Lately, I have noticed that I am so relaxed here and I'm almost always in a really good mood. I'm taking five classes, have a student job and am a member of three clubs at Haigazian, but somehow I never feel stressed out and I have been thinking about why. I think people are more relaxed here. People will go out at the last minute rather than having to schedule something. People aren't so rigid about time and addicted to their schedules. Life seems to have a more natural and comfortable flow here which I think has made me a more healthy person. In the U.S., I always felt like I had to be penciled into peoples' lives. Another big difference here, which is something my mom has always talked about, is that in the U.S. you always have to be invited to someone's house. Here, people just drop by and everyone is happy to have you and welcomes you and genuinely wants you stay. When I first arrived here, there were a lot of little things that I thought were rude, but now I realize that most of the things make life simpler and easier because people don't hide what they are thinking/feeling the way that Americans do. In the U.S., you never know if somebody is genuine or if they are just being polite. You never know if someone wants you to stay or if they are just saying that because socially it is what is expected. People don't wear as many masks here. It is also strange that in the U.S., everyone is SO scared of everything. Of everything from processed foods to driving without a seatbelt to terrorism. Here, in a country whose history is ravaged by civil war, occupation, invasion, a presently unstable government and tense relations between religious and political factions, everyone goes about their everyday life without a worry. There is a different mentalityhere because people have not been conditioned to fear, fear, fear and it really shows in everyday life. Compared to here, the U.S. population is so secure yet we have been taught to fear so that we will consume becuse capitalism and the U.S. government can't function unless we are scared.