Did you know! The Florida man has more to do with the fact that arrests are all made public in Florida, so we get to find out about ridiculous crimes. Where in ca it’s kept private. Odd Crime is not particularly more common in Florida than other places. We just know more about it.
Yeah this one. My friends from the UK brought their own electronics over for a six month stay and I asked to borrow her hair dryer after a night at their place. They had a UK —> US converter but it may as well been faster to sun dry my hair.
i have a pretty basic no-frills, non-high-end Frigidiare refrigerator and have had several visitors from Europe who visit me ask if they could see my fridge and could look inside it.
My household of two (my boyfriend and I) needed a new fridge and in order to keep costs down, we opted for a slightly smaller/narrower model than the typical standard American fridge.
That's so weird to me cause I always got told as a kid to not put food down the sink. Meanwhile Americans are like "if I don't eat it, the drain can have it".
The two photogs celebrating the Jets overhead at the end is my favorite part of that clip. Stephen Fry is correct, that video is a perfect encapsulation of the American Spirit.
I went to auburn for a year. That game was like the superbowl. People spent hours getting costumes ready. The entire town shuts down the day of the game. All school buildings are locked and all police in town are on duty and working at the stadium.
In case any Americans are wondering college (university) sport as a spectator event is literally not a thing in any meaningful sense in the UK, with the exception of a single rowing race once a year.
Lol i love this clip because every couple of years when I see it, I think "hmm I wonder what game he went to, hopefully one involving some good schools" and it's the fucking iron bowl
That’s not just any standard college football game. Bama vs. Auburn = Iron Bowl. One of the most fierce rivalries in college football. If your season is going bad and you at least win the Iron Bowl the fans are somewhat happy. They play the hardest they can, with no mercy shown.
I give a slack report to my entire company (800 plus employees) every morning about the state of the company (I’m a business intelligence engineer). At the end of most days I insert a fun fact. This is going to be the greatest fun fact ever. Thanks for sharing.
I always find myself finding everything cheaper in america online stores than in european stores. Especially with hardware, woodworking, light machinery.
I worked for a US firm (I’m From the UK). There are many differences, but the one that used to cause so many problems was the term “Fortnight” - not commonly used in that part of the US, so they used “Bi Weekly” for the same thing. Except in the UK that means twice a week 😩
We Belgians drink our first (legal) beer at 16, start going to parties, graduate highschool, start college, explore the student life, graduate college, celebrate graduation with a trip to the US and explore the nightlife there... only to be bared from bars because we are too young to drink.
Oh god I’m Mexican American and went to university in Wales for a time. Got a bit homesick a few months in and someone said they would take me to get fajitas. I figured that’s just grilled meat how could it go wrong? Well apparently there the fajitas are in a sauce and eating almost like a stew??????? My flatmates all thought it was delicious. It was not.
This one I'll give you. Universities play each other in sports, but nowhere to the scale in America. For football (soccer), most players can be in clubs' academies from the age of 5/6, finish school at 16 and then just go straight into reserve/first team squads, whereas in America they play sports in school, university, then get picked up by clubs
Kind of but I think that is changing. When I was in Germany a few weeks ago everywhere we went out to eat at, the portions were something I would expect to get in America and pretty large.
I heard from a friend in London that Root Beer tastes like cold medicine to him. Did some research and it turns out yeah, the major flavoring in Root Beer is also the major flavor ingredient in most cough and cold meds in Europe. So the taste of Root Beer just sets off that memory nerve that says "sick and coughing taste!" Poor Europy folks are imbittered to Root Beer from before they take their first sip.
I've read that it's because the flavor is similar to some children's medicine a majority of Europeans had to endure growing up. It reminds them of medicine.
I'm friends with a couple in London and every single summer they complain to death about the heat, how they're always sweating and they even can't move and their computers won't even run and they can't sleep at night... while they won't even consider a £300 portable AC unit that would fit in their window and cool their bedroom down for next to no electricity cost. If I bring it up, they act like I'm insane or idiotically spoiled for even suggesting such a thing while I sit in my 78-degree air-conditioned apartment while the Texas summer hits 110 F outside.
