Not sure I'd agree with that, I went to Edinburgh Uni and there are loads of university societies, sports teams, clubs, conventions, all sorts. It's maybe not done with quite the same enthusiasm though...
At least for the public Unis in Germany i know, I can't completely agree, for the University offers a variety of sport programms, orchestras, language courses, food, interchanges and regular events or rarely partys and additionally there are student clubs for almost anything, sure it's different, but not nothing.
Not sure where you're getting your information from, but from my experience of universities in Europe the only thing they don't have that you've mentioned is the weird Greek thing.
I used to work in a call Center that took calls from Americans and Canadians. I’d ask “Where are you from, Canada or the US?” Canadians would say “Canada” and American would say “Texas” or “New York” etc. Never ever would they reply with their country name.
I live in Amsterdam, and we have many Americans living here. When I meet one and asked him this question, my dirty pleasure is to say "from the United states"? After they answer with just their state name. Once completely caught me off guard when he said "Idaho". Never heard of this US state before. I asked if it was in Australia 😂
I love that more places are offering drive thrus 💞 My son uses a wheelchair, its made a LOT of things much more accessible (and saved my back since I have to lift him in and out of my pickup).
Its the American pronunciation of "squirrel" that gets me. Here its a two syllable word. "Sqwe-rell" kinda. But when my American gf says it it comes out kinda like "sqwurl". The first time she said it I thought she said "swirl". Its just one syllable.
we have red solo cups in Canada too. as a Canadian, every thread about things that are unique to America, half the things are "oh, we have that here too, I didn't know it was unusual" and half are "wow, that is unusual, America so strange"
About 20 years ago I traded some rare vintage Honda parts for red solo cups. Literally shipped them halfway across the world for the dude because he wanted “authentic” ones lol.
Here's an interesting side fact about "aluminum." The scientist who originally discovered it, called it "aluminum," but some other jackass scientist decided that it "wasn't Latin enough," so CHANGED it to "aluminium," and it's been debated ever since!
Ran into a guy from Germany I believe at a festival one time, he was talking about the red solo cups. When we told he could go to the store down the block and buy a ton of them his eyes lit up. I hope he stocked up good.
Might just be me, but I do notice when you ask Americans on the internet where they're from, they reply with either a state or a city instead of their country.
On a similar note, Americans seem to use England, Britain and the UK completely interchangeably. Likewise, I've had an Irish colleague of mine tell a story abkut how he spent 5 minutes having to explain the difference between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and that just because he's from Ireland doesn't mean he's from the United Kingdom.
I'm an American who moved to Germany and people always say this like it's some weird thing we do, but whenever I get asked where I'm from and just say "the US", the next question is ALWAYS which state/city. Without fail.
That feeling when you want to spend your very last Dollar on a can of Arizona Ice Tea (Famously: "The price is on the can!") and the cashier asks for $1.07
We have that here in Scandinavia too, along with Thousand Island and Rhode Island. I was very surprised to find out that Rhode Island dressing is a Swedish thing that has nothing to do with Rhode Island. (It's basically Thousand Island without bits in it.)
Depends on the restaurant. Sometimes if feels like I need smoke signals and flares to get the server to come back to the table and give us the bill lol
I’m from America but my grandmother was from New Zealand so I have some family there, and one year when I was younger (12-13?) my family went to visit them for a month. It was great, but I couldn’t find root beer anywhere. It was my favorite drink at the time. I’d ask every restaurant and store we went to about root beer and they never had it (except for one small store we found after a long time of searching). After about a week or two of asking everyone for root beer, my family finally informed me that in New Zealand, the word “root” basically has the same meaning as the word “fuck”. So I was just an American twelve year old innocently walking around asking for fuck beer. Had a great time though, beautiful place.
A few years ago I went to a American Themed restaurant in the Dominican Republic, they had a decent assortment of BBQ sauces and one of the sauces was advertised as White BBQ Sauce. I know my BBQ and I have never heard of a White BBQ sauce so I decided to ask for some... It was Ranch.... I was speechless!
We have a grad student here from Argentina, we introduced her to ranch and I'm worried we've ruined her life. She puts that shit on literally everything.
