1 year ago, I moved from Lebanon to Orange County, CA with my wife and 3 children.
A few thoughts on 🇺🇸
1) agree with
@tomosman that constant sunshine, good weather, and easy access to nature makes an immense difference to your overall health.
2) horizontal development results in sunshine soaking up land and endless blue skies. mood changer. hard to describe with words.
3) california's raw geography and sheer scale is incredible and quite underrated when comparing to europe and the middle east.
4) children are happier when they have space. OC has an abundance of large outdoor spaces purposely built for families.
5) beach walks in california are built different. unique mix of raging pacific waves and endless clean shores that are not crowded for most of the year.
6) the usa is hyperlocal. nobody understands this until they live here.
6.1) driving from newport beach to anaheim is akin to driving from beirut to damascus. completely different cities. different infrastructure. different communities.
7) beautiful architecture is absent. common strip malls are really atrocious. OC has some very nice ones though.
8) people in the middle east care more for what biden is doing in the whitehouse than people in OC.
9) level of obesity is alarming. not sure why it seems that being healthy and eating well has somewhat been dragged into the partisan culture war.
10) sports culture is incredible and a net positive. never really understood why america was generally so good in sports until now.
11) kids are pushed by parents to participate in team sports from as early as 3 years old. cities provide easy opportunities for organized competition. this culture not only unlocks talent, but teaches kids at an early age so may good traits that develop when part of a team.
12) the private vs public school discussion is really nuanced and uniquely american. still learning. public schooling is atrocious in Lebanon so was never an option.
13) OC has some of the best public school districts. excellent teachers. the level of involvement by parents in their local public schools is refreshing.
14) from the outside, it always seemed to me that the american family nucleus was not as strong as it is in arab culture. quite surprised that i have seen the opposite. parents in OC are much more involved with their children than most parents in the middle east, where you have access to cheap live-in help and drivers that parents delegate most of the redundant kid related tasks to.
14.1) children in the arab world tend to stick with their parents for longer. americans tend to push for independence at 18. now i am thinking the reason for this difference is possibly the burn out associated with the fact that american parents spend 100% of their free time (physically and mentally) with their kids from 1 to 18.
15) we find it harder to trust a local stranger to be a babysitter for 3 hours than it was trusting a stranger from another country to be a live-in nanny. still trying to explain this phenomena.
16) the buy-in into entertainment is on another level. from sports to tv shows, americans just buy into the whole thing in a way that creates fun and engaging discourse and experiences.
17) my first superbowl weekend experience was a great confirmation of this. everyone buys-in. the pre and post game punditry, the national coverage, the halftime show, the halftime ads. its really great and again, uniquely american.
18) consumer spending and general purchasing power compared to other countries is eye opening. this creates economic opportunity at scale.
19) america is a melting pot of cultures. OC is a mix of white/black americans, asians, persians, latinos, and arabs. while each group somewhat retains its own culture, i have realized that pure "american culture" exists in this weird world of commoditized seasonal festivities. halloween, thanksgiving, xmas, easter, back to school...etc.
20) american kids eat too much burgers, chicken nuggets, pizza, and pasta. awful diet and without an intentional effort, parents find themselves surrendering to those meals much more than they want.
21) the culture war stuff is not as abundant and apparent as mainstream media makes it seem.
22) most people in OC are more conservative than they would like to admit.
23) as an outsider, hard to wrap my mind around some of the culture war discussions. genuinely confused at some stuff being debated. any reasonable person should be able to differentiate between gender and identity. and any reasonable person should know that children do not have a great grasp on reality. this should not be offending to anyone.
24) being intentional about where you live based on your current priorities is so important to general health and happiness.
25) healthcare is a mixed bag. its definitely really expensive. some things work well. some things are mind boggling. still figuring out the system.