You're not in NY, anymore-- a look at the surface differences of Penang

It has been said that you learn more about your culture by looking at a different one. 


Here, I am learning about my culture by living a different one. 


Here are some more obvious surface differences of life in Penang and life in the US:


In the US, I shop at stores with walls for food and clothes. Very rarely do I eat out, or buy food from a street vendor.


In Penang, I shop anywhere-- in the mall, or in the open air nightmarket. We eat out almost every day, and the food we get is from "hawker stalls", little shanties or more permanent open structures that host a variety of food.


              And when you eat out in Penang, you get your drinks from the same person you order the food from. Here, more often than not, a stall will sell either drinks or food, not both. 


And speaking of food, seeing cats and dogs in eating and food prep areas is normal. I realized that restaurants that are "shut down" due to health violations would be first class, pristine environments compared to some of the stalls here. And you know what? I don't even care that the person may have not even washed their hands. I am grateful for the food, it is good.

My nose, taste buds, and lungs have not had to compete with cigarette smoke while eating for a very, very long time. Remember the times when they had the almost useless "smoking sections" in the States? That isn't even thought of here. 

When I'm at home, I take my shoes off when I get inside, sometimes they make it to the shoe rack. 

Here, my neighbours in the apartment building all have many pairs of shoes strewn about before their doors, or neatly stacked on a gigantic shoe rack outside of their doors. The only problem I would have with doing this is the question of--how safe are all those shoes just lying by themselves? Will someone come by used shoe shopping, or is it just something nobody even thinks about stealing because they all do it? 

 

At home, there are fake and real Christmas trees. In the stores and public places, they go up in October, sometimes.

Here, there are no real Christmas trees. They have only just started putting up the fake ones (everywhere). My students had so many questions regarding this tradition: if the trees we get in the US are actually real, why we get real ones, where we get them, and if I was really pulling the wool over their eyes when I told them about Christmas Tree Farms. Their questions made me laugh a little inside. Those things we in the North take for granted and as tradition are thought of as near fiction to students who have grown up on the equator. 

At home, I am quite resistant to ever turning on the AC in the summer, with the exception of heat waves. Here, one of my favourite things at night is turning on my aircon in my room and journalling under the comforter... At home, I am mostly cold. Here, I am still cold unless I am outside. My teachers still laugh incredulously at my quirky need to always have a sweater/scarf inside. (Those rooms are COLD!) Air con. 25 degrees C is cool. 22C is air from the arctic. The ESL room is small, and feels like 19 degrees when the aircon is on.

When I find bugs at home, they are met with an ear piercing war-cry and imminent death. Here, I have more of a "live, and let live" mentality. They aren't really hurting me, and there are just so many that it is almost fruitless. This does not however, stop me in my daily attempts to oust the spider in my WC. I dump water on it, it moves to a drier spot on the large tub of water. We have a routine.