Hi, how are you?

Sydney is probably the most European city in Australia. A lot of things are a bit like the European way of life. Not everything though. For example the supermarkets here. Not the way that the supermarkets look, but the way one's being treated by the supermarket's employees. The first time I had to do some grocery shopping for my hostmum (I found everything after annoying too many employees by asking where I could find it) the whole thing took me about an hour. And then I went to the cash desk. The path for the trolley is really small, so I was kind of struggling with getting all the things out of the trolley onto the cash desk. And then I suddenly heard 'Hi, how are you?'. I can't exactly remember the way I replied, but I believe I didn't give a reply at all. Simply because I was amazed by the fact that they asked me how I was. So I just looked kind of amazed and started packing my groceries. Or, at least I was planning to start packing the groceries. Until I discovered that the cashier was already putting my groceries in bags. So, once again, I just kind of stood there, looking at what was going on, feeling a bit uncomfortable because I didn't have anything to do and the cashier did five things at the same time; scanning the products, getting a bag, putting the stuff in the bag, sorting the bags into a dairy-one, a meat-and-chicken-one and several other kind of bags and giving the bag to me. The only thing I had to do was putting the bags in my trolley. Which was quite difficult by the way, because of the small path.

The next time I went to the supermarket I still didn't really know what to answer on the 'Hi, how are you?'-question. But at least I didn't just stand there and look overwhelmed. This time I said something like; 'Hi, I'm fine, thanks, how are you?', expecting to get a reply. Which I didn't get. I found it a bit weird, first they were being excessively polite by asking me how I was, the next moment they would just ignore me and focus on the groceries like it was the most important thing in the world. So I just watched the groceries being packed again, put the bags in my trolley, paid and walked away, still wondering what I should answer on that weird question.

I've been trying different answers over the last few months now, such as 'Fine, thanks', 'How are you?' and 'Hi'. I've also been thinking of just telling them how I really feel, because I've learned here that being open and honest is important. But after giving that a bit of thought, I figured that the situation would then probably be as following: 'Hi, how are you?' 'Well, today I'm not very good actually, but thanks for asking anyway, would you like to hear why I don't feel really good?'. After having said that, they would probably ignore me as usually, focussing on the groceries as always. Which would make me feel really awkard. Not such a good idea.

Now, the problem is that this question is not just around in the supermarket. This question is pretty much everywhere. Every morning my hostdad asks me 'Hi, how are you?' and after 4 months I don't even bother answering anymore, because I know he's not honestly interested. He's just being polite. Either I could be polite as well and say 'Good, thanks, how are you?', but first of all, I know that he won't answer it and second, I feel to much at home now to be so polite.

Next time I'll just be the first one to ask 'Hi, how are you?'. Then I won't feel like a complete tourist and the one I'm asking it to has to deal with the weirdness of not being able to answer it. Problem solved!