South Africa vs Sweden

Queue system;
Everyone that has been to Sweden knows that we love queue systems, and often with the number system, take a note, get a number and wait for your turn. At the bank, at the pharmacy, at the meat ordering in the supermarket, at the post office. And even if you don't have the numbers there are always queues and you won't try to get in front of anyone and you will wait. But not for long. After a certain time you will start to look at the time, move around a little bit, look what's going on in the front. If you are in the supermarket you will start to look if any of the other queues are shorter. And if someone open up a new queue you will be SO ready to get there first.

The patience is not the highest in the world, I can tell you. Things are supposed to go fast. And if they don't, people will get really irritated and stressed. Imagine someone in front of you have a problem with his credit card, so it takes forever for him to be done so it can get to be your turn to pay. In Sweden, you won't feel sorry for the person, you will get irritated, like if it's his fault that his card doesn't work at the moment. The only thing in your head is that YOU wanna get done, go home. That's also one thing, most of the times you're not even in a rush, you are probably just on your way home from work. There is no reason to actually stress. But we do it anyway. It's so Swedish I think. I try to not be like that. I really do. It's such a stupid habit and it just gets you in a bad mood, for no reason at all.

Let me give some examples of how it can work in South Africa. This is from my own experiences;

Supermarkets: 
The queue is kind of long. The person before you is gonna pay. He put up the food and the cashier is working, but never fast. She will take her time. And also, the space to put the food on is so small. And there are no rolling bands that will get the food to her faster. No, she has to lean over and reach all the stuff. On the other side, there is not a lot space either. So if you did shop a lot the person who is packing your stuff has to work fast. But she won't. Yes, there is always a person who pack your stuff. If it isn't, the cashier will do it for you. So, she has to do all of that and also get you to pay. This is taking a while. Probably the double time as in Sweden. And there is not space for two costumers groceries so the cashier can't really help the person after, until the first persons stuff are packed down. I tell you. This can sometimes be very irritating, like if your in a real rush. But most of the times you're not, as I said before. So, what to stress about? Nothing. Actually nothing. Talk to the cashier? Or just relax, look at people, think about something nice, listen to music. I don't know. Just something. Because you can't do anything about it anyway!

Home Affairs: 
I went to Home Affairs to sort out my visa. I was there to just collect my papers. So I went to the room for that. I had number 14. The guy behind me had number 12. When we had been waiting for about 45 minutes some guys came and sat down. About four of them. Ten minutes later a security guard came and said "ok, I need four people... " 
I waited for him to say numbers. We all had number. So how hard could it be to just count from 1 and up and see who was next. No no, he just said again, with an irritated voice: "I need four people". 
So, the four guys that just arrived stood up and walked with him, before me and the guy with number 12 even reacted. After one minute they came back, some of them. Don't ask me why.
My friend Janilla came and sat with me and we talked about this phenomena in swedish. After a while a lady came in and she was angry! Haha, she screamed: "WHO has the lowest number??????!!!"
We tried to say that we had that, number 12 and 14. It was our turn. Finally we got to the queue. But it took a while to make her believe that I had that low number 14. I soon understood why. In front of me in the queue I saw 23, 25, 19 etc... So I just had to say something so me, swedish, stressed, irritated just said out loud: "ok, well, I guess people can't count from 1-20.. obviously, cause I have 14 and yeah, people with 25 are far a head of me. Must be hard to just follow numbers" The guy behind me, that I knew was american, was saying, in a funny way "well, this is not sweden".... (he told me ha had been to sweden for studies so he heard me and janilla talk in swedish earlier) He really understood me, but also said "maybe this isn't that bad. In Sweden people just stress about everything instead, I don't know what's worst"

It's so true. This would not happens in Sweden. BUT, in Sweden it's the opposite. You would stand in a queue for hours, just to be sure you will get there when it's your turn. Even if there are numbers, you don't really sit down. You will stand there and wait! (not everywhere, but it does happened). And if there aren't numbers, oh gosh, you will be surrounded by irritated, stressed, sighs and grumpy people. They would all think "I need to get there NOW, I don't have time for this." YOU WIL ALWAYS HAVE TIME!? YOU JUST GONNA BE LATE FOR THE NEXT THING!!! It's not the end of the world... Try to not think about it, try not put yourself in that negative place. You will feel so much better.

And I will say, I prefer the african way, most of the times. I never really get stressed here. This morning I missed my train. So the next train was in 30 minutes. rich meant I would be late for work, 30 minutes late. But what to do. So I just sat down, sent a message to my boss, watched people, listened to music and relaxed. If it was in sweden I would have to call the work, be SO SO SO sorry about it (probably make up a lie to have a REAL reason to be late) and then feel stressed all the way to work. I never run anywhere, I never drive crazy cause I'm late. I never think about it more then a second. Because I can't do anything about it.

Of course there is always a line, for what's ok. But I just say. MOST of the times, to not have to think about time, is a good thing. What you can't do today, you can do tomorrow, or the day after.