Une prise electronique, brancher, and things I took for granted

What do these terms mean? Well, une prise electronique is an outlet or a plug and to plug in to one of them is brancher. I didn't know these vocabulary terms until a week or two ago but I won't ever forget them now. It seems the best way to learn something is: 1) be overconfident about your knowledge; 2) have that bubble burst by a somewhat rude (French) person; 3) take for granted that things are the same in your town or country as they are everywhere else; 4)have to pay some money to learn it.

There is a pizza place about two blocks from my house that I go to fairly often because they have free wi-fi (that's wee-fee in French) to go along with $3 espressos. It's a pretty cool little place and the guy who works there most often is very nice.

Anyway, one day about a week or two ago, I went there after a long and bad day of not understanding the French system and being alerted to my ignorance in many nasty and sometimes confrontational ways. I wanted to use the internet and recharge my battery because it had nearly died during the 8 hour day of classes.

One thing I didn't note in my first blog was that there aren't very many outlets in the classrooms here. Fortunately, there aren't that many French students who use computers to take notes. In any case, there is still a pretty high value to getting access to one of the two or three outlets in the classroom. I actually had access to one of the outlets until the professor in my three hour seminar stepped on the cord and knocked it out of the wall.

So, I stop at the pizza place, order a coffee, and ask in French if I can use this and then pointed at the plug. The guy, who was neither the waiter I was used to nor very friendly, said yes, no problem C.P. I thought he was using an abbreviation for plug (explanatory note: there are a lot of abbreviations here and there seem to be even more in law classes) and went on about my business. I drank my 1,80 euro cafe, used the internet, and charged my battery.

After about an hour and a half, I decided to go back to my place. Of course the waiter hadn't returned over that period of time either to ask me if I wanted anything else or see if I wanted the bill. I know this is culturally different and that giving good service here involves leaving me alone and I often appreciate that especially when I am really only there to use the internet. However, the coffees are pretty small so it would make some sense to come round every once in a while to check. Anyway, he didn't so I went inside to pay for my 1,80 euro coffee.

Much to my chagrin, and probably predictably at this point in the post, the coffee cost me 5 euros. I asked the guy how much the coffee was and he said it was 1,80 but I had to pay for the electricity. I said I didn't know that and he started getting a little aggressive. He said yes he did tell me; that when I arrived I asked if I could "brancher" and he responded "oui, c'est pas un probleme mais c'est payant." What I took for an abbreviation, what I thought was C.P. or, in some weak version of phonetics "say pay", was actually him telling me sure you can plug in here but you have to pay for it. He went on to tell me that it was normal to pay for electricity and I should have known it. Well, I had already paid him so it wasn't like I was trying get out of paying so I didn't understand what he was so mad about. But since you could fill the Grand Canyon with what I don't know, I wasn't fighting very hard.

Although I will never forget those two vocabulary words and I will never take it for granted again that electricity is typically free if you have paid for some good or service, I have also learned that it is not at all normal to pay pour brancher in French restaurants. I have been in about five other bars, cafes, and restaurants and asked if I could plug my computer in. Not one of them has asked me to pay for it. Further, when I relate my little tale of woe that I just related to you, they all say that is not normal and that this guy was taking advantage of me.