My experiences

Having been staying in the US for a couple of months, I started to see the nature truth behind a famous saying which says ‘Wherever you step down the earth, there you hold up the sky’. In other words, things work differently in different places. There are some new things that I have to adapt with the new situations where I live. I don’t say things here much better or worse compared to my home country. But, definitely it is a new experience for me. Here are some of my new experiences that I encountered when I first arrived in the US.

Firstly, when I had just landed at O’Hare Airport, the officer at the airport asked some of us from special countries such as Indonesia and Middle Eastern countries to queue in a special line for the immigration check. In the immigration check, all the stuff including my shoes and socks needed to be taken off as well as my wallet. After all my stuff was scanned, the officers told me to stand in between of a machine (I don’t know what machine that is) in order to be scanned. This first experience taught me how tight American security is after the 9/11 tragedy. One good lesson can be learned from this security process is that Indonesia needs to tighten its security process by creating a computerized system to track people who come to Indonesia.
Secondly, after landing in East Lansing Michigan for the orientation, I directly went to a supermarket called CVS to buy stuffs such as toothbrush and hair cream. After finding the things I wanted, I went to the front of the store to pay for the stuff. I was looking for the cashier in order to pay for my stuffs. I did not find any cashiers there. I saw two guys near the exit windows but I thought there were not the cashiers. I came to that man and asked “where is the cashier?”. The man replied “you pay with the machine and scan stuff”. Man, it was a self-service store where very few cashiers available because it was 8 AM in the morning. Later on I find out that in many US stores, they provide a lot of self-service counters for the customers to ease the process of payment.
Thirdly, most things are paid electronically in the US. Since I come from a county where cash is always the way to pay for stuff, I got confused for the first time on how to pay stuff using credit card. In every place where I buy stuff such as store, restaurants, bookstores or online shopping sites, things are paid electronically. What you need to do is just swipe your card and enters the pin or sometimes you don’t have to enter the pin and then sign the receipt. It seems that bringing huge amount of cash in the US is not a habit or considered to be dangerous. I find this habit of using card is useful and practical because it saves time and does not need to get our change back.
Fourthly, when I was attending a course in the class, I was a little bit shocked to see a student coming in the class with her short pants because it seemed she had just done jogging. She sat in front of the row and she help up her legs in the seat. As a teacher in my home country, I would say to my students to sit properly and politely which mean no crossed legged or help up legs. In the US, how you dress in the class is a matter of personal choice because the lecturer will not bother with what you wear as long as you are not naked. Speaking of dress code manner, it seems in the US, there is no such a strict dress code in offices. When I was taking care of my SSN card at the International Student Office, the man who served me wore a casual t-shirt and jeans. The only civil servants or officers who wear uniform are the police. This is totally different from where I am from where uniform is a symbol of pride but neglecting the service to people. We need to learn more how to serve people rather than asking to be served or respected.
Fifthly, when a friend of mine saw my teacher’s identity card, he was shocked to see that they put my religion in my identity card. My friend said “why do they put it in your ID card?” I said to him “having a religion in my country is a must, unless you will have hard times in taking care of any stuffs”. My friend looked confused with my explanation. He then continued “Man, religion is a personal stuff, it is your business none of other businesses”. When I recalled our conversation with my friend, I remembered one of my friend FB statuses which question a very essential value “If there is no religion, there would be more peace and harmony among human beings”. From the lesson I learn from my home country, I might say yes to her opinion. In the US, religion is a matter of personal value. The government has nothing to do with your religion. You can also be an atheist here. That’s why it is called the land of freedom.
I do hope that my country could provide a better service to its people someday in the near future.