A Few Differences

As I seem to be forgetting to mention these nuances in my posts, here's a list of some of the societal differences I have picked up on thus far:

1. Men vs. women- odds are a random drunk guy will tell you that men are better than women, also along these lines, it is socially unacceptable for women to drink beer
2. Sexual harassment- when the residential life officer told the crowd at a meeting last week that whistling at women is sexual harassment, the room went into an uproar of "what?!"
3. Accomodation for disabilities- at the same meeting, it was announced that if a student has a chronic disability they will have to seek housing elsewhere because the university can't accomodate them
4. Retirement age- apparently staff are forced to retire from this university at age 60 (no wonder the lecturers seem so young)
5. Corporal punishment- although illegal in South Africa, when my Politics professor casually asked the students if their schools used corporal punishment, it seemed as though almost all of the South Africans responded "yes"
6. Domestic servants- my Zulu teacher specifically asked the white, Indian, and Coloured students how they address their domestic workers at home, thereby implying that almost all families from those racial groups have domestic workers and blacks do not
7. Greetings- in general, people are much friendlier and more talkative with strangers here than in most places in the US
8. Food- there are more KFCs than McDonald's, and you can find samosas just about anywhere

That's all I can think of at the moment, but of course there is much more. However, I must admit that overall I have experienced much less culture shock than I expected. In general, the food is agreeable to my American palate, South African popular culture mimics American pop culture, the plants are mostly familiar (thanks Dad), living accomodations are comfortable, and communication is relatively easy. I'm not even missing Mexican food as much as I thought I would, which I think can be attributed to the abundance of flavorful Indian food and other spicy foods, although I wish I could find some tofu in the grocery stores. In short, it's remarkably easy to forget that I am on the other side of planet.