"If you think America is far away, than it is really further away than you can think of"! This is how i started my first email to friends and family, exactly 4 hours after i had landed for the first time in US via California. I was so tired after the trip, and everything around me seemed to be so strange and different than the European style (because yes, until now i could compare Romania with other European countries and find a lot of differences, but now even those appeared to be the same compared to US :-)). However, i could not put a finger on the things that made me feel this way, and after three weeks of living there, well, those feelings were totally gone, so i now make bigger efforts to remember them.
The main thing i felt about America is that everything was big. Arriving in Palo Alto, California, i could see big streets and houses not so close to each other. And then there were big cars, big food, big drinks, big everything. All those big spaces not being used (like for example in Europe where everything is crammed), together with jet lag that made me dizzy for some days created for my European self a general feeling on loneliness, similar to one an astronaut might get when setting foot on some empty far away planet. :-)
But then, there was San Francisco, with urban styles, tall buildings, cool streets, ocean view, fresh sea food you can eat on the go, the Golden Gate, hearing Pink Floyd while waiting for the nice tram that takes you up and down, beautiful views, and everything changed. :-)
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