Capsule of Absurdity No. 5

It's been a while since the last "Capsule of Absurdity". I knew that I couldn't leave Italy without a last absurd event. In fact, the last thing I did before coming to Portugal was sending a little box with books to my new department in Lisbon. So I went to the Italian post office, and asked about the expedition fees. The lady who was at the counter looked at her computer and asked me the basic information:

- What is the final destination of the box?

- Portugal, I replied.

Then she asked the absurd question:

- Is Portugal in the European Union?

- Of course!! ---I replied, probably with a very surprised face. (In Italian I said "Ma certo!", I wonder if that has to do with the lady's reaction.)

Then the lady looked at me in a terrible way, really really bad, like for 5 seconds. Then she looked again at the computer, and said to me:

- Non è detto...

which is a bit hard to translate, but in this context it could be interpreted as "you never know" or, better, as "you cannot take it for granted". In either case, I found it so incredibly absurd that an average person is not aware of the countries that are part of the European Union. I would have expected everyone to have some sort of "primitive geographical knowledge" such as "Rome is the capital of Italy", "Milan is north, Naples is south", or stuff like that. And then we are talking about an employee of the Italian post, someone a bit above the average (but not too much), in the sense that has a job that requires a bit of geographical knowledge (after all, you spend your days sending things around).

Finally, there is the thought that, from a very extreme point of view, I was the one who wasn't supposed to know that Portugal is indeed in the European Union (after all, I was the "foreigner"). In fact, a more realistic scenario would have been me asking that question and she replying "Ma certo!". Her terrible look at me would have been more than justified.