The Meeting

So yesterday at 10 AM we were excitedly anticipating the arrival of the water cooler lady for our meeting, but she wasn't exactly on time. Around 10 minutes past 10, the phone rang and a slightly impatient water cooler lady asked me if I remembered that we had a meeting scheduled for 10 AM. I said that of course I did remember and she (whining just a little bit) told me that she was at my door and had knocked twice, but I did not answer. I told her she must be at the wrong door because I was also at my door and she was not there. Once we straightened out the issue of her being at a number that sounds nothing like the number of our house, she arrived, giant notebook in hand, for the meeting.
I showed her to the living room and offered her a drink. She accepted and requested coffee so I made her a cup. (I had not even had a moment to make my own cup because I had spent the morning dressing and feeding children and getting one child off on a play date---I'm not bitter though). She didn't really even drink the coffee and proceeded to make small talk for a while. She talked about the two children who were home. The big brother wasn't under strict instructions to keep the baby sister happy and entertained during "the meeting". He was doing his best, but little sisters aren't always that cooperative. After she complimented my children--including one moment where she told me that Sarah reminded her of herself as a small child (the woman has blond hair and blue eyes, but whatever)--she finally began to get down to business. She talked about the water a LOT (we have been using it for 2 years--SOLD) and then went on to describe the latest water cooler "fashions" (which she pronounced face shuns--I'm assuming she was going for the word model) and told me that it doesn't matter which one I choose because they are all the same price. I was growing very skeptical at this point that we would be able to afford any of these "fashions".
After a lot of talking both about water and the world, she finally showed me some prices that she had "discussed with her boss just for me". Hmmmmm...I'm wondering what prices the person would have gotten at that other house number down the street. The prices were outrageous and I wasn't the least bit surprised. There was a ton of miscommunication and I still don't really know if it is possible to rent from them or not. I do know we can buy one and they have new ones and they have used ones. As with many things here, they seem to have monopolized water cooler sales in this area. It was very difficult to make her understand that we did not buy our original cooler from their company and I am still not sure that she got that.
They do sell used water coolers for less (but still a lot more than we paid for our used one) and at this point we are thinking we'll take one. There is still much confusion in this process. She promised a follow-up e-mail and as of today there has not been one. There was a follow-up phone call yesterday afternoon confirming the delivery on Friday, but I am confused because I thought we would have the e-mail first in order to sign the agreement. It probably doesn't matter because whatever we sign (as with our lease/insurance/bank) will not be in English...
Ah, the joy of not speaking the right language.
So, voila. The water cooler lady was very, very nice. She even said she would love to babysit for my "wonderful" children and that she would love to teach them ballet some time. I also learned that on Friday she will start taking salsa lessons and was a ballet dancer until she was 23 years old. She was also born in 1974 and has no children, but would like to have some "just like mine" some day. Right. She is a salesperson after all. The meeting lasted over an hour and she never did seem in a hurry to be any other place. She also did not seem to get hints that I might like to or need to do something else. Of all mornings for the sun to shine, it would be the time she was here and when I did mention that when the sun is shining we like to get out. She said, "Oh, like today?" and then went on with her dissertation on how amazing their bottled water is. There was never a feel of the very American, "I won't take up too much of your time", but I found myself less annoyed by that than I would have been 2 years ago. At least she wasn't impatient with the fact that I do have kids, one of whom constantly interrupted the "meeting". She asked me at one time if Sarah was speaking Chinese. Even Nathan laughed out loud about that one. She also asked me very seriously what Sarah meant by "A guy!" which sort of sounded like whatever Sarah was repeating over and over during the meeting. I explained that some times we don't understand her and we just pretend that we do...kind of the way I go through life in Belgium--but I didn't say that part out loud.