I think the belief that Californians are laid back is myth. In fact I think that most Americans are pretty uptight and hung up. I love making sweeping generalisations so will attempt to validate my claim with some observations.
Germs are a big fear here. I find it amusing that every toilet seat has one of those covers to stop germs invading your ass, sorry, arse. As if they would want to go there. Sometimes the covers are automatic in posher establishments. I know this is becoming more common in the UK now but I find it ironic. Surely the main recipient of germs is the door handle as a high percentage of toilet users don't wash their hands? I wonder why they don't have a little machine on the door issuing disposable door handle covers? That would make much more sense in my book and eradicate germ transmission.
Californians are uptight about a lot of things and overidden with anxiety; health, war, terrorism, personal space, health, germs, drugs...etc. I know we all share these worries but there is a sense I get out here that Californians more so. Sometimes I just want to sit down over a good bottle of wine and a packet of Benson and Hedges and tell them everything is going to be alright.
That's also the problem once you have lived in more than one country, you become very pinickity in your observations about the character of your host nations characters, and in the process prone to sweeping generalisations.
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