Its been quite an interesting month. This country is truly the 'other-side' of the coin. The stark contrast in the way people live here and the way people live back home is very obvious. Besides the cultural differences, new food and freedom, what is really interesting is the way different people embrace these changes. Everyone has their own way of dealing with the changes in life.
Some are just meant to be in the country.
Some don't really care too much about the changes. They accept the changes they like.
Some just hate this place.
There are some who try and change so fast that it would make your head spin and wonder if you are looking and talking to the same shy confused person you met a month back. Stuck in-between, they neither fit in with the Americans nor properly adhere to their original identity.
Then again there are some who just try to make the best of it and try and explore different things (or at least plan to try different things :) )
In the last one month, I have always felt out of place here and that all the niceness is just skin deep. First most striking incident to me was my first trip to WalMart. As I stood in the toothpaste section and gaped at 20+ different variety of toothpastes from Colgate alone, the only thought that occurred to me was that this country has too many options. Every bit of your life can be customized to the utmost excruciating detail. From the amount of milk in your coffee to the amount of jalapeños in your burrito, everything is customizable. Life is filled with too many options and driven by money. The end result is that everyone's life is customized to the minutest detail. Compromise is a word thats almost unknown are poorly understood. In such a world its but obvious that an outsider would feel that the society is cold. On the bright side, even an outsider here has the freedom to chose, design and live the life of his/her choice. The concept of liberty and freedom are definitely different and from my little experience here, I can understand why people (women especially) like the freedom in this country. Keeping aside my opinions and speculations about this country and the people here, a few things I've realized over time make a lot more sense to me now than before coming to this country...
a) Financial crunches come and go.
b) Life without challenges is like a cake with no icing, you're bound to get bored of it.
c) Dreams always seem to fade and even start to appear meaningless when faced by hurdles. The illusion called 'easy life' becomes monotony, boredom and meaningless without dreams.
d) Materialistic desires and wanting an easy life is very different, the former stems out of ambitious thinking and the latter out of laziness.
e) The way i see it, a (fortunate) few have learnt more about the value of what one had back home during their stay here than they ever would in their entire life if they had not come to this country.
f) Liking or disliking something is just a feeling, quite useless if you ask me. What you learn from every experience, both good and bad, is what counts. One month is too little a time to like or dislike a new country. Its too little a time to explore enough to form an opinion. Its too little a time to conclude that you have experienced enough.
g) Change is the essence of life, embrace it!
