First visit to the USA

“Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before”, Dalai Lama. For the last 2 years I seem to be following the advice of the wise man. Last year we visited Hong Kong for the first time. Hong Kong felt like a combination of shades of China and Singapore. In any case, the Communist Party would claim its not really a separate country. So for me, the trip to the US marked a visit to a new country for the first time in a long time. 

Looking at a country through the eyes of someone who has never been there before, you notice things that residents treat as "commonplace". There were some things that were “different” in the US. For instance, all doors open outwards i.e towards the street while in the rest of the world they either open inwards or in both directions. I was told this is for ease of evacuation in the case of an emergency. The logic makes sense and I wonder why the rest of the world is different. 

Over the course of the 10 odd days I was in the US, I noticed some distinctly American characteristics

1.       The transportation is different – The first evening in Napa I spent a good 5 minutes wondering why cars were coming at me from the opposite direction till it struck me that it is a country that drives on the right hand side. The following weekend when walking on The High Line in New York with Craig and Marie, I kept getting bumped into. That's when I realized that Americans drive on the right but walk on the left!!!!

View from The High Line

The weekend I was in New York, I did the touristy thing of walking along the 42^nd street in New York, taking in the sights as I crossed the endless number of avenues. At the first traffic light, despite my “Indianness”, I waited for a green light patiently but it did not come up. Instead I found people walking across. When this happened for a second time, I started wondering whether following traffic rules is restricted to the other English speaking country (the UK). Finally, I figured out that in the US, the sign for the pedestrians to cross is a WHITE MAN not a green light or a man in green like the rest of the world. I have no idea why and none of the Americans I asked could explain. 

Don't wait for the Green light - Go when you see the man

For my weekend in New York, I equipped myself with a metro card and my first stop was the 42^nd street station. Once I reached the street I realized I had not swiped out and assumed it will cost me the maximum fare. I was sure this would kill the value stored on my card. When I made the same “mistake” of not swiping out a second time, I felt really guilty. It was on my third train ride that I realized in the US you swipe in but not swipe out!!!!!

In the UK, people stand on the right on escalators and on the left in Singapore leaving the other side open to people wanting to walk up (or down) the escalator. In the US, people stood on either side. Infact, I concluded that people don't walk up or down an escalator in the US J.

Before this trip, my only experience of snow at airports was at Heathrow where a few centimetres of snow (possibly even millimetres) caused the airport to close for days on end. So when we landed at the Boston airport surrounded by several feet of snow, it was a new experience for me. At the Boston airport, I had another new experience – we were denied access to the lounge despite flying business class. Apparently, lounge access in the US is only for international business class passengers – not something I have come across anywhere else in the world. On the flight itself, the stewardess served pretzels after take-off – yes pretzels. I put it down to the fact that it was a late night flight but I was told by my American friends that it was the norm. A few days later, I managed access to the lounge at the Newark Airport since I was on an international sector. It was coming up to dinner time and having missed both breakfast and lunch, I was hungry. The only food that I found was ………you guessed right – pretzels. I was sure I was missing a counter so I asked and was assured that there were 3 varieties of pretzels and also banana’s !!!

The best thing about air travel in the US is the ability to use your mobile phones even during take off and landing. It is uniquely American and I wonder why all other countries are still reluctant to change their regulations. 

Offcourse, the traffic jams were no different from the rest of the world. I got the first taste of it driving from the San Francisco airport to Napa Valley. On a Friday evening on the George Washington Bridge made famous by Chris Christie, I experienced traffic that would compare with that of Jakarta or Mumbai J.

2.       Chatty service– The first evening in Napa I went to a small cafe called “World Food Cafe”. I was amazed at how chatty the waiters were. It was in sharp contrast to the treatment I have been meted out in some European countries. At first I thought it was because this was a “small” and seemingly run by a family of Turks. As the days rolled on, I realized that the service at restaurants was very good and all waiters were incredibly chatty.

During the wine tour of Napa, I ordered a starter and a main course for lunch and all I could eat was the starter. The portion sizes in restaurants are uniquely American and the only way to describe them is – they are MASSIVE. Infact, burgers of the size that you would find in the rest of the world are referred to as "sliders". The other thing that stood out was the notion of “refill” of the drink – you pay once and drink as much as you can or want (I suspect the need was much less).