First day in Germany after 24 hours of traveling I stopped at a Subway and asked for ranch on my sandwich. Guy said, "you're not in America anymore honey". Whoops, my bad, I had no idea ranch was an American thing.
This was the one I noticed the most on my first trip to England. I was watching rhe winter Olympics and couldn't figure out what was weird, then it finally hit me that there were no medical ads. And my family was just like, "yeah, they're illegal here". Which, I think is the right model.
Me and my husband love watching the American feed of NFL. We quite like the drug ads, as they have to list all the side effects and it sound like every drug will kill you. We love laughing at the ads
Handing your credit card to a stranger, having them walk away, swipe it, then bring it back to like they didn’t just put a down payment on a new house with it…
When I first started working in hospitality, I had an American customer who just gave me their card. I took it to the register, paid the order with a swipe and gave it back. I was told by my manager to never do that again lol.
Hope you’re enjoying your trip! Where have you visited? Free water is a blessing. Most businesses have free drinking fountains you can use without being a customer too.
It's even worse than that. Two years is becoming "normal" for presidential elections. The Trump reelection campaign started the day after he was sworn in.
You mean a garbage disposal. I haven't had one in my, American, apartment in ages & it was weird at first to remember I have to use a strainer in my sink's drain to catch bits of food that can clog up the pipes. A garbage disposal would grind those little pieces up.
It seems strange to anyone from Europe, but after starting to watch US sports I realised that a lot of states either don't have a team in a major league or will only have one. It's not like here in the UK where there are 92 teams in the football league and even more below that, most of the major leagues in the US only have 30-40 teams. That's why people are so invested in college sports, a lot of the time they're the only local teams
US HS sports have nothing on Japan's Koshien baseball tourney. It's broadcast nationwide, daily, for weeks. Everyone follows it, even people who don't really like sports
My daughter and I went on a Caribbean cruise together and our first night in Orlando, we went out to explore. We had dinner at IHOP, because why not, and had some delicious raspberry lemonade.
I don't think it's only american, I live in Belgium and everyone I know does it too. We receive more than 50 cards each Christmas, from family and friends. I have family in France, Germany and Quebec who do it too but I don't know if it's that common there.
Saw this with my American friends when I lived in Moscow. They walked around with this pleasant, anticipatory smile on their face and people thought they were mentally challenged.
LOL - I studied in France when I was in college and lived with a family for the year. Awesome people, but the dad made no secret of his disdain for Americans. I guess it was the mom that must have convinced him to have Americans board with them because he never seemed too pleased about it.
Pledging allegiance to the flag or singing the national anthem outside of special events. I went to see a kids talent show in a small rural town, there were maybe 8 acts and 30 people watching and they all stood and pledged allegiance to the flag and sang the national anthem before hand. It was extremely strange.
I swear the English national anthem only consists of "God save our gracious Queen!" and then we all just have to fill in the blanks afterwards like a nationwide improv skit that occurs like 3 times a lifetime on average
Providing info on a location on an international forum with the state abbreviated. I help ID plants and fungi, when asking for a location, which can be key for an ident, Americans reply with CA Bay Area. I'm in the UK this means nothing to me.
Yep, in Europe "liberal" means someone who supports small government, less state intervention, less public spending, privatization, lower taxes. This is generally center or center-right. Similar to what Americans call a libertarian, but usually more moderate.
Americans have a particular brand of plucky, cheerful tenacity that I find to be one of their most charming traits. It can mean that they seem a bit "full on", "loud" or over exuberant, but I have on the whole found them to be warm and inviting people. I think the tenacity might be why there's a begrudging fondness from us Brits, and I think it's particularly flavoured from the wartime reception of World War 2. Brits are also tenacious, but in a more grumpy, stubborn way. If Americans are like "Yay we can do the things! I believe in you! Let's do it!" then Brits are like "well I better bloody do the things out of spite! I'll complain the whole time but I'll show you that I can bloody well do the things too!" 🤣 but ultimately the things get done and I think Brits appreciate that. So we're all like "Well Yank you might be a bit bonkers but you get results, you're allowed in my pub." 🤣
While I admit the Brits are pretty close with their Full English Breakfast, the American greasy diner Breakfast of Eggs, Bacon, Waffles/Pancakes and Hashbrowns is pretty uniquely American.
