I will be going back in a few weeks and would like to summarize my life in the United States. I will introduce it from several aspects of clothing, food, housing, and transportation. Food is the first necessity of the people, so let’s talk about food first.
- Eating
○ Drinking water: I didn’t eat well in the first week, mainly because I was not familiar with the situation and didn’t know where to buy things that were suitable for me. The nearby Walmart is not good, and I can only buy water and milk there. But the three elements of life are: sunshine, air, and water. There is no shortage of sunshine and air, so it’s good to have water to drink, at least I won’t starve to death. Milk in the United States is indeed very cheap, 3.78L is priced at $3.99. Water is priced at $3.48 for 24 bottles of 500mL at Walmart, but a bottle of water will sell for more than one dollar in an unmanned supermarket. Milk in the United States is classified as:
§ Whole Milk: fat content 3%-5%
§ Reduced-fat Milk: fat content 2%
§ Low-fat Milk: fat content 1%
§ Non-fat Milk/Fat-free Milk/Skim Milk: fat content 0.1%-0.2%
So I drink bottled water here. Many Americans drink tap water directly, but I can’t drink it. The company office does not have bottled water, nor does it have a water purifier like our Nanjing company (maybe the tap water they drink is purified). However, they have direct drinking water in public areas such as offices, rest areas on highways, parks, and shopping malls.
○ Breakfast: American breakfast is really simple. The hotel’s breakfast only has bread, oatmeal, cold eggs (said to be cooked and refrigerated before), apples, cold drinks (orange juice, apple juice, etc.), and desserts. American desserts seem to be particularly sweet. Later, I bought a snack in the company’s convenience store. The surface was full of sugar, not only the surface, but also the inside. It was sweeter than the taste of first love. I took a bite and didn’t want to eat it anymore… That was the only dessert I bought in the United States…
○ Lunch: Many Americans (not all) do not eat lunch at noon. Our company does not have a cafeteria, only a place to eat, which they call the Café area. It is said that most companies do not have a cafeteria. I made my own food the night before I went to the hotel (the hotel has a rice cooker, oven, resistance wire heating stove, dishwasher (I don’t know how to use it), microwave, refrigerator), and brought it to the company. I can heat it up in the microwave at the company. So I went to the supermarket to buy a lunch box on the first weekend I came.
○ Dinner: It is said that they eat better for dinner, I am not sure about this, I have not been a guest in an American's house at night.
○ Grocery shopping: the first week is rather blindfolded, did not do the strategy to come (mainly busy)... American colleagues know that I came, and I said a few Asian supermarkets, almost can buy most of the Chinese people eat things, from vegetables to fruits, from meat to hot pot, as well as rice, seasonings, cooking oil, and even eggs. So living in the US isn't really a problem to make your own way.
I go to a vegetable and fruit supermarket every week, where the food is fresh, and there is also corn, sweet potatoes, tofu, bread, and so on.
§ Way 1 Supermarket: 2789 Plymouth Rd, Ann Arbor, MI 48105
§ 168 Asian Mart Asian Mart: 32393 John R Rd, Madison Heights, MI 48071
§ Park To Shop Supermarket: 8641 N Telegraph Rd, Dearborn Heights, MI 48127
§ Joe Randazzo's Fruit & Vegetable Inc. 24135 Joy Rd, Dearborn Heights, MI 48127
For American supermarkets, you can go to Meijer, Kroger to buy fish, beef, and chicken, and you can also buy nuts here. If you want to make marinated vegetables, you can go to the Chinese supermarket to buy marinade.
○ Going out to eat: I also eat out. At the very beginning, I was unable to find a suitable place to eat, but the organization sent Shirley's classmate over in time to save me, so everything was the best arrangement. She took me to Japanese food teppanyaki, Korean food stone bibimbap and barbecue, Thai food, Chinese food, American food lobster burger fries and such, so then I knew what to go for. She also told me the names of some sauces, and how to read the menu, hey, their own uneducated can be really terrible, survival is a problem.Later, my colleague and friend also took me out to eat some Chinese food, there are Cantonese morning tea, Sichuan cuisine, Northeast China, the taste is still good. American local Chinese food do not eat, completely Americanized, not for us.
