Life in America

[J&N* 68]

This poll was inspired by a VJ member, KaiserD.

Is life in the US, what you thought it'd be? What were your first cultural shocks? Are you adjusting well?

Go nuts with answers!

Edited August 20, 2010 by Junita

[KaiserD 12]

This poll was inspired by a VJ member, KaiserD.

Is life in the US, what you thought it'd be? What were your first cultural shocks? Are you adjusting well?

Go nuts with answers!

Well like everything there are good things and bad things.

I did not understand a lot of the finer things about this particular part of American life before actually moving here.

It is taking me forever to learn how to drive, mostly because of my own lack of confidence. I want to be sure I can do everything perfectly because there are too many people in this state who can't drive *at all* and if my child is in the back I have to be as competent behind the wheel as possible. Anyway besides that I never imagined life would be SO secluded, my loved ones feel this neighbourhood isn't safe enough to just go walking about, if I went on my own to catch a bus somewhere my mother in law would probably lock me inside my own house

So 3 years mostly by myself is really, really lonely. More so than when I lived in a village in the middle of nowhere, strangely.

I absolutely detest peoples "I have what I need, who gives a ###### about you and yours" attitude. America feels like survival of the fittest and even though I have health insurance and some savings I worry about my family's health ALL the damn time. Worrying or hoping that bad luck doesn't befall you because it could make you bankrupt is NO way to live.

Many peoples attitudes are the complete opposite to how I was raised and I still (and I think always will) have a hard time coming to terms with that. I feel so grateful that I was raised in a way that as long as I didn't hurt anyone they would accept me for whoever I was. Here they are happy to outcast you or openly criticize you if you don't fit the image. I feel sorry for anyone who lives in this state who is gay.

I feel that a lot of my negative experiences come down to living in Georgia, if we were in a different state I think that I might feel very differently, but my son loves his grandparents and it would be wrong to separate them. If we were to move though the first thing I would look at was quality of schools because these are terrible and not that long ago got in trouble for fiddling scores and such. I would also like to move to a more mixed area for my son to feel more comfortable and learn about other people.

Sorry I didn't mean to come off sounding so negative

[NotworkSte 19]

I didn't *want* to come here per se. In fact we nearly ended up living in the UK, but when it came to sort out the small details, it made more sense for me to move.

Settling in has been easy. I've been to the US a lot of times and worked with a large MNC for the last 10 years so settling into the work routine was less of a shock for me than for some.

Some stuff is much better, some stuff is much worse. But by and large I just get by day by day :-) I found getting a job fairly easy (for a number of reasons) so that was a huge weight off my mind. Until I actually got a job though, it was always a worry. For every idiot out there, there's a *lot* of really nice genuine people here as well.

I'd say I am very happy, as I expected to be. I never had this rose tinted place of the US to be disappointed with with the down sides.

[TBoneTX 45,308]

I answered "neither better nor worse" because I'm a USC & America IS home, si man.

[^_^ 5,021]

I answered for my wife. She thinks life here is harder than it is in India (where she grew up) and harder than it is in Canada (where she went to college). She wants us to move to the Toronto area.

Edited August 20, 2010 by Legacy member

[Ontarkie 14,227]

Not better or worse

I said that because there's alot of things that balance out. Like here(Arkansas) I like the weather better, although I do miss the snow. Now my kids hate that there's no snow except last winter we actually got a decent amount they made snow men, and it wasn't just a dusting. I like the access to all the doctors here. We are smack dab in the center of it all unlike back in Canada where we lived we didn't have all the specialist minutes away. I hate how they over charge on medication, how we have to pay through the nose to see a doctor. We are a family of 6 so doctors and meds add up, 3 of us have asthma the oldest has psoriasis, so we see alot of doctors.

I also have issues with the school system here so I home school, oldest just started college. I love how he didn't have to go out of town to take Biology, which he would of had to do if we stayed in Canada. I don't like how the government seems to keep shoving race into everything. I haven't really seen any southern hospitality here, but I'm told its more do to where we live and if we where in one of the small towns alot of things would be different. I find alot ppl here to be very rude. Its all about them and they are better then you attitude. I love the dollar movies he he, and 24 hours Walmart, and Kroger open till 12am i think it is. We have way more stores here that I love, unlike back home but I do miss Canadian tire.

The only other big thing I miss is the lakes, we lived in a area that I could get to lakes within minutes of walking out my door. We had ton of beaches unlike here.

