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+# Lessons in the US of A
+
+Recently I made the mistake of living in the US of A, the paramount
+capitalist hell of the modern world. As a consequence, I had to relearn
+some facts, because everything works different here.
+
+## August 2023: Moving in
+
+### The good
+
+- They put free pads and tampons even in the men's bathroom
+- I can ride the bus for free with my student card
+- By custom I should greet the bus driver, who will greet back
+- Food comes in absolutely gigantic portions
+- Central campus is much more walkable than I thought
+- A French press is very easy to use and much cheaper than a coffee
+  machine
+- To request a stop on a bus you just pull the rope-y thing
+- You can take all the time you need to get off the bus. No pressure to
+  stand up in advance.
+- Pedestrians have absolute right of way, I hypothesize you could even
+  cross the street blindfolded and not get hit by a car
+
+### The bad
+
+- Power outages happen every year and somehow people are okay with it and
+  do nothing to improve the infrastructure
+- Toilet paper comes in single ply by default
+- Apartments don't have ceiling lights and rely on floor lamps. There is
+  a dedicated outlet wired to a light switch which I found by poking with
+  a multimeter
+- Everything in the supermarket seems reasonably priced as long as you
+  don't convert it to your home currency
+- The washing machine isn't working??
+- Power failure?? In IKEA???
+- The carpet makes my desk jiggly
+- Drinks are most often cold, even chilled. Even chocolate.
+- Internet failure?? In a university???
+
+### The neither
+
+- Kroger closes at 10 pm
+- The cord to a power strip is very, _very_ thicc
+- My apartment has a coaxial port for internet which I've never seen in my
+  life
+- Michigan law does not require you to have a front license plate
+
+## September 2023: Settling down
+
+### The good
+
+- They hand out free shirts and swag at the pride event
+- Drag shows, fully unhinged
+- I can just _get_ a Kroger card? Like for free?
+- I found Three Cheers posters on sale
+- tfw fresh clothes from a dryer. hmmm
+- Internet is super fast
+- There are no stray animals here (with the side effect that I have not
+  seen a single cat on this land)
+- One month in and I've seen three people in band merch T-Shirt of quality
+  taste
+- None of the instructors read from the slides; they really go to great
+  lengths explaining stuff
+
+### The bad
+
+- Ann Arbor buses just… stop operating at 20:00 on Sunday?? (Update: this
+  might have been related to labor day)
+- _One_ bus per hour?? Unimaginable in Shanghai
+- I got charged $3 just for inserting my bank card into another bank's ATM
+- $15 tax on a bass. $50 tax on a laptop.
+- Campus ethernet broke and so did teaching infrastructure, e.g.
+  autograders
+- Huge thanks to the Amazon driver who attempted to deliver my package on
+  a Sunday morning at 6:50 AM. Why would Amazon send a worker to deliver
+  my package this early
+- Oh so Xfinity broke too? What the fuck is wrong with American
+  infrastructure
+
+### The neither
+
+- My textbook is "loose leaf", which means a pile of pages I have bind
+  myself. Pro: I can carry only the chapters I want. Con: I have to use
+  zipties as a dirty hack before my binder arrives
+
+## October 2023: Speeding up
+
+### The good
+
+- There are record stores within walking distance from central campus
+- I found some rare vinyls there (but didn't buy them)
+- You don't have a seatplan in exams so you can sit anywhere in your
+  assigned room
+
+### The bad
+
+- OK I got my Amazon package (new laptop) one week later but it's the
+  wrong color
+- Fucking Lenovo. ThinkPads had _one_ killer feature and you killed it.
+  Bring back the 1.8mm travel keyboard you cowards
+- Should have bought Gen 2 instead of Gen 3. Also should have made sure
+  about the color.
+- Downtown Ann Arbor is nothing like the university campus. There are
+  beggars, jaywalkers, disabled people who struggle to wheelchair
+  themselves across the sloped street, and that one guy who yells for some
+  reason. Says a lot about society
+
+### The neither
+
+- None
+
+## End
+
+As of 2024-01-11 I feel there's not much to add, because my transition to
+life in the US of A seems complete. bruh