i'm sure i mentioned this before, but as my office building isn't really an office building, but a sub-section of a large apartment building, my elevator only extends to two floors - ours, and one that houses a foreign consulate. so 9 times out of 10, if i'm not in the elevator with a co-worker, i'm in there with someone relatively new to our country. (or someone wielding a backpack and an air of adventure, of whom i immediately am jealous of as i know they are getting a visa for an extended stay in the consulate's country, a country i so badly want to go to myself but can't due to my current self-imposed moratorium on exotic travel to pay off credit card bills and the fact that my father would have a panic attack if i got any closer to the middle east than greece, as he panicked enough when we went there).
although i'm typically one to avoid elevator small talk, i know how it feels to be a stranger in a strange land so i usually take off my headphones in case i'm asked for assistance. so this morning a couple came into the building as i was waiting, and looked at the directory. the husband then marched over to the elevator and pressed the down button. we have a garage down there, so i assumed that's where they were heading. the elevator comes and the couple steps in and as i don't have any desire to play the 'ride the elevator game', i let the doors close and figured i'd get in when it came back to get me in the lobby. a few minutes pass, doors open, and the couple is standing there looking confused, ready to exit. i motion to them to stay in the elevator, step in, and then usher them out when we reach their floor.
but the reason why i launch into this long tale - aren't arrows universal? i don't ever recall visiting a place where i couldn't understand general pictorial directions, so why did this man press the down button? of course i suppose he misunderstood the directory, and thought he had to go to a lower floor, but then this is where common sense should step in - why would you ever attempt to go down in a building you enter at ground level?
i only obsess over this since it took me about 12 minutes to take an elevator up two floors. of course i could take the stairs and save myself all this interaction with confused foreign elevator passengers, but then i wouldn't have any questions for you guys...
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not only that, but they had taken the elevator down one floor, then up one floor to the floor they had JUST come from, and STILL assumed they were where they needed to be.
the elevator needs fixing.
the elevator, or its passengers?
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