- Traveling
○ Public transportation
Public transportation in the United States is very inconvenient, I did see a bus called SMART in Detroit, but did not do. Chicago has a well-developed public transportation system. There are buses and subway systems in the city, and a rail system in the suburbs.
○ Taking a taxi
I didn't take a taxi, but I heard that you can use Uber to call a taxi 20 or 30 minutes in advance. However, it is very likely that you will not be able to get a taxi in the middle of the night.
○ Driving
Driving in the U.S. is not a problem.
The only thing you need to pay attention to is to stop when you see a STOP sign.
Everyone drives fast on the road, and basically everyone drives 120km/h or more on the highway, so you just need to keep up with everyone else's speed. And unlike in China where people drive slowly in the fast lane, if the car in front of you realizes that someone is following you and is faster than the car in front of you, the car in front of you will basically take the initiative to switch to another car. The car in front will basically take the initiative to switch to the right to give way to the car behind.
In addition, everyone on the road basically according to their current lane has been driving, generally do not change lanes. It's still a good idea to slow down when entering and exiting parking lots. I also found that on Telegraph Road (a road with red lights), they also set the green wave speed, basically at 50km/h a lot of times you will always get a green light, and you don't have to stop often.
Americans live more spread out, so you have to drive everywhere and it's not very practical to get there on foot. Maybe that's one of the reasons why people here are generally fatter.
If you encounter a police officer stopping on the side of the road to handle a case, be sure to walk away from the police a little farther away from the lane, anyway, far away from them is better.
U.S. highways, often in the middle of a special left-turn lane, only left-turning cars can be used, I think this design can not be realized in the country, after all, very occupied land.
○ Gas
U.S. gas prices: gas prices vary across the U.S. The gas price near our office is $3.899 per gallon today, and to fill up a tank of gas (Renegade), you need $60. In comparison, the gas price in California is $5.26 per gallon today, a huge difference.
American oil: regular 87, midgrade 89, premium 93, I can drink 87 in my car.
- Services
○ Car Rental
I can only rent a car for one month at a time in the U.S., so I have to have a third-party company reserve a rental car for me every month. But I still encountered various problems when I went to the store to rent a car. In many places abroad, purchases with credit cards are made with a pre-authorization first and then officially charged later. The same applies to car rentals. Pre-authorization has a drawback, that is, it takes up the credit limit, so it's mainly my credit card limit that is too low.
The online system of the rental car company facing consumers is very bad, I was once because I was not sure about the extra deduction, the online booking was not canceled, and I couldn't get through to the store's phone number, and the 800 number customer service was not available, so I drove 20 minutes to the store at 11 o'clock in the middle of the night, and the result was that people told me not to worry about it, and that there was no problem. The offline system is also not good to use, that is, in the main line of business does not go wrong under the premise, can be used normally, but encountered a variety if the time, this does not work, that does not work. It's like the code is only 20% written and the other 80% of the assumptions are not made. In addition, there are some offline services that can't be done at the rental store (such as modifying the return point and extending the rental), so they can only be done by phone.
But call the 800 number I guess, there is a long wait, I waited over 10 minutes once, maybe that's a little.... I heard from the big boss that he called a certain company and waited much longer than I did. However, Americans don't pay to call their home country, so they don't have to worry about money, so they can just take their time and wait.
○ Courier
I have only bought something online once in the US. At that time, I left the company's address, the result of things directly into the company's warehouse, at that time is to use the FedEx sent to me, the courier did not give me a call, or send a text message, it is directly into the warehouse. It was sent to me by FedEx, and the courier didn't call or text me, it just went into storage. I didn't know until the website sent me an email and a text saying that it had been signed for. I found it later anyway :-)
Also, the courier is relatively and seriously behind in updating, even though you can check the location online. My coworker said that Amazon can see the real-time location of the package it seems, but I haven't tried it, there is no demand for it, or maybe it's because of poverty.
