Its 3am and the phone is ringing...

Talk about culture shock...

I was in for a shock last Friday. I got a phone call that said 'unknown' in the caller ID...usually I would not answer such a call if I didn't know who was calling, but since it could be a possible job-related call, I answered it. Unfortunately it was not a job-related call...but it concerned my health insurance company. This woman was calling me, to ask my permission if she could send me an email, where I would answer some questions and she could see if I could get cheaper health insurance! Now there's a first!! In the US, they may be polite in society in general, but when concerning money and big business, no one would ever ask for my permission *gasp* to send me an email! They'd spam me without asking or just continue to call me and bother me. Heck, I still get spam from GEICO and who knows what else... I thought that it was quite amazing to get such a call, especially here in Holland. Politeness? whaaaat?

So I asked, once again, just to make sure, "you're only calling to ask if you can send me an email? yeah sure, send me an email."

I still haven't gotten the email though, and I'm totally ok with that!