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Culture shock

siddhesh.substack.com

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Re: Culture shock

#61

Post by genocidicbunny »

astura wrote: post #54

Lots of people don't like carpeting but I prefer it in the living areas. Benefits: Provides dampening of sounds Not freezing cold on my feet Comfy, welcoming and homely feeling (subjective) Spills are very rare and permanent damage can, in most cases, be avoided by cleaning the mess properly right away. Carpeting should be shampooed once in a while too. Carpeting does not last forever, however. I can't stand carpetin…

In a lot of counties, the building codes mandate a certain amount of carpet coverage in units that have downstairs neighbors. Where I live upstairs units frequently can only have hard flooring in the bathroom, entryway and kitchen.

And its amazing what an annual steam clean can do for keeping the carpet maintained.

Re: Culture shock

#62

Post by LegitShady »

the_af wrote: post #44

Is the car respecting pedestrians a thing everywhere in the US, or just where this person has been? My very limited experience in the US (NYC, San Diego and Miami) has been hit or miss regarding traffic, and I wouldn't trust drivers to stop. I know the story in some European cities is different. I was impressed in London, and a Belgian friend of mine often crossed the streets of Brussels without stopping to look at t…

The traffic thing is night and day different from india. Go look up youtube videos of crazy india car traffic. It seems like nobody follows any rules of traffic there - if there's room to fit their car they just go.

The rudest american driver is friendly and accommodating by comparison.

Re: Culture shock

#63

Post by paleotrope »

SmartestUnknown wrote: post #52

As an Indian who recently moved to the US, this list captures a lot of things that surprised me. One of the biggest things I was shocked by is the number of choices in US supermarkets - 100s of varieties of chips, 4-5 different sizes of eggs along with a choice of white/brown/cage-free/organic, 4 types of milk (skim/1%/2%/whole), 10s of types of bread etc. Back in India, we have considerably fewer choices in each of…

4 types of milk sounds quaint considering the number of nut milks available. There's got to be at least 15 types of milk now at my discount grocery.

Besides the aforementioned cow milk products, we have soy milk, almond milk, oat milk, coconut milk, all variously flavored and of different fat levels.

Kind of absurd in alot of ways.

Re: Culture shock

#64

Post by felipemnoa »

kodah wrote: post #4

> Sugar here is powdered, it doesn’t come in tiny cubes like I’m used to. It’s very easy to confuse salt and sugar (as I have done) because they look exactly the same. Made me snort. I grew up here and I've still mindlessly done this. > There’s no kiraana stores (i.e. small local stores) that sell grains and rice and vegetables here, it seems. (Or small stationery shops, or shops of any kind.) Almost all shopping has…

> There’s no kiraana stores (i.e. small local stores) that >>sell grains and rice and vegetables here, it seems. (Or >>small stationery shops, or shops of any kind.) Almost all >>shopping has to be done at a big chain retail store like >>Lidl or Megamart or Target or any of the other big-names.

>>There are, just not in big coastal cities.

As another commenter mentioned here, these types of store are actually very common in NYC.

Re: Culture shock

#65

Post by gabythenerd »

senectus1 wrote: post #23

I recently (oh crap it was over 2 years ago!), had a work trip through Argentina and Ecuador. Argentina was the biggest shock for me as an Australian: They dont do sugar in cafe's they do artificial sweeteners, and on top of that they dont do them in 1 tsp measures but 2 tsp measures. They have LOTS of chocolates shops. They really like Beef and sushi Their restaurants don't start opening up until 9 or 10pm Their pol…

Have lived in Argentina for a few years now and I am still not used to having dinner so late, it's dinner at 6 pm or nothing for me.

Re: Culture shock

#66

Post by latchkey »

Gracana wrote: post #57
latchkey wrote: post #31

> No toilet jet sprays too, because Americans famously use toilet paper for poop stuff. But my roommate installed one even though it’s not allowed. Don’t tell our landlord. The infamous "bum gun" in SE Asia. That's because USA people believe that if they got poop on their hands, wiping it with only paper would clean it off. Why do you bring up hands?! Well, that is what is left on your ass when you wipe it with paper…

Man, I'd be more skeeved out by the post-rinse ring-drying towel than the idea that somebody only wiped their ass with TP. If I can't smell it, you can't smell it, and I use my hands rather than my asshole to touch and grasp objects in my environment, what's the big deal?

You're used to getting up and knowing there is still poop there. When you wash with water, it cleans it all off far better than smearing it around with paper. Use your hand and some soap if it makes you feel better. I assume you do that in the shower anyway, otherwise, ewww...

The towel is cleaner than your skid-marked underwear, toss it into the laundry if you think it is still dirty. Heck use old underwear as rags...

I hope you wash your hands before you leave the bathroom. Double ewwww...

There is even a whole wikipedia about the topic:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anal_hygiene

Re: Culture shock

#67

Post by karaterobot »

Fun article, but one thing to note is that taking a single sample at a grad school in Washington, D.C. won't give you a reliable model about the entire country. I don't think that's true anywhere in the world, especially not in a big, diverse country like the U.S.

Re: Culture shock

#68

Post by stavros »

Oh man, you can replace "India" with "Greece" here and I wouldn't bat an eye. I was surprised at how all these differences are the same for us as well.

Re: Culture shock

#69

Post by BugWatch »

the_af wrote: post #44

Is the car respecting pedestrians a thing everywhere in the US, or just where this person has been? My very limited experience in the US (NYC, San Diego and Miami) has been hit or miss regarding traffic, and I wouldn't trust drivers to stop. I know the story in some European cities is different. I was impressed in London, and a Belgian friend of mine often crossed the streets of Brussels without stopping to look at t…

TMK, (fineable) jaywalking generally isn't a thing in Europe, only in USA (due to car manufacturing industry's meddling and lobbying, of course, making the cars first class citizens). One EU country's example: it's perfectly legal to cross any street/road if there is no marked pedestrian crossing within circa 50 meters, with usual common sense requirement of demonstrating one's intention of doing so to the oncoming traffic. Drivers are obligated by law to stop/slow down, and let them pass.

Re: Culture shock

#70

Post by fellellor »

ameen wrote: post #24
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's a couple of things in there that are just correlated to the fact that the author is around young/wealthy people, like the low obesity rate, fancy cars, shirtless dudes, book-reading in public. I mean, he was on a university campus, so fit young people reading books isn't that much of a surprise. But I agree with you, US is a nation of extremes in some ways. There are places I've been in the US where quite l…

As an Indian in the states - my observation was that obesity in the US seems like a class issue. Most well-off folks are fit and working out is woven into their lifestyles. Others can't as they're probably working 2-3 jobs to make ends meet.

Are there no wealthy people, over there, who just don’t want to work out?
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