"Hello! How are you today?" "Good! And how are you today?" "Good, thanks!"
It sounds like a ritual hearing it every day, everywhere. Not that they actually mean to ask you how are you. Just a phrase. Big a big artificial smile on their face. Because they are friendly. It's almost a dogma. I found it pretty confusing the first week I got here. In the store... what should I say? What to reply? I answered the question, actually, because I am used to react like that. "It has been better." The reaction was odd,in fact, but I didn't realize, because I was too occupied while figuring out what the hell to do with my debit card in order to pay. I think that if you don't answer "Good, thanks!" and say something else, the algorithm in their heads just freezes, leaving nothing but a plastic, unnatural yet polite smile on their face, ignoring your answer and every other attempt to communicate. Like some funny observation you would perhaps make at the cash, just to wrap the bitterness of the high prices in something to giggle about. No reaction. The trigger has not been recognized and therefore no reply is available.
I'd prefer a grumpy person at the cash, a question that needs an answer, a warm smile in the hall when you meet people in the morning, a simple hello without all that verbal rubbish without purpose. But I guess that's the way it is here. A smile, artificial friendliness and isolation. This is an individual world and nobody cares, if your day is not good. They just need to hear, that it's good. The rest is your problem. You're on your own.