When my family and I moved away from Ho Chi Minh City, where I was born and grew up, to America, there were many beautiful cities that we considered but finally, we chose to live in Fort Lauderdale, a city in the state of Florida. The most common between Ho Chi Minh City and Fort Lauderdale is the climate which is warm and sunny. However, both cities in which I have lived have quite dissimilar in the areas of timezone, house, job opportunities and kinds of transportation.
One of the most visible differences is the time zone that people effort to change for their biological clock as soon as possible because the America’s time zone is twelve hours later than Vietnam’s time zone. While people wake up and start the daily activities in any city of America, the cities in Vietnam are night and everybody goes to bed. It takes a long time for a person to get used to the time. In addition, choosing a house in Florida is easier and more diverse than Ho Chi Minh City.
There are many kinds of houses in Florida, including townhouses, single houses, and mobile houses. It is easy for people to choose and find a suitable house with their budget, while a house in Ho Chi Minh City has only one kind of house. It is also more expensive and takes more long time than a house in Florida. Most people come to America to get a better job to change their life because the value of money in here is higher than Ho Chi Minh City many times.
For example, when people live in Florida and start working as a waiter/waitress in a restaurant, they may be able to spend their expenses and sometimes they may get even good money from tips. On the other hand, waiters or waitresses in Ho Chi Minh City only earn a minimum wage and no tips because of the laws, so it is virtually impossible to live on that little money in a large and luxurious city. Finally, Ho Chi Minh City and Fort Lauderdale likewise offer various alternatives for transportation.
Ho Chi Minh City is the second biggest city in Vietnam with the population over eight million people, so the best transportation for people are motorbikes. These motorbikes are actually useful, and they will help people to drive in the city that is like a spider web. In contrast, the main transportation in Fort Lauderdale is cars and bus. The street and highway in this city are enormous and have many lanes for driving; meanwhile, there are two lanes for moving in Ho Chi Minh City.
Although both cities have different transportation, they still have shared a common problem that is the traffic jam in the rush hours, like every big city around the world. Even though Ho Chi Minh and Fort Lauderdale are two immense cities with many differences along with their similarities, I personally like to live in Florida because of the better conditions than my old city, but it is good to go back to my city to visit my friends and relatives. Both places have different interesting things and valuable memories with family and friends that people never forget.
