Oh, I forgot one (and all of my fellow Montanans in this thread forgot it, too).
When you see Rocky Mountain Oysters on the menu, they are not seafood!
(For those unaware of this local delicacy, they’re bull testicles, typically breaded and deep-fried)
That’s a useful warning for other Americans too.
They still do that? Back in the early 60s, my Dad got a speeding ticket somewhere in SW Wisconsin. He didn’t have enough cash on him, so they took him in and had to spend the night in jail waiting for someone to come in with the $$ to pay the ticket.
Well, now they take debit and Mastercard/Visa, too. Maybe traveler’s checks but I’m not sure about that one.
All the time but not legally.
I’ll second that,I’ve travelled a lot by Greyhound,you get to see the countryside,meet some interesting people,you can catch up on your sleep and its cheap.
Went over the Rockies on a bus and it was incredible.
They also go by the name calf fries (or lamb fries). I think they’re pretty tasty actually. Very tender.
I would say be careful about how you approach issues of race. I’ve had conversations with a lot of people from other countries who simply do not grasp what a divisive and touchy issue racism is. For example, they might grasp that the ‘‘n-word’’ is considered offensive, but they don’t realize how offensive and shocking it can be. There are people on this board who are comfortable using it when talking about it as a racially offensive term, and that’s fine – but many people, myself included, do not feel comfortable uttering this term even in the privacy of my own home, even if it’s to rehash some media thing, ‘‘Michael Richards called some guy at a club…’’ I wouldn’t even say it. That is really just an example of how deep the racial tension can run in this country. The point I am trying to make is that I would be careful about making light of anything to do with race here. Some people have remarkably thick skin here, but I don’t think it’s the majority of the case. In general, I think Americans get offended very easily, and one of the surest-fire ways of causing offense would be to talk carelessly about an issue so touchy.
ETA: and there is a big difference between general prejudice against ethnic minorities and the specific black/white issue. I’m aware that ethnic and cultural prejudice exists everywhere, but I believe the average ‘‘white/foreigner’’ prejudice really can’t hold a candle to the deeply ingrained ‘‘white/black’’ tension that exists in some parts of this country.
End every sentence with Roll tide!
I dunno about that. Obviously some people need the warning, but in global terms our racial tensions are pretty insignificant.
Remember, there are any number of countries where racially-motivated killings tend to involve dozens of victims at a time, rather than one or two.
After you wash down your fish tacos with a cold Mexican lager with limes floating in it, try to get the Red Hot Chili Peppers on the radio before you begin to take in the glorious onset of evening on Sunset Cliffs Blvd.
(Just saying, the US ain’t all a dark, dangerous, stormy ghetto.)
To be fair, most Americans have probably never seen a passport. At least, I didn’t until I was 18, and probably still wouldn’t have except that I had gotten a free trip to Israel back then.
Apparently, the US has no immigrants, and nobody here has studied a foreign language. As someone who’s been requried to study foreign languages at every school I’ve ever gone to and who’s dated immigrants, color me surprised.
Actually, that’s not true in Southern California, except downtown. (And in LA, it’s not hard to find a parking spot downtown either.) It’s probably not true in any other major cities without decent public transportation either, like Detroit, Phoenix, etc.–or in rural or suburban areas. It’s certainly true in New York and Chicago, where there’s probably no point in driving unless you have to go out to the suburbs or the countryside a lot.
OTOH, see his warning about overgeneralization. IME, it’s pretty hard to find a Bush supporter in a California city these days. (Not that I’ve been looking.)
We call them grunion runs here in San Diego. FTR, whenever the topic of grunions comes up, at least one local always asks, “What the hell is a grunion?” At which point the other locals all provide descriptions and the first local says, “Oh, those.”
As for payment methods, I don’t know about Europe, but in Israel I was shocked to find out how few businesses accepted credit cards. Visa and MasterCard are accepted for almost every legal transaction here; it’s pretty rare to find a business that doesn’t take them, IME.
On the topic of giving money to people on the street, it’s really not a big deal. People are talking about it like it’s a dangerous activity, and it’s not–it’s just that they think everyone begging for money on the streets is scamming you, or planning to spend the money on drugs and alcohol. The sad truth, however, is that the American economic policy of the last 25+ years has pushed a lot of perfectly nice and decent people onto the streets, and most of the time they just need a hot meal. Of course, they could certainly be using it to buy alcohol or crack, but so what? Anyway, if you want to make sure your money goes toward keeping them from starving, buying them a cheeseburger is usually a welcome alternative.
(This could vary by region, though. Vinyl Turnip’s example sounds utterly alien to me–I’ve helped plenty of strangers out with their bus fare, usually at transit centers, and never seen them again. Here, at least, the homeless and the locals (local businesses, at least) tend to be fairly chummy unless the particular homeless people in question give them a reason not to be. One of our weekly papers even has a Homeless Person of the Week award.)