[travel] Changing mental habits

[mattbell]

One of the interesting things about rapid traveling is that you have to constantly be shifting your mental habits because each country requires a new approach to interacting with its environment.  You have to stay creative in your methods for dealing with problems and opportunities.  However, there are some habits that are country-independent.  What's funny is seeing what happens when some of these assumptions collide with returning to the US:

Note the following thought pattern that I rapidly went through while standing at a St Louis ATM:

Ingrained habit: "How many more days am I going to be in this country?  (This determines how much money I pull out)"
Conscious mind:  "You're back in the US.  You'll be here a while."
Ingrained habit: "OK.  I'll pull out ~$200.  What's the exchange rate between this currency and the US dollar?"
Conscious mind:  "1:1.  You're back in the US."
Ingrained habit: "I should withdraw $180 to force the ATM to give me a lot of small bills since people don't like changing big ones."
Conscious mind: "You're back in the US.  No ATM spits out anything larger than $20 except in Vegas casinos."

Or me entering a supermarket:

Ingrained habit:  "How far will I have to walk with the food I buy?  Do I have access to a refrigerator?  When will I next have access to a supermarket?  Does my hostel have kitchen facilities?  Microwave?  Range?"
Conscious mind:  "You're staying at a friend's house in the US."

I had the same issue when I got to the UK a couple of weeks ago:

Ingrained habit:  "What phrase do I use to greet people in this country?"
Conscious mind:  "Hello.  Y'know, English?"

Given that the language-check habit disappeared within a couple of days, I'm guessing I don't have long before the other ones fade away.

Comments

[savorie.livejournal.com]

Oh, watching you re-adjust to the Bay Area is going to be FUN. I hope you let some of that ingrained-mind speech enjoy a turn as an "outside voice".