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100 things I learned from US

 
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When you are in a new country, you see lots of new things every day and night. It gives you new experience,new environment and many more things. You can blurt all of them here .Let me start with,

1) If you are in US then 4 'C's are necessary.
- Computer
- Car
- Cellphone
- Credit Card
 
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I could easily give up my cell phone. I keep trying to, but my wife won't let me.
 
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Not Cash and Cocaine?
 
Vikas Kapoor
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Pat Farrell wrote:Not Cash and Cocaine?


I have rarely seen people giving hard cash. Just swipe the card and you are done! And If i am not wrong then at some places they just don't except cash atall.???!!!
Cocaine? Is it really 'necessary'?
 
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Not Cash and Cocaine?


funny..

how about this 'C' - Credit Score..??

Medical Insurance, Driver's License (doesn't matter if you have a car without this one).
 
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Its 3 'B's and not the 4 'C's

1) Beach
2) Babes
3) Booze
 
Pat Farrell
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Vishal Pandya wrote:I have rarely seen people giving hard cash. Just swipe the card and you are done! And If i am not wrong then at some places they just don't except cash atall.???!!!


Technically, any business must take cash, "tender for all debts" etc. But for a retailer, cash is a pain. You have to protect it, it can walk away, thieves are interested, etc.

Over the past decade or so, in the name on the "war on drugs" used by people we don't like, the Government has made it ever more difficult to use cash. After all, cash is anonymous, untraceable, etc.
 
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Pat Farrell wrote:Technically, any business must take cash, "tender for all debts" etc.

That's not actually true. You don't see Amazon taking cash, do you?

Apple once refused to take cash for purchase of an iPhone.

The trend seems to be growing.

One article I read (which didn't cite any sources) said that cash is legal for all services rendered... but in a store, if you haven't bought anything, there is no such service rendered, and they are free to refuse the sale should they choose.
 
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I frequently pay with cash. I find it much harder to part with money when I actually have to hand the cash over rather than swipe a card.

On that note, I used to work at a gas station and we were allowed to refuse cash as payment, but it was usually for a specific reason. Like, say you were buying $25 dollars in gas and came in with that amount in nickels or pennies. We could refuse that sale as it was an undue burden to the employee to verify that the person did indeed have the amount required in change. I only had to refuse someone for that once when they came in to pay for $10 in gas with nickels, dimes and pennies and weren't going to wait for me to count it.

I am all about customer service, but I told that customer that if that amount came up short I would have to report it. They just payed me with a $10 bill.

Enough of my rants now.
 
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In the UK coins below £1 are only legal tender up to a certain amount.
e.g. 1p and 2p coins are only legal tender if the amount you are paying is 20p or less.
 
Pat Farrell
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fred rosenberger wrote:Apple once refused to take cash for purchase of an iPhone

You don't really buy an iPhone, you put money down and pay for service. The credit requirement is for the two years of service.

Sending cash more than a few inches is a problem. That's why we invented CyberCash.

Long term, I expect that the US will outlaw cash.
 
Vikas Kapoor
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Vishal Pandya wrote:And If i am not wrong then at some places they just don't except cash atall.???!!!


From DMV website,

A check or money order payable to PennDOT for the appropriate fee. (Cash is not accepted.)

 
Vikas Kapoor
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Moving further,

The priority given to pedestrian. It's very good. Lets say you are at the crossroad and waiting to cross, now even if there is green light and you didn't press button for crossing, the vehicle will wait and let you go first. This is really nice.I thought to test it again, waited for green light and jumped on the road, again the same result. I tried this just for the sake of testing and not daring.I know that the result may not be same always. In my native country, this is not the case.

One more surprising thing is, you don't find sidewalk at every place. I mean the pattern sidewalk-road-sidewalk is not fix every time. It may be possible that the only option to reach to X destination is only car.You just can't walk or drive bike/bicycle there.
 
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Vishal Pandya wrote:Lets say you are at the crossroad and waiting to cross, now even if there is green light and you didn't press button for crossing, the vehicle will wait and let you go first.


Do you mean the car had a green light? If so, don't depend on it. There are big regional differences in how drivers will react to this, so if you value you life, ...
 
Vikas Kapoor
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Ulf Dittmer wrote:

Vishal Pandya wrote:Lets say you are at the crossroad and waiting to cross, now even if there is green light and you didn't press button for crossing, the vehicle will wait and let you go first.


Do you mean the car had a green light? If so, don't depend on it. There are big regional differences in how drivers will react to this, so if you value you life, ...


I mean the traffic signal has green light and hence it's time for vehicles' to go. BTW, I don't follow you here.

