It is fascinating how fast you reach a ”new normal”
I’ve been in the states for a whole month now and I cannot really decide if it feels like a lot more or a lot less. You get into a rhythm. You get used to everything from the sound of the fighter jets from the nearby airfield practising loops, to the sweat producing hills on the way to school and reading all the food labels as a vegan (them Americans, hiding milk and cheese in everything from bread to cereal and pizza-dough…)

I’m biking to school on my emerald green secondhand bike with blue fenders. I’m remembering to take left and not right by the bush with all the hummingbirds. I’m not forgetting to adress my professors with their titles and saying ”thank you” to the bus driver. I’m starting to figure out where to buy groceries (Trader Joe’s has the best hummus, Ralph’s the cheapest fruit and Whole Foods the best tea) and how the oven in the house works. Though I’m not fluent in Fahrenheit yet, I still need to calculate to get to Celsius (subtract 32 and multiply with 0.55, -ish…). I’ve ordered a clothes rack and a small desk for my little corner over the staircase and finally moved out of my suitcase. Oh, and I got myself a guitar too, my new Ibanez AW54 and I are already the best of friends…

To sum up: it feels as if I’m slowly starting to build up a little life here. Looking at the bigger picture, it’s not too different from back home in Sweden, I mean, the things you’re doing are kind of the same. You study/work, buy groceries, cook dinner, work out, hang out with friends etcetera. Maybe that the frame holding all these activities is a little different. It’s a different climate, a little different society. I am very grateful to get to test out the frame that is San Diego for a year, but I’m also very willing to admit that it isn’t perfect all the time, there are definitely good and bad things. Just like back home. Just like anywhere I guess.  

Enough philosophising.
This week’s comment on cultural differences between Sweden and the USA comes in the form of signs. I’m not sure what it is, but it seems like everything you step outside you’re overwhelmed with information on how to act. For example the roadsigns here are plentiful and sometimes not too easy to understand.

”PED XING” painted on the road? Took me a solid week to get that it means a ”PEDESTRIAN CROSSING” ahead. Get it? ”X” looks like a cross, so ”crossing”. Like I said, took me a while to figure that one out.

The signs telling you what you can and cannot do are quite a few.
In the classroom we’re told ”No Pets Allowed” and ”Footwear is required to be worn at all times”. Down at Scripps we’re practically at the beach and people go surfing during lunchbrearks, so I guess there is some validity to that last one though.
In the park The City of San Diego just wants to remind you not to bring your off-road four-wheeler and take it out for a spin, and that the park is not the place to practice your golf-swing, which I guess makes sense?

It isn’t just signs here though. Everything seems to have a message (hidden or in plain sight, or hidden in plain sight – confusing, right?). The cars are full of stickers, telling you everything from which National Parks the car’s owner has visited to what they are voting for. And if it isn’t stickers it’s custom-made holder for your licence plate, ”______ Alumni” (insert Ivy-league school of your choice) and ”GO _______” (insert football/soccer/basketbal/baseball team of your choice).

Even what people are wearing is a means of communication and a way to signal your opinion and what group you  belong (or want to belong) to. The UCSD campus has its own bookstore (and several restaurants and gyms, a police station, an Amazon pickup point, a post office, a health clinic etc), in two stories where only one is dedicated to books. The other one is all UCSD merchandise. And we’re not talking the regular t-shirt/hoodie/tote-bag in two different colors here. Oh no. This store has it all. Everything. Underwear, socks, workout apparel, hats, beanies, keychains, notebooks, pens, water bottles, backpacks and more, all in a variety of styles and colors. You can get dressed all UCSD everything and use only UCSD branded stuff all day if that is what you want. And how about some UCSD spirit for you dog too with a branded dog-scarf? A little UCSD bib for the baby (read: future UCSD student) perhaps?

What’s most fascinating to me is all the merchandise for the families of the students. ”UCSD Mom” and ”UCSD Dad” (plus of course granddad/grandma) can be found on t-shirts, hoodies, thermo-coffee mugs, licence plate holders and even wineglasses. But for some reason there was only ”UCSD Mom” wine glasses – doesn’t dad drink wine?

I’m going to stop pouring irony into these words and stop mocking what’s here called ”school spirit”. I mean, it is completely reasonable to be proud of studying at a great school and to show it. It’s community building. My little inner Swede having grown up with this thing called ”jantelagen” (google it!) squirms, but will get used to it eventually I guess.

Now, time to head to the beach. (Definitely a part of this San Diego frame that I like…)
Have a great week!