California, USA: Clean, Convenient & Hospitable

What a whirlwind!  We've been back in the States for just 2 weeks for 3 weddings and holy cow our heads are spinning.  Los Angeles, Pasadena, Orange County, San Francisco, Los Gatos, Southern Oregon, down the coast back to SF then to San Diego for a Radiohead Concert and now up in San Luis Obispo for Wedding #2.  I am a tourist in my home state and it's been rather enjoyable (and tiring!).  I feel as though I am seeing my home country through new eyes.  Maybe I am.

I have come to appreciate America in a way I never saw or felt before.  First of all, we live in such a pristinely CLEAN place.  Look around you.  What do you notice?  Manicured lawns, nicely paved streets and sidewalks, pretty gardens and absolutely zero trash strewn about.  Spotless retail stores with nicely stacked merchandise free of dust and grime.  Clean restrooms, cars and people.  No stink as you walk down the street.  No, this isn't what I am used to but damn do I appreciate cleanliness.

And the convenience!  You can get absolutely anything you want at any time.  Do you realize just how fortunate we really are?  You want red licorice at 3:30am?  Sure.  How about watching Star Wars right now?  You can get it.  What about that double nonfat soy vanilla latte, hold the vanilla and make it with Splenda not sugar?  You got it with a giant smile.  The list goes on and on.  I completely took for granted how much and what you can get anywhere, anytime.  Credit card is universally accepted, even for a $1.25 newspaper.  (This is NOT the case in many countries!  Not even accepted at a market or restaurant in many cases.)  And you wonder why credit card debt in our country is a ubiquitous problem.  America is frighteningly convenient.  But that's another story.

The hospitality took me by surprise.   I used to work in the hospitality industry and I was still floored just how friendly and thoughtful everyday interactions are here.  I mean sure, you get the occasional person in a bad mood but overall, customer service is king.  One of the first stores I went into after returning home asked me on the credit card swipe screen "How was your experience with your checker today?" and before I could sign my name, it required me to answer.  Whoa!  I am used to a giant sigh from a clerk or server and a look like I am bothering them by being in their shop or cafe.  I should say it wasn't this way everywhere all the time in other countries, but the norm is to be unhelpful and unappreciative to the customer whereas here it is revered to be helpful and pleasant.  Americans have come to expect it.

There is no question that I now see and appreciate America in a new light.  But I also appreciate Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia for what they are and what I have learned while visiting (see blog entries 1 - 70! :)  It makes me appreciate home.  But I am just as thrilled to leave again on September 9 for Europe in the fall:  Greece, Italy, France, Holland...