What is a key difference that you didn’t expect or anticipate between your host and home country?

One thing I have noticed in the people here that is very different from most of the people I have encountered in America but not so different from people in Ghana is that people grow up much much faster here. You find numerous 16 year olds living what is considered ‘an adult life’. You find numerous friend groups consisting of people of varied ages and a lot of young people working in shops and offices. In some ways, I think this makes people treat even ‘kids’ with a lot more respect. Personally, I think it has to do with the amount of responsibility handed to them at a young age. With university for example, students must commit to a career path before they even enter university and so from their very first day of university they are already working towards joining a specific industry. Although there are advantages and disadvantages to this system and I personally love my liberal arts education, people here are accustomed to this system and think about their futures and goals and aspirations at a much earlier age. Majority of students around the country also live on their own and living in dorms is actually not the norm so many students are self-sufficient from an early age. Lastly, here the drinking age is 18 so people get used to going to clubs and bars from an early age and figure out if that is a lifestyle they enjoy during this crucial teenage period of their lives rather than when they might be too old.