Cleanliness is Next to Godliness

The last big thing I noticed when I came home to America was just how clean everything is. China is basically a giant construction sight. Everything is being built or torn down all the time. Imagine the dirt noise and chaos of the area surrounding and big construction project in a major city in the US than multiply it by 1,300,000,000 people and again by the general chaos that is even the calmest moments in China. I'd become so accustom to it that I wondered what my parents were talking about when they commented on how noisy everyone in China was. I've long noted that the people on cell phones seem to shout every word, but my parents felt like everyone was shouting all the time. I've just sort of gotten used to the craziness. But back in the US everything seems so calm, so neat and organized. Even the busiest places lack anything near the hubbub of China and the pushiest people I've ever met in the US wouldn't be able to hold their own again a Chinese grandma. Dirt wafting up with each breeze is just a fact of life in China and there is this distressing habit of wandering into a really weird smell with no apparent source. It seems silly to clean the outsides of buildings in China since the air will just dirty them again before a year has passed. In the US though even living in a city, it's all just so clean and organized. Even the worst drivers drive pretty much were they should. I see trash but never a pile that would overwhelm a whole street. Construction zones exist but so do parts that are done. People yell but some people are quite. And no really likes to drive on the sidewalk.