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Culture shock

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Re: Culture shock

#131

Post by birksherty »

screye wrote: post #102

> police lights are bright Completely agree. U.S. police lights are actively disorienting. loud sirens and the lights make me feel a high degree of anxiety each time I see/hear them. > Most cars will immediately stop if they see you’re about to cross the street. It takes some getting used to at first. Pedestrians are given first priority, a concept alien in India. Disagree. Indian cities are a lot more pedestrian fri…

> Disagree

I disagree with you. In India nobody respects walking people. They will honk multiple times, get angry if anyone walking blocks their road. Basically people in car feels they own the road in India and walking people are lower class obstacles. It made me hate walking in cities. Yes, there are footpaths where people walk all the time, but Indian people also ride motorcycles there in traffic jams. Multiple times they came close to hit me. It's total chaos in India.

Re: Culture shock

#132

Post by watwut »

jlawson wrote: post #106
fellellor wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Not being obese has basically nothing to do with "working out". It's all about diet. Nobody worked out before 1960 and nobody was fat (and lots of people were poor). Nobody in India is fat and nobody work out and they're largely poor. To your question - Lots of them. I'm (relatively) wealthy and I don't want to diet. But I do it anyway because it's worth the short-term suffering for the long-term gain. It's a super o…

This is not really true. The amount of physical activity you do absolutely influences both your shape and your health.

Also, we do have more sedentary lifestyles then typical 1960 person. Just in terms of how much you walk during the day, we are already not moving.

Re: Culture shock

#133

Post by sixstringtheory »

kodah wrote: post #37
NikolaeVarius wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are, just not in big coastal cities. I'm biased, but I generally tell people that big coastal cities are not a proper representation of American cultures vastness. They provide a boxed and abridged experience of a very opinionated nature. Instead, traverse the states and see what each geography has to offer. You'll find those things are still alive in the Midwest and South. I find this literally to be the exa…

> Driving to the south and midwest, I mostly just saw immensely massive parking lots for Walmart, Dollar Generals, some liquor store, and other big box markets. If you're just driving through, as you stated, and never actually stopped or lived in any of these towns then I'm not surprised you have that impression. What OP was mentioning is this: > There’s no kiraana stores (i.e. small local stores) that sell grains an…

> farmers market which there's an abundance of in rural areas. You're not going to find that that in a big city

I lived in Boston for a couple years and went to Haymarket [0] all the time next to the amazing Boston Public Market. There are a bunch of smaller produce stands and specialty shops throughout the city like Deluca's. I am sad to see, however, that Russo's in Watertown has just closed. Elmendorf Baking Supplies in Cambridge looks awesome and I'm sad I left before they opened.

If ya just want a big bag of rice, Super 88 has a great market in addition to all the great food stalls. See also Little India next to Market Basket in Somerville.

You want stationary? Check out Loyal Supply Company in Somerville.

I've been able to locate similar places in every city I've lived in, with the exception of feed stores (although my current city has one, and I just never really looked for one). I'm curious what city you're in, maybe I had it even better in Boston than I already thought. I'm sure the last two years have not been good for discovering new farmers markets in large cities, though.

Check into CSAs too, esp. if you can't find or attend a farmers market. I'm sure that model is branching out from beyond just produce, too. We have a mushroom grower and dairy creamery where I'm at these days.

As someone who escaped suburbia for the city and later countryside, my experience reflects that of the poster you replied to. Big box strip mall chain complexes are found in the burbs.

[0]: http://www.haymarketboston.org/

Re: Culture shock

#134

Post by nomad225 »

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…

Also Indian here. If the OP is used to cubes of sugar, he’s probably quite wealthy in India. Indian middle class consumers usually use granulated sugar as the cubes are more expensive, and middle class Indian consumers are usually quite price sensitive.

