hi-tech teamaking
If anyone needed yet more evidence that the US and UK are so much more than two nations divided by a common language... it has become clear to me that the little technological advances that make our lives that bit easier haven't always made it across the pond to this apparently developed nation.
When I first arrived here I innocently bought a stovetop, whistling tea kettle from Ikea because they didn't have electric ones there, I'd been taken to Ikea in a yellow school bus with a load of Chinese students and it didn't appear to be stopping at any other quality home improvement stores, and it seemed like a pretty cute piece of kitchenware. Later, I laughed, a lot, when a friend's then boyfriend thought an electric kettle was a great idea for her birthday present. Well, it turns out that America simply DOES NOT DO the electric kettle. Whaaaa?
Someone had left our department and left behind an electric kettle in her office, which was offered to me on the basis that nobody else drinks tea (can't remember the last time I drank tea in the office either, but I guess racial profiling is alive and well). I figured I'd probably use it, since I now hardly ever drink tea at all on the basis that the stovetop kettle takes too long to boil,* so I accepted the freebie. Seconds later, my generous colleague returned with a yellowed instruction book for said kettle, saying "you might need this too." From her reaction, I'm guessing that raising my eyebrows and saying "really? I need a whole book to tell me to fill it with water, plug it in and switch it on?" constituted some kind of technophobeaphobic cultural faux pas.
* YES, I KNOW... but in my defence my benchmark for these things is a coffee maker you can fill up the night before and have it produce fresh coffee for you when you wake up (it's so good it even brings a mug of it to the bedroom for you, but for some reason that feature only kicks in when J is home).
When I first arrived here I innocently bought a stovetop, whistling tea kettle from Ikea because they didn't have electric ones there, I'd been taken to Ikea in a yellow school bus with a load of Chinese students and it didn't appear to be stopping at any other quality home improvement stores, and it seemed like a pretty cute piece of kitchenware. Later, I laughed, a lot, when a friend's then boyfriend thought an electric kettle was a great idea for her birthday present. Well, it turns out that America simply DOES NOT DO the electric kettle. Whaaaa?
Someone had left our department and left behind an electric kettle in her office, which was offered to me on the basis that nobody else drinks tea (can't remember the last time I drank tea in the office either, but I guess racial profiling is alive and well). I figured I'd probably use it, since I now hardly ever drink tea at all on the basis that the stovetop kettle takes too long to boil,* so I accepted the freebie. Seconds later, my generous colleague returned with a yellowed instruction book for said kettle, saying "you might need this too." From her reaction, I'm guessing that raising my eyebrows and saying "really? I need a whole book to tell me to fill it with water, plug it in and switch it on?" constituted some kind of technophobeaphobic cultural faux pas.
* YES, I KNOW... but in my defence my benchmark for these things is a coffee maker you can fill up the night before and have it produce fresh coffee for you when you wake up (it's so good it even brings a mug of it to the bedroom for you, but for some reason that feature only kicks in when J is home).