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25.08

So here's what I noticed upon returning to the US.

The first thing was that people are uglier and fatter. Well, this isn't exactly fair, because I'm comparing Italian beaches to the airport in Houston... but it was pretty shocking.

Second thing was, I get into the shuttle in Houston. The driver turns on the radio, and I hear "blah blah blah, DEATH PENALTY." Yep, I'm in Texas.

And driving through Houston I'm thinking, wow, there's a lot of black people here. I hadn't thought so hard about it, but I should have realized in Germany I don't think I saw a single black businessman, for example. In America we have not more cultural diversity necessarily, but definitely more visual diversity. That is, Americans fit a wide variety of looks, whereas in Germany you can be 90% sure a foreign-looking person really is foreign.

Okay, how about the money. I'm used to the Euros, which are both color and size coded, so you can instantly pick out whatever you want. And now I've got a stack of identical green bills, and I have to search through every one of them just to see if I've got a 5.

On the topic of money, I hate that taxes aren't included in the prices.

The city layout here is completely different. This is obvious, but I'd forgotten how unaesthetic ours is. I look around and imagine a guy with some kind of giant paint tube that squirts out buildings. SPlat, shopping mall. SPLAT, parking lot. SPLAT, department store. So much wasted space everywhere. But what else are we going to do with it? I'm curious to see how the American cities develop to accomodate increasing population. The European cities started out relatively small, and so expanding them in the same small scale was not such an issue. But American cities are sprawling, and you can't simply compress a sprawl.

And all the cars here are big and gas-guzzling. You'd never see 50% pickup trucks in Germany.

It's strange not being able to order a beer. I have to catch myself right before I ask.

Speaking English isn't strange, because of course I did that all year (though everyone tells me I have a slight accent). What is strange, is speaking English in public places ... like, I go into a restaurant, or a store, and have the incredible urge to speak German to the clerk.

Wow, reading back over that I wonder if my English hasn't degraded.