Sunday, June 27, 2010

American Peculiarities

The fun part about travelling and working with new people is getting a bunch of new experiences which keeps carving out our individuation at subconscious level. Every culture carries its own peculiar traits and you just end up saying "Oh boy!! Never mind, just a cultural difference".

As it turned out that all CISCO interns with me are Americans and I am hanging out for the first time with just them. So just felt like penning down their peculiarities.

Americans are a fairly new cosmopolitan breed sprang up with European base tinged with natives Mexicans & Cubans and Africans imported as slaves in the beginning. How can I blank out Asians who keep pouring in everywhere for better prospects (and of course that includes me).Like an alloy, they have altogether different traits from comprising cultures.

They are nurtured to be self dependent from child hood itself as 2 month baby starts sleeping in his own room and hence doesn’t get the habit to cry on the top of his larynx if his mom doesn’t watch out for him for some time. Even when the baby hasn’t even learned to walk properly, he is just being dropped in the pool and swimming gets in his reflex itself. I know it’s like a tradeoff between being emotional and impassive but we Indians are really on the other extreme with really irritating and pampered kids.

You don’t have anyone on your disposal to do all menial stuff unlike in occidental world where lack of jobs makes people adopting all sorts of profession and you end up never learning to rectify anything other than getting the thing to a repair guy. I have to admit that I can’t even change the tire of my bike.

AMERICAN EXPRESSION is neat and most of my blog readers would agree too I guess, watching SIT COMS unfazed with unblinking eyes all the time. It’s sometimes funny how Americans even change the pitch of their voice to describe their IT'S LIKE and keep using phrases every second sentence. They are interesting raconteurs explicating everything with full visual expressions.

These people are binary programmed being either fitness freaks or fleshy crumbs with a ton weight and flesh literally hanging out. I have also started caring about calories in my food intake never even thought before but you really get the hang of it once you start listening about it all the time and then it’s like “Ohh boy ,I really got to have salad tonight as I ate French fries in the afternoon”.

The sports facilities are really awesome here and being a surprise to myself too but I started sports as a graduate student unlike most folks who lose interest at this stage. I started with table Tennis and pool and now can do at least average in them. I am learning ultimate Frisbee , lawn tennis and basket ball these days. Let’s see how far I travel…

3 comments:

Abhik said...

Interesting reading all these stuffs about the americans and their way of life and upbringing.
And all the best annie for ur stint in sports!

PRIncipessa said...

Landscapes-eatouts-weather even a child can reckon. Its the know how of people and their way of life that demands a keen eye.. and Boy! ure there.
I had wanted to write about all sorts of people I crossed ways with in Mumbai, but you out timed me (we do think on the same lines in the same time :) )
It will be gr8 if you'd tell us more about ur personal experiences.

And yeah... gud luck wd basketball :P

Annie said...

@Abhik-Thanks for the comments as well as wishes,its time to read something from your pen now.....
@Pri- U made me blush by complimenting with such a koool phrase :)
PS:I didn't realize while talking with u that I had already written some thing similar we talked about.I am waiting to read from you,it been so long since u wrote something Pri.