1) Everything is so loud. And big. That includes but is not limited to buildings, cars, advertisements, doors, apples etc. (Note to self: Haha, Big Apple. They get the joke. You are a freaking comedic genius.)
2) We need to buy towels. Like. Right now.
I wanted to take a shower this morning - I felt a generally icky feeling regarding my hair and armpits. Only problem was that we didn't take any towels with us. When did I realise this? After I'd already taken my shower? You bet ya! So there I was, left with three choices: 1)Dry off with the relatively clean Olympic Casino towel the previous owner had left us, 2)Use about 2000 Kleenex or 3)Run naked across the busy streets of NYC to dry off.
I opted for the first option. Now I think I might have AIDS. (I told my mother, who pushed me towards the first option also: "If I get AIDS from this towel, it's your problem." She answered with a very reassuring: "You won't get AIDS from the towel...And if you do it definitely won't be my problem.")
(Disclaimer: You probably can't actually get AIDS from towels.)
3)Everything is sweeter.
I have no idea, if this is my mind playing tricks on me or if it actually is so, but everything tastes...sweeter, fattier than back home. And also the serving sizes seem to be bigger. I did a quick Google search and as it turns out Coca-cola per example does use different ingredients in different countries. The formula as it is seems to stay the same, but (as wiseGeek explains it) ''Each bottling company adds water and whatever sweeteners are used for that specific type of coke.''
There was a really interesting article on this phenomenon, here's the link: http://www.wisegeek.org/is-the-formula-for-coca-cola-the-same-in-all-countries.htm
(Holy crap. I just started singing "Ticket to the moon" by the Electric Light Orchestra to myself in my mom's office and then realised that there are other people in the office working that could have heard me. I turned completely red and am currently wishing for the ground could swallow me up.)
4)All the shop attendants ask you ''How are you?'' without actually expecting an answer.
The first time someone said that to me, I was completely shocked. When people ask you ''How are you?'' in Estonia, they are most probably your friends/family and expect a short overview of everything going on in your life. If you answer with ''I'm fine'', they might think you're hiding something.
To top it all off: No shop attendant in Estonia has ever asked me ''Kuidas läheb?'' in my entire life. (If you don't know what ''Kuidas läheb?'' means, go to google translate. Ain't no shame in it. I used it all the time for my Russian homework... Oh so that's why I got C-s on my Russian homework. Let me just tell you then; ''Kuidas läheb? '' means ''How are you?'' in Estonian.)
It just seems unnatural to me. In the world I know: If a shop attendant asks you ''How are you?'', they want to know about your life, feelings and well-being. What? Why? I'm Estonian, I ain't trusting no strangers with no knowledge of no state of no life...I can't pull of thug, can I? Damn it!
Thank you for reading :) (I'll try to have some photos for the next post in a few days)
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