Additions to 'La Haine'

- The fact that everybody is always late here. Always. I am, by nature, one of life's 'late' people* so to counteract against this, I always have my watch set to be at least five minutes fast, in the hopes that I might actually get to places on time. But there's simply no point here. Every French person I have arranged to meet at a particular time has been late - shamelessly, unapologetically late. No perfunctory made-up excuse about the traffic being dreadful, delivered in the customary fake breathless fashion in an attempt to make it look as if they ran to the meeting. No, they arrive with a casual hello and not a hair out of place nor an explanation for their tardiness. I'm not sure if I find this lack of hypocrisy charming or disturbing.

- The fact that you cannot check your bank balance at ATMs here, not even with a French carte bancaire and bank account. Is it too much to ask to be able to have a quick look at how much money I don't have before I attempt to withdraw it?




* In the sense of unpunctuality, as opposed to the sense of being dead, naturally.