Culturally Shocked!

The first steps that you take in an alien nation is always an interesting one. No matter what people have told you what to expect, experiencing it, is startling nevertheless.

It all started with the breathtaking view of the country side of NE which is as beautiful as it gets anywhere in fall i guess.  Then all the rhetoric that I ever had heard began to play. Its so clean everywhere. The roads don't bump. Where are all the speed breakers? Total strangers greeting each other. And so on.

This place is like a village with all the things considered luxurious back home. I've never seen so many trees on the roadside ever before. Given an option I would have wanted to stay in a metro. But the city lights ain't far either.

The office is in a sprawling campus of 550 acres. Its more like a tree farm. Recently, an employee went for a walk in the campus's woods after lunch, only to be lost in the farm. 911 had to be dialed to rescue him!

This country likes everything big. From burgers to cars. From roads to malls. And it likes things fast. From food to sports. From cars to work. And they like it different. They call a sport football, but barely use their foot. They play world series without letting the rest of the world know about it. They prefer to be right than left when driving. They ask for cola with a lot of ice while wearing jackets and sweatshirts.

They have a clear demarcation between their person and professional lives. I've barely seen anyone work overtime. They value an animal's life as much as they value a human life. On weekends you see a lot of people setting out with their boats tagged to their car or canoes or bikes mounted on the car. They head out to a ball game very passionately with their team's shirts and caps to the stadias or the sports bars. They make mondays interesting by hosting MNL (monday night live) games. They swear by customer satisfaction. They took my friend's PS3 back after a month of its purchase because he said he doesn't like its design!

All in all, you just can't stop being amazed looking at this country.