I’ve been go so long I feel like a foreigner here! Of course I’ve been back and forth before but this time I’ve actually gotten used to living outside the country so it will take some getting used to living inside again. Here are some things I missed about the US:
1. Air quality! Even though I’m in LA, a city notorious for its bad air, it’s still magnitudes better than the air quality in any large Chinese city. Finally I can walk down the street or even ride around in a taxi without an overwhelming desire to don a gas mask. Also, no smoking on company premises, in restaurants, or on public transportation unlike in China where people are constantly smoking everywhere all the time.
2. Fast, uncensored Internet access! Since I spend a majority of my time online this almost ties with #1. Finally I don’t have to ssh tunnel around the Great Firewall to watch YouTube videos. I can download things much faster and I don’t need to worry about Chinese Internet minders logging my chat transcripts.
3. I’m glad I can finally enjoy a wider variety of food! In China you have lots of great Chinese food of course, however if you want non-Chinese food you usually (but not always) have to settle for a poor imitation if you can even find it at all. In the US of course since we have multitudes of people from all over the world we get the added benefit of enjoying their tasty delicacies.
4. Sane drivers! You may think drivers here in the US are bad but you haven’t seen bad driving until you’ve come to China. Chinese drivers cut across multiple lanes to turn, routinely run red lights, drive down the wrong side of the road, drive on the sidewalk, and all the while constantly have their palm on the horn. Madness.
Now that I’m back, here are some things I miss about China:
1. My wife and son! They are still in China so I’m going to miss them until I either go back or they come here. It is really hard for me being away from them but it shouldn’t be for longer than 3 months.
2. The people! I enjoy having lots of Chinese neighbors. When I finally settle my family over here I’ll try to find a neighborhood with lots of Chinese people in it.
3. The bargains! Holy lord stuff is expensive in the US. In some cases, like when taking a taxi, it’s about as expensive as the exchange rate (so taking a taxi is about 7 times more expensive then in China). Also, one thing I’ll miss about China is the lack of tipping! Everyone wants a tip for just about everything in the US. Not so in China. Getting a haircut, served food in a restaurant, getting food delivered, taking a taxi, all of this adds a huge amount to the already exorbitant cost of living in the US. In fact I purposely order my food for pick-up so I can avoid dropping a tip. Yeah I know, stingy, but seriously now it’s gone overboard with the tipping thing.
4. Speaking mandarin with strangers! It seems to be a lot more difficult in the states but not impossible. When I’m in the states I worry that my mandarin speaking ability will decrease so I tend to study more actively. I also miss trying to read all the Chinese characters around me. I guess I should hit some Chinese forums now to practice my reading.
5. Cell phone service. In China the vast majority of people use prepaid service and it’s a lot cheaper than the US. On top of that the service is much better too! I’ve rarely had trouble getting a signal anywhere I went. Now I’m in LA and I have absolutely terrible service (provided by AT&T) that is magnitudes more expensive than in China.
So in conclusion, I prefer to live in the US as long as I have enough cash to pay for the high cost of living and still have enough left over to save for the future (house, son’s college tuition, etc.).
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.