Space. I love spending time in Europe, but man, it is amazing to come home and have hundreds of thousands of square miles of just open country to explore, hike, ride, camp, etc...
An much older co-worker was describing his wife's family visiting from England back in the 1960's. They picked them up at the airport and then drove back to where he lived. He said they were getting twitchy in the back seat, and he finally realized that they were not used to sitting for this long a drive. It was a 3 hour drive to the small town they lived in. 3 hours of highway speed would be all the way across England.
Live in the UK with a US wife. When my sons were around 2 & 4 we were visiting my wife's grandparents in Arizona. With the heat it was virtually impossible to keep the boys in clothes. They would just strip as soon as you put clothes on them (understandable since AZ is like living on the sun). Wife's grandfather asked why they weren't circumcised and my reply of "We're not Jewish, why would they be?" led to me finding out it's the norm in the US.
Legal right turn on red, I don't always agree with Jeremy Clarkson but in this instance he's correct that's it's one of the US's greatest contributions to society.
Dutchy here. Our pancakes can be savory but are originally neutral/sweet. Savory pancakes are topped with powdered sugar and/or thick syrup (stroop). They are mostly eaten as lunch or dinner, not breakfast (unless maybe leftovers)
If you drive east from the California coast up some of the higher passes all the way to the eastern boundary of CA, you pass through truly immense diversity of natural landscape: beach > estuary/marsh> green rolling hills > golden plains > volcanic table mountains > foothills > national forests > wooded alpine > high alpine > desert plateau. 5 hours of driving one way, worth it every time.
Just found this out on another post: our own graves. Apparently graves are often dug up and reused in Europe and Australia. They’re owned by the government and will not always be yours. The only reason why we don’t do the same is because we are a younger country and we haven’t run out of room to bury people yet.
As an Aussie I've never seen this. Seen plenty of old graves in graveyards from 1800s. Saw one for a lady that literally had written on it 'murdered by blacks at the river crossing' which was pretty confronting
The place my grandma is buried in California has time limits on graves. I believe it’s 99 years. Not sure if they are actually digging folks up as the cemetery is about 150 years old.
Oh yes!!!! And I’d say the whole system of National Parks is just amazing! Open 24/7 (unless some weather or gov’t shutdown), maps available, trails laid out, camping spots designated… It’s the most treasured and inderappreciated thing in the US, IMO.
Jokes on you. We have a canyon here in Czechia called "Amerika". Because if you use your imagination it could possibly resemble some part of Grand Canyon.
That place gets credit for saving my life. It's down on Freemont street, and they have (had? It's been a while) a big scale out front, like to weigh a pallet. I clambered up there CERTAIN that I still was under the 350lb "Eat for free" gimmick.
Ate there in October during EDC weekend. More like the Heart Attack Bill, lol. Worth it for the novelty, but the food was pretty mediocre, just MASSIVE quantities. It was surprisingly empty too. Glad I checked it out, but wouldn’t return. Las Vegas as a whole is a novelty money grab, lol
This is a good one. American's play pretty hard, mostly because of the unmatched access to public land we have. Lot's of toys and lots of big garages/shops/barns full of recreation vehicles.
Sauce! We have so many kinds of sauce!! I once went to a burger place in Italy and they didn’t have Ketchup. They only had olive oil and balsamic everywhere I went. That was what I was looking forward to when I came home. Good ole bbq, ranch, honey mustard, buffalo etc.
Florida Man
Europe has Polish Man and Russian Man.
Europe has, "The English tourist on holiday in Ibiza"
Did you know! The Florida man has more to do with the fact that arrests are all made public in Florida, so we get to find out about ridiculous crimes. Where in ca it’s kept private. Odd Crime is not particularly more common in Florida than other places. We just know more about it.
