So, you non-America/North Americans, what was just plain weird about visiting the States? I got to thinking about this again because of a German stating here recently that soda refills was the most fascinating thing he found on his trip.
Like, I asked a Japanese guy what was weird about visiting Japan after living here for many years, and he said that it was hard to believe that people really packed onto trains like that twice every day for their routine commute, even though he had done it himself for years.
This is something I realized was weird about America after returning to it after three years away – I can wake up in the middle of the damn night and get just about anything I want. I don’t take advantage of it that often, but I really, really like not having to take off work or miss something good on TV because all the stores are about to close.
But you live in a major city, right? I remember thinking I’d just buy stamps from the vending machine in the post office when visiting my friend’s gen-ooine Kansas farm. Then reality set in.
I asked fella bilong missus flodnak, a lifelong Norwegian, for his thoughts on the subject. Several things struck him as strange:
Pancake houses. The idea of having pancakes for breakfast was strange enough. (In Norway, pancakes are more like crepes, and depending on what they’re rolled around can function as part of either supper or dessert.) The thought that eating breakfast out was common enough that restaurants would make that their specialty was even stranger.
Sales tax and tipping. If an item costs $4.99, you can’t count on paying for it with a five dollar bill. Here the sales tax is included in the price. Additionally, the idea that tipping was expected at restaurants, and elsewhere, because servers and some others depend on tips for a substantial part of their income was very odd.
On his first trip to the US, he was part of a small group that drove down the East Coast. Passing through the Carolinas and Georgia, they were surprised to see small, run-down houses with several (admittedly often run-down) cars in the front yard and a television antenna on the roof. It was surprising both because of the differences in priorities (Norwegians tend to be house-proud and would do without the car to get a nicer place) and because it was visual evidence of how much cheaper cars are to own and operate in the States.
Drive-thrus were unheard of in Norway at the time they made that first trip. They found them very handy for lunches on the go - but strange enough that they took pictures of them!
Another vote for the confusing sales tax (in LA, at least).
Also, the seriousness with which drinking age ID’ing is taken. That’s not a criticism, but in the UK it’s all done with a nod and a wink much of the time. In LA I needed my passport with me all the time – and I didn’t exactly look young (I was 22 at the time).
Y’all should check out Bill Bryson’s I’m a Stranger Here, Myself. Bryson is an American who lived in England for 20 years. He moved back here, and wrote columns about American society for an English newspaper. It is a really fun American/non-American view. It’s also a book-length answer to this thread!
I’ve never lived anywhere else, but I’m with you on the weird sales tax thing.
After spending a number of years overseas, I found supermarkets to be the strangest thing in the U.S. There are an absurd number of choices. After years of having to choose between Orange, grape, and apple juice, it was honestly upsetting to have choose between all possible combinations of seventeen juices (pinapple/mango/raspberry) and then to have to choose between extra pulp, regular pulp, or no pulp. Then choose whether I wanted added calcium or ginko. It was like being trapped in a GRE question.
I’m Merkin, but I’ve lived away for several years. Haven’t been home in a couple of years, but every time I do go home (and there are exceptions to this rule, I’m just pointing out a trend), You get a shitload of mediocre food for an unbelievably miniscule amount of money. Related to that is tipping. I’ve been on the receiving end, and since then I always made an effort to give people good tips, but only when the service was decent. When it’s shitty, I don’t care if tips do constitute 50-80% of their salary, the tip will be proportionate.
Flags! Flags! Flags!
And then a few more flags to round it out.
Even many years before 9/11, I was always amazed at the sheer quantity of flags every where. I had never seen a Canadian home with a flag on it (To this day I have seen exactly one Canadian home with a flag on it). A few others that come to mind:
[ul]
[li]Booze in the supermarkets[/li][li]Enormous sprawling high schools that sometimes seem more like a universities[/li][li]The Interstate highway system - my god, it just makes so much sense: east - west routes are even numbered, north - south are odd, exits are marked with mile numbers, the uniform standards of highway dimensions. Man, you guy sure can put a highway system together![/li][li]The complete lack of full serve gas. And you usually have to pay first (Except in Utah!)[/li][li]I’ll second the observations of churches and guns everywhere[/li][li]And for all the Canadians who insist that we have the exact same culture as the US, let me just say three words: chicken fried steak. [/li][/ul]
When I was a wee tot we didn’t have buckets of cash for vacations so we’d usually just go for a few days across the border to the US - MT, ID & WA. As a little kid, I found the US to be endlessy fascinating (hell, I still do!)
I just got back from a road trip to Los Angeles which took me through MT, ID, UT, a teeny sliver of AZ (didn’t stop), NV and California (that’s a LOT of driving for 6 days)
I’ve only been to 10 of the fifty states, but I totally love travelling in your country. It’s custom made for road trips!
I’m American, born and lived here nearly all my life, so I’m used to it all. But I will second Anahita’s husband (Mr. Anahita?) in his comment on the large portions. I guess I have a smaller apetite, because most of the time I find myself unable to eat everything. Just one more way in which I differ from the habits of my compatriots.
Also a native of the US, lived here all my life, and I find the huge portions in restaurants annoying because when I only eat 1/3 or 1/2 the waitstaff invariably ask me if something was WRONG with my meal. Then when I say no, it wa sfine they are confused if I don’t want to take the remainder home.
Of course, I sound like a spoiled brat complaining about such abundance, don’t I?
After visiting Europe, I appreciate the following things about my native land:
Quality television
Big cars and good roads
The focus on good hygeine
Newspapers aren’t blatantly partisan
Our money only has two colors: green and white
OTOH, I wish we’d serve smaller meals, and the Northeast should put in place a rail system similar to the one in Europe.
Also, I didn’t think Europeans are as rude as people make them out to be.
