respect

USA, evening

I almost finished the third book of the Millennium Trilogy. It is very good, even if the first one is probably the best one. So, I went downtown to get some new book. It was so crowded.....too crowded for me. So, as soon as I got two new books, I came back to this small area of San Francisco, which is cozy and full of little nice shops.

I noticed something. Here, everyone with a car stops when they see pedestrians crossing the road. It is something that as European, coming from Italy and living in the South of France, I am not used to. In Italy and in the South of France, crossing a road is like gambling on your life...will you survive or not? red traffic lights mean really little there and in any case, and zebra lines mean even less. Here, if there is a stop sign, cars actually stop there. If there is someone crossing, it doesn't matter how slow this person is in crossing the road, they wait, without starting to honk or shout from the car window....it is kind of impressive to me.

This is a sign of respect.

On the other hand, I went to get a manicure this morning and I noticed that a lot of the customers who were there for the same reason spent all the time talking on the self-phone ignoring completely the person who was working in front of them. I guess in Europe we talk a lot on the self-phone and it is pretty common for people to have more than one of them. However, talking on the phone while you are paying something or when someone is in front of you giving you a manicure or pedicure, it is considered pretty disrespectful I guess. I think that when you buy a phone, they should also teach you the galateo of how to use it. Don't speak laud on the phone if you are on a public transportation or in a public place, don't talk on the phone if someone is working for you in front of you, don't spend half an hour or more on the phone if you are having dinner with someone else etc etc etc....Beside, while getting my manicure, I was not at all interested in hearing someone else plans for the day or her problems or whatever they were talking about......Am I not modern enough to understand that this is the way it works now and it is normal???