The essence of Florida Man, I hear, exists in Germany as well
Outlets with 110 volts
120, 121 whatever
and 60Hz
Yeah this one. My friends from the UK brought their own electronics over for a six month stay and I asked to borrow her hair dryer after a night at their place. They had a UK —> US converter but it may as well been faster to sun dry my hair.
We have 220v outlets as well, but they’re usually reserved for applications that actually need it like dishwashers and washing machines.
"Refrigerators the size of my flat." - every European who has seen my moderately-sized refrigerator
This explains why when my Czech friends came to visit, they stood around my fridge taking pictures of each other with it like it was a monument
i have a pretty basic no-frills, non-high-end Frigidiare refrigerator and have had several visitors from Europe who visit me ask if they could see my fridge and could look inside it.
My household of two (my boyfriend and I) needed a new fridge and in order to keep costs down, we opted for a slightly smaller/narrower model than the typical standard American fridge.
Garbage disposal units are installed beneath the kitchen sink.
That's so weird to me cause I always got told as a kid to not put food down the sink. Meanwhile Americans are like "if I don't eat it, the drain can have it".
As a Canadian I thought this was a universal western middle class feature of the kitchen
Where else would they be installed?
Our currency has bill for the the one dollar. Makes it easier to tip strippers. I have no idea how Europeans tip strippers with Euro coins.
Make it hail.
Ive only been to German strip clubs. But the norm there was to trade in your real money at the bar for fake 1 Euro bills.
You swipe the card between their cheeks, obviously.
Do strippers in America just turn up at the bank on a Monday morning with $1,000 in $1 bills and say "here - stick this in my account"?
Behold as Stephen Fry is completely overwhelmed by a standard American college football game:
The two photogs celebrating the Jets overhead at the end is my favorite part of that clip. Stephen Fry is correct, that video is a perfect encapsulation of the American Spirit.
And that’s not even the largest football stadium in the US!
“Preposterous, incredibly laughable, ridiculous, charming, expensive, overpopulated, wonderful, American.”
… wait? This is just a game between two schools?!
I went to auburn for a year. That game was like the superbowl. People spent hours getting costumes ready. The entire town shuts down the day of the game. All school buildings are locked and all police in town are on duty and working at the stadium.
In case any Americans are wondering college (university) sport as a spectator event is literally not a thing in any meaningful sense in the UK, with the exception of a single rowing race once a year.
Seriously, you ever visit the US and get a chance to go to one do so. It's an experience.
War Eagle
Holy fucking shit that is amazing, I love America. (Dutchie here)
Lol i love this clip because every couple of years when I see it, I think "hmm I wonder what game he went to, hopefully one involving some good schools" and it's the fucking iron bowl
That’s not just any standard college football game. Bama vs. Auburn = Iron Bowl. One of the most fierce rivalries in college football. If your season is going bad and you at least win the Iron Bowl the fans are somewhat happy. They play the hardest they can, with no mercy shown.
Lol he didn’t even show the tailgating
That is amazing! I have never heard the US described more perfectly!
Brings a tear to my eye that God Bless America brought a tear to a Brits eye 🥲 truly beautiful
The Jets at the end were just the icing on the cake.
The largest living organism on the planet
I give a slack report to my entire company (800 plus employees) every morning about the state of the company (I’m a business intelligence engineer). At the end of most days I insert a fun fact. This is going to be the greatest fun fact ever. Thanks for sharing.
Nah mate, that's your mum
Why haven’t I heard about this before?
We also have this thing which is consided one of the oldest organisms in earth at 11,700 years old. It's located out in the Mojave desert!
I always find myself finding everything cheaper in america online stores than in european stores. Especially with hardware, woodworking, light machinery.
That’s interesting. As an American cyclist I find the best prices for bike parts come from the UK.
At home or somewhere else, they have screens on their windows.
Do other countries not have screens on their windows? I've been to Hungary and Germany but it was winter so can't say I noticed the windows...
Blew my mind to find out that there are places where they are just not necessary. Still amazes me.
Stupid question... Is this like a mesh screen thing so that you can open the window but bugs and stuff can't get in?
