Hello, I'm Mexican and I lived in the USA for almost 2 years. I had been invited by some community members to help them open a meditation center in San Diego, after that I moved to L.A.
Even though I had lived/travel to different countries, before coming to the USA I had been living in a small and poor Mexican town running a meditation center so moving to SD I felt like "wow, everything is great here, I want to stay here" but over the course of my stay I slowly began to hate many things.
For instance, it is truly a police state and Americans don't seem to realize it, the worst thing is that some people actually justify a lot of shit. I once was stopped by a cop for jaywalking and he told me not to run and showed me his gun (I guess to protect me right?) Then I was given a $200 fine, and was told which was the right path to cross the avenue, so I did and ate in Carl Jrs and on the way back crossing through the pedestrian line with the walk sign at the other side I was stopped by a very aggressive cop treating me like a child or someone stupid and told me I hadn't crossed correctly because apparently there was a sign in the middle of the avenue saying you should stay there if numbers started flashing, I of course, didn't read this small print sign when I was crossing and only avoided getting another fine because I showed him the fine I had just received.
Then my friends told me cops went on fining-sprees since they needed to fulfill quotas. Over the course of a year I got fined about 5 times for whatever reason. In L.A. there were cameras everywhere and a few times the camera took pics of my plates for not doing a complete stop at like 2 am in the morning with empty streets. I never paid those camera fines though.
It was also impossible to make friends no matter how much I tried and everybody was so busy all the time or living in the same city but in one of the sub-cities so all distances were long and nobody wanted to drive to hang out. Also all the women were really self-entitled. Going to a bar or club was like a nightmare, I had to bring my passport drive a lot and with cops intimidating everywhere so nightlife was impossible.
In L.A. the people were so fake always saying they knew somebody famous and the quality of living was terrible, it was just cars and concrete and I had a bed bug infestation which I had to fight for months. Everybody seemed to be crazy.
The food was like poison as well.
The cherry on the cake came when I had moved back to Mexico but took a trip to Egypt and on the way back I did a stop in Dallas airport where I was taken to interrogation by a stupid redneck cop, treated like a terrorist and they made me lose my flight and had to book a hotel room.
Also being Mexican was a stigma, they all thought I was there illegally but I'm actually white and look European, I have a B.A. and speak 5 languages and don't have an accent, problem came when they would ask my name. I found out there was racism everywhere but masked.
I know I sound too negative but I seriously tried to enjoy this experience the best I could when I was living there, SD was not so bad, I surfed a lot.
After that I came to appreciate many things about Mexico, while it can be full of crime I still it is safer than the USA because the USA is unpredictable and the cops are really violent and they are everywhere. It is truly a police state, I would see an American friend fearfully and zombie-like filling his tax form every year. I haven't paid taxes in Mexico for 10 years and the Mex gov doesn't give a shit about me!
I know live on the Mexican beach during winter, and since it's touristic it's actually very safe and well-kept plus it's awesome and the rest of the year I live in the Czech Republic as I like to be international and the city is beautiful and I can do whatever I want such as grow weed.
So every time I see an American, I see somebody who might be addicted to work, only money-oriented and probably crazy. Sorry but that's the truth.
