Living America
There have been times when I had wanted to write so much. But I would just go point blank the minute I took to the computer. And now, I feel like writing each minute detail of my experience here, I don’t find the time at all !! I’m so neck deep in work now…juggling between teaching, research and my studies. Gone are those endless days of waiting. I guess this explains my absence from the blogosphere. But I knew I had to write today. And BANG, I’m back !
Ok, so what is America to me ? Check out.
-Things are systematic and organized
I remember those days in India when I would run to different corners of Delhi to get my shopping done. Now, I feel that was such a huge waste of time and energy. This way the US works far better. All payments are either made online or on phone. The concept of online shopping is pretty much defined here. So you could almost buy anything online ( books, utensils, electronics, food are some ) with free shipping of your stuff right to your doorstep. Again, an appointment with the doctor can be made online or on phone ( If you miss one, you are charged a fine of $10. So, better watch out ! ) There are shuttles running around the campus and in the city (free for students ). The buses arrive exactly at their allotted times and the drivers are pretty friendly. Then there’s this place called Walmart ( Bangalore has it, guess Mumbai would have one soon ) where you get all your weekly shopping done ( Someone told me you could also find God there. But that was a lame joke. The bottom line is you can practically get anything there, all at a single place ) So, no random trips being made to Karol Bagh, South Ex or maybe Chandni Chowk, like things work back in India.
-The food is AWESOME
The bread, the butter, the milk, the juice…I could go on like this forever. But everything tastes fabulous. Like I’d said there is so much variety of food, it can drive you nuts. So, I would change that to…kinds of milk, kinds of bread, kinds of juice, kinds of cereals and so on. We have almost every single food chain on campus. There’s this food court too. You buy a $6 coupon and you can eat as much as you want as long as you’re there in that complex. Once you’re out, you are to buy a new coupon to get in back there. There’s Mexican, Chinese, Italian, salads, chocolate cake, brownies, beverages and yes candies too. Phew !!
-American Undergrads ?
The first day of class was like SHIT I’M SCARED. But the point was it was THEIR FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL AS WELL..so I anticipated them to be as nervous as I was. I stood at the door of the classroom to welcome my students. And then started pouring in those extremely look conscious 17-18 year olds, but probably the most beautiful kids I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I felt I’d entered some American sitcom on Star World. There I was…an international student with no prior teaching experience and was to administer a class comprised of 24 ‘fresh outta high school dudes and chicks’ ( that’s what they call each other here) and one undergraduate teaching assistant. They stared back at me with a deadpan expression glued on their faces as soon as they got seated in their workstations. And I started the class, everything taught on powerpoint. Even their ‘blackboard’ is an online system. I wanted to sound authoritative on the first day. So I told them, ‘ If I find any signs of disruptive behavior in class, I’ll stare at you and would ask you to leave the class. So, better watch out for that. And yes, no iphones, no ipods, no text messaging, no messing around with your computers or changing desktop or screensaver settings in class ( I saw their eyeballs pop out and jaws drop when I said that). The truth was I found them way better than kids back in India. Because they really listened to me ( or maybe just pretended to when I spoke ). The kids are pretty innocent compared to their desi counterparts. I asked this girl to change her workstation. She didn’t have a chair ( there were plenty of them kept in different corners of the classroom ) and was balancing on her knees for almost half an hour to work on her computer before I figured out she didn’t have one. I screamed, ‘Go grab a chair !’ And she was like, ‘Oh !’ And then there’s this boy who makes it a point to end each of my sentences with a ‘COOOOOOOOL, AWWWESOME OR FAAAABULOUS ‘ I just look at him and speak in my best teacher tone, ‘OK’ and he smiles back at me. The kids think I’m their ‘professor’, so write me e-mails stating Dear Dr. ( followed by my name …c’mon guys I’m a grad student !). Now, that’s hilarious. They are some 72 kids I’m teaching and they’re all over the campus. I’ve quite a few number of times seen some boy/ girl staring and grinning back at me. Just to figure out later, ‘Oh she was my student !’.
-My American counterparts ?
Americans are in general, introverts. They don’t talk nonsense. They are very independent and like doing stuff on their own. They hate interruptions and treasure time. They work like robots with their iphones and ipods plugged into their ears. And leave lab sharp at 5 in the evening. I sensed this on my first day in lab and class. So I make it a point to never ask questions. Because if they think you’re dumb…you’re dead meat. But that’s not like saying I’m dumb. But it’s the cultural gap. Back in India, if we weren’t working in lab, we would just talk and talk. If you enter an all Indian lab here, you’ll hear the sound of Bollywood chartbusters playing. You’ll spot a desi watching Singh is King on his laptop while he’s at work. You could smell samosas being heated in the microwave. And besides all of this, there’s something desis enjoy doing the most, engaging themselves into a lot of backbiting and mirch masala politics. So the desi fellows leave lab at eight in the night after a hard day’s work and primarily gossip.
-ABCD’s
There’re a lot of American Born Confused Desis seen around the campus. I spotted some ‘desis’ on first day of class. But discovered later they were actually ABCD’s. So, the first thing they asked me was, ‘Are you a FOB ?’ FOB, by the way is Fresh Off the Boat. The thing about ABCD’s is they don’t want to date a fellow ABCD and a FOB is way too far on their list. So they like dating white men or women. But it came to my surprise and shock, they are actually pretty frustrated. My ABCD friend’s dating experience was that the white guys she dated found Indian features intimidating, especially the dark hair and eye color. Now, that was rather crazy. What were they thinking then ? Marilyn Manson or Evanescence ? . I guess this explains why ABCD’s are so ‘confused’.
-Single is Odd
I almost felt being single is a sin here. Everyone’s either engaged, married or have partners. So, they were pretty shocked when they found out I was single. The funny thing is there are some grad students who are 24-25 but have kids as old as six or seven. And yes, they’re proud about their ‘babies’. I found it crazy when they openly declared and narrated about ‘how they met in school, got married at 18 and had a baby at 19’. And now they’re back to school to do some serious stuff like research. Ambitious, huh ?
-Wild Wild West
Yes, there’s scarcity of humans around but definitely not wild life. I’ve seem hares, skunks and even a fox right outside my apartment during the last couple of weeks. But if that weren’t enough, one of my friends saw a wolf on campus last summer. They usually stray in from the woods bordering the university campus.
Phew !! Now that was a tremendous amount of information.
And yes, I celebrated my birthday yesterday. The day was also special because it coincided with the receipt of my first ever pay check, the earning of 15 days of teaching. So, there’s a lot of lemonade, punch, chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies, fries, chicken wings and pizza left over from last night’s party.
Anyone interested ? Come over.
