Monday, January 24, 2011

cultural differences

some lonesome train station from while I was at L'Abri in 2006

"British Rail was having a bad day. We crept a mile or so out of the station, then sat for a long time for no evident reason. Eventually a voice announced that because of faults farther up the line this train would terminate at Stockport, which elicited a general groan. Finally, after about twenty minutes, the train falteringly started forward and limped across the green countryside. At each station the voice apologized for the delay and announced anew that the train would terminate at Stockport. When at last we reached Stockport, ninety minutes late, I expected everyone to get off, but no one moved, so neither did I. Only one passenger, a Japanese fellow, dutifully disembarked, when watched in dismay as the train proceeded on, without explanation and without him, to Manchester."
-p.238 Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson

I am sure that I have been in similar situations before and have been the Japanese guy. When in strange circumstances, I revert to the safety of black-and-white thinking and follow rules. When no one moved, I would just assume (contrary to all reason) that everyone on the train was a train employee and was going to the train employee lot after the line terminated and where I would be stranded and glared at.

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