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I don't think there's any huge adjustments that will put you in cardiac arrest, if you're in high tech you've done enough travelling to the States that you're well aware of the differences. Here are some of the things I've observed, and other miscellaneous things.
High Volume - Low Price - Low Service You'll notice a difference in service when you're at a food place, or retail. In Canada it's primarily students that are pushing carts at Safeway, or behind the counter at McDonald's. In the United States, the people who do that are pretty much doing it for life. It's economies of scale, the U.S may have a slightly higher uneducated rate, but 1% of Canada's 30 million poeple is a lot less people than 1% of America's 300 million poeple. So perky students working the cash in Canada are generally happy earning some pocket money, but in the U.S if you were going to be flipping burgers for the rest of your life how motivated would you be? Not very.
American Drivers American drivers suck! Everyone thinks that all lanes are equal, or they think they own the lane so they don't have to move. In Canada it's a very well understood rule that the left most lane is the speeding lane, and if you're not speeding then you're not in that lane. If you're not speeding and in that lane, and someone who is speeding comes up, you move out of the way. So much to the point that in Edmonton you'll have people who'll go into the paved shoulder so you can pass them.
Navigating California employs retarded road planners. First, when you see a sign for an upcoming highway junction, it won't give like arrows that point to Highway X South and North. It will be Sacramento versus San Jose. In theory I suppose there's a certain logic that since roads aren't perfectly straight North or South, and East or West, indicating what city that road goes to may make more sense. But what if you don't know where the cities are? Yes, right at the base of the onramp now and then will be a small sign with the official highway logo, by then it's too late.
Bad Cop, No Donut California has the toughest cops I have ever seen in my life. I've been speeding for about 10 years in Canada, and have had only 2 tickets (one very shortly before coming here, the other was when I just got my license). When I came to California I got three tickets in 2 months! Tickets are definately a major source of income for the state, one of the cops who pulled me over admitted this, and one of the guys that I work with is an ex-cop who verified the fact. Two of the times I honestly was driving with the mentality of making an effort to be extra good. But they purposely have traps where it's really easy to make a mistake, such as poorly located signs with low visibility (I went through a stop sign once, and took an illegal left turn once). If you get caught DEFINATELY take it in court. Your driving history is bad as it is (with no history), and the cops are doing such high volume of nailing people the odds of them showing up in court are really low. My ex-cop friend also said, in the court ask that the cop show the radar gun. If he doesn't have it, then it'll be rescheduled or you automatically win. If he does have it, ask him to radar you as you walk. It will show about 30mph, which can't be possible, you win. If you do lose, you'll have the option for traffic school, take this. It's an 8 hour boring as hell course where you sit and watched videos all day about driving, but you get the ticket taken off your record. Unfortunately, you only can take traffic school once every 18 months. Did you know those comedy traffic schools are real?! The one I went to had nothing to do with comedy, though I heard of one called Rocky's Comedy Traffic School, apparently quite good.
Linguistic Adaptation You'll have to adjust your lingo and spelling to the American way if you want people to understand you, and/or don't want them to think you're some uneducated hick. If you find any other cool links let me know, but refer to:
The End... I went through great lengths to make sure I covered as many topics as possible. I'll continually be adding information as I find it, especially links to good resources and posting up articles about the bay area when I see one in the newspaper. After all this you might seem intimidated, as all I did is point out the negative issues. Which is the focus of this particular area, to make you aware of issues so they don't catch you by surprise. Being informed will make the transition smooth, and that's the goal. Moving from one city to another is always going to have issues, nothing you can do about it. But when you make it here, you'll love it. The weather, the action, shopping, and the unlimited amount of things to see and do. It's awesome. If you have corrections, stories, or updates please contact me (Tariq Ahmed) at tariq@dopejam.com. Thanks. See ya later! |
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