As an Australian... WHAT!?
We have screens in our houses and we are European. We can't live without them really with the bugs and mosquitoes.
Bugs in the midwest will do that.
Compulsory in Australia.
I worked for a US firm (I’m From the UK). There are many differences, but the one that used to cause so many problems was the term “Fortnight” - not commonly used in that part of the US, so they used “Bi Weekly” for the same thing. Except in the UK that means twice a week 😩
That word is terrible. The dictionary can't even keep it straight.
In the us bi weekly can mean twice a week or every other week. Same with biannual. It’s stupid.
In Australia we also have “Monday week” meaning a week from the next Monday (insert day of your choice).
Pro-tip, just call it hemiweekly and then everybody will clarify instead of getting it wrong.
I wish that's what I meant here. I get paid biweekly.
As a middle (or east?) European who was in the US 16 years ago, amazing sweets selection! Please send Twizzlers to Slovakia!
There's a subreddit that exchanges snacks between countries. Can't remember the name but I'm sure you can find it
Invite me and I will bring them!
Twizzlers are strawberry flavored plastic to me lol
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We Belgians drink our first (legal) beer at 16, start going to parties, graduate highschool, start college, explore the student life, graduate college, celebrate graduation with a trip to the US and explore the nightlife there... only to be bared from bars because we are too young to drink.
In New Zealand there’s no legal drinking age as long as you have your parents permission, but you have to be 18 to buy it
i was 15 when i stopped drinking and looked at my life seriously
Good Mexican food
I always like to say that the worst meal I ever had in my entire life was a Mexican place in Slovakia
Over here in Germany I finally decided that I make the best mexican food. Ive tried a few mexican restaurants but they just cant get it right.
Oh god I’m Mexican American and went to university in Wales for a time. Got a bit homesick a few months in and someone said they would take me to get fajitas. I figured that’s just grilled meat how could it go wrong? Well apparently there the fajitas are in a sauce and eating almost like a stew??????? My flatmates all thought it was delicious. It was not.
In the UK, there is a Mexican chain called "Wahaca". It's spelled that way because those Brits are unable to pronounce "Oaxaca".
This is the truest thing ever. I got "Mexican" in Italy once. The salsa was basically ketchup.
Thank you mexican migrants!
good mexican food is awesome
College sports
This one I'll give you. Universities play each other in sports, but nowhere to the scale in America. For football (soccer), most players can be in clubs' academies from the age of 5/6, finish school at 16 and then just go straight into reserve/first team squads, whereas in America they play sports in school, university, then get picked up by clubs
We don't have air conditioning in northern Europe, which is a requirement in America, according to what I've heard.
Do keep in mind that vancouver is at a lower latitude than amsterdam and florida is near the same latitude as the sahara.
Bigger portions/sizes. As an example I think a small or regular pb jar is probably considered large in European countries.
Kind of but I think that is changing. When I was in Germany a few weeks ago everywhere we went out to eat at, the portions were something I would expect to get in America and pretty large.
Are the portions really bigger though?
Bigger homes and wider streets
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It's so bubbly, cloying and happy. And you know what's really frightening? If you drink enough of it you begin to like it.
I heard from a friend in London that Root Beer tastes like cold medicine to him. Did some research and it turns out yeah, the major flavoring in Root Beer is also the major flavor ingredient in most cough and cold meds in Europe. So the taste of Root Beer just sets off that memory nerve that says "sick and coughing taste!" Poor Europy folks are imbittered to Root Beer from before they take their first sip.
I've read that it's because the flavor is similar to some children's medicine a majority of Europeans had to endure growing up. It reminds them of medicine.
My English friend was so excited to try a root beer float. He pretty much spit it out and he sounds so betrayed.
Root beer, the Irn-bru of the americas.
Sasparilla vs Sassafras is a hill I will die on.
What do you mean by the road splits in two ?
Automatic ice dispensers in your fridges. It's such an American thing you only find it on fridges that are labelled "American style"
I’m gonna start calling fridges without ice dispensers, “European style”.
