I’m from an island, and I moved to America about multiple years ago.
Certainly, it’s been an interesting transition, to integrate into a different culture than what I am used to. Some of the changes have been pleasant and inviting, like a refreshing aroma, but others have been quite challenging to get used to. One culture shock is the amount of air conditioning everyone uses here. On the island, air conditioning is a rare thing; the weather there is so perfectly balanced that you certainly don’t need air cooling throughout the entire year. Some commercial businesses would have it, like restaurants, but even they didn’t need to have the temperature set too low. In America, it seems like everyone is obsessed with cold, cold air conditioning. When I purchased my first house here, I met with a local HVAC contractor to go over different options for the home’s air conditioner, but he was shocked when I said I only wanted a single window unit – especially living in a southern state. He talked me into getting a multi-split air conditioning unit. To be honest, it’s rare that I use all of the units because I believe that just one of them does the trick, and cools down the house to my liking. Whenever I visit a friend’s house, they turn the thermostat up a little bit just before I get there. I don’t like air conditioning because it feels synthetic. Not being blasted with cold air is certainly something I miss about the island.