Raleigh NC business visit

It's 11:54 pm as I start writing this post in Raleigh North Carolina USA. This was my last working day of this business trip. I will be catching my flight back to India tomorrow. Pondering about how this trip went and my over all experience, it turns out to be quite interesting. There are many aspects to it. All are worth reflecting.

1. The flight journey from Chennai to Raleigh was quite horrible with 4 hours delay in Germany. Even without delays, there was a 6 hours of layover in Germany. So it's 10 hours layover in all.
2. In Chennai I wished my dear ones to come and send me off in Chennai airport. They did. I would have appreciated someone picking me at Raleigh airport. That didn't happen. Nor did it happen during my previous visit last year. I managed alone with my English which is much difficult for people here to understand. Yet everything happened well.
3. Room stunk, I suffocated. You can't open windows for long as it's too cold outside. You have to adjust with 2 mins or 5 mins of open window. But after that brief ventilation period, the suffocation was gone.
4. ACs here heat as well. That's the main function in the AC machine people here use more than cooling.
5. I was afraid that I will have to use only the toilet papers. In the beginning it would be uncomfortable. Later you get used to it. And... and... You do all the intense cleaning during your bath 😇.
6. Buildings are huge. Good space between each building. Unlike our IT parks that has like 10-15 buildings, IT parks here are smaller, has lesser number of blocks 2 - 3 and have less people. The parking spaces are enormous.
7. The ratio of women uber drivers to men is 1:1. No time exceptions. You book a cab at 11 at night, there's absolutely 50% chance that the driver is a lady. Time doesn't matter to them. State has ensured safety.
8. Pedestrians are respected a lot. Every signal has a pole in the side of the road. That pole has a button. Pedestrians can simply press that to light a red signal. In peak traffic hours these don't work, but in other times they work well. 
9. I have heard about pedestrians who were hit by vehicles given big compensations and even given work permit (H1B visa is not the only route ;-) ). Rules are strict and people fear the rules.
10. In this part of the year (Feb), the trees look dry without any leaves. There is mist everywhere. Despite unattractive trees, with fog and snowfall and rain, the whole city is very scenic.
11. Our normal traffic is too much for people here. People don't honk. I came to know that honking is not well received here. People take it offensively.
12. People are very welcoming. Everyone greets you. Any random cab driver would be seen asking, "how was your day buddy?" You don't have to be knowing each other in the past for him to be your buddy (friend).
13. Queues are strict. I once went directly to my hotel receptionist to ask about my failed room key. She politely responded, "I am currently attending this lady. You are next to that gentleman. They are waiting in the queue." Marana bangam :( .
14. People come to office at 8:45 am. The ones coming at 9:30 am are the most late ones. Beyond that is very rare. They go to lunch at 12 noon. Many take a short to long walk after lunch. All play TT between 3 and 4. They are all ready with enthusiasm to go back home by 5:15 pm. You will be accompanied by only housekeeping staff beyond 6.
15. People who are 60+ code happily and enthusiastically here. They don't want to manage teams, they don't want to approve your leaves, they don't want to appraise you and rate you, they don't want to do all those management stuff. A colleague and team mate of mine is 63 and he's still enthusiastic about coding. You can't do that in India. If you don't become a team lead in India when you are 10 years experienced, you better be ready with some justifications in job interviews. They do ask why you're still a software engineer or a senior software engineer. They judge you that you are not technically sound and you are incapable of managing or leading a team.
16. Veg foods are very rare. Eggs are veg. If you order a 'hibachi veg with fried rice', that rice may be a egg rice. You have to say that you don't want egg, meat, fish, chicken, etc clearly. Then you may get boiled vegetables for 9$s. Subway (the restaurant) has a separate veg side. They make sandwich (subs as they call it) in front of your eyes. This is the only way you can be sure you are not served meat. If your hotel has stove, better cook yourself.
17. Filter coffees are NOT available. You have to make your peace with vending machine cappuccino, latte, espresso, etc. Milk comes in tetra packs. Doesn't get spoiled for days. I highly suspect the nature of preservatives used. Exercise caution. Small sugar packets would be available near the vending machines. Milk would be available in big tetra packs (2 l or 5 l). Oh, people here use ounces, gallons instead of litre. Microwave owens help you heat the coffee.
18. Most vehicles are auto gears. No shifting gears. Just breaks and accelerators. Like Activa. Sometimes feels like girly to me, but people here prefer such gearless vehicles.
19. People go at ~65 mph in city traffic and ~100 mph in highways.
20. An Indian friend said. "Like we have casteism there, we have racism here. Whites look down upon blacks. People here have bad prejudices about blacks. They simply blame them for crime rates when there is no substantial data to support their claim. Isn't that bad?". In another instance when we were alone walking on road, he said, "This area has more blacks, let's go that way and be safe." I replied, "I like that approach machi. (Mind voice: That's how we fight prejudices against blacks.)"
21. College education is costly. All students take education loan. Parents don't pay for college. That concept is unheard of here. Students work in Subways, Mc Donalds, Chipotle, Burger Kings, Ice cream shops, etc for hourly wages to pay for their term fees or personal loan.
22. You can't travel without GPS. You won't find any buildings when you travel in roads. Your place would be hidden behind trees. GPS is quite accurate. You can trust it.
23. New York is just like any ill maintained metro cities. Cigarette smell seems to be everywhere. It seems to get stagnated in the mist and doesn't go off that easily as the air circulation is less with the stagnant mist.
24. New Jersey was good. In Indian areas roads are bad. All politicians take Indians for granted including politicians in America. Sigh :( .
25. Hard labor is almost absent. No body ever carries anything. They use big trolleys.
26. My office motivates employees with alcohol in Friday evenings. Employees sit over a wine, enjoy meat kept as accompaniment to alcohol, have a casual chat, greet everyone a happy weekend and leave.
27. Wednesday lunch was free in my office.
28. Every day, there'd be bread, jam, sauce. You don't have to cook at home if you are ok with bread everyday. All are free.
29. Coke, pepsi, sprite, mountain dew, all are free in office.
30. Apples, peaches, avacados, oranges, bananas are all free.
31. Indians from even hardcore Hindu families eat beef. They just don't tell their parents. Sigh ;( . OMG. What a gau rakshak and unsecular I have become! Sorry guys. I won't mind anymore.
32. Temples are too good. BAPS aka. Swaminarayan temple is the one nearer to my hotel compared to other temples. I visited it thrice. I make it a point to visit it on Sunday around noon to taste annadhanam. You caught me. I can excuse myself from cooking on Sunday afternoons this way and more importantly escape from my cooking. 😂
33. The Gujarati community that owns and maintains the temple is really awesome. In the temple premises they teach Gujarati, their dance, their music, their bhajans, slokas, hindustani music, etc. They also have auditorium for arangetrams (stage performances). They are one strongly rooted community.
34. Both wifi network at the hotel as well as mobile network of T-mobile suck. I have had hard time with video calling to amma and wife.
35. Good looking interns were always there, even before I arrived there. They had joined a couple of month back. I was never interested in them. My wife said about gazing at men in airport (sight adiching 😜) to tease me. I wanted to counter tease her and I said about flirting with the interns. I could not gauge the impact it had on her.
36. With all the new things and fascinations, I could still do good job at work.

It was fun. It's overall mixed feeling to part away from this place. Despite all good things about this place, this is not India.