I stopped at a Starbucks in New York to have a Chai Latte. I looked up at the menu board to figure out the price but saw two numbers. I initially put it down to the jet lag but soon realized that there were indeed two numbers – the price and the calorie count. Now that is something I have never seen at any Starbucks and am told it is common practice in restaurants in the US. The 290 calories associated with a medium sized Chai Latte made me think 3 times before ordering. The price was $3.99 so I took out 4 dollars only to be told that the cost is actually $4.23. That is when I realized that in America all prices mentioned are without taxes……that really does take “Bata pricing” to a new, and uniquely American, level.

The chatty service I soon realized was not confined to the realms of the restaurants but extended into all services including taxi services. I then realized that it was linked to the culture of tipping that is so ingrained in the service industry. I recall being told by Marie that New Yorkers on an average tip 20% to cabbies – uniquely American.

3.    TV – “If you suffer from Alzheimers ask your Doctor to prescribe to you Namenda xr……”. I have seen Over The Counter drugs being advertised on TV for diseases like a cold or a flu. The US is the only country where I saw prescription drugs for serious diseases being advertised on TV. I know there is an argument to be made for putting the choice in the hands of the consumer. I guess in order to help the consumer most of the ad is dedicated to disclaimers “…this could cause drowsiness, diarrhea, increased blood pressure, cancer………..”. Uniquely American.

Hotels never offer a decent range of TV channels and the US was no different on this count. So one evening, I found myself having to make do with listening to a panel discussion on a news channel. What struck me was that everyone was in violent agreement with each other. I switched channels and came to another news channel having a panel discussion, funnily on the same topic. Here again everyone was in violent agreement with each other but they were saying exactly the opposite of what was being said on the other channel. I know that in the UK your choice of newspaper is dictated by your political inclination and I guess in the US it includes TV too!!!!

4.    USA has variety – The thing that struck me the most is just how much variety the US has to offer. During a wine tour of the Napa valley I learnt that half of the world’s soil types are present in the Napa Valley. The valley is famous for wines but I would have never known that there are more  than 700 vineyards of which 450 have brick and mortar structures. I had the pleasure of touring three such vineyards and they were dramatically different from each other.

From the Hunter Vineyard in Napa Valley

The amount of variety available can be best gauged by a visit to the supermarket. I gave up on the beer aisle but ascribed it to the fact that I was a teetotaler. The next stop was the milk aisle where I gave up after finding whole fat free, 2% reduced fat, 1% low fat and half and half even before I had seen half the aisle. I thought that having worked in the laundry category for 9 years, that is something I would find easy to navigate but the number of variants of Tide made it impossible for me to figure out what I would buy, if I needed to.

Even in terms of weather, I saw warm sunny weather in San Francisco, freezing weather in Boston and a “balmy”, as per Marie and cold as per me, weather in New York within the same week.

Sunny Napa, Frozen Boston, Balmy New York in the same week

Offcourse, the fact that the US is a BIG country makes this variety possible. Infact, everything in the US is BIG – pick up trucks, meal portions, the bill boards at Times square, the wedding rings on the fingers of women….everything. So much so that when I went to Brooks Brothers to buy some shirts, I learnt that my size was ‘extra slim” which happens to be their smallest size. In most parts of the world I am either overweight or obese but in the US I am extra slim……..

The ONLY time I have been declared "extra slim"

It is not to say that there are no similarities between the US and the rest of the world. Two things that distinctly stood out for me

1.       Desi Diaspora – I got to celebrate holi with my friends from school – Amit, Kislaya and Sharad and some of their other friends. It was quite amazing that even with snow all around they had managed to celebrate holi, complete with malpua, mutton and offcourse bhang. It was great meeting Amit and Kislaya after 23 years (I had met Sharad in December after 23 years!!!!) and also make some new friends also from Patna. Amazing that at Sharad’s place in Glen Rock, I got to meet so many people from Patna who went onto IIT Kanpur.

Holi with friends at Glen Rock

2.       Contractors (and politicians) are the same around the world – wholly unreliable idiots – I know that contractors in India are impossible to deal with. They promise the earth and always over run on both time and cost and never deliver what was agreed upon. I know that the same situation holds in the UK having heard horror stories from Robert and Simon. I was surprised to hear from Amit and Priyamvada that the same is true in the US as well. I guess some characters don't change around the world. 

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions”, Oliver Wendell Holmes. Certainly, for me the visit to the US has helped me see things in parts of the world I am familiar with like India, Singapore and the UK in a new light. It was my first visit to the US but I am certain it will be the first of many, god willing.