Later I myself also used UPS to send something once, the information update is also very lagging, worrying.
To summarize, FedEx, UPS do not provide the kind of interface displayed on the map, in addition to the location information are relatively lagging. So the information service of the express industry is not as good as the domestic one. Is it possible that they don't work overtime like in China, so the information is not updated in time? Just a wild guess, does not represent my point of view.
BTW, you don't need to tip for receiving a courier in the US.
○ Accommodation
Hotels usually don't provide disposable toothbrushes and toothpaste, some hotels can go to the front desk to ask for them, this hotel I stayed at didn't have this tip. Therefore, you must remember to bring these two things with you when you go out. I stayed in a room with a kitchenette, although small, but still can be used. The cooker is electric and not powerful enough, so you need to heat the pot for a while longer to make it work. Xiang said I could ask the hotel for a rice cooker, and there was one.
Once, I had the honor to see the system used by the hotel, it is DOS interface, that is, the kind without graphic windows, so it should also be developed many years ago, and has been used until now.
○ Shop:
The first lyrics of the song "Beijing Welcomes You": the door of my house is always open, open arms waiting for you. Unlike at home, stores in the US basically do business with their doors closed, unlike at home, so it was not very comfortable at first, not knowing where the store entrances were. However, a lot of American malls (stores) I've seen have auto-sensing doors that open automatically when people come by. I've also been to a watch store where customers can't get into the mall from the outside because it's gated and you need to be inside to open the door, they say it's for security. It feels like there is a strong sense of insecurity in this society....
- Work
Americans are early to work and early to leave: at the factory where we load cars, the workers are at work almost before 7:00 and leave after 3:00 pm (this is the morning shift, they work two shifts a day); they can't roll with them in the morning, they get up too early. I can't roll with them in the morning, so I have to roll with them in the evening :-)
It's worth noting that the air conditioning in American offices is very low, so it's especially cold in the office, much colder than riding the train in the summer in China.
- Safety
This is a particular concern. Before I came to the U.S. and after I arrived, both domestic and foreign coworkers and friends reminded me to pay attention to safety, saying that some places can not go. As for which places can not go, google map will not be labeled. But they all suggested not to go out at night, and it is still relatively safe during the day.
I met a retired police officer on Belle isle island in Detroit, he said it's ok not to go near the casinos in Detroit at night, because there will be people drunk there, easy to get into trouble. I said I usually go back at 4 or 5 pm.
So I've been in the US for so long, I've only seen a foreign moon once (a full moon, which happened to be on the night of the 15th of the lunar calendar as well), and that day was still in Chicago, because I thought that a big city in the US should be a little safer at night, right, and that day I went back after 9pm. However, that night, I observed carefully, and I didn't see that the moon was fuller in foreign countries.
My coworkers said that the trails in the parks were fine, and they had never heard of anything bad happening on the trails. So when I go out, I go to the park and walk.
Personally, I think it's okay, everything is fine at the moment, so people don't have to worry about it.
- Ecological Environment
The environment in the US is just so much better than at home. You can see deer walking on the road and in the park, squirrels climbing the windows in hotels, and blue sky, white clouds and green grass everywhere. The United States is everywhere green space, so mowing the lawn is one of the daily work, a lot of people's weekend life is to mow the lawn. Compared to a tenth of China's population, there can be a lot less farmland, which I guess is one of the reasons why there is green space everywhere. Mowing the lawn is a mandatory activity, and if you don't mow it, you'll get complaints from your neighbors, so it's actually a burden.
- Weather
The weather in Detroit is still pretty good, it's just very sunny, so it's best to go out to protect yourself from the sun, I bought myself a hat later. The air is not too humid, so it's okay if you're not in the sun. It's best to wear sunglasses, here we recommend to go to Bin owner's brother's store, that's where I got my color-changing glasses, they're of good quality and good value for money.
This is my summary, so although out and far away from home, in fact, you don't need to worry.
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