New York Bus Terminal Story and National Culture Shock

I'm heading for Waterloo in a few days. I'm a little anxious, a little excited, a little scared. It's fun to start a new page clean. I get there, I don't know a single soul. I get to build my network slowly but surely. This time though with more experience. If I can handle Montreal, I can surely handle this small town. Or can I? Are there any surprises waiting for me?

People in Waterloo so far seem really nice. A bit warmer than in big cities. I want to live among people like that. I was told by Penny, a woman who runs a little old used book shop in Hamilton Bermuda that people in Nova Scotia are some of the nicest people she's ever met. I keep hearing that the east coast is home to the friendliest canadians. And that says alot if you compare it to the friendliness rate in the U.S. I don't really want to bash americans but I think I will anyway. Our cultures are fundamentally different in the fact that Canada is more altruistic and U.S. is more individualistic. I want to stress that I blame the culture, not the people. People won't help you in the U.S. unless you shout louder than the guy next to you. I got this experience with my travels on the cruises and also just last week on my trip to New York. I'm sure New York is the worst case scenario.
Take the bus system for example: There was no one in any of the information booths in the evening, therefore there was no way of finding out which gate was the one for Syracuse. Even the departures on the TV screens didn't have our route. So we had to check each individual departure gate ourselves. Finally when we found it (gate 62), the wrong time of departure was posted (they are all posted manually like the white letters we put on the menus in chip stands). One would think that New York would be a little more organised and a little more technologically advanced. After waiting in line at gate 62, as we approached the bus, we are told that we should be at gate 61, because that's the one with the transfer to Ottawa. Ok, no problem, I've waved it off. So we skipped a few people in gate 61. The bus driver tells us they have no more seats for two people together, but there should be another bus arriving at this gate just after this one leaves. Ok, that was nice of him to consider putting us together. But the driver decides to let on another 10 to 15 people on the bus and then leaves us hanging there like two lost canadians. Another bus did indeed arrive, but out comes about 20 black men who are all in distress about making a transfer somewhere and no one pays attention to us. We wait for a little while as our gut feeling tells us, we shouldn't be here. It couldn't be right. So just as the bus from gate 62 is about to leave we ask the driver where we are supposed to be. He replies, "this is your bus, you should have been in this line, we were leaving without you" and then chuckles. I am fuming by this time. So off we go on the original bus. Oh, those lost canadians! On this bus, the temperature was about 38 degrees C. And it was worse in the back where we were. No one was telling the driver to lower it, so I got up in the dark and jumped over everybody to ask him to lower it a bit. It was still too warm. Anyways, I wasn't gonna ask him twice. So we just hung in there. When we arrived to make our transfer in Syracuse, we had to find our luggage ourselves. Turns out he hadn't opened the right compartments and it took everything for the driver to open the last one where we were sure they were. So I practically threw all the luggage out to grab mine. It just felt weird to do that on my own. Finally, we transfered to the Ottawa bus, and we lived happily ever after. I am beginning to think that we are not liked by Americans because we didn't support them in the war. They could probably tell we were canadians by the fact that we had smiles on our faces.

The moral is, I love Canada. Our services are friendlier and more organized. There are signs telling us where to go and if that's not clear enough, the staff is usually ready to help with a smile. Maybe I'm just not used to the way things work in the U.S. I think culture has alot to do with it. Canada was raised to be more altruistic. I still think it's due to the harsh winter weather of the New World. But I'll give New York two things: the food and entertainment is great. New York is actually the most amazing city I have ever been to. It has the strongest vibe. And New Yorkers are very friendly on vacation cruises. We had the opportunity to spend a whole week with people from NJ and NY. After this experience, I would return to the Big Apple in a heart beat. But one thing's for sure: next time I'll fly.

Cognitive science article on sleep deprivation

Great article on sleep deprivation

http://www.harvardmagazine.com/on-line/070587.html

good to know this stuff.