153/365
April 6, 2016
Rockland, ME, USA
I'm in the US for 5 months today. It's incredible how fast the time went and how many things have happened. I feel very home here and I feel like I am slowly arriving. Some things feel very familiar already, others will take a bit longer to feel completely normal for me I think or possibly always stand out a little bit.
Funny enough it's often the little things that really stand out to me, like drinking out of plastic cups in restaurants, overtaking on the right lane on the highway, energy prices, indirectness in social interactions. Americans have developed a wonderful system of subtle hints that I am still discovering. I like the culture a lot. I've made a lot of friends, I feel relaxed here and interactions are almost always comfortable.
But there are also a few things that make me sad and that don't seem to go with other values of American society. Seniors working at McDonalds or Walmart. Racism from both white towards black and black towards white. A completely eroded middle class. Religious fanaticism. Homophobia.