Likes and Dislikes

After 6 weeks of living here, these are the things I dislike about America:

Door-stoppers on the back of doors instead of on walls. What is the point of this? The point of a regular Australian door-stopper is to stop the door handle from slamming into the wall and damaging it. A door stop like the one pictured just moves the point of impact away from the door handle to the top of the door and does nothing to protect the wall.

Toilets that don't flush well. Before coming to the States, I had never seen a toilet get blocked. Now I've seen it four times.














No free-to-air TV. Seriously. If you want TV you have to get some form of pay TV (cable or satellite). Or, if you're smart, you'll get a streaming media player and subscribe to Netflix.







4-way stops. These are ridiculous. They cause much confusion and faffing around and all this could be avoided with a simple roundabout or traffic lights. Still, I guess they are better than a four-way uncontrolled intersection, which has, I'm sure, been the cause of many a collision.

Hot cross buns with icing! I bought some hot cross buns for Easter, expecting the normal water-and-flour cross on top. I was wrong. It was icing. It was like a Boston bun. It seemed sort of wrong for the occasion, considering what we are remembering

Pedestrian lights with no audio signal. This is something that I've grown accustomed to in Tasmania, and it's only when there was no audio signal that I realized that I had been listening for the signal and not looking at the light at all.

Allegedly 'healthy' breakfast cereals that are loaded with sugar. I bought a box of the pictured cereal. It looks healthy, doesn't it? All those bran flakes, the words 'whole grain' and 100% RDI of 11 vitamins. What they don't advertise is it's actually 32% sugar (according to the Nutrition Facts on the side of the box, which I really should have read before purchasing it) and ingredients 3, 5 and 6 are sugar, corn syrup and brown sugar syrup, respectively.








The IRS. It seems not many people are fond of the IRS. I'm especially not fond of their treatment of non-resident aliens, such as us. My pay is taxed at the highest rate and I can only claim one allowance (for myself), even though I have two dependents (who would normally also get an allowance). What's with that? Are non-resident alien dependents  less expensive to look after or something? It just doesn't make sense and seems quite unfair. I know we aren't citizens and citizens get more perks than non-citizens, but come on! I'm not sure of the tax rules in Australia for temporary visitors, but I've not heard any complaints from my international friends. Nevertheless, I suppose America has to recoup it's huge debt somehow.


And these are the things I really like about America:
Easy access to bagels. Seriously, bagels are awesome. They are poached in boiling water briefly before being baked, which gives them a soft crust and a chewy crumb. Everyone here eats them with cream cheese. They're really common to eat for breakfast. I'm a huge fan of this tradition and it must be introduced into Australia when we return. I used to make them in Australia when I had more time. I will again soon. But in the meantime, the ones from shops are pretty darn good.

The spelling of 'jail', 'gray' and the 'ize' sound at the end of words like 'realize' and 'initialize'. I know it's not 'the Queen's English' but these spellings actually makes more sense.

Pop-tarts! Two pastries for two slots in the toaster. What's not to love?















The people of Minnesota. Generally speaking, they are really friendly. They'll say hi to you in the street. They comment on the weather and how cute Micah is. This aspect of Minnesota feels like home.

Super-fast internet. I'm loving my 20 Mbps at the moment. And our unlimited uploads and downloads for only $38 per month.

Cheaper access to internet shopping sites. I like particular kinds of clothes and gadgets, and since all these sites are US-based, the postage within the US is heaps cheaper than sending stuff to Australia. I hope to take advantage of this while we're here.

The University of Minnesota. This is where I work and they've been good to me so far. The people there are really helpful and friendly and really want to see me succeed.

Thrift shops. We've only been to one, actually. But it's great. We've found lots of good stuff there for very cheap (which is important). It could just be due to the size of the city, but this shop seems to have way more cool stuff than the ones I'm used to in Tasmania.

Customer service. Particularly in restaurants, but also in grocery stores take away places. Sure they are probably just doing for a tip, but it's still very nice.

So there you have it. My likes and dislikes of America so far. I hope the latter list grows much longer.