People
The class divide seems to be lesser in general. People in lesser paying jobs, like say waiters, are less timid and subservient than in India. (This is a good thing!) They’re not afraid to raise their voices if needed. In general, you can tell that they have boundaries that should not be crossed.
People liberally carry coffees and soda cans to drink into flights. I’ve never seen this before. Is it even allowed in India?
Watchmen and policemen are heavily, scarily equipped.
Apparently it’s perfectly normal to walk around shirtless on campus. I’ve seen shirtless guys walking, jogging, and cycling in broad daylight. I wish I had that kind of confidence. It makes me question whether there is or isn’t an explicit law against this in India, not that it matters too much either way.
I noticed this in my first week here because the difference was striking: when you look at people, they just somehow seem a bit more free and confident. It’s hard to explain how, but you can tell. And they look very, very confident especially when driving cars. There’s a swagger to it all.
I don’t know how many people will agree, but striking up a conversation with an American stranger is much easier than it is with an Indian stranger. Americans just seem to have that natural conversational flow – I would say that talking is the one thing they’re definitively better at than Indians.
I know that the US has some of the highest obesity rates in the world, but from what I’ve personally seen, it doesn’t seem that way at all. The people that I see day to day are generally extremely fit. (Or is it just students?)
This made me very happy: I’ve seen people reading books – and I mean physical books, not Kindles or iPads – in every place imaginable, from gym treadmills to trains and buses. I once even saw I guy read a book while walking. I hope he didn’t trip.