To keep this household in ice without one I would either spend all day dumping and filling trays or have to have a freezer just for ice making.
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Hummingbirds!!!
Europe doesn’t have them?? That’s so sad :(
AC. Been back a forth a lot, AC.
Ac tends to do that, try DC next time
I'm friends with a couple in London and every single summer they complain to death about the heat, how they're always sweating and they even can't move and their computers won't even run and they can't sleep at night... while they won't even consider a £300 portable AC unit that would fit in their window and cool their bedroom down for next to no electricity cost. If I bring it up, they act like I'm insane or idiotically spoiled for even suggesting such a thing while I sit in my 78-degree air-conditioned apartment while the Texas summer hits 110 F outside.
12/14/21
Well played
Oh wait, I get it! The date thing. Nice!
11/11/11 vs 11/11/11
Me
Maine?
This! I’ve been to me several times. I’m so lucky to live in America.
Mourning doves. They're cute and chubby, and their boo-hoo-hoo songs sound like wooden flutes.
Space. I love spending time in Europe, but man, it is amazing to come home and have hundreds of thousands of square miles of just open country to explore, hike, ride, camp, etc...
Yeah, I remember driving a greyhound in central USA and just be astouned at the nothingness of endless space. It was actually a nice experience.
An much older co-worker was describing his wife's family visiting from England back in the 1960's. They picked them up at the airport and then drove back to where he lived. He said they were getting twitchy in the back seat, and he finally realized that they were not used to sitting for this long a drive. It was a 3 hour drive to the small town they lived in. 3 hours of highway speed would be all the way across England.
Europe has a lot of space, most of it is in Russia though.
Most Americans have circumcised cocks.
Live in the UK with a US wife. When my sons were around 2 & 4 we were visiting my wife's grandparents in Arizona. With the heat it was virtually impossible to keep the boys in clothes. They would just strip as soon as you put clothes on them (understandable since AZ is like living on the sun). Wife's grandfather asked why they weren't circumcised and my reply of "We're not Jewish, why would they be?" led to me finding out it's the norm in the US.
The most sunshine hours per year (thanks to Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Cali…).
A million choices in the cereal isle aisle (oops, thanks)
So we can add an island made of cereal to the list now
Aisle
High fructose corn syrup...
I don’t think most of us Americans understand how cheap gas truly is
That gas price thing is probably why public transit is way more common in other countries.
That's last part depends a lot on where you are.
Legal right turn on red, I don't always agree with Jeremy Clarkson but in this instance he's correct that's it's one of the US's greatest contributions to society.
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Unless you’re a pedestrian
As a Canadian these comments just sound like canada.
As they say: Sure, Canada is a country, but it's not a foreign country.
Every time I am in Canada I feel like I'm in a store brand US
Pancakes with maple syrup.
Dutchy here. Our pancakes can be savory but are originally neutral/sweet. Savory pancakes are topped with powdered sugar and/or thick syrup (stroop). They are mostly eaten as lunch or dinner, not breakfast (unless maybe leftovers)
If you drive east from the California coast up some of the higher passes all the way to the eastern boundary of CA, you pass through truly immense diversity of natural landscape: beach > estuary/marsh> green rolling hills > golden plains > volcanic table mountains > foothills > national forests > wooded alpine > high alpine > desert plateau. 5 hours of driving one way, worth it every time.
not as diverse but the pacific coast highway between LA and SF is the most beautiful 8 hour drive in the fucking world
Just found this out on another post: our own graves. Apparently graves are often dug up and reused in Europe and Australia. They’re owned by the government and will not always be yours. The only reason why we don’t do the same is because we are a younger country and we haven’t run out of room to bury people yet.
I get that in Europe but Australia is freaking huge, surely they have enough room for graves
As an Aussie I've never seen this. Seen plenty of old graves in graveyards from 1800s. Saw one for a lady that literally had written on it 'murdered by blacks at the river crossing' which was pretty confronting
America has 3.79 millions square miles of land.
