An iPhone on the porch and food from the freezer: incredible features of life in the USA 

IPhone on the porch, gifts for someone else's birthday and food from the freezer. Catherine Voloshina told SNCMEDIAwhat new horizons opened to her after moving to the United States. Sure, many things you did not even guess.

Фото: Depositphotos

I live in the USA 2 of the year. The first state I visited was California. It happened in 1996 year - great impressions for a native of the Soviet Union.

In 2014-15, I made several visits to the States, and my husband settled there, who decided to build a career in America. In August, I moved 2016. Now we all live in beautiful Alabama - I, my husband, children, for a textbook idyllic picture only the dog is not enough (the cat is already there, our daughter is obsessed with cats and thinks of herself as a cat too).

Alabama is a southern state, with its beautiful deep-fried food, inimitable accent and the city of Mobile, where I live - the place where the first Mardi Gras parade was held. New Orleans in Louisiana is more famous for its Mardi Gras, but it is more ambitious, but our Mardi Gras is the first in history!

It turns out that before the move I visited the US many times, probably in 7-8 states, but only after living here for two years as an American, I can say that I am beginning to understand and appreciate this country for real. Perhaps, I will not go into global institutions such as health care, education, freedom of speech and expression of will, I will limit myself to everyday sketches.

Catherine Voloshin with her son. Photo sncmedia.ru

Imagine that I start my day and describe what could surprise me from morning to evening.

Invalidity

Americans are incredibly non-judgmental, there is such a good expression of non judging. No condemning views, and discussions among colleagues and acquaintances happen infrequently. In general, discussing someone is a rare thing. I can apply for a workout at the fitness center in a shower cap, leopard leggings and boots - the people, of course, will be surprised, but they will not show it to you. Whispering or rolling your eyes is impolite. Now, if you light up in the hall, for example, you are firmly expressed discontent. And how you express yourself there or how it is convenient for you to train to create a sports mood is your own business, and no one has the right to interfere with their attitude. People look at their dumbbells and go about their business.

Once a group of students from the University of South Alabama was brought to our center — a planned detour for beginners, to get acquainted with all the possessions on campus. Among the students were three Muslim girls, in black Abayas and Niqabs - figures and faces are completely closed, only eyes and fingertips are open.

It must be said, Alabama is a mainly Christian state, with its many currents and branches, I also saw a synagogue, but not a single mosque. There are not so many Muslims in the city, therefore the appearance of girls in the hall, where a few dozen half-naked and sweaty fitness men were sweating with iron and sweating, was unexpected. All the same, as if in a cosmetic store on a shelf a baguette would sit next to the bottles of perfume. Nobody has led the ear. No one turned around. No one watched, whispered, did not look with his eyes - say, look. None of your business, none of my business. If this does not prevent you from sweating on the simulator - this does not concern you either directly or figuratively.

Respect for yourself and others

The people know their rights, as well as their responsibilities towards society, towards the people. People are very friendly to neighbors, colleagues, staff in stores, in the gym, anywhere. I don’t remember a single case where my children, having asked permission to pet someone else’s dog on a walk, were refused. They will always allow you to pet it (and they won’t grumble that it’s good, a minute is enough), on the contrary, they will also tell you the dog’s biography, what it ate for breakfast today and at the same time ask how we are doing. “Small talk” is also respect, pleasant socialization. With everyone.

It is not good to be polite with the boss, for example, and to act as a waitress as if you are the king of the world, and she is a loser who has not finished college. Communicating with everyone on an equal footing is also respect for any work, respect for the rights of any person of any gender, age and with any income. If you communicate with a janitor through clenched teeth, they will consider you yourself a fool and a slumman. You can be anyone in your kitchen — a snob, a racist, a xenophobe, a homophobe. In society, be civilized and sweet, this is the rule.

Birthdays

About birthdays there are lots of lovely traditions. First, the school helps students socialize. If your children have a birthday party, you can give the teacher greeting cards for all students, the teacher will insert a card for each student in the so-called “communication folder”. Homework, notes from the teacher, as well as plans for the month and the week are put in the folder: reminders about tests, excursions and so on. The condition for the invitation is only one: it must be for all students in the class. That is, my Dinah can not say: Mom, I am friends with Brooklyn, Shaiden and Patrice, and I want to invite only them. Not. Either you send invitations to all 20 class students, or you can recognize their contacts and invite everyone yourself. The school will only contribute to the universal holiday, selectivity in this regard is not welcome.

By the way, the invitation automatically extends to your classmates' siblings. For example, last year my son was invited to the birthday of Zeiden, the holiday was held in the rolling center, a roller skating rink. Dean had no one to leave, I had to take her with me. Imagine my surprise when among the guests I discovered not only half of Mark's classmates, but also their brothers and sisters!

All the fun brothers skated, ate pizza, drank cola and had fun for the birthday boy. At the end of the party, all the guests were given gifts (this sweet tradition especially touches me - small bags of gifts are often distributed to the guests of the holiday: sweets, lollipops, small plastic toys, bracelets, etc.), I took one, but my birthday boy's aunt intervened.

Baby, she told me. Baby, you have two children, you are entitled to two gifts. I was hinted that only one child was invited - in return, I received a puzzled look. They sincerely misunderstood me and, of course, handed over two bags of gifts.

By the way, on birthdays it is also customary to unpack gifts (at the same time this is a sign that the party is coming to an end, after unpacking the gifts it is time to go home). The birthday boy unpacks, parents read out wishes in cards, guests noisily praise the gifts. Even if a loving granny gave a box of colored pencils and a pack of socks (and the birthday boy was speechless with disappointment - he was counting on a Lego set the size of the Titanic or a Nintendo) - everyone will squeal with delight and admire the successful shade of textiles.

