Culture Shock and more

Atlanta... I need to capture the feelings, until it all becomes everyday.
Staying here for so many years to come? How could I have agreed to that? But then, inspecting the sentiments that drove me away...this is the probably the right way to go. Challenge accepted. Who will come out of it?
So bizarre, everything...

• so colorful people, in any sense... "An American university today is a place where Russian professors teach Chinese students"... where have I read it? Not that many Russian professors, but it's not about it... and it's not just about the university.
• hiphop, Martin Luther King (a state holiday, next week), black mecca? Went with a friend to Downtown on Sunday, there was something, it looked like a huge hiphop festival on the parking lot. No festival -
• people so helpful, but often quite rough? Wild?
• Coca-Cola...more common than water and as cheap apparently. We went with a friend to a pub, he ordered beer, I ordered Coke, they didn't charge me anything (were baffled though, that I didn't order beer too...)
• Oh, and I have started learning Chinese again! The placement test decided I should start in the fourth semester class. 你好! 你考虑吃豆腐汤？
• That gets me to the food... So sweet, everything! Even bread is sweetened!
• pedestrian unfriendly, everything so far, I hate the cars!!!! MARTA is better than nothing, but not too pretty and not too extensive. At least I live in the city center, so one can reasonably walk at least several blocks.
• maple syrup, everything ready-made, expensive vegetable (farmer's markets should start after the winter, though), sweet potatoes, squashes, sweet cream cheese in scary varieties..in fact, everything in scary varieties (cottage cheese with pineapple flavor, cream cheese with strawberry flavor, milk chocolate flavor, you name it flavor), almond milk, rice milk, soy milk,you can get normal milk as well, though, guava jelly, bread fruit and papaya (not from here, but can be bought), vidacella onion, bananas cheaper than any other fruit, instant cookies (put in oven for 5 min, become 6 times so large and ready-to-eat), salty "butter" which tastes like butter, though, peanut butter doesn't surprise me
• hot! - it was over 20, while in the Czech Republic, it was freezing
• weird units: F°, in, gallon, fl oz, oz, mile,... not sure if I am willing to learn all of them...Fortunately, on many packages, you can see both units
• University is "everything included"...even a police department with 80 people, and a polyclinic, a stadium, shopping mall... It's all paid for, though, an out-of-state undergraduate pays 30000$ per year on tuition (we are considered "good value", more expensive universities charge 40000$). Lucky me.
• squirrels everywhere
• I have received a large package somewhere from North Carolina, full of peppermint-scented chocolate chip cookies. No signature, no letter within the package, don't know anyone from North Carolina. I feel something has gone wrong. Cookies are good, though.
• Segregation: White people live together, black live together, hispanic live together, Asian live together - and all of them apart from the other groups. Of course, this happens everywhere - but here, with so much free space, it has been perfected, the separation can mean many miles, not just a few blocks.
•  There is a feeling of insecurity and pervasive crime - walking alone at night is very strongly discouraged, then we have the aforementioned campus police, you can see police patrols everywhere...
• There are over 150 PhDs in my departments, but surprisingly few venues to socialize. There is no coffee corner on my floor, there is one dubious one on the floor downstairs. I am grateful for the weekly PhD tea, though.
• So much happens on the campus! Provides additional possibilities to fend off loneliness. I guess I might join one of the campus groups in the following semesters. Amazingly, there are even opportunities where one can apply their "technical skills" (no, I'm not a programmer and am not talking about creating websites).
• Professors have little time for their PhDs. Everyone seems always busy. Well, perhaps it's a good sign that everyone is so good that they have always a lot of work.
• US administration has very sophisticated forms. Every single piece of space is utilized.
• I love my office. It's pretty big, I share it with just one other PhD (most of PhD offices are for 2 people) and she is mostly away - which is rather a disadvantage, I guess; it would be nice to have someone to talk to more often.
• There is a sofa in the office. I wonder when I start sleeping there more often than "at home".
• My roommate ("at home") is a very nice person, originally from Atlanta. He and his parents invited me over for a dinner last weekend - wow! such hospitality. Their house looked a little bit like a large, extensive cottage (from outside as well as inside).
• Weather is great. It's raining a lot, but it's so warm :-) Past days, it was around 20 degrees Celsius
• Atlanta looks ugly to me. A lot of skyscrapers around the place, without any harmony. It looked beautifully at night, though, with all the lighted skyscrapers.
• There are so many homeless and destitute people around! My roommate said, it was partially because some years ago, psychiatric institutions' inmates had been let out, so now they roamed the streets.