You need a Breakfast Burrito - Fried hashbrowns, ham, sausage, bacon, chorizo, eggs, sour cream, guac with some pico de gallo and tapatio wrapped in a monster tortilla 💞😆
God if there's one thing I hated about Italy while my stay there was their joke of a breakfast. Being an Indian, I've grown up eating "breakfast like a king".
The funniest is when a clearly teenage me is wearing my JROTC uniform for events and I get thanked for my service. Like bro I appreciate the gesture but I’m not even that involved in JROTC let alone going into the actual military
Hosted a person from Norway for business for 5 days a few months back. That guy wanted to eat as much red meat, sandwiches and fast food as I ever saw.
American ACs are usually integrated into the homes with vents along the walls in every room but in Europe they tend to be relegated to a single tiny rectangular unit over the door. If you're fancy then the house may have two of these!
Hmm, I wonder if there's any data supporting this. I've never been to Southern states, but I did grow up in Taiwan, where AC usage was pretty prolific.
My Italian boyfriend and his family seem to have “superstitions” around the AC. For example: if the room gets too cold you’ll get sick, or if you have it on after a shower you’ll get sick, or if you have it running at night you’ll get sick. They have AC but they’re convinced it causes illness so they keep it off most of the time. I had never heard these things before going to Italy either.
To walk to my nearest grocery store (only about a mile and a half) I would have to walk on the side of a road where cars are flying up a blind hill at 60mph (around 97kmh) with no sidewalks or areas to safely cross the road, at 100°F/38°C. Unfortunately it really is just insane to expect to be able to walk anywhere except for the inner cities. My old house, the nearest grocery store was a 25 minute DRIVE. Too much land in between everything, or too fast roads.
Referring to your region by the nearest big city even when you're on the other side of the planet. I worked in London with people from all over and it was painful watching someone from Lithuania struggle to understand the American insisting they come from Austin. They'd pull a confused face and apologetically ask them where it was again and the American just repeats Austin.
I don’t think foreigners realize that many Americans are only patriotic around them. Like around my friends I’ll roast the shit out of this place but reading through this thread is turning me into George Washington.
depends on the area. in the Northeast people are less receptive to this. in the South, sometimes women even gossip like they’re best friends at the sinks in public bathrooms despite being total strangers.
Give tips at restaurants. And give even more tips for barber / food delivery / massage. And some Asian restaurants will automatically add 20% tip after tax :(
I worked at a place years ago and any time a busload of American tourists came in it was always someone's birthday, it was the only decent money to be made in that place.
In a more general sense, going bankrupt because of medical bills even when you have insurance. So many people in America rail against socialized healthcare and seem to be completely unaware how much we're paying and how little we're getting out of it compared to other countries.
It's so weird. I work in the food industry and as a kitchen manager, I don't get tips, but make enough that I don't rely on tips. But other employees do.. like "shit, didn't make enough tips for rent.."
Universities in Europe are simply institutions of higher learning, nothing more.
Not sure I'd agree with that, I went to Edinburgh Uni and there are loads of university societies, sports teams, clubs, conventions, all sorts. It's maybe not done with quite the same enthusiasm though...
You went to a terrible uni.
At least for the public Unis in Germany i know, I can't completely agree, for the University offers a variety of sport programms, orchestras, language courses, food, interchanges and regular events or rarely partys and additionally there are student clubs for almost anything, sure it's different, but not nothing.
Not sure where you're getting your information from, but from my experience of universities in Europe the only thing they don't have that you've mentioned is the weird Greek thing.
"Where are you from?"
I mean, I’d be perfectly fine if an Indian said they were from Goa or an Australian said they were from New South Wales.
So. Many. Flags.
I used to work in a call Center that took calls from Americans and Canadians. I’d ask “Where are you from, Canada or the US?” Canadians would say “Canada” and American would say “Texas” or “New York” etc. Never ever would they reply with their country name.