As far as I know this isn't true. I am from the UK and I have never heard of such a practice
The place my grandma is buried in California has time limits on graves. I believe it’s 99 years. Not sure if they are actually digging folks up as the cemetery is about 150 years old.
The Grand Canyon
It is so huge that looks fake. Not even kidding
This is a good one. One of the most amazing things I've visited.
Finally a good one. That shit is bonkers
Oh yes!!!! And I’d say the whole system of National Parks is just amazing! Open 24/7 (unless some weather or gov’t shutdown), maps available, trails laid out, camping spots designated… It’s the most treasured and inderappreciated thing in the US, IMO.
And the Colorado plateau in general. (Encompasses most of the Southwest along with all the red rock beauty)
Jokes on you. We have a canyon here in Czechia called "Amerika". Because if you use your imagination it could possibly resemble some part of Grand Canyon.
Hot pockets and pizza rolls
God Bless America
Drive in EVERYTHING! Drive in Starbucks, I’ve head Drive in Banks, that’s so crazy to me
In my hometown we have a drive-through liquor store.
Ranch.
No deal. Take James Corden, give us Tom Hiddleston, and you get the ranch
If you can access mayonnaise, sour cream, Worcestershire sauce, and a few basic spices,
The Heart Attack Grill...
That place gets credit for saving my life. It's down on Freemont street, and they have (had? It's been a while) a big scale out front, like to weigh a pallet. I clambered up there CERTAIN that I still was under the 350lb "Eat for free" gimmick.
Ate there in October during EDC weekend. More like the Heart Attack Bill, lol. Worth it for the novelty, but the food was pretty mediocre, just MASSIVE quantities. It was surprisingly empty too. Glad I checked it out, but wouldn’t return. Las Vegas as a whole is a novelty money grab, lol
Ice in my soda.
Yellow school buses
We have yellow school buses in Italy too.
A more ecologically diverse country. We have virtually every climate and ecosystem on the gradient.
I go to school by next to the beach… I went on a ski trip with some friends for a weekend because it’s so close.
We have every type of bear! If you don’t believe me go to a gay bar
The Sonora desert is extremely diverse.
More space
Middle class folks with 2500sqft new construction homes on 4+ acres.
This is a good one. American's play pretty hard, mostly because of the unmatched access to public land we have. Lot's of toys and lots of big garages/shops/barns full of recreation vehicles.
Cups of Red Solo
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A plethora of ice cubes. I don’t think any other country uses ice quite like Americans do.
Inches. Gallons. Dollars
Acres and the Fahrenheit scale
Nope, the UK uses all three: height and construction, mileage, global scale financials
Canadian, but thought I'd share: the right to insult both sides, while not being insulted back
I ain’t your buddy, pal
Wrong bitch
Free drink refills at restaurants
Certain places in the UK do free refills.
Mexican border
Fun fact England bordered Mexico up till the 60’s
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
They can be emulated in Europe by putting peanut butter and jam on a sandwich.
I used to have those all the time as a kid, and I'm British
Air conditioning every single possible location
A flag on the moon
Planted, sire,
Massive tubs of cheap peanut butter. Its rare and expensive in most of Europe, sold only in small 4-8oz containers.
In The Netherlands we have a lot of peanut butter. And the biggest sizes are 32oz in local stores and probably big containers at wholesale.
Singaporean who splits his time with the US.
Man, that is a really cool perspective. Thanks for sharing, friend!
Good-ass insight, we need to get you to the top!
Alaska
Extracurricular activities at school.
Agree. American here and I had dance, music, singing, acting, debate classes. List can go on - normal.
Root beer
We used to have root beer in McDonald's in the UK but it went off the menu a long time ago.
The ability to turn right on a red light.
Sauce! We have so many kinds of sauce!! I once went to a burger place in Italy and they didn’t have Ketchup. They only had olive oil and balsamic everywhere I went. That was what I was looking forward to when I came home. Good ole bbq, ranch, honey mustard, buffalo etc.
Cheap gasoline