love. One of the main ones being the "drive up and honk" culture where I can buy just about any food or household item from the comfort of the front seat of my car. Love.That.
2 comments:
So sorry steph!! thanks for all your blog writing. so perfect!
Wow. This definitely would not fly in the
US. People would sue people (unfortunately). At a way to learn patience. Thank you for enlightening us all and teaching us Americans to stop complaining and to be grateful!
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