October 23, 2010

We are prepared to lose a day when crossing the date line, but hadn’t planned on losing one in Washington DC.

We were all tired after arriving late and had decided to not put on any alarms. We got up at around 10am. Hélène had a quick breakfast and went on a grocery shopping expedition while I kept the fort and looked after the kids. We had secured a few items at a 7/11 the night before and I made some scrambled eggs and bacon for myself and the kids. It was good to have an apartment again and be able to cook:

When we got Adrian’s iPod replaced at the Apple Store in New York they did not have the MacBook Air model we wanted. They had told me in the morning they would have plenty of all models available, When we came back in the evening they checked for the configuration I wanted and told me they unfortunately had sold all of those during the day because sales had been so good.

OK, better get one here in DC then. I found the closest Apple Store and called them. They told me they had many machines with the configuration I wanted and that there was no need to put one aside. There would be plenty if I arrived during the day. I made sure to double check that they indeed had the type I wanted.

I also started looking for parking. After last nights very tough search for a place to park it was starting to dawn on me that it might not have been the best move to get a rental car for the entire week. I had gotten a very good offer for a weekly rental online and it seemed better to have a car all the time than the hassle of getting one for part of the stay. Wrong thinking.

I managed to find a hotel with a public parking offer about 800 meters (half a mile) from where we are staying. I called them and they told me I could purchase parking for 6 days and come and go as I wanted. No problem.

Hélène came back around 12:30 and I left on an apple and parking expedition together with Iseline.

Whoa! Saturday in the center of Washington DC is not a place you want to take your car. I regretted not having taken the subway. We have always heard that the US infrastructure is made for using cars for transportation, and we thought we were doing what the natives do.

Once at the store I experienced a new parking nightmare. We circled and circled. I was well armed with my iPhone GPS App, but parkings were full! In the end we managed to find one a bit hidden in a shady looking small alley. The guy working there gave me a ticket through the window, telling me he would calculate the fee when I came back to pick up the car. He was horrified when I tried to continue driving to park the car. “No, sir, *I* park the car.” OK, another cultural thing, you just don’t give the car keys to a stranger in Norway, but here I had no choice.

Once at the Apple Store we found the place packed. The concept of the Apple Store is different from any other store I know. The employees wander about and there is no place to pay, instead they all have these fancy morphed iPhones that take a credit card. I guess they think it’s cool and casual. It works great when there are few customers, but this time it was not very great. Iseline was of course at a computer in an instant and found the games faster than you can say “behersker digitale verktøy” thus limiting my radius of action. I had to keep an eye on her in this chaos after all.

After a grueling half hour of trying to get someone’s attention I finally managed. The guy disappeared, came back, and said he was so sorry. They had sold out that model during the day.

I was not amused.

He helped me find the nearest other Apple store on a computer and hurried on to another customer. I called them up and was now very specific on all the model details and also insisted that they had to put one aside for me. The woman said they normally didn’t do that, but she would try her best. She took my name and I promised to be there as soon as I could. I had promised Iseline an ice-cream, but after explaining she accepted immediately . She said she was very happy we had to go to another store because then she could play longer on her iPod Touch in the back seat.

Back at the parking we had to stand in line to get our car back. It is inconceivable to me why they had chosen a model where the one guy working there parked and fetched every single car. Maybe this is why the parking was not full when we got there? At last we got the car and could once again indulge in packed streets with an infinite supply of red traffic lights and much honking.

It was getting close to 2:30pm.

Once we arrived at the Apple Store in Arlington, Virginia, we had the same parking problems. Parking in this area is a science of its own. There are lots of complicated signs with rules and hours everywhere. Everything seems extremely regulated and all guide books warn you that they are serious when they threaten with towing you away if you do not follow the rules. I ended up parking illegally in a spot only available for those with a parking permit for zone 6. Enough is enough. I told Iseline she couldn’t get ice cream here either, since we had to be quick.

By now I had the feeling of being caught in a spider’s web where my limbs were getting more and more entangled. I just want to buy a computer and get on with my life. Can that be too difficult?

We couldn’t find the Apple Store at the advertised location and Iseline really had to go the restroom. After some desperate back and forth I resorted to the last available option for a male: I asked someone. The store was a bit away from the avenue it got it’s address from. We hurried in and found the restroom.

Another packed store, another long wait.

When I finally found help the guy was very surprised to hear that I had a machine with that specific configuration set aside. He disappeared through a door and I waited.

Dam-ti-tam-ti-tam-ti-tam. I was getting used to this now.

He came back with a machine in his hands. YES!

He then told me that the memory amount I wanted was not available in any Apple Store anywhere, That specific configuration could only be purchased online. However he could offer me this brand new inferior machine…

Thank you, Apple.

We drove back and found the hotel with the parking. The guy in the booth at the parking lot told me there was no way I could pay for 6 days and come and go. His boss said the same thing. I told them I had spoken with someone this morning. They sent me to the reception. A security guard stopped me, saying I could not park outside the parking area. The fire trucks needed that space in case of a fire. He ended up accepting keeping my keys while I went inside. He would move the car if a fire started…

Inside there was a waiting line at the reception. Then the woman behind the counter said I could not park for so long if I was not a guest. I refused to back down. She fetched her boss. I explained. He told me they could not decide, only the parking company. He escorted me outside and spoke to one of the parking guys. They then fetched what seemed to be the big boss of the parking company. A serious man with a deep voice and a very nice suit.

“Of course we can do that, sir, would you like to pay with cash or a credit card?”

At last a reasonable man with a sense of business. It is fascinating and a bit sad to see how many people are unable to make their own rational decisions because they are bound by rules and the possible punishments for breaking them. It is also interesting to see how this varies from country to country. I’m pretty sure this kicking up the chain of command could not have happened in France. There someone would have found a solution fast and would probably even enjoy breaking the rules.

It is also fascinating to observe how here in the US they seem to answer you what they think you want to hear when you are on the phone, without checking if it matches reality. It seems that when the customer is not present and they cannot be blamed the solution is to say “Yes” to anything. Another cultural thing to get used to.

I had tried to reach Hélène several times during the day because I wanted us all to go to the national zoo, which is very close to our apartment. She never answered (she had left her phone while doing laundry).

Iseline and I were back around 4:45pm. The zoo closed at 6pm according to their website. We quickly swallowed some sandwiches and were at the gates to the zoo around 5:15. Nice littlle sign: The zoo closes at 4:30 today because of a special event. Fantastic, this was really our day.

We started to walk in the direction of a park we remembered from the map and which Sarah had recommended to us. Of course, since we only wanted to go to the zoo, we hadn’t brought the map. To make a long story short we ended up taking a wrong turn and made our way down a very steep hill between two roads without a pavement

only to find an area that was closed because it was a police training area. This was really our day. We went back to the apartment.

I got out my little portable home cinema kit and the kids watched Kung Fu Panda on the wall. The quality of the pico projector and the portable speakers are awesome. More about that later.

Once we got the kids to bed Hélène bought some DVDs on sale at our local 7/11 and we had a nice cinema evening with one of them, just the two of us.

I was too tired to blog when we had finished seeing the movie, it had been an exhausting day of achieving nothing.

Eirik

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