Americanized ?

I guess it's unavoidable to grow custom to some of the American habits:

ONE - I can't help getting a vanilla cream drink from Starbucks in the morning.

Right after I make my turn onto Burbank Boulevard I see Miss Starbucks smiling down at me. I illegally cross a double yellow line and take the drive thru to order my hot vanilla powered liquid shot. I'm a bad-ass vanilla freak.
Honestly, I'm this close to turning into a genuine Starbucks junkie. And there's not even caffeine in my favorite latte drink.

TWO - I realized today that should I return to Belgium I'm going to have to drive a stick shift again.

OMG ! I've had people telling me it's like riding a bike: you never forget. I hope they're right. I've kinda gotten used to only using my right foot to drive. Just putting the gear into Drive, hit the gas with your foot, and you're set. No hassle, no pain. Well, after a while you do get a cramped foot. Thank God for cruise control !

THREE - That made me think of the weird right-of-way rules in Belgium.

Does anyone in Belgium still know who needs to yield to whom ? I've adjusted to the many STOP-signs around here. And I love them. Everybody gets their turn. No more getting upset because of the long stretch of cars coming from the right while being stuck giving way is a relief for the good old tik-tok.

FOUR - Another funny thing is how I got used to American geography.

Every city comes with a state. You have Paris, CA(lifornia), Paris, IL (Illinois).. so when people are from their home town called Springfield, they're not necessarily from the same Springfield..
So today, as I was curiously looking online for a flight to Belgium, I typed in my destination (brussels) and thought of the abbreviation of the state that Brussels is in and I typed, Brussels, BE. And when I hit the 'Search' button, no flights came up. I wondered why.. until I realized that I just should have entered Brussels. Of course. BE is a country, not a freakin' state !

FIVE - Writing down addresses is another thing.

In this country, people write the house number BEFORE the name of the street. That took some getting used to, but now, it feels natural.

SIX - I've started adjusting my numbers and some letters to the way Americans write them.

Not because I want to, just because I NEED to. In my job, I count money. And that money count needs to be correct for the books. Now, when people read my nines as a 8 or a 3, and my seven's are being misread as ones, that can create a lot of trouble. Also, we Belgians use a , as a decimal, - right ? Not in the US, it ain't ! A decimal is a point, and the comma , is used to point out thousands. So 1,500.50 is right in the US. 1.500,50 is right in Europe. That takes A LOT of getting used to. I'm still messing that up every once a while.

There are a lot more things that are typical about living here. People in the street or in the park say hello to you when you pass by. Well, most of them anyway.

Or when you're looking at an item in the grocery store and some one else is trying to grab one of the same items, they say "excuse me". People excuse themselves a lot. When almost bumping into each other, when passing some one who is standing still, when cutting in line.. yea right, I wish. Courtesy rules ! Well, most of the time anyway.

And last but not least, you know you're surrounded by Americans when everybody is wearing white tennis shoes under any colored pants.

You know you're Americanized when you start saying 'like' every other word.

You know you're becoming American when you add, 'you know' to every sentence.

And you hate being in America when you just can't stop eating junk food.