It's impossible to live in a foreign country for any length of time and not notice peculiar tendencies. Some of the things I've noticed include: leather boots-in, wacky clothes-in, going to class on Friday-out, beer-in, early mornings-out, regard for personal safety-decidedly out.
Yes, you read that correctly. Twice in the past week, I have been in a building in which the fire alarm has sounded and no one has moved. In the cafeteria, students looked up, surprised, but made no move to get out of the building. The alarm continued to go off for several minutes but no one moved. I was at a table with Americans and, upon hearing the alarm, we dutifully stood up and assumed fire drill position. Once we noticed no one else cared, we sat back down and tried to talk over the shriek of the alarm. It was weird. If the building had been on fire, who knows what would have happened.
At a separate point during the week, the alarm sounded in my apartment building. I immediately moved to turn the stove off and was ready to grab my essentials (laptop, passport, etc.) but then the alarm turned off. The situation was over fairly quickly, but not so quickly that some people should have been halfway down the stairs already, which no one was. Again, this was a blatant disregard of a warning signal. I have no idea what the deal is, but I think the people here should think long and hard about their priorities. Is it worse to be trapped in a burning building or look like a fool because you went outside when the alarm went off? A question we all need to ponder.
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