Ok probably veered off a bit but you get it

[Ladylethal 12]

I answered harder (am in PR though), based both on life here and when I was an exchange student in AZ, but my answer is based simply on my personal experience, meaning my lifestyle and quality in general went down (as I knew it would) as I moved out of a very comfortable house in a country where maids are common among middle class so I had breakfast served, lunch served, laundry done, etc., to a very small and badly maintained rental apartment; from the position of being a student to an unemployed foreigner; from having all bills paid for by my parents (funny enough, although money was never an issue I was never spoiled in the attitude, personality sense of the word) to a very tight budget hard earned by my husband.

Do I regret it? Never!

[trillium13 84]

I can't help but notice that a couple of people have commented on people's attitudes in southern states. I'm the USC, but I too have experienced the "f**k everyone but me" attitude that so many southerners seem to have. I'm a Yankee by birth, but have been living in Texas for the past 2 years. Many people treat me as an outsider, and my husband? Forget it. As soon as he starts talking (with German accent) they pretty much tune him out. They are plain freaking rude.

Just thought I would put that out there. It's not just you.

I do have to put in a plug for TBone though, he's the nicest Texan I know, si man.

[TBoneTX 45,308]

I do have to put in a plug for TBone though, he's the nicest Texan I know, si man.

Wail, thank yew, li'l darlin', si man. I meant to say earlier that the U.S. is better than almost anyplace else because the U.S. has Canandaigua in it, si man.

[Dave and Helena 0]

Well like everything there are good things and bad things.

I did not understand a lot of the finer things about this particular part of American life before actually moving here.

It is taking me forever to learn how to drive, mostly because of my own lack of confidence. I want to be sure I can do everything perfectly because there are too many people in this state who can't drive *at all* and if my child is in the back I have to be as competent behind the wheel as possible. Anyway besides that I never imagined life would be SO secluded, my loved ones feel this neighbourhood isn't safe enough to just go walking about, if I went on my own to catch a bus somewhere my mother in law would probably lock me inside my own house

So 3 years mostly by myself is really, really lonely. More so than when I lived in a village in the middle of nowhere, strangely.

I absolutely detest peoples "I have what I need, who gives a ###### about you and yours" attitude. America feels like survival of the fittest and even though I have health insurance and some savings I worry about my family's health ALL the damn time. Worrying or hoping that bad luck doesn't befall you because it could make you bankrupt is NO way to live.

Many peoples attitudes are the complete opposite to how I was raised and I still (and I think always will) have a hard time coming to terms with that. I feel so grateful that I was raised in a way that as long as I didn't hurt anyone they would accept me for whoever I was. Here they are happy to outcast you or openly criticize you if you don't fit the image. I feel sorry for anyone who lives in this state who is gay.

I feel that a lot of my negative experiences come down to living in Georgia, if we were in a different state I think that I might feel very differently, but my son loves his grandparents and it would be wrong to separate them. If we were to move though the first thing I would look at was quality of schools because these are terrible and not that long ago got in trouble for fiddling scores and such. I would also like to move to a more mixed area for my son to feel more comfortable and learn about other people.

Sorry I didn't mean to come off sounding so negative

Well... I live in GA too so reading your post I just had to chime in.

It took me a while to feel comfortable driving here, coming from small town Sweden, living off of a gravel road where the phone poles ended to here was quite the change. People really don't know how to drive, apparently most cars are not equipped with turn signals. We live in a nice part of town though close to "not so nice" areas, needless to say my husband was never quite comfortable with me walking alone here. Before I got my driver's license I walked everywhere, carrying big bags of groceries with me, much to the amusement of people driving by. The best gift my husband ever gave me was my GPS. There is no way I'd survive here without it.

I love Georgia. People in general are nice and I try to ignore and avoid the ones who aren't. There are definitely people out there who will look down on me for being a foreigner. I will open my mouth and they will then ignore me and talk only to my husband, we do our best to avoid those people. Luckily a lot of our friends are foreigners too. We like to throw darts so a lot of our friends are, oddly enough, brits. People here in the south will be very nice to you when you meet them but it really doesn't mean anything, it will take a long time before they really accept you. If you live in Atlanta you might actually have a hard time finding a true southerner. Most people here are from the North (my hubby being one of them), though he quickly insists he's from the Midwest, guess no-one wants to be a "yankee".

[mawilson 2,133]

Harder and better.