My recent trip to the doctor illustrates the concept of the cultural script.  I walk in a large room with no clue what to do first.  There is no one to direct me.  There is no 'pull a number' tab.  I see a sign that says 'registry' so I sit at the bank of chairs there.  Noticing I am the only one, and no one occupies the registry desk, I watch the door to see what the next person to walk in does.  Two young ladies come in and walk past the registry area and go to the 'evaluation' area and sit at the back of the bank of chairs.  I sit next to them and wait until someone comes out of the door of the office, a person gets up from a chair at the front and goes in and everyone gets up and shifts a seat closer to the lead seat.  This is as much fun as Six Flags!

As I am about 3 seats from the lead seat, a woman in a medical uniform comes out and hands me a thermometer without saying a word.  Not having noticed what those preceding me have done, I read the thermometer, see that it says 'oral thermometer' on it, so I put it under my tongue.  The collective gasp from everyone seated around me leads me to believe that this is the wrong choice, so I quickly pull it out and the medical uniform lady approaches saying 'Ao!' (an expression that sounds like 'ow' that indicates surprise) and the person seated next to me says in broken English 'in the armpit'.  Ew.  Thus duly corrected I continue to wait with the thermometer until at last I reach the lead seat and await my entry into the nirvana of thr triage station.  As the door opens and the patient walks out, the person seated on my side, aware that I am obviously clueless says in broken English 'get in'.

I get my temp and weight both in metric which is immensely helpful, at least bp readings are the same.  After some other info is exchanged I am told to go to room 2 around the corner.  I round the corner to find a mass of humanity and eventually find a door labelled door 2.  I attempt to go in but the door is locked and there is only a bolt for a 'handle'.  The crowd snickers and I go back to the triage to find out what is up and am led back to the mass of humanity which is actually a 'queue' (line) to get into door 2. 

So I repeat the chair shifting exercise until arriving at door 2 which turns out to be a nurse.  Apparently most people's issues need only the nurse but after we exchange info he decides I should see the doctor and so begins a queue for door three.  This queue is much shorter and it is not necessary to shift chairs because everyone knows where they stand.

Finally I reach the doctor, speak about the malady and am out in 10 minutes.  Efficient!  Finally I am sent to the revenue collection office where I am told that no one is authorized to collect revenue so I am sent on my way at no charge.

So to summarize:  parts of my experience left a bad taste in my mouth but in the end it was worth every penny. :)