I’ve lived in the US all my life and I have never seen a Mr. Zip. I see the eagle trucks all the time though.
I was visiting my parents down there, and one night my dad decided to order pizza. It was Domino’s. On another trip, I drove past a Blockbuster video and and Outback Steakhouse.
The only true wierd thing about Rio for me is the fact that I couldn’t seem to get a cup of coffee to go. Everytime I was out and wanted coffee, I had to sit down and drink it there.
Still though, I’ve never had so much good coffee that was inexpensive.
Well, it isn’t really customary to fly the flag every day in Finland. There are specific days marked in the calendar when flags have to be up (like December 6th, the Finnish Independence Day, or Easter Day), and large companies sometimes have Finnish flags flying, but otherwise, flags are usually not displayed. Of course, it’s not forbidden; anyone can raise a flag if they want to celebrate or commemorate something. You’ll sometimes see a flag at half-mast on the side of an apartment building to indicate that someone in the building has died. It’s just not customary to have a flag up every day. Suomenlinna is a special case, being one of the largest tourist attractions in Helsinki and a UNESCO World Heritage site to boot. 
As for the staircases, there’s usually a common cellar area which can be accessed from all staircases, but other than that, they’re not connected.
"In Denmark, when they finished the egg, they broke the bottom out with a spoon “to save the life of someone at sea.”
I remember(here in Ireland) being told that you’d smash the eggshell with your spoon to stop witches using the shell as a vessel to go to sea.
Where presumably they terrorised sailors(or something).
Oh, by the way, Mars bars and Snickers are two different choccy bars.
Here’s one. The different terminology for every day stuff in the UK. And I’m not talking about the usual ones like lorry for truck, truck for pickup, chips for fries, etc. One day I was working with some guys and we had a bag full of snacks. I asked for a candy bar and everyone looked at me like I had two heads.
In the US, candy bar is a generic term for any sort of chocolate bar, cookie bar or whatever (Mars bar and Kit Kats are both candy bars). But they were thinking I was asking for a Jolly Rancher stick or something.
Very odd, those Brits.
Dill pickles on this side of the Pond are called pickled gherkins [sp?] Vile things, make me sick, when I went to America I had a salad, “What’s that?” I innocently asked “a dill pickle” I was told, not knowing any better I scoffed two of the things … aw I was up all damn night puking like I was posessed. It wasn’t until I saw dill pickles [in a jar] that had been cut into little round slices that I realised … see over here pickled gherkins are slided short ways the dill pickles I ate had been sliced long ways … man five times I puked, FIVE TIMES, what am I bringing up now, my feet?!
Oh, how could I forget the strange lack of round doorknobs in the Rest Of The World?
My American-born-and-raised wife has noticed this too, just as elmwood and Mehitabel did. I never really noticed, myself; they just blend into the scenery.
The difference though, as she realized after a while, is that we do things with our flags that Americans would never do with theirs. It’s not so much a symbol of patriotism here as the American flag is in the USA; rather, it’s more of a decoration. You’ll see flags (and other kinds of banners with the red-and-white maple leaf motif) decorating all kinds of businesses and in all kinds of uses. Our local supermarket, for example, has about twelve Canadian flags flying from its roof–yes, they’re being used to decorate the supermarket’s roof, rather than being an overt display of patriotism.
And, as I said, they blend into the background after a while. I certainly don’t feel any soul-stirring patriotism when I go to the supermarket or past the used-car lot.
Hey! 
I think I’ve got an answer for this: water (carbonated or not) or, less often, soda.
There were a few weird things in Greece in 1998 -
–Being told not to flush the toilet paper (gross when you’re in high school).
–Being able to smoke everywhere!! (great when you’re 17 and a smoker).
–Porn sold on just about EVERY street corner.
–The elevators. Each floor has a door to the elevator (which is about as big as a coat closet), and there’s not one on the elevator itself. (You can see the walls passing by as you go up and down.)
–Bath tubs that are about 20 inches wide and 24 inches tall. OK, maybe not that narrow, but it felt like it. No showers on the wall, but our hotels did all have detachable shower heads to be used while sitting in the tub.
–The whole ground floor, first floor thing. Our room was on the third floor but was four stories up.
–Soda in tiny little 8-ounce cans.
Thankfully, no electric shower heads or non-round doorknobs for us.
In the US, the American flag is often used in this way as well…an auto dealership in this area flies a truly mammoth American flag – it has to be at least 25’ x 40’. This is not really a patriotic display – it’s attention-getter for the dealership.
Of course, when the town objected that this huge flag violated the local signage regulations, the dealership accused them of being unpatriotic, but again, let’s be honest…
In the Philippines they serve pizza with lettuce and thousand island dressing on top
At night it is very common to see street vendors selling balut. Balut is an unhatched duck cooked in it shell.
It is dirt cheap, 25 cents for a pack of cigarettes, and a one hour taxi ride will cost you about $4
The men will stop and piss almost anywhere and everywhere.
Almost all students wear uniforms, even the college students.
Very difficult to find fresh milk or orange juice.
The hot water heater is a little electric box mounted on the wall of the bathroom.
No toilet paper in the bathrooms . Either you must buy tissue from a machine, or there is a little faucet and a bucket next to the toilet.
The priest is typically one of the richest people in the city, no vow of poverty there.
Tiny little trucks that look like they belong on a golf course.
Very few people obey traffic laws, if you miss your turn, no problem, just back up and go for it.
Many houses are built with the roof sitting between the supporting walls, not on top of them.
In the department store there is a sales person for every brand.
One floor of a store seems to have about 50 employees.
There are security guards everywhere to greet you and open the door for you.
Almost every restaurant delivers, yes, even McDonalds and KFC will deliver your food. The guy will use a little scooter for delivery.
In Russia:
Stores closing for lunch, often for 2 hours.
Beer and vodka sold by the glass right on the street.
Bread is definately better than the US bread…that’s true of almost anywhere.
I kept my eyes out for this last night; the best example was a car dealership - which was decorated with both Canadian and American flags!
On the subject of closing for lunch. Most shops in the smaller French towns do this as well. The strange thing is that I have seen shops such as florists and hardware stores leave their displays out on the pavement ( sidewalk ) while they are closed and nothing ever seems to get stolen.
We have a King street in all our cities.