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Things We Take for Granted in the USA

• by Srinivas Rao
• on June 6th, 2011
• 3 Comments

I’ve spent the last two months out of the country and within hours of landing in New York City, I started to realize just how much we take for granted when we live in the United States. My life in Costa Rica has been full of days that test my patience . 10 hours after I landed in New York, I came to one conclusion: “I can get more done in 24 hours in the USA than I can in one week in Costa Rica.”

Accessibility

The Cell Phone Chronicles

My first morning in New York I had a few errands I needed to run, the first of which was getting my hands on a prepaid cell phone.  Just a few weeks back I had bought a pre-paid cell in Tamarindo, the town in Costa Rica where I live.  After I bought my cell phone, the girl at the store told me they had no sim cards and I would have to go to another location to purchase a sim card which would involve a bus ride to another town. A simple errand to get a cell phone was quickly  turned into a half day ordeal.  In New York , I walked out the door to my friend’s apartment and there was a T-Mobile store across the street. In about 15 minutes I had a prepaid cell phone and found myself wondering what to do with all this free time.

The Haircut

For my first few months in Costa Rica I was living a town of roughly 100 people. There was no ATM machine, and no place to get a haircut. My hair got so bad that the local grocer even said that my hair was starting to look a bit crazy.  Oddly enough, the town did have plenty of places with WIFI.  In New York, right after I bought my cell phone, I found a place two blocks away to get my hair cut.  In less than half a day I had managed to cross of several errands that I needed to take care of.

Accessibility to our everyday needs is something we really take for granted. You don’t realize how convenient life is in the US until you start to live without your conveniences for a while. Don’t get me wrong. I love to travel, I love the fact that my life is a continuous adventure, but sometimes you wonder if “living the dream” is more of a hassle than people realize.

Running Water

It’s  likely that you rarely deal with a lack of running water in the United States. You turn on your faucet and hot and cold water is  always there. When you’re abroad you might find yourself going upwards of 24 hours without water, and there’s nobody to call that can fix it. You just have to wait until it comes back on. Even if there was somebody you could call, chances are they wouldn’t be much of a help and by the time they actually show up they issue would be resolved. It’s just the way it goes in most developing countries.

Electricity

Electricity is another one of those things we take for granted. Barring some sort of crazy thunderstorm, you never deal with a lack of electricity when you’re in living in the United States. It’s more or less “always on.” In developing countries sporadic power outages are a common occurrence.  While I’ve been fortunate to experience ones that only last about an hour, people have reported cases of not having power for upwards of 24 hours.   This is yet another one of those things that we really take for granted. In a developing country you just become desensitized to it and realize it’s a part of life.

Internet Access

As a digital nomad, reliable internet access plays a big role in my life. The morning that I was working on this article I had just landed in Costa Rica and when I went to the departure lounge for my connecting flight and the staff there said “oh, the WIFI is broken” I thought to myself  “I’m back in Costa Rica again.”  During my 10 days in New York anytime I sat down at a wifi hotspot there was never any doubt in my mind as to whether or not I’d able to connect. I’ve heard internet access horror stories from other digital nomads, and those moments really make me want to throw my laptop out the window and yell. Fortunately I’ve resisted the temptation.

Transportation

As a budget traveler, I tend to use the bus quite a bit. In the town of Tamarindo where I live, the bus schedule seems to be a matter of opinion rather than fact, and every single person I talk to seems to have a different opinion. As a result I’ve found myself at bus stops far too early or chasing the bus down the street yelling at the driver to wait for me. 10 days in New Work city were the polar opposite experience when it came to transportation. If the train schedule said 2:30, a train would be there at 2:30 on the dot.  I know that it’s not a fair comparison consider that New York has one of the best public transportation systems in the world, but it just makes you realize how easy it is to get around when you have something like that at your disposal.

When you’re not a traveler or nomad, you might see the lives of those who are and think that it’s all living in paradise, sipping mojitos, lying in hammocks, and endless summers.   But if you experience it for yourself for some extended period of time you’ll quickly learn that we do really take many things for granted in the United States.

Srinivas Rao

Srinivas is an avid surfer and personal development blogger at The Skool of Life. He's also the host and co-founder of BlogcastFM, a podcast for bloggers.