Things I've noticed...

Things I’ve noticed…

1.     If you don’t put milk in your tea, you will get funny looks. 

I am a tea drinker, and love a good cup of black tea with honey, but I never usually put milk in my tea.  So when I arrived and my lovely host family asked if I would like some tea, and then what I would like in it, my reply of “just two sugars, thanks”  made them look at me as if I’d gone insane.  When their daughter and her family arrived and tea was made again, and my host family explained my ‘unusual’ preference, the daughter looked at me as if my head had just popped off and started rolling around the floor.  In short, if you don’t want anyone to lock you up in an insane asylum and if you are not allergic to dairy, just put the milk in your tea. 

2.     Not much sidewalk etiquette.

I’m not saying anyone is rude while walking down the street and pushing people off the road, but there is a lack of uniformity of movement that is more common in the States.  There, most people move as you would while driving with two lanes of traffic moving in different directions.  I thought at most, the lanes would just be switched here, also like the roads, but I was wrong.  Everyone moves in hoards and weave in and out of everyone else, making the simple action of walking down a narrow sidewalk potentially dangerous if you are suddenly forced to jump into the street by someone running as fast as socially acceptable to catch a bus. 

3.     Light switches, windows, and power sockets.

The light switches in the bathrooms (or loos/toilets) are all cords in private homes.   So if you are groping around in the dark trying desperately to illuminate the much needed facilities, feel for some string. 

The windows here do not have screens, like most homes do in The States.  Welcome, all manner of insects, to my domain! 

The power sockets here, while a completely different shape than those back home, also come with switches to turn them on and off.  A useful way to save energy if you have to leave and don’t want to unplug everything.

4.     Yellow Lights

In the United States, traffic lights go from green to go, yellow to slow down and prepare to stop, and red to fully stop.  But here, they add another yellow light to the sequence of traffic lights.  Instead of an immediate shift to green after a red light, here, the yellow light will flash, allowing drivers to slow pull ahead, and then move at the speed limit once the light is green again.  But most people still jerk ahead at a yellow and nearly hit pedestrians who are still crossing the street!  I really miss the ‘pedestrian always has the right away’ idea from the States.