[Orson]

This place we talk about what we love, need or enjoy visiting or living abroad (away from the US, and other places) - right?

But what do people who come to the US get most surprised by?

PLEASE excerpt something from the link you react to - or else explain your own similar (or different) reaction, here?

[InternationPlayboy]

I just took a quick glance, dinners almost ready I'll look at it more after, but i don't know where this kid lived in the states where vegis were more expensive than meat. I surely haven't lived anywhere like that.

[InternationPlayboy]

Another thing I noticed from the Indian girl talking about cell phones. I personally get great coverage just about everywhere with AT&T. And why is she paying for incoming calls and texts? She obviously doesn't know how to get a good plan. While plans are a little expensive, I guarantee in India there's no way you're getting an iPhone for $200 with a contract. I bet an iPhone is at least $1000 there. A lot of the other stuff I agree with though.

I find when a lot of foreigners come here, a lot of things they don't like are because they don't know how to get the good stuff. I remember some Brazilian telling me how we don't have good beer (and mind you this is in colorado where we probably have some of the best beer in the world) and he was always drinking Natural Gold. Of course beer sucks when you drink that piss.

[InternationPlayboy]

I laughed at the root beer one. I can't think of a single foreigner that likes root beer. I personally like it though.

[vinman]

That was well worth the read. It's always interesting to see what others think of your country and culture.

[InternationPlayboy]

Yeah, I enjoyed the read as well.

[the_ox]

Great reading

I found a lot of similar things I faced when lived in Canada

[Flint]

Interesting thread. Here is what I noticed when I lived in the US.

1) People apologize for getting ran into by someone else. If you accidentally bump into someone on the street or in the hallway, the other person would automatically turn around and say sorry even if it was actually not their fault. Once I made the test and deliberately trod on a guy's foot. He apologized to me. On the one hand, this is all extremely beta. In Germany, people would simply walk on and ignore you. But when I came back to Europe, I thought everyone was fucking rude for not watching their steps and never saying a word of excuse.

2) The concept of walking is totally alien to most Americans. This apparently does not apply to cities like NYC, DC or Boston, but in most of the US people seem to have unlearned the art of walking. I see the absolute necessity of having a car but I found it unreal when I arrived in the Midwest and saw people driving to places even if they are just 100 meter away from it. The concept of walking around with your friends just for it's own sake is unheard of which brings me to...

3) Many state capitals and major cities are ghost towns. Even the downtown areas are literally empty. No one is outside except some hobos and people walking to parking lots. Public life is totally absent in many places. In Dallas and Jackson I felt like Will Smith in „I Am Legend“.

4) Nightlife, alcohol, drugs and pleasure are more regulated than the rest of the economy. In Germany, labor, environmental issues and businesses are heavily regulated by the state but at least I can drink alcohol in public, buy it any time of the day without getting ID-ed all the time and party in clubs until the owners decide to call it a night. In the US, people work like crazy, have only two weeks of holidays a year and enjoy next to no labor protection laws yet are not even granted the right to get wasted as much as they like, because too many states and counties have ridiculous laws that govern when and where you are allowed to buy booze or when clubs are supposed to shut down. I HATED the fact, that clubs way too often literally switch on the lights and throw you out at 01:45. At home, this would be the time when you arrive at a club.


I could not live there in the long run, but the astonishing friendliness and hospitality of the people is on par with some Muslim countries that I visited. The girls are also better and more approachable than in Germany. America treated me well. It is simultaneously the best and the worst country on earth.

[the_ox]

What I noticed when I was in Toronto:

1- Everyone has HUGE old cars (sedans or vans) that are badly cared and always dirty. Also, almost all cars have automatic gearboxes.

2- It is pretty hard to kiss a north-american girl in a club. I could do it only with brazilian or japanese girls. You can dance a lot, "glue" your body with the girl, have you hand in their butts but the culture of kissing is not very common, not like here.

3- Tips, tips everywhere.

4- In Canada they don't have lunch as we have here in Brazil. People mostly bring only a snack (like a small meal) to eat at work, they don't have like an one or two hours to go out and have lunch in a restaurant with your co-workers, colleagues, boss, teacher and so on.

5- You cannot buy beers in the supermarket. So, vodkas, tequilas, beers only in beer/liquor stores

[vinman]

(11-19-2013 09:21 AM)Flint Wrote:  

Interesting thread. Here is what I noticed when I lived in the US.

1) People apologize for getting ran into by someone else. If you accidentally bump into someone on the street or in the hallway, the other person would automatically turn around and say sorry even if it was actually not their fault. Once I made the test and deliberately trod on a guy's foot. He apologized to me. On the one hand, this is all extremely beta. In Germany, people would simply walk on and ignore you. But when I came back to Europe, I thought everyone was fucking rude for not watching their steps and never saying a word of excuse.

I think this is a throwback custom to the days when people dueled for offenses to honor. Be humble or "pistols/ swords at dawn".

[BigDave]

(11-19-2013 09:21 AM)Flint Wrote:  

3) Many state capitals and major cities are ghost towns.[/b] Even the downtown areas are literally empty. No one is outside except some hobos and people walking to parking lots. Public life is totally absent in many places. In Dallas and Jackson I felt like Will Smith in „I Am Legend“.

This is totally true. I had a girl from Russia come visit me in my small town in the NE two summers ago, and on the long drive back from JFK one of her first comments was "where are all the people?". For miles and miles all you could see were cars and strip malls, with basically no people walking around anywhere.

Later on we went on some long walks in the town I live in and she was amazed at all of the nicely manicured suburban lawns... but no one enjoyed them. She said it was like living in a perfect park, and no one seemed to enjoy it. We walked for 30-40 minutes at one point and saw only two or three other people and it was a beautiful summer evening with nice weather. No kids were playing anywhere.

