Learn Spanish and a New Way of Living (part II)

The Queues (Lack of)
Now this does annoy me. I started to learn Spanish in Ecuador with other Brits and we probably made a hilarious sight for the locals as we formed perfectly straight queues everywhere we went. I can honestly say that in over 4 years here I have never seen a single South American queue worth its salt. Go to the bank, go to a shop or go to the bus station and you will see people mill around aimlessly. Once the person serving the public is free an unholy free for all will develop. Why? Isn’t it just easier to form a nice queue? Once you learn Spanish on a vernacular level you will come across the word “vivo”. To be “vivo” is to jump the queue, to get something you don’t deserve or to score a goal at football with your hand. I am not yet “vivo” as everyone nips in front of me at the shops, but maybe one day I will be.
The Traffic
I drove in the UK for over 10 years and never once used my horn. I didn’t even how to work it to be honest. In South America I had to learn honking techniques from scratch as well as learn Spanish words. If you are in a line of cars at a traffic light and it changes to green you get roughly 1/1000th of a second to react or honking hell will break loose. Yet these people who are so apparently desperate to get moving are probably the same ones who arranged to meet you somewhere about 4 hours ago. Why are they in such a hurry now?