Security

Alabama has a very peaceful life. Yes, almost every home has a security system, surveillance cameras, but there are no safe doors. The entrance doors are simple, with one lock, in most cases - half glass. Each house has two courtyards - the so-called front yard, front yard, and backyard, back yard. Front yard is open street, no fences and fences - only lawn with bushes. The postman leaves the parcel right at the door on the porch. Ringing the door - they say, the owners, the parcel arrived, and departs. Last year we ordered an iPhone - a box with an iPhone lay on the porch all day. In the front yard there are also mailboxes, they are also not locked. A couple of times the postman confused the address and delivered someone else's mail to me - I just went to the neighbors, opened their box and put what they delivered to us.

The backyard is more private and may have a pool, trampolines for children or swings. There's a grill there, parties and barbecues are held there, you can sunbathe naked in the backyard - it's your private territory. If you have a jungle in your backyard and everything is overgrown with thistles, good for you, but be so kind as to keep your front yard clean and tidy and mow the lawn regularly, otherwise an unkempt lawn may “disturb” the feelings of your neighbors, and you will be fined for this.

In the back yard in each house there is a large trash bin on wheels, once a week we roll it out to the front yard, a garbage collector drives through, empty the containers, in the evening we roll the container back to the back yard. Garbage, by the way, is not subject to compulsory sorting, but those who wish can sort and bring their own cans-flasks, paper and plastic on their own at the recycling center, which I do. You give up the garbage for free, but it gives me pleasure to think that I do at least something for the environment, I help recycling.

By the way, in my fitness center there are several rooms (cardiovascular machines, a gym of power trainers, etc.), in each one there are free lockers and just open cells without doors. In these cells, people easily leave cell phones, wallets, car keys and go to train. I put my handbag in the open cell with all the credit cards, with the phone - and to the simulators. For two years, they never stole anything. Same thing on the beach. We leave on the beach chairs all the things, the same phones and wallets, and go with the whole family to swim. Of course, not everything is so rosy. One night, they opened my car right outside our house, opened the glove compartment and dragged a few dollars.

Oh, that's hard to get used to. People everywhere move by car. Walking on foot is practically no such thing. You can walk with the dogs, or jogging, or take a sports trip in sports equipment with a bottle of water in your hand. Everything else is on the car.

But here there is no generally accepted “convenience store” system; purchases are made in hypermarkets, so Americans stock up on food in huge quantities; every home has a huge refrigerator that looks like a capsule hotel, plus pantries with a supply of food, your personal mini-market at home. I wanted a chocolate bar and went to the pantry. I wanted ice cream and opened a mini-room called a refrigerator.

Walk on walk at city events, our favorite is a monthly Art Walk. Art galleries in the city center open the doors especially widely, serving refreshments, snacks, desserts, and meet citizens. Almost every gallery also poured: beer or cheap wine. It is conditionally free, it is customary to put a dollar or two in a Donations bank, but this is optional.

The atmosphere on the Art Walk reminds me of a pioneer camp for adults: people walk around the city center with glasses of wine in their hands, live music, street performers, magicians, small businesses rent tents and sell jewelry, paintings, clothes, art schools arrange free master classes, In general, the mood is the most blissful and fun. The municipality thus helps the development of business and contributes to the artistic education of citizens.

A variety of frozen food is simply unthinkable. In any supermarket, the rows of refrigerators occupy almost a quarter of the entire retail space. In addition to frozen fish, meat and vegetables, fruits, there are a lot of types of frozen hamburgers (that is, whole, roll, cutlet and what they still eat in a hamburger), ready-made frozen breakfasts, lunches, dinners (meat with a side dish in one package), in large bags or in portions at a time. That is, I bought it, threw it in the frying pan, and then it was done. There are also funny dry omelets in thermo cups: you need to break an egg into a cup, put it in a microwave for a couple of minutes - and now you have an omelet with bacon, cheese, ham and slices of vegetables. Food of different national cuisines, a lot of types of sugar substitutes, a lot of types of oils, food for allergy sufferers, gluten-free products, low-fat ... The number of different product categories in food is really impressive.

Children and attitude to them

Children are treated like adults — they explain, they reason, I rarely heard conversations with children in raised voices, and especially shouts. To see the cuffs in public or to spank the children - not once. All family go to restaurants - even with babies-babies, they just put a carrier, not to mention children who can sit: there are high chairs in any restaurant. Almost everywhere there is a children's menu, and children immediately bring colored pencils (you can take them with you) and little leaves with riddles, charades or colorings. In general, while waiting for the order, the children do not get bored and do not engage themselves in smashing dishes.

Photo sncmedia.ru

Often at school children are encouraged with certificates for a free children's lunch in a restaurant. Of course, restaurants are interested in this, because the child will come with his parents, who will pay for their order. Somehow we came to a restaurant with such children's certificates. The waitress took the certificates, praised the children for their excellent study, but this did not end there. Toward the end of the dinner, the restaurant manager came up to our table, gave the children badges, and gave a short but inspiring speech about how great it is that the children study well, how important it is, and how cool that we decided to come to this restaurant, and She is happy with this fact. Of course, this is a business, but I am incredibly pleased to see such a business with a human face.

And in general, much of what I see here is capitalism with a human face, and not with an animal grin. After all, people live in this country. And business is run by people too.

Read also on ForumDaily:

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Personal experience: how much is life in Alabama

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