Americans do it right! (Patreon)

As you all know, I've been spending some solid time here in the United States over the past 2 months setting things up with C-milk, I will be going back to China in the very near future, but until then I'm still working at editing some ADV content and finishing up some very important business here with regards to things such as an American driver's license and getting my corvette legal on the road in California as well as a bunch of other more pressing issues so that when I return I won't have to deal with all sorts of nonsense and I can just get stuck into making solid content for you all.

The thing that has so far made the biggest impression on me is just how friendly and relatable almost everyone that I interact with here in the USA is (and that includes other states, not just CA). Also just how wrong most local Americans are about this topic too, and please hear me out because if you're American, you're both wrong and right and I'll explain. 

Please watch the video first then I'll explain what happened:

https://youtu.be/pfEnDB-19Ys

So I was sitting in the in-n-out burger for lunch yesterday and from my experience so far here in the states it's pretty normal to have a staff member who's job it is to go around being overly friendly asking random customers if everything is okay and basically trying to give the restaurant a positive vibe or to at the very least convey the message that they are providing care and service to you (this can be very annoying and is very obviously fake for the most part and just part of their job).

With this guy, he was just doing his job and saw my helmet and asked me what sort of bike I ride and we had a little conversation (I assumed it was just nonsense and he wasn't actually interested in bikes) but he was polite and friendly and I appreciated that. As I was leaving however he came out and really wanted to take a look at the bike and you can see what transpired in the video.

The thing is, this isn't the first genuine interaction I've had and to be honest, even the fake interactions, the tacked on politeness and feigned interest that I get when dealing with bank tellers, supermarket checkout clerks, shop attendants, car wash staff and all the rest of the usual sorts of people that I interact with on a day to day basis here (yes, even DMV staff believe it or not) is such an incredible breath of fresh air and I'm very happy to participate in this polite banter and quirky side of American social culture, in fact I absolutely love it and appreciate it more than you may know. Perhaps it just the very many years of robotic interactions in China, service staff and strangers very rarely take any interest or have any interaction with you other than "here's your change" or "oh look, a foreigner", so to have people shout out "cool car" or "hey sir, I like your suit" is both alien and incredibly refreshing! I hear a lot of my American acquaintances complaining about very very trivial things but that is to be expected, if you're used to a certain standard of living and something trivially bad comes along, you will of course perceive it as a massive issue, whereas I come from a broken country and more than a decade as an outsider in a developing country and so for me, there is a lot of good going on around me here that I can truly appreciate and I can't express enough just how many good things the USA has going for it. I see the big negative issues too and I'm especially shocked at how tough it can be for the average person on the street here to make a good living and get on a good solid path in life, but these are issues I will try to address when I'm more familiar with living here, in the meantime I'd like to personally thank each and every one of my American supporters and subscribers who have genuinely shown me just how welcoming you are as a nation and you have my utmost respect.

Next post and video will be China related for sure and until next time, you know the drill!

- Stay Awesome

SerpentZA