Uncla Sam ka Aangan

Few known/unknown facts about U.S.A.

1. People drive and walk to the right.
2. Currency notes are called 'Bills'.
3. In 'safe' areas, people park their vehicles outside their house,on the streets if there's no parking space inside.
4. Every street, and I mean EVERY, has a name.
5. There's absolutely no dress code inside the University. You can see people in Shorts inside the univ.
6. You can traverse places very easily following the Maps. Today, on my 6th day in Campus, I showed a lady (who seemed to be American) the way to her destination. Not a bad job by any standards for a guy like me who had a terrible direction sense back in India. I am now quite adept at map-reading and finding the shortest paths.
7. None of the commodities bears the price. You have to know it from somewhere else, usually the tags on the respective racks in the supermarkets, or you have to learn to decode the Bar-code.
8. No auto-rickshaw and the likes are available. So you better have your own means of transport to take your stuff from the market to your place or be prepared to walk all the way along.
   
9. METROs and TRAMs are actually buses here (Metro is both bus and rail service).
   
10. Street names are written parallel to the streets. So if you are at a junction, the name that you are seeing in the front is NOT the street in front of you, but it is the street that you'll cross to go to the street in front of you.
11. The houses are Wood-based.
12. The Power sockets don't have switches. Just plug-in and use.
13. The switches are ON when UP, opposite of India.
14. Americans are extremely helpful. I really like this trait of theirs.
15. Bi-cycles are called 'Bikes', and they come in all kinds of weird types, specially the handles.
16. In absence of a traffic light, people stop their cars and let pedestrians cross the road first, even if you are waiting at the side, so very unlike India.
17. Everything is costlier than India. I am ruing many things that I could have brought from India. At the same time I am happy for the stuff that I managed to bring.

So much for now.... pics and more Gyaan about US in later posts.
c ya