I live in Hamburg, Germany and the freaking bicyclists make me want to run them over and squash their little blond heads like over-ripe melons. They’re extremely aggressive and inconsiderate and pretty much ride like they own the road. I saw one ride up to a car that had dared pass him (he was riding down the middle of the street and had cars backed up 10 deep) and start pounding on the driver’s window and screaming at her at a stoplight. She was a little old lady and had allowed plenty of room when passing the asswipe. This wouldn’t make me quite so crazy if there weren’t beautiful, well maintained bike paths on virtually every street. After three years of this nonsense, I’ve taken to rolling down my window and yelling at them “Benutzen Sie den Fahrradweg, fucktard!*
What about you other ex-pat Dopers - what makes you nutso in your host country?
Yeah, I agree that the cyclists are pretty aggressive on the roads in Hamburg. Although, compared to other places in Germany, the bike path system is pretty bad: bike path on one side of the street, then switches to the other side of the street between blocks :eek:
I’ve found that they’re pretty considerate to people wandering onto the bike paths. They’ll usually just go around them if there’s room, and not just ding the bell like a maniac.
Try Munich. If you even breath into the bike path while walking on the sidewalk, you’ll probably get hit. Or they wait until they’re about 1 m away before ringing their bike bell, while doing 20 km/h…
Fucking lack of privacy. People think nothing of just walking into their neighbors house and it DRIVES ME CRAZY. A few months ago, I had something in my house broken, and I asked the handyman dude at my school to come over and fix it. He said he’d be by at two. So, I’m at home, waiting, two comes and goes, and no Ivan! The next day, before I can ask him what happened, he says “Hey, I went by your house yesterday, and you weren’t there.” I said, “What? I was there, waiting!” He said, “Oh, well, I tried the door, and it was locked”. Me: “Why didn’t you knock?” Him: “Because the door was locked!”
Yes, if I’m expecting someone, I am supposed to leave the door unlocked and just wait for them to walk right in.
And of course, the REASON I always keep my door locked is to keep my incredibly noisy landlady out of my house. She actually has a key, of course, but I have a sort of ghetto version of a deadbolt that keeps her out even if she unlocks the door. Has she EVER, upon realizing that the deadbolt is locked, knocked? NO. She just grabs the door and bangs it against the deadbolt until I show up.
Things my landlady has done:
Had a two hour nap on my sofa in the middle of the day.
Let my cat out (twice). She thinks it’s hilarious that this concerns me so much.
Rearranged my furniture while I was out.
Tidied my house while I was out. Yeah, it was messy, but I WASN’T EXPECTING COMPANY.
Also, and this is mean, but my landlady bathes maybe…once a year, and I am not kidding. (Before I moved in, the house didn’t have a bathroom at all. She had it installed just for me. When she lived in the house, they used a hole in the ground as a toilet, and there were no washing facilities at all.) I try to minimize my time around her.
The people who notice our accents, ask where we’re from and then go “New Zealand? Why would you want to move to the festering shithole that is the UK? The country is going down the toilet…blah blah blah”.
Lots of little things that you simultaneously love and hate. Scofflaw traditions, traffic, poor work ethics, all the usual suspects. In fact, the very fact that you love and hate them at the same time can drive you over the top. (Well, I don’t exactly “love” the traffic, but it IS wrapped up in the soul of Bangkok, and I get a lot of reading done on the bus. And while the bad stuff can be bad, it does give you neat stories to tell in the future.)
Amen - especially the cab drivers who have been on vacation to Florida and can’t wait to emigrate to the US when they retire. They just can’t understand why an American would choose to live in England.
Another thing that drives me nuts in the UK is the class system. The arrogance of the upper classes and the simmering hatred of the working classes isn’t much fun to negotiate, but even less fun is the constant striving of the middle class to be seen as upper class.
At first, you think because you’re foreign you’re apart from the class system, but actually being foreign just means you’re at the very bottom and everyone looks down on you. This level of arrogance without substance would never be tolerated in the US, especially not in the Northwest where I am from.
Oh, good! I was wondering how things were working out for you.
When you live there, do they eventually stop shouting “Transport?” at you everywhere you go? As a tourist, that got old real quick. And will they let you eat real Indonesian food yet? We were slightly disappointed in Bali that all we could eat was Australian BBQ, French and Italian. Great food, world class food, but they have this odd notion that tourists don’t want to eat “regular” Balinese food. I did get some homemade satay and bogas (sp?) from a woman who worked in our hotel, and they were amazing!
Could you elaborate? I just don’t recognise what you’re describing. Constant striving to be seen as upper class? If anything, the few remaining toffs conceal their aristocratic backgrounds and bend over backwards to be seen as ordinary.
The weather. The inefficiency when you are wanting something done. The Prussian efficiency when you want to ensure something gets overlooked. The racism. The nativism. The lack of an intellectual life.
I can’t say I’ve noticed that, but I more or less work in retail, so I’m used to the odd bit of unfounded contempt. I’ve found that my accent means I tend to have the same conversation (‘Close, I’m from New Zealand. Oh really? Which part? Ah, it’s lovely there. I’m from Auckland. That’s right, the North Island. Thank you, have a good day’) which gets tiresome, but the person on the other end doesn’t know that, so I don’t mind that much.
I’m sick of free papers and tramps sitting next to me on the bus, and dodging vomit on the footpath when I walk home. My area’s pretty heavy with Antipodieans though, so I can’t blame the English for that.
I’m working class and nobody looks down on me if they know whats good for them,but that apart I cant honestly think of anytime anyone has ever looked down on me because of my class.
And I swear that on my mums soul,maybe I’ve been oblivious all this time or something.
And the middle class cant pretend to be the upper class because the upper classes all know each others families and the habits of the two are different…
(I was a Montrealer, now living in a suburb of DC)
The way that suburbs are almost designed to be anti-pedestrian, with few sidewalks or street lights, and nothing useful within walking distance of anything else. And people look at me like I have three heads when I say I wish I could just walk to the library. Everything worth getting to takes at least three different highways, even though two of the three will look just like regular streets, except we’ve given them a number to feel important. (OK Rte 198? Feel like a big highway now, little guy?)
Cell phone plans here are insanely expensive. Paying for incoming texts? Whaaaa?
Lots of little things drive me partway nuts about living here, but I think a good part of that is because it’s just not home. Only been here a year, though, so ask me again later.
In America we hear a lot about the British class system. Whereas many years ago one used to hear about the interactions of the middles and uppers, more recently it seems to be about the middle and working classes. Accents seem to play a role here; I remember something about John Lennon’s aunt not liking George Harrison when they met because he had a real Scouse accent. I think John’s was somewhat of an affectation.
Paul Fussell’s Class is pretty much outdated and biased towards the Northeast of America, but he was right about one thing. People exist everywhere who are unhappy with the class they’re in, and strive upwards desperately. Or they attempt to join a lower class, as an act of cultural rebellion.
England going down the tubes? I think America’s going down the tubes. Can I come over there and live? If McCain wins I will seriously consider emigrating.
I dunno. I lived for six years in Beirut, and in my experience the people who were driven crazy by the inefficiency, or the corruption, or whatever were the people who didn’t last. We lasted because we by and large ceased to be driven crazy by the aspects of Lebanese culture which typically drove Americans crazy. (And there were plenty such aspects, of which inefficiency, mountainous bureaucracy, and corruption were but a few.)