I used cash today. I was going to a theme park and I thought it would be a good idea to have some handy just in case.
I selected my items for payment just like normal. But instead of swiping my card and dutifully entering in my pin number, I handed over a nice crisp 10 dollar bill that printed out at Walmart when I purchased my ice chest.
At first the transaction went as I expected. The teller gave me a receipt, and then handed me back some bills for my change. I fully expected this and even had a spot reserved for them in my wallet where I stick old receipts and phone numbers or email addresses that got written on a post-it note for some reason.
But then she tried to give me a handful of various bits of metal in different colors. Some was shiny, a bit like chrome on your car's bumper, others were a dull brownish color like a drain or air conditioning tubing. My first reaction was to reject them, but she seemed determined to give them to me and expected that they were to be a part of the transaction. I was at a loss for a moment as to what to do. I didn't want these pieces of metal sliding around and out of my wallet. Then I adapted to the situation when it hit me. These metal bits would fit perfectly in the little pocket where I keep my guitar picks. I stuck them there and the teller looked like that was what she expected me to do.
Satisfied, I left the store. It was a bit odd, but I'm proud of the way I was able to interact with another culture like that.
