The chaotic line system
As you have probably guessed, waiting in long lines is part of Brazil's "charm". It seems that any time there is a line that should take 10 minutes, it turns into at least an hour. The banks here are only open from 11am until 4pm, and I have never seen so many people at a bank before in my life! There are rows and rows of chairs for you to wait, and you take a number, just as if you are waiting to have your license renewed or are waiting at the Embassy to receive a visa for your passport.
So at any rate, last Thursday, May 22 (another religious holiday:)) when we went to the shopping center to buy tickets for the theater festival which takes place in June, I was not surprised to see the line curving around every which way in no orderly fashion. And I expected to wait a while until we made it up to the ticket kiosks. However, after standing there for 30 minutes and not moving an inch, we decided to go and see if there was a special "priority" line that might be shorter. Of course there was such a line - for retirees, preganant women and handicapped people. But no one seemed to be checking any identification to verify this status, so we decided to wait there. Instead of the 150 people or so who were ahead of us for the "normal" queque, this line only had 5 or 6 people, so we figured maybe we could get through in 30 to 40 minutes. Wrong! It took close to 3 hours!
Why should it take this long? Well, every person in line had a list of one page or more of the performances they wanted to see. The computers being used looked about 20years old and they could only print the tickets ONE by ONE. So, even if you knew exactly what you wanted to buy, it took quite a while to print all of the tickets. Plus, between you and the seller was a full window of glass with only one tiny spot to speak through. The opening was fairly high, so you had to practically jump up every time you wanted to make your request. And with all the background noise it was incrediby difficult to hear each other. This was cause for much confusion, and in verifying the tickets once they were printed, more than one customer had to go back and make changes to their misunderstood orders, which added to the wait:)
There was no clear boundary or sign for our "priority" line either. You just had to know to go there. Luckily, the professor I was with always knows at least 3 or 4 people everywhere we go, so she had friends in this line:)
But the poor other students and people in the regular line who actually made it to the front and were able to get tickets, had been waiting for close to 7 hours! Finally, they started asking people to take a number, and once the numbers were gone you weren't allowed in line any longer. You had to come back the next day. I can only imagine the frustration of those that had been there since early morning and by 4:00pm were told they wouldn't get tickets that day!
Our line on the far left:)This system was insane! It would have been much easier if, first of all, people could buy the tickets online (which they were not able to do) and of course if they had workers going through the line, explaining which plays were sold out, etc. Also, in the U.S., there would never be a priority line without checking I.D. to make sure you belonged there. Athough this proved to be to our benefit here, it was still very comical to have a line that anybody from "5 hours" back could join without issue:)
My patience level overall doesn't seem to hold up to that of Brazilians. They take everything with a grain of salt, and good humour. People spent the time talking to those around them and sharing the coffee drink and snacks one person would go to buy:) And every time someone finally managed to purchase tickets and free up one more spot in line (usually in intervals of 30 minutes or so), the entire group would errupt into a cheering and clapping crowd!
Overall, it was quite funny and another great day of cultural experiences in Brazil. Hopefully, the plays will be worth the long wait:)