I live in Amsterdam, and we have many Americans living here. When I meet one and asked him this question, my dirty pleasure is to say "from the United states"? After they answer with just their state name. Once completely caught me off guard when he said "Idaho". Never heard of this US state before. I asked if it was in Australia 😂
Fraternities and sororities
no they imported that (still pretty big in NL atleast)
Carrier locked phones. They're illegal everywhere else.
Ice machines
Drive thru atms and everything else.
Aussies do the drive through liquor stores/bottle shops/off licenses
Drive thru atms???
I love that more places are offering drive thrus 💞 My son uses a wheelchair, its made a LOT of things much more accessible (and saved my back since I have to lift him in and out of my pickup).
Am American. When I moved to Australia I was constantly asked three questions:
I kept getting asked how many guns I owned and whether or not I thought Trump was a good president
Its the American pronunciation of "squirrel" that gets me. Here its a two syllable word. "Sqwe-rell" kinda. But when my American gf says it it comes out kinda like "sqwurl". The first time she said it I thought she said "swirl". Its just one syllable.
I work with Germans, and when they come here they often buy a bunch of red solo cups to take home.
we have red solo cups in Canada too. as a Canadian, every thread about things that are unique to America, half the things are "oh, we have that here too, I didn't know it was unusual" and half are "wow, that is unusual, America so strange"
About 20 years ago I traded some rare vintage Honda parts for red solo cups. Literally shipped them halfway across the world for the dude because he wanted “authentic” ones lol.
Here's an interesting side fact about "aluminum." The scientist who originally discovered it, called it "aluminum," but some other jackass scientist decided that it "wasn't Latin enough," so CHANGED it to "aluminium," and it's been debated ever since!
Ran into a guy from Germany I believe at a festival one time, he was talking about the red solo cups. When we told he could go to the store down the block and buy a ton of them his eyes lit up. I hope he stocked up good.
I didn't think about the red cup thing until John Mulaney's party bit. "I'm holding a red cup - you've seen movies."
Might just be me, but I do notice when you ask Americans on the internet where they're from, they reply with either a state or a city instead of their country.
I also find that Americans often include where they were born. For example "I'm from Philly but originally from Jersey.
On a similar note, Americans seem to use England, Britain and the UK completely interchangeably. Likewise, I've had an Irish colleague of mine tell a story abkut how he spent 5 minutes having to explain the difference between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and that just because he's from Ireland doesn't mean he's from the United Kingdom.
I'm an American who moved to Germany and people always say this like it's some weird thing we do, but whenever I get asked where I'm from and just say "the US", the next question is ALWAYS which state/city. Without fail.
Not including tax on prices displayed in stores.
That feeling when you want to spend your very last Dollar on a can of Arizona Ice Tea (Famously: "The price is on the can!") and the cashier asks for $1.07
They do this in Canada at most stores too it’s so annoying oml
It's like that in Canada too. I went to London once and was blown away by that. I love it, and think that everyone should work like that!
I just lived in the US for six months and I'm so happy to be back in Ireland where the tax is included in the price
Ranch. I never knew ranch was just an American thing until recently.
We have that here in Scandinavia too, along with Thousand Island and Rhode Island. I was very surprised to find out that Rhode Island dressing is a Swedish thing that has nothing to do with Rhode Island. (It's basically Thousand Island without bits in it.)
What's ranch ?
The idea that healthcare isn't a right, but a very expensive privilege.
Not having to ask for the bill.
This was me today at a restaurant in Oslo. It felt rude to call the waitress over to ask for the bill. Am American.
Depends on the restaurant. Sometimes if feels like I need smoke signals and flares to get the server to come back to the table and give us the bill lol
I'm not sure I understand this. How do the waiting staff know when you are ready to pay/leave? I've never heard of this before lol.. I'm from Germany
Hmm, thanks for this tip. I'll ask when traveling, I didn't think of this before, but I only ask for the bill when I'm in a hurry.