Ulf Dittmer wrote:Do you mean the car had a green light? If so, don't depend on it


I have never seen a car having green light.
 
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Maneesh Godbole wrote:Its 3 'B's and not the 4 'C's

1) Beach
2) Babes
3) Booze


And the 4th "B" for us married folks:
4) Ball and chain.
 
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Vishal Pandya wrote:BTW, I don't follow you here.

Ulf Dittmer wrote:Do you mean the car had a green light? If so, don't depend on it


I have never seen a car having green light.


It's a way of describing who has right-of-way at an intersection. Consider a cross street - the cars facing the green light and who are therefore free to drive are said to "have the green light", and the cars who are facing a red light and must stop are said to "have a red light".

This is also used in general conversation for things unrelated to traffic. For example, if your project gets management approval, you might tell your team "we've got the green light".

As Ulf said, pedestrians crossing against the light (crossing when they don't have right of way) is treated very differently in different parts of America, so please don't risk your life too often. I have seen cars in Seattle come to a complete stop from 50 miles an hour to allow pedestrians to cross. But the same would not occur in Boise.
 
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Vishal Pandya wrote:When you are in a new country, you see lots of new things every day and night. It gives you new experience,new environment and many more things. You can blurt all of them here .Let me start with,

1) If you are in US then 4 'C's are necessary.
- Computer
- Car
- Cellphone
- Credit Card



you forgot coolie. IT coolies.
 
Vikas Kapoor
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Arvind, I want this thread to stick to topic and probably your answer might take it to somewhere else into pros/cons of H1. Hope you understand.
 
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Andrew Monkhouse wrote:As Ulf said, pedestrians crossing against the light (crossing when they don't have right of way) is treated very differently in different parts of America, so please don't risk your life too often. I have seen cars in Seattle come to a complete stop from 50 miles an hour to allow pedestrians to cross. But the same would not occur in Boise.


Does Seattle have an enforced law mandating letting pedestrians cross? (when they are following the light) I'm curious because in New York we do not enforce that law. As such, many people will not let you go. In California, the law is enforced and cars always let you go (that I've seen.) Of course, California also enforces the law on not jaywalking (pedestrians crossing against the light) too. I think this is a nice system. The people obey the law and the cars do to. The police doesn't even need to constantly ticket people. Just the fact that they do sometimes inis enough. Whereas in New York, it is sometimes safer to cross in the middle of the street or against the light due to traffic patterns and people not stopping when you do have the light.

Vishal Pandya wrote:now even if there is green light and you didn't press button for crossing


This button for crossing is another interesting regional variation within the US. I've seen two cases of it:
1) You need to press the button to get a walk light - how it should work
2) You get a walk light regardless of whether you press the button - the button is apparently decorative
 
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Technically yes, a vehicle must give way to a pedestrian on a crossing or a pedestrian crossing the street if there are no nearby pedestrian crossings. It is also illegal for a pedestrian to cross without the lights or to jaywalk. Every so often the police do a crackdown on jaywalking. I've never heard of a crackdown on drivers not yielding, but as I said before, I believe it is very standard for cars to yield no matter what, so I doubt there is any need for the police to try and enforce it.
 
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Here in Austin, the driver might (just might) wonder what that bump was as they look up from texting.
 
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Vishal Pandya wrote:
The priority given to pedestrian. It's very good. Lets say you are at the crossroad and waiting to cross, now even if there is green light and you didn't press button for crossing, the vehicle will wait and let you go first. This is really nice.I thought to test it again, waited for green light and jumped on the road, again the same result. I tried this just for the sake of testing and not daring.I know that the result may not be same always. In my native country, this is not the case.



This exactly was what wondered me ( well in Europe ) !! disciplined rules where 99% follow.
 
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Andrew Monkhouse wrote: I believe it is very standard for cars to yield no matter what, so I doubt there is any need for the police to try and enforce it.


Lucky. I've stood in the crosswalk (when I have the light) counting how many cars wouldn't let me cross before they turned. The most I ever got to was 7. But then the light turned red and I couldn't go anyway.
 
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Hi
I was also pleasantly surprised when a car came to a stop seeing that i was trying to cross. Not aware of the rules(or should i call it mannerism), I was waiting for the car to cross and did the driver for me to cross(i use this to explain deadlock to my juniors ).

Jhakda
 
Maneesh Godbole
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I once saw a chicken cross the road.
 
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I still thanks to that Bus driver who saved my life in Germany.

As Indian habit before crossing the road I looked at my left and started crossing the road. The moment I put my foot on road there was big 20 ft bus next to me at right side. Bus driver said some thing related to God and said thanks and moved ahead.

