Toilet paper for pooping made me chuckle, I love bidets!
Stuff like this is really good for a reminder and for perspective. A lot of people nowadays seem to think that the US is shit but don't really have anything to compare it with, so it becomes a political idea based on their perceived utopia vs the worst parts of the American culture society. And oftentimes what is perceived to be the "correct way" in your local country is unthinkable/weird in many other places.
Some comments:
> Sugar here is powdered, it doesn’t come in tiny cubes like I’m used to.
What do you use when baking sweet pastries? Crushed sugar cubes? :D
> Almost all shopping has to be done at a big chain retail store like Lidl or Megamart or Target or any of the other big-names.
This is a sad universal in most of the western countries. Convenience/efficiency (as long as you have a car!) sacrificing local small businesses.
> People liberally carry coffees and soda cans to drink into flights. I’ve never seen this before. Is it even allowed in India?
I tend to buy a bottle of liquor and a bottle of water at the airport (after checking in). Then I empty the water and fill it with liquor and sip throughout the flight.
> The people that I see day to day are generally extremely fit. (Or is it just students?)
Haven't actually been to the US but I'd assume it's mostly just a local phenomena (campus).
> But here, no PIN necessary! You just swipe or tap your card and boom, the transaction is done.
Again I don't know what the limits are over there, but here it used to be €20 for Visa, €25 for MasterCard, but they've upped the limits due to Covid. I don't feel particularly threatened about losing €20.
> You just scan your student id (is it Id?)
ID I think? :)
> All house floors, apart from kitchen floors, obviously, are carpeted.
This is insane to me too, practically never seen it anywhere and where I have, it's been a disaster.
> Stoves are always electric. No lighter needed.
Sucks when you have a power outage!
> There should be just one knob which decides the hotness of water, depending on how much it’s moved.
Agreed. You kind of have to mentally adjust where you put both knobs. Most European shower heads have one control lever where you you have water pressure in one axis and temperature on the other. You just leave it in the sweet spot for temperature and pull to get water, push to shut it off.
> Most cars will immediately stop if they see you’re about to cross the street. It takes some getting used to at first.
I've heard there are huge differences in this regard between LA and NY.