Reflection, Renewal and Reunion — My Brief Stint In the US
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year
With the kids jingle belling and everyone telling you’ll be of good cheer
It’s the most wonderful time of the year”
And doubly so for me. Having been in a long distance marriage (with me living in Australia and my husband in the US), I had been anticipating and looking forward to December because that’s when I was planning to travel to the US to spend time with my husband for a few months. It had been a long time coming..but the ride was bumpy with international travel restrictions due to COVID-19 keeping me on tenterhooks as I didn’t know if I’d really be able to see my husband this year. And when I had almost given up hope, things miraculously worked out — Australia lifted the ban it had previously imposed on international travel.
After a restless twenty plus hours inside the aircraft, I am now safe and sound in the US. I am in a quaint little city called Evanston almost 20 kilometers north of Chicago along the shores of Lake Michigan. This is the beautiful home of Northwestern University — that’s where my husband is pursuing a masters degree in business administration.
My emotional state — HAPPY! A feeling of content and stillness. A silent cry of joy. I can finally let my guard down. The emotional freight of living alone for six months is slowly starting to wear off and I feel so much lighter. This is what having someone in our lives feels like…how we take people in our lives for granted.
I’ve now been in the US for a little over three weeks and it’s been an exhilarating experience — a far cry from living in Australia. Don’t get me wrong, living in Australia is fantastic but living in the US is something else. All the inflammatory news that I had read about the US so far that had got me antagonised towards Uncle Sam somehow got muted since the time I temporarily started living here, potentially the fact that my husband lives here now has had a part to play in my sentiment towards the country. Perhaps, I’ll learn more in the next month and a half that will sway my opinion who knows! But prima facie, this is my (premature) take on life in the US when juxtaposed with life in Australia — needless to say that this is my personal experience after living in Evanston and briefly visiting Chicago and new York and this may completely differ from someone else’s experience.
US is high octane — Sydney, the fastest paced city in Australia, will pale in comparison to the adrenaline rush and the scale that any metropolitan city in the US offers. I know it’s perhaps an unfair comparison — apples and oranges but what I am getting at is how infectious the energy of the US is when compared to Australia’s — is this the energy of capitalism I am sensing?
People here like cutting straight to the chase whereas in Australia, there is this word foreplay that must take place before getting to the point — direct conversations are seldom appreciated. But in the US, it’s always chop chop. Time is money so there’s seldom time for a casual chitchat or banter that’s usually the norm in Australia. I embarrassed myself a couple of times by trying to strike conversations with the local barista only for the barista to look askance at me and not engaging with me — needless to say, I ended up not tipping.
Additionally, the online delivery culture in Australia needs a lot of work so you will probably never experience instant gratification — if you order something today, be prepared to have the item delivered to you in a week’s time to say the least (even in the pre-Covid world). Delivery within a few hours is as uncommon as it is unheard of. Here in the US, Amazon’s 2-hour delivery window left me dumbfounded. On the downside, I have been shopping a lot and have been spoilt by this rapid ecommerce delivery culture. Yes, consumerism has consumed me.
The tipping culture and death by taxes — Coming from Australia, the tipping culture in the US initially seemed really strange to me. In Australia, at some places it is even considered rude and disrespectful to tip at a restaurant as the minimum wages are quite high when compared to the US wages so tipping is almost superfluous. But in the US, while the tipping culture is quite prevalent and considered normal, there are additionally a gazillion taxes and surcharges on top! I took a good one week to come to terms with the fact that while eating out or shopping what you see is not what you end up paying — Australia is quite straightforward in this regard and unlike the US, it doesn’t depend on the state one lives in within the country. Australia has a centralised taxation system and state taxes are not a thing here. So I never had to be stuck in my head carrying out the math for what it would actually cost me at the end of the day if I bought or ate something outside.
But oh the grandeur, opportunities and food — When I first visited the central business district (CBD) area in Chicago, also referred to as ‘The Loop’ — I was intoxicated on ambition . It’s absolutely stunning with skyscrapers lending a marvellous skyline to the city. The grandeur is inexplicable and I could understand why the US is called the land of opportunity. The general vibe is racy and it made me feel that the world is my oyster, compare this to the laidback life and attitude of the Aussies — I don’t mean this in a disparaging way. Australia makes me feel complacent and satisfied whilst the US made me feel that my wildest dream was within my reach.
I could fathom why US was ahead of the curve and was considered a global trend setter. I now knew why most clients I worked with in Australia looked up to the US for industry best practices and wanted to model their business after US companies.
Food in the US is unparalleled — just name a cuisine and you can be guaranteed the finest meal in that cuisine. I have never had a satisfying Indian meal in any restaurant in Melbourne but the food in the US is quite close to what you get in India, of course having a strong Indian community helps. From large portion sizes of meals at an affordable price (pre-tax) to feeling spoilt for choice by the plethora of food options in the supermarket. The food is so much in abundance that it might get difficult to show self restraint, no wonder why the obesity rate in the US is skyrocketing each year.
Although the food is great, I was massively disappointed by the poor quality of coffee that I tried in Evanston, Chicago and New York. Coming from Melbourne which is the coffee capital of the world and being a coffee lover — I am yet to taste a cup of joe that’s half as good as served in Melbourne.
The diversity is real — I was pleasantly surprised by the race and ethnicity diversity that exists in the US — Latinos, African Americans, Indians, Chinese, filipinos and many more. Of course, you might say — US was built on immigration. Yes, but so is Australia. But Australia is not even close to nipping at US’s heel. Australia has so much to learn from the US in terms of embracing immigrants in the true spirit and making them feel empowered in the economy. I know US has had a head start as far as immigration is concerned but it truly serves a great example of how far a nation can go if immigration is done right. I know there are several other problems the US is grappling with — gun violence, healthcare, illegal drug use, discrimination etc. where Australia is much better off but the ethos of meritocracy has stood the test of time, much to the advantage of the immigrants.
On the same note, I was also fortunate enough to visit Ellis Island in the New York harbour where it all began — Ellis Island served as the immigration station for the US for a long time and processed around 12 million immigration who entered America to pursue their dreams in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. The sight of the island served as a time machine and transported me back in time to imagine how the immigrants would have felt like leaving everything behind and stating afresh.
Honestly, call it infatuation that is likely to wear with time — US has made quite an impression on me.
Would I like to settle down here? Honestly, I haven’t even remotely considered it so far but what is it they say…never say never.