I remember walking around dowtown Houston once on a Sunday, and it was as you describe. Dowtown Houston is 100% commercial, there's basically no residential areas and all of the commercial areas are strictly M-F big business places. At one point I was standing in a big street and I could see for maybe 3-4 blocks in each direction, surrounded by skyscrapers, and there was not a single human being that I could see, and maybe just 1 or 2 cars. I tried to find a place to get lunch but had no success.

I also have a friend from Michigan who moved to Russia and was totally unprepared for the cold. When I asked him how he lived in Michigan he told me that he would always remote start his car in the morning to warm up for 30 minutes, and then he would never walk anywhere more than a hundred feet or so outside the entire winter. He'd run from his car in a light jacket to the supermarket, and to work, but never would have to walk anywhere in the cold like he had to in Russia.

[InternationPlayboy]

Regarding cars, if you live in the west coast it is virtually impossible to not have a car. In Vegas, there's just no way. It's good and bad. The one thing that makes living in a place like this good is it makes it easier to drive (though can't say the same for southern cali). I didn't realize it until this trip to Vegas, but driving here is so damn easy. The roads are huge and traffic flows relatively smooth. A place like Denver where you have local transportation options, but the roads are small, signals are all fucked up, and lots of one way streets, it's a son of a bitch to drive. I remember going to work a couple months back, it took me 30 minutes to go 2 miles. I still tend to walk a lot when possible, depending where I'm at and where I'm going. In aspen I'll probably rarely use my car in part because the bus system is great and everywhere in town is close and in part because gas is $5 a gallon. Yep, you read that right.

The alcohol laws do suck dick through out most of the US. I can't wait to get back to living in a place where I can buy liquor at the grocery store. Hell, here in Vegas you can buy booze at any grocery store, or even at some gas station (beer you can find at every gas station, but even sometimes hard liquor can be bought at gas stations). You can drin on the street, any hour, and bars stay open very late if they close at all. The only good thing about bars closing at 2am is at least you won't be hurting quite as much the next day at work.

[Akula]

(11-19-2013 10:53 AM)BigDave Wrote:  

This is totally true. I had a girl from Russia come visit me in my small town in the NE two summers ago, and on the long drive back from JFK one of her first comments was "where are all the people?". For miles and miles all you could see were cars and strip malls, with basically no people walking around anywhere.

Later on we went on some long walks in the town I live in and she was amazed at all of the nicely manicured suburban lawns... but no one enjoyed them. She said it was like living in a perfect park, and no one seemed to enjoy it. We walked for 30-40 minutes at one point and saw only two or three other people and it was a beautiful summer evening with nice weather. No kids were playing anywhere.

This baffles me too. I'm in my 40s and vividly rememember playing outside every day after school for what seemed like hours on end. In Summer it was basically right after I got home from school until my mom would shout out for us to come home for dinner. This was in a major metropolitan suburb mind you in the late 80s, not the inner city.

Somewhere along the line I guess kids just stopped playing outside with each other. I guess it's partly due to the 'culture of fear' instilled in parents by the media where they see all these kids get kidnapped or raped or whatever. The breakdown of the family and also increased violence via gangs also probalby didn't help, but the former was well underway when I was a kid. The advent of video games, once they got really good and life-consuming, also has to have had an effect. As has the smartphone I assume recently. But I'm wondering what the hell else happened and how did it go down so quickly - literally within 10-15 years (right?).

When I'm in the suburbs of many American cities I rarely see kids playing outside these days, just sort of strange really.

[InternationPlayboy]

I'm only 27 and we still played outside all the time. The whole neighborhood. I grew up in somewhat of a suburb too, but another thing I notice is that I don't see near as many trick or treaters or fireworks during Fourth of July as I saw growing up. I mean literally, almost every street was lit up where I lived growing up for the 4th. I'm not sure if it's just where I lived, or if kids just don't do it as much anymore. I know part of the reason I never saw it in colorado was because of fire bans, but Miami I didn't see much going on in the streets. Possibly because of lots of immigrants?

I guess now that I think about it though, when I went back to the little town I grew up in last week, I didn't see any kids really playing outside. That's really strange. Out parents used to get pissed because wed be running around the streets too late.

[Akula]

(11-20-2013 06:46 AM)InternationPlayboy Wrote:  

I'm only 27 and we still played outside all the time. The whole neighborhood. I grew up in somewhat of a suburb too, but another thing I notice is that I don't see near as many trick or treaters or fireworks during Fourth of July as I saw growing up. I mean literally, almost every street was lit up where I lived growing up for the 4th. I'm not sure if it's just where I lived, or if kids just don't do it as much anymore. I know part of the reason I never saw it in colorado was because of fire bans, but Miami I didn't see much going on in the streets. Possibly because of lots of immigrants?

I guess now that I think about it though, when I went back to the little town I grew up in last week, I didn't see any kids really playing outside. That's really strange. Out parents used to get pissed because wed be running around the streets too late.

Yeah, same here - seemed like back 20 years ago most of the parents had to sometimes literally drag the kids away to get ready for bed. I remember one year when I was like 13 when the entire street right up from my house was used for nightly stickball games all Summer long. Boys were playing and a ton of girls were just hanging out on the side, jumping rope, doing their hair etc. Now when I go around I don't see anyone outside, let alone running around playing and working up a sweat. I guess all the kids are inside playing GTA 5 or World of Warcraft or updating their Facebook pages?

Kind of eerie really. Maybe it's a small sample size or fact that I'm not around during prime playing hours - dunno, but don't think so.