Saturday, September 08, 2012

In US again

So back in US, just visiting, and have a different prospective now. 2 years in Europe and now I can almost see why Europeans keep complaining about US. Still love the office and people, but its outside that I am starting to see differences. People's habit of waste has not changed, and I always disliked it, and dislike it even more now that I can see its not a rich country thing. Like Europeans, they can also learn to reduce waste.
But its other things, like yesterday just sitting in office shuttle and looking outside, everything felt bland. Its like houses had no character, one dabba after other, such a far cry from flower covered houses in Switzerland where each house has its own design. Of course we live in a apartment building there also, but still its somehow made in such a way that it appears pleasing. The colours are so completely missing from landscape here.
Then comes the food. I had always complained about food here, but now it just feels even more bland. No vegetables have any taste, everything feels so heavy, full of idk what, but definitely not taste and nutrition. Its so hard to make healthy choices here, can't just each fresh veggies. People say keeping away from wheat is hard in Europe. I say the opposite. Its much harder here because nothing else really taste like anything. I made the mistake of taking what they call cottage cheese at breakfast the other day, and it literally tasted like cardboard! No wonder I never liked cheese here. I did not know what cheese was! The only cheese they can do is string cheese, yum!
Still a trip to US office is always very refreshing, make you believe in life and friendliness again. People are so nice and chatty :). Starting from shuttle bus driver who wished me good weekend, to car rental pickup driver who told me to drive safe and have fun. The girl at car rental this morning, told and asked my whole life history because we were both in Redmond at some point. She was so nice and friendly, that it made my day, something that can happen only in US.