Another cultural lesson

I dragged myself out of bed this morning to go swimming. At this point, after having lived here a full 5 years, you would think that nothing in the culture would "disturb" me anymore....well, I am having to relearn yet another cultural lesson which I've encountered many times, but this morning, it was very pronounced. In the locker room, there are about 12 different benches on which people can set their bags and change clothes, etc. After swimming, I fetched my bag from the small room where the "neni" (slang for woman, sort of) keeps an eye on everyone's belongings. I made my way to the bigger changing room and laid claim to the first bench, which was empty. I went in to take my shower, and when I came back and was drying off, a woman came in and proceeded to put her bag down on the bench right next to my stuff. Ok, fine, the bench is plenty big enough for two people; however, I looked up, and there were about 5 benches, completely free and unused by anyone. I shrugged it off, thinking, "well, she didn't want to walk any further than the first bench." So, she finishes changing to go swim, takes her bag to the "neni's" room, and I continue to get dressed. A moment later, another woman walks in....and where does she set her bag? You got it, on my bench.....by this time, there are 7 free benches in the room...."Why does this woman have to crowd my space? Why can't she find her own bench and BOTH of us will have plenty of room?" I kept these thoughts to myself. I went to blow dry my hair and when I returned to "my bench", that woman had left and ANOTHER woman had come in and, yep, she'd dropped her stuff on my bench!!! I looked across the room and counted: 8 FREE BENCHES!!!! It was at that moment that the cultural differences came crashing through....we Americans love and value our space. If this was a locker room in America, the first woman would have come in and at the very least would have put her bag on the second bench, near me, but not ON my bench. Most probably, she would have gone even further away, to give us each some space. Some Americans would even go to the furthest bench away. So here is my conclusion about Hungarians....under communism and socialism, they were taught to "fall in line". You don't "find your own personal space"; instead you go to the first space next to the person who is already there and "set up camp". I realized I'm still very American.......I wanted to be able to spread out....to have my own bench......anyway, there are plenty of other benches, and these other women could have plenty of space too. Rule 2 hit home once again: "It's not better, it's not worse, it's just different."