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- I’ve had so many people trying to feed my lollies! I though Americans were supposed to be the ones that eat badly!
- The toilets flush differently. Less swirly, more tsunami. It’s hard to describe.
- The lights turn on the opposite way (Bottom pressed down is on, top pressed down is off)
- The power plugs have switches so that power isn’t always going through
- Internet! I have to pay by the amount that I use. But if you are a poor study abroad student, you can find your way into a lot of places with free wifi 🙂
- Mexican food is really hard to find. I’ve found one specialty shop that I really need to go to
- Public transport doesn’t completely suck like it does in LA
- All lectures are recorded, everyone has a job, not going to class is very common (this is probably just different from Mudd)
- They don’t have to pay 60K a year for college, people’s jaws literally hit the floor when they hear what we pay. If they never get a job, they never have to pay back the little amount that they have to pay for schooling
- In public transport, lines at the grocery store, etc. people don’t just strike up conversation and if you try or even just smile at someone when something entertaining happens they tend to look at you like you’re nuts… but people are nice if you have a question or generally if you can get them talking
- People smoke. Wow, SO many people smoke. It’s insane. Everywhere. Bleh.
- People haven’t had s’mores!
- PB&J is apparently super American. Who knew?
- 30 cent soft serve at Maccas. So good.
- The Kraft Mac & Cheese is a lie. Don’t be fooled. The box isn’t quite the same color and the mac is just not right!!!
- Guys can wear ugg boots (one of my friends referred to his as uggies. lol.)
- Generally, I feel like guys are less afraid to do things that in the states would be considered emasculating. Like lots of guys use cuddles unashamedly and I have a few who really like to gossip (or goss, if you will). I like it
- The cross walk things! If you hit the button after the light has turned green in your direction, it doesn’t switch on the walk sign. It’s frustrating. And j-walking tickets are like over $100 so it had better be worth it if you want to cross without it
- I take public transit everywhere, and I’d never been on a bus before I got here. Normal people drive more, here but since Uni is in the city and parking is really expensive a lot of people bus it into town. Especially nights to go clubbing and such
- Pubs and clubs. It’s totally alright, expected even, to go out random nights. Going to a pub on a Thursday, that’s cool. I had multiple people who wanted to go out last Thursday night. Pubs are just kind of fun and social when you have a good group with you.
- Swearing and drinking and talking about taboo things in front of parents. It’s okay here. Mostly. Obviously there are exceptino, but it’s much more okay than it would be in the states. Generally, I feel like children are expected to censor themselves in front of their parents in the states but here it seems like the parent/child relationship is less strictly defined to you have parents who got into the gossip with their kids and both are fine cursing in front of each other and the kids will talk about going out partying and stuff in front of their parents. Again, kind of cool.
- The grading is different here, a lot harsher for uni at least. I realized the other day that a 60 (or was it 65)% transfers back to a B-. Which is nice. I was kind of worried about getting low percentages.