2.6.08

fat squirrels and other observations

Old things are new again. After living in India for 3 years, random things shock us about the US:

  • Luggage carts in the airport are $3! A piece!! They were free in India. But I guess if you count the man following you and asking for a tip, then they weren't really free in India, either.
  • American squirrels are fat! Well...compared to Indian chipmunks, anyway. They're probably just normal sized, but to our eyes, it seems we went away for 3 years and came back to obese squirrels.
  • Driving fast is still weird for me. Before last week, I hadn't driven at all in 3 years. Sometime around January, no kidding, I started having nightmares about driving again. I haven't driven on I-45 yet because I'm still scared, but I have gotten up to 50 mph, which is progress.
  • It's fun to walk in the neighborhood and not be on alert for cars, bikes, carts, rickshaws, etc, that will not stop or even slow down for you.
  • People make small talk! I never thought Indians were rude (except when the aunties wouldn't smile at me after I smiled at them...that would bother me) and I never noticed that they don't make small talk. Maybe I just never expected it because we don't share the same first language. But here, everyone makes small talk, which is something we noticed immediately upon arriving in the Newark airport.
  • The sky is blue again! I never thought Delhi was a dirty city (and still don't) but the grass was definitely not as green, nor was the sky as blue. So even though people don't seem to wear as bright of colors or paint their homes in fun shades, at least we get to see a more vivid color in nature.
  • It takes no time at all to run errands. On Friday, James and I dropped Hazel off with Nana, bought cell phones, signed up for service (at an AT&T shop that was 40 minutes away), went clothes shopping, and returned home. I was shocked to see that it was barely noon.
There are plenty other observations, but it's time for Hazel and me to go run all over town for errands and be done probably faster than it takes to mail a letter in Delhi.

5 comments:

Bran said...

love hearing all the observations. even just today I found myself being impatient in the LONG post office line (only 10 min wait). I thought back to how I would go to the post office in SK and that would be a great accomplishment to get that done...before heading off to play at the playground of course!!!

Laura said...

Wow, that sounds amazing! I can't even imagine what some of those things are like anymore! I especially love how you are able to accomplish more than one task a day in America!

SouthAsiaRocks said...

haha! fun post :) I bet its quite the adjustment! :) I bet its really funny :)

Unknown said...

I hadn't sent a welcome back message to you yet - I was too disgusted with your baseball pics on your other blog - heehee!
But I hope things are going well and I look forward to hearing more.
The small talk was overly invasive for us - I hated it and now I do it too!!

Sarah said...

Whoa! Way to go about reaching 50mph! You're a regular speed demon!