Saturday, July 18, 2015

Some things that I found strange when I first came here


This is a post that has been in draft folder for a long time, I captured some part of it in 2013 year end and wanted to put it up when I complete an year in US  ... that day came and went multiple times , so better late than never ....

The basic thought for this came to me a few years back while chatting with friends and some ex-colleagues back in India who were curious about how I was finding the American life and how different was it .Though I had a fair idea of what to expect given the fact that majority of my college mates lived in US and I had a sister and a couple of cousins over here there are many things seemingly obvious things which I found odd when I first came. These are just some random first impressions about life here and things which I didnt know  despite being fed a steady diet of movies, TV shows and updates from relatives about life in US

These were 'strange' to me based on my then sense of 'normal' which was formed based on life in India with occasional stints in other parts of Asia and this in no way a discussion of whether it is good or bad and attempt to pass any judgement

1. Its all very big

I had heard people here are big and sort of figured big roads and wide spaces but seeing it in person was a different experience altogether. Even the trees were really big and extremely tall and huge atleast in pacific Northwest region. When I went to grocery stores I could see that the big concept applied over there as well. People bought things in huge quantities because of how it is priced. The family sizes were also big , the cars were usually very big and coffee cup sizes, ice-cream sizes were all really big

2. Sun sets so late in summer

Sunset is very late in summer as late at 8-8:30 pm for most of April to August
I just didnt have a clue about this at all until I came here and it was really weird at first as we are just not used to seeing so much sunlight after 7 pm

Initially seeing warm sunshine outside as I got home somehow made me very happy as our lifestyle in Indian IT cos made sure we always got home much after sunset. In India those rare occassions when I could get back home before it became dark were much cherished, so to be able to do that daily with ease was something I enjoyed. Then winter came and took the sun away but topic is for another day

3. The big wide roads with streamlined traffic ( for most part!) ... shouldn't have been such a major surprise but travelling in the Highway ( also called Freeway) at 65 Mph with defined speed limits which everyone adhered to ( more or less) and with clear defined exit lanes and entry was a source of wonder for me. Not that I had not seen good roads before or seen people follow rules but just seeing that these things were so common and just seeing it all work was amazing the first time.It was strange to realize you just have to drive and you don't need to anticipate if what the guy in next lane might do as everyone follows rules. Also the presence of  separate dedicated HOV ( high occupancy vehicle) lane was a surprise these lanes were present on all major highways within metro area .Each revelation about this concept just added one more level of surprise, I next found out  having 2 ppl (yeah  just 2) meant High occupancy but biggest or strangest one was noticing how empty that lane actually was! That was a quick intro lesson into American  way of living

4. Total absence of Cash in all transactions

More to do with city living where you buy things from major grocery chains and stores or online there is absolutely no need to have physical cash at all. I think for a long time I didnt have a single dollar note in my wallet and unless I was going on a trip or going to places like farmers market I never had to use cash

In India having the ATM of your bank nearby was one of the points I considered while doing apartment hunting and it was surprise to find that cash was just not needed at all. I think I did withdraw couple of hundred dollars initially more out of force of habit of needing some cash in wallet for any emergency but found that the cash lasted me a long long time

5. Checking vs Saving account

It strange to me to find that everyone preferred 'Checking' account with zero percent interest in it but the first visit to bank helped understand it even better. The banker was trying to convince me to open a savings account and it all went fine until he mentioned that interest was 0.03% !!!
Now wonder people purchase things like crazy and live on credit

6.Small talk / idle chit chat

Total strangers you walk past, will greet you and say Hi , 'Good morning'or ask 'how is it going' or something like that and just expect another greeting or nod back thats all ... it took my a while to adjust and take it in and nod back or give some greeting back. They were just being polite but that was something I found strange and slightly creepy at first.
Another place was at billing counter of any shop, the sales clerk will not just ask you if you found everything alright but will also make some polite conversation. At first most often I would just not reply properly and mumble something  because I just did not expect that conversation at all mind would have switched off ready to just swipe the card and be done with it. Also noticed that often at work as well and almost always the person has no interest in how you are doing but just wants to ask something but that's just the way the conversation is started.

7. People being extremely courteous

Again might be just something I saw in pacific north west area and I'm generalizing of course but overall people are very polite both and readily help out. That habit of saying 'Thank you' and keeping the door open for the next person were things we all knew were good to do but I never practiced consistently it until I came here. Another place where I noticed the politeness was while driving. In India we end up driving crazily and it was always a stressful experience where I would be honking like crazy and cursing frequently as I drove. But over here it was totally different experience ( talking only about non-peak time driving in non-downtown areas ) and on the road people were very courteous and while trying to enter a road even if you didn't have right of way invariably someone would stop their car and let you enter the road totally out of courtesy which I found it very hard to believe

PS : I have honked a total of 2 times in last 2.3 years of car driving.

8. Silence

Last but not the least ... total silence ... strange as it may sound I dont remember hearing such total silence ever before. At night there is just no sound absolutely nothing at all in suburban apartments. It took a while to get used it as there is usually some sound or other that you can hear in Indian cities. When my wife joined me in US she found it very strange and we got a pedestal fan which we used only to get some sound in room as it was too quiet!

Ok there are many others like how people follow sports, the amount of time and money spent on pets and several others but just these were the ones in my original list from few years back and since these were the first impressions I leave it at that.