But after that I always looked right first in Germany before crossing the road.

In Germany, at least in small town, you may need not to press button to cross the road. Before that car would stop and allow you to cross the road.

AW coming back to US, I learned about personal space in queues.
 
Ulf Dittmer
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In Germany, at least in small town, you may need not to press button to cross the road. Before that car would stop and allow you to cross the road.


The crucial word here is may. If you depend on it, you will end up dead.
 
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I always use the 'risk vs. reward' comparison when deciding to do something that may endanger me. for crossing a street:

reward = saving a few minutes of my time.

risk = potentially DEATH, sever pain, time in a hospital, etc.

to me, the reward is NOT worth the risk. don NOT depend on cars stopping, especially with drivers talking on cell phones, texting, or just not paying attention. Yes, a car in the U.S. SHOULD yeild to a pedestrian who has legally entered a crosswalk, but that doesn't mean they WILL.

Remember, drivers are not supposed to go faster than the speed limit either, but they do...
 
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In Iowa pedestrians technically always have the right-of-way, at least in a legal sense. Basically if it is a green light for me while driving and a pedestrian steps in front of me trying cross and I hit them it is still my fault because they had the right-of-way. That being said a pedestrian can still get a jaywalking ticket for crossing the street in that situation, and no one here will stop at a green light to let you cross. If you are starting to cross we will slow down and let you but we aren't going to stop to let you cross if we have a green light.

It isn't that we are mean, just that everyone has a turn and the pedestrian's turn is when the little "Walk" signal is up. Even if a driver is turning right on red they will (usually) let the pedestrians with the "Walk" signal go before they make the turn because it is the pedestrian's turn.

Tractors, now that is a whole different matter (if you live in the Midwest you know what I'm talking about!).
 
Jhakda Velu
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Maneesh said

I once saw a chicken cross the road.



Was it a chicken or a chick?

Jhakda
 
Ulf Dittmer
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Along similar lines: 21 Things I Learned About Being a Guy From The Simpsons
 
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I found that smiling is crucial
 
Vikas Kapoor
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Next is smoking (bad habits as a whole),

Smoking is very common here. I don't know why it is so common. I mean it's not a good thing like doing exercise or gardening or something like this, but still it's common. And even in youth (age of 13 or less). No control from parents? And if I am not wrong there is a certain minimum age limit to be eligible for smoking. but to get the rid of that, they make elder friends and ask them to buy cigarettes for them. In India, we also have the same rule for smoking. Along with that, one more rule is there that you can't smoke in public spaces like public park, bus station, theaters etc. but how strongly it's been imposed or followed is questionable.

I have never got a chance to visit pub,bar or club so I don't have much idea there. But yes, I have never seen a drunk person staggering on the street. And yes somebody did tell me regarding cocaine too??
 
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W. Joe Smith wrote:pedestrians technically always have the right-of-way, at least in a legal sense. Basically if it is a green light for me while driving and a pedestrian steps in front of me trying cross and I hit them it is still my fault because they had the right-of-way. .



Same is true on the water. Row boats and sail boats have right of way over power boats. And super tankers and air craft carriers are powered. But if your 30 foot sail boat is hit by a tanker, you drown anyway, even tho you have the right of way.
 
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Maneesh Godbole wrote:I once saw a chicken cross the road.



But why did chicken cross the road ?
 
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Yesterday I went to buy a used bike. In US, generally, bike means bicycle. The guy was an american. And I am not. When he saw me, he didn't get surprised ( natural surprise as I am not an american). And that's why I got surprised. In india people would definitely get surprised. I find this point worth mentioning because, I feel that US has pure cosmopolitan culture. Here, Spanish, Mexican,Chinese and Indians are in majority. So I wouldn't be surprised if in future US get president from one this roots. US is land of opportunities...
 
Ulf Dittmer
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I wouldn't be surprised if in future US get president from one this roots.


The USA is way ahead of you: the current president is the son of a foreigner (meaning, of someone who didn't even immigrate permanently).
 
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Ulf Dittmer wrote:The USA is way ahead of you: the current president is the son of a foreigner (meaning, of someone who didn't even immigrate permanently).


And that's about as far as they can go, since the constitution requires the president to have been born in the USA.
 
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Vishal Pandya wrote:. Here, Spanish, Mexican,Chinese and Indians are in majority.



you mean they have arguably large numbers? they are not in a "majority" though unless you talk about a Micro level like Chinatown or Little India or California and Florida for Spanish speaking. I think whites are set to become a minority by 2045 though.
 
Don't get me started about those stupid light bulbs.
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