Pace of Life

I'm studying abroad here in Stony Brook now. As an international student, I face many cultural differences between Korean and the U.S. Among the cultural shocks the hardest thing for me is the slow pace of American life. I grew up in a busy city and went to college Seoul, the busiest city I've ever been. Of course people are very impatient and everything moves fast. However here in the United States, people seem to be more relaxed. For instance, when I first came here, it took me half an hour to open a bank account but it would never happen in Korea. It would take less than ten minutes. I also heard my German friend complaining about inefficiency in this country the other night. There was a little incident happend in Hand college on Sunday. People on the third floor suddenly got sick and lots of fire trucks came here and investigated. The process kept the residents out of building more than two hours. Most American students were calm and kind of enjoying the situation but international students including my German friend were complaining that it takes too much time to find out. They were talking about inefficiency of this country, and I felt sympathy with them. I don't think it's only a bad thing. I rather consider as a cultural difference. People are more relaxed and like to do work slowly. The incident was a good opportuniy for me to think about different pace of life among the countries.