Re: Culture shock

#135

Post by juancampa »

codesections wrote: post #101

> I've yet to see a single thing here that is physically smaller than its version in India. Statues sure are. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_statues

Woah, the tallest one looks incredible, but danm

> US$422 million

Re: Culture shock

#136

Post by kodah »

sixstringtheory wrote: post #133
kodah wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Driving to the south and midwest, I mostly just saw immensely massive parking lots for Walmart, Dollar Generals, some liquor store, and other big box markets. If you're just driving through, as you stated, and never actually stopped or lived in any of these towns then I'm not surprised you have that impression. What OP was mentioning is this: > There’s no kiraana stores (i.e. small local stores) that sell grains an…

> farmers market which there's an abundance of in rural areas. You're not going to find that that in a big city I lived in Boston for a couple years and went to Haymarket [0] all the time next to the amazing Boston Public Market. There are a bunch of smaller produce stands and specialty shops throughout the city like Deluca's. I am sad to see, however, that Russo's in Watertown has just closed. Elmendorf Baking Suppl…

Yeah, numerous commenters from the North East came to point out how wrong I was about their town. I wasn't talking about visiting the burbs, and neither were they but I agree, there are a lot more big box stores in large suburbs.

What I was really getting at is if they're missing small mom and pop stores, that's most of what the town I grew up in had (specifically in the South, but the Midwest isn't that much different.) I was encouraging them to get out of the city and see the rest of America. Living in big American cities has been a bit soul-sucking for me and not at all reflective of the rest of America, but obviously there's a lot of pride that some people hold for them.

Re: Culture shock

#137

Post by ajuc »

birksherty wrote: post #110
ameen wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's not work out or time but diet that makes people obese. They probably eat fast food, sugary drinks, packaged food a lot everyday instead of unprocessed food like meat, veg, fruits, nuts. Edit: Poor people in India are thin and rich are fat, quite opposite, again due to diet. Indian poor can't afford fast food in chain restaurants daily, must cook which is cheaper.

Wealth is relative. Yes you can be so poor that you can't afford enough calories to become obese. It's rare in the developed world.

But you can also be so poor that you can afford calories, alcohol and little more as an entertainment. It's easy to get obese then.

Re: Culture shock

#138

Post by madmax108 »

"I don’t know how many people will agree, but striking up a conversation with an American stranger is much easier than it is with an Indian stranger."

LOL, as an Indian, I relate to this so much. In India, if a stranger walks up to you, nearly 8/10 times it's either to ask you for money, directions, or to scam you. So naturally over time, you develop a thick skin to avoid strangers or keep interactions with strangers as "transactional" as possible.

In the US on the other hand, there's a lot more of the "a stranger is a friend you just haven't met yet" attitude in the air, so people are much more open to interacting with people they don't know.

The first month in the US, every time some stranger waved hello or good morning when I was walking from my hotel to the office or back, I clutched my bag a bit tighter ;-)

Re: Culture shock

#139

Post by eitland »

Norwegian here. I spent 6 work weeks in Canada and USA setting up machines and training operators around 2011. My observations:

- huge meals. And "all you can eat" seems to mean exactly that. I didn't test though but remember waiters were eager to refill.

- North Americans seems friendly to me. I was even invited over to dinner by a plant manager.

- Talking to someone who was super-happy working 180% in three jobs because it allowed her to send all her three sons to college and because three jobs were less boring than one made me decide to never ever complain about Norway again. (Education including higher education is almost free here.)

- Same goes for seeing more than one person working what is well paid industry jobs in Norway visibly lacking front teeth (when it is that visible I guess it must be they cannot afford to fix it.)

Re: Culture shock

#140

Post by novok »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #27

I worked at a multi-national company that frequently flew people to the United States HQ offices for short visits or sometimes longer stays. For many of the younger developers this was their first direct exposure to the United States. Interestingly, most of them had built up a lot of preconceived notions about the United States from social media sites like Reddit. Many of those sites project an extremely pessimistic…

One thing about america is that america loves criticizing itself, or at least parts of itself endlessly. Stating your political opinion is an american pass time.
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