a) U will receive mail. Mail as in actual mail... snail-mail if u will. Most of it will be bills (to be paid) and advertisement pamphlets/booklets. But it is an excitement to open the post-box and retrieve the mail. (In the days when we were house-hunting, we found a lot of houses(all of them) having cute little post-boxes and wondered who on earth still uses them. Now we know - everyone does.)
b) The courier-wallah drives arnd in a truck. Contrast to Chennai - courier-wallah drives a bike, and Muscat - never seen a courier-wallah - All important mails appear in the office post-box by magic.
c) The dryer(of the washer-dryer fame - what we call a washing-machine) actually dries the clothes. so much so that u can just fold them up/hang them in ur cubboards directly from the machine. No 'onathal-business'(putting out clothes to dry in the clothes-line). no wonder the leasing agents looked at us curiously when we asked each of them if it was ok to dry clothes in the balcony. And, what's more, in most cases, the clothes look ironed. Hurray...
d) America is a forest.(Just like Oman is a desert and India is like.. well a country.) You can step out of a town and walk into wilderness in minutes. Looking at the place u can see people have just cut down forests and built houses in between. In many cases, trees r preserved and houses/roads built arnd them. No wonder there are so many birds and animals everywhere. We even found an apartment with a long line of trees, each housing a flock(?) of vultures. i found a couple of apt-reviews mentioning raccoons.
e) Strangers will smile at you or nod their head politely, on the road. but u can be sure ur fellow-indians will ignore u. Or stare rudely if u happen to wear indian clothes.
f) Buses ply. In a 45 min - one hour interval. But a 20 min drive by car can take 2 hrs by bus. Too many stops and too many red-lights. But what is most impressive is the arrangement for differently-abled. The bus-driver will stop, tilt the bus and place a ramp-walk connecting the bus and the platform. When the person the wheel chair maneouvres inside(using a self-operated wheel-chair, more like a wheel-car), a couple of seats will be folded up by the driver. he will then secure the wheel-chair using 4 or more belts. all this while the bus is stopped and others are waiting patiently outside to board. similar procedure in reverse when the person in the wheel-chair wants to get off the bus. hats off...
g) U don't need to put on an American accent for them to understand u. Speaking clearly and not very fast is enuf. But, some words can be confusing. If u've worked in an MNC u will find it easier to adapt. One of the first things we were taught when we joined work as wide-eyed campus-recruits is Xerox is photocopy and bathroom is a restroom. Some more words that i found in the past one month that we r here - lift - elevator, drawinghall - living room, balcony - patio. Most importantly, the first floor is on the ground and the second floor is what we is first for us(in India and elsewhere).
h) Most houses are carpetted. If not, they will have beautiful wooden flooring. If ur house has is completely carpetted and u have a, let's say active, baby at home, u could do what we did. Mind you, it shd be the very first thing u do after u enter the house. Just sing a 'mangalam' for the carpet. And for good measure, collect ur family arnd u and together in a loud voice say 'Govinda.... gooovinda'. Especially since in our case the leasing-agent pointed out that the carpetting was brand-new. And, within two days Aditi left kajal-marks all over the drawing-hall. This will also be an opportune moment to do what Santosh did. quietly keep aside the money they r gong to charge for a new carpet when u leave the house. i have since then hidden the kajal-dabba so well that even i can't find it anymore.
Anyway, the above list is not exhaustive and i may add more here as and when i find time...
Disclaimer : The word America in the above post must be subsituted with South California, coz that's the only part i have seen in this past one month. Which brings me to yet another point to add to the above list - America is soooooooooooooooooooooooooo huge.
b) The courier-wallah drives arnd in a truck. Contrast to Chennai - courier-wallah drives a bike, and Muscat - never seen a courier-wallah - All important mails appear in the office post-box by magic.
c) The dryer(of the washer-dryer fame - what we call a washing-machine) actually dries the clothes. so much so that u can just fold them up/hang them in ur cubboards directly from the machine. No 'onathal-business'(putting out clothes to dry in the clothes-line). no wonder the leasing agents looked at us curiously when we asked each of them if it was ok to dry clothes in the balcony. And, what's more, in most cases, the clothes look ironed. Hurray...
d) America is a forest.(Just like Oman is a desert and India is like.. well a country.) You can step out of a town and walk into wilderness in minutes. Looking at the place u can see people have just cut down forests and built houses in between. In many cases, trees r preserved and houses/roads built arnd them. No wonder there are so many birds and animals everywhere. We even found an apartment with a long line of trees, each housing a flock(?) of vultures. i found a couple of apt-reviews mentioning raccoons.
e) Strangers will smile at you or nod their head politely, on the road. but u can be sure ur fellow-indians will ignore u. Or stare rudely if u happen to wear indian clothes.
f) Buses ply. In a 45 min - one hour interval. But a 20 min drive by car can take 2 hrs by bus. Too many stops and too many red-lights. But what is most impressive is the arrangement for differently-abled. The bus-driver will stop, tilt the bus and place a ramp-walk connecting the bus and the platform. When the person the wheel chair maneouvres inside(using a self-operated wheel-chair, more like a wheel-car), a couple of seats will be folded up by the driver. he will then secure the wheel-chair using 4 or more belts. all this while the bus is stopped and others are waiting patiently outside to board. similar procedure in reverse when the person in the wheel-chair wants to get off the bus. hats off...
g) U don't need to put on an American accent for them to understand u. Speaking clearly and not very fast is enuf. But, some words can be confusing. If u've worked in an MNC u will find it easier to adapt. One of the first things we were taught when we joined work as wide-eyed campus-recruits is Xerox is photocopy and bathroom is a restroom. Some more words that i found in the past one month that we r here - lift - elevator, drawinghall - living room, balcony - patio. Most importantly, the first floor is on the ground and the second floor is what we is first for us(in India and elsewhere).
h) Most houses are carpetted. If not, they will have beautiful wooden flooring. If ur house has is completely carpetted and u have a, let's say active, baby at home, u could do what we did. Mind you, it shd be the very first thing u do after u enter the house. Just sing a 'mangalam' for the carpet. And for good measure, collect ur family arnd u and together in a loud voice say 'Govinda.... gooovinda'. Especially since in our case the leasing-agent pointed out that the carpetting was brand-new. And, within two days Aditi left kajal-marks all over the drawing-hall. This will also be an opportune moment to do what Santosh did. quietly keep aside the money they r gong to charge for a new carpet when u leave the house. i have since then hidden the kajal-dabba so well that even i can't find it anymore.
Anyway, the above list is not exhaustive and i may add more here as and when i find time...
Disclaimer : The word America in the above post must be subsituted with South California, coz that's the only part i have seen in this past one month. Which brings me to yet another point to add to the above list - America is soooooooooooooooooooooooooo huge.
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