The Reverse Sides of earth: Nepal and USA; an Experience Sharing by a Nepali
Its less than a week since I have been here at the United States of America and I have already seen few wired things around here, things that are most likely to appear wired to most of the other Nepalese and/or other South Asian students coming to the States. I am here to share some of those experiences.
Internet Versus Television
Lets start with Internet versus television comparision. Out there in the Nepal quite a significant percentage of people have access to the television. They can watch some (most probably down to three now as Image Channel doesn’t broadcast its TV channel as free air channel) free to air channels and most of the families in urban and sub urban areas already started getting cable lines to watch dozens of national as well as international channels. Televisions, cables and now dish TVs are really booming industries out there in Nepal plus it is among the cheapest means of news and entertainment. From poor soul to middle class, people enjoy the television but only some rich people have access to the computer and even lesser portion of that have access to the Internet. But here at states things are different (maybe since the last decade). Internet is cheaper way of information exchange and almost everyone have it. They use it all day and all night with very fast speed (mine is 12Mbps) while the television on the other hand are supposed to be expensive tools to have and only rich people are supposed to watch television channels, rest of them will watch streaming videos from the Internet and believe me the streaming is darn popular here: a lot more than it is in developing countries (for the reason you can guess easily).
Network Providers
Texts (SMSes) are generally supposed to be ( or used to be supposed as) relatively cheaper way of communication rather than calls in Nepal but here at the states, texts are kind of expensive than calls. Here at states the network providers (or telecom operators) offers various packages for texts, calls and internet and flat rates are generally available meaning you can use those pacakages unlimited if you pay certain amount of money. Such unlimited packages are also available for data (intenet) usage as well.
In comparison, the cost of text and calls are very expensive (except for the unlimited packages) here that in Nepal and international calls seems even more troublesome. One can make calls to USA for free using skype or google call (with a trick for both of them) or with many other websites that are available easily on a single google search but calling from USA to other countries is very expensive in comparison. Another thing is if you want to call to USA (and probably some more countries) from Nepal, NTC has a cheaper dialing system using 1424. For that put 1424 in front of the international number of the USA subscriber (eg 14241702xxxxxxx). It costs only about NRs 5 per minute. Calling from NCell or CDMA directly are probably more cheaper than 1424 for NTC though. So if your family members doesn’t calls you regularly then you know why it may be: its the cost, or maybe its other things as well (busy). Either way its better if you call from Nepal than anyone calling from here.
Electric Plugs
The electric plug used here has a rectangular pins instead of usual rounded pin in Nepal meaning the charger I brought from my mobile was useless here but maybe some intermediate plugs to connect it is avaiable. But no worries for charging my mobile as my Nokia N900 has usb charging cable which can be used anywhere around the globe so no hassle of buying anything like that.
Water Supply
Most of Asian countries still have intermittent water supply system meaning water will be served to the taps only in certain time of the day or even week. Even more, taps are still not the dominant source of water considering its coverage and people still uses wells, ponds, rivers and underground pumping for water. But here the water supply is continuous (as can be expected) and the head (or pressure) of water supply is very high (no need to store water at home, tap will do it all). It feels like water pumped from home pumping system people use to pump water in upper floors. One more thing, the water supply system includes a hot water alongside and not only the cold water system. Another thing is that the cost of this facility is also in flat rate meaning it doesn’t matter how much water you use, pay a fixed water tariff and you and all fine. Same goes for the electricity (maybe both have some limits though), use as much electricity as you like and pay fixed amount of money, maybe that’s why Las Vegas never sleeps.
Bike Versus Car
I guess most of you are aware about the bike versus car system here. Here in states, cars are cheaper while bikes are very expensive and are brought only by fanatics of bike (although he needs to be rich). It may sound very awkward at first but two of the reasons for that would be 1. High tax for bikes (for lesser accidents or more safety) and 2. Yes its bike but they are all darn sporty bikes and not cheap Hero Honda models found in Nepal.
Cooking time?
Most people here go to restaurants and do not bother cooking or maybe do not have time to cook but international students like me do love to cook as it is a lot cheaper than going to restaurants. But again cooking doesn’t consume much time because everything is kind of ready made. If you want to fry potatoes then all you would do is buy packets of ready made potatoes (its already washed, chopped into pieces and spices are already added). All you need to do is put inside a oven and turn it on for a minute and its ready to be served. Again all the cooking stuffs are done using the electric appliances and gas (the one you are used to with in Nepal) is supposed to be expensive and to be used by rich persons only. But beware, here gas means the Petrols and Disels and not LPG gas, people fill gas in their vehicles :).
Favorite Time Pass
Internet is also a favourite time pass of many people probably because the people here do not socialize a lot. The roads are generally empty and schools and offices are generally the places where people meet each other, its kind of rare to see people in the road although that doesn’t hold quite true for some places of Vegas.
Nokia versus the rest
Maybe you were thinking that Nokia is most preferred brand in Asia as well as rest of the world but no its not the case here (many mobile fans would already know this). Its really hard to see any Nokia phones anywhere here, neither there are any Nokia store nor any (or many) Nokia phones are offered by network providers. Iphone is most popular brand as you would expect followed by probably samsung. And so in general its Apple versus the rest than Nokia versus the rest.
Why Bath?
Bathing here seems more like keeping the environment clean rather that cleaning your body. In Nepal we bath because you were out whole day and that your body is contaminated by dust and other infections but here dusts are rare. The roads and surrounding are a lot cleaner that in capital city of Nepal, a lot more healthier.
E-things
E-books and emailing are a lot more popular here at states. Even professors uses mail a lot to give assignments and more to the students and that is indeed a serious instruction and you have to follow that too. Similarly online shoppings (or eshoppings) are very popular here and everyone are used to with that.
Driving from left, be careful
The driving here is right sided driving meaning you would drive from right side instead of left as in many other countries. Plus if you are thinking of violating any traffic rules that easy then beware, law enforcement is a lot more strict that in Nepal.
So lots of things are upside down here at the states and maybe thats what is called the “Culture Shock” or may be I have yet to face the major portion of the shock (interaction with other peoples, especially other Americans). Till now everything is fine here, mostly because my seniors and here to help me, I didn’t have to bother getting apartment, reaching apartment from airport and so on. Its still to see how I would handle rest of the shocks, keep on checking the site for more.