Root beer
I’m from America but my grandmother was from New Zealand so I have some family there, and one year when I was younger (12-13?) my family went to visit them for a month. It was great, but I couldn’t find root beer anywhere. It was my favorite drink at the time. I’d ask every restaurant and store we went to about root beer and they never had it (except for one small store we found after a long time of searching). After about a week or two of asking everyone for root beer, my family finally informed me that in New Zealand, the word “root” basically has the same meaning as the word “fuck”. So I was just an American twelve year old innocently walking around asking for fuck beer. Had a great time though, beautiful place.
It's so bubbly, cloying...and happy.
Root beer is pretty popular in Canada
Y’all
All y'all
Y’all’d’ve
Y’all ain’t shit!
Ranch
Back when I worked in Panera Bread, a customer asked for ranch; we didn't carry it back then and when we informed him, he said:
A few years ago I went to a American Themed restaurant in the Dominican Republic, they had a decent assortment of BBQ sauces and one of the sauces was advertised as White BBQ Sauce. I know my BBQ and I have never heard of a White BBQ sauce so I decided to ask for some... It was Ranch.... I was speechless!
We have a grad student here from Argentina, we introduced her to ranch and I'm worried we've ruined her life. She puts that shit on literally everything.
First day in Germany after 24 hours of traveling I stopped at a Subway and asked for ranch on my sandwich. Guy said, "you're not in America anymore honey". Whoops, my bad, I had no idea ranch was an American thing.
Prescription drug commercials.
Happy dancing while side effects are being listed
"Ask your doctor". Only place I know where it's the patients who tell the doctor which drugs to take.
This was the one I noticed the most on my first trip to England. I was watching rhe winter Olympics and couldn't figure out what was weird, then it finally hit me that there were no medical ads. And my family was just like, "yeah, they're illegal here". Which, I think is the right model.
We have those in New Zealand, too. I think I read somewhere once that we're the only countries where that type of advertising is legal.
Me and my husband love watching the American feed of NFL. We quite like the drug ads, as they have to list all the side effects and it sound like every drug will kill you. We love laughing at the ads
Handing your credit card to a stranger, having them walk away, swipe it, then bring it back to like they didn’t just put a down payment on a new house with it…
When I first started working in hospitality, I had an American customer who just gave me their card. I took it to the register, paid the order with a swipe and gave it back. I was told by my manager to never do that again lol.
Bold of you to assume we have enough money for that to be a concern.
Any server or bartender who would steal that way would have to be the dumbest person alive.
Currently on my first proper trip in the US and a few things stood out to me. (Overall great place!)
The water level in toilets where you’re from is significantly lower? Is the flush pressure much higher?
Hope you’re enjoying your trip! Where have you visited? Free water is a blessing. Most businesses have free drinking fountains you can use without being a customer too.
Ok if a place came back with extra recipes I would not be mad. I know it’s a typo. But still.
Lack of statutory paid maternity leave
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Presidential elections can be closer to 18 months or so if one or both parties have a hotly contested primary.
It's even worse than that. Two years is becoming "normal" for presidential elections. The Trump reelection campaign started the day after he was sworn in.
Mixing three different canned foods together and calling it a casserole.
Don't forget to add cheese!
Cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, mushrooms on rice, actual chicken optional. Mom's was awesome lol
Don't you knock on grandma's 3 can casserole like that!
Yes! And ANY 3 ingredients in a bowl makes it salad. Marshmallows, Cool Whip, and fruit cocktail? A salad. 3 different beans? Salad.
Midwest babyyyy
Fettuccine Alfredo
Alfredo's Fettuccine or Fettuccine by Alfredo?
Ah yes Bougie Mac n Cheese
That Shit hits man
Calling corruption "lobbying".
When I learned about lobbying in my public affairs class, I said it sounded like legalized bribing. My teacher just looked at me and didn’t answer.
Solo cups I think they are called idk the little red ones
Oh yeah you mean American party cups
Kitchen sink blender I mean Wut?
You mean a garbage disposal. I haven't had one in my, American, apartment in ages & it was weird at first to remember I have to use a strainer in my sink's drain to catch bits of food that can clog up the pipes. A garbage disposal would grind those little pieces up.
The Cult Of Highschool/College Sports
It seems strange to anyone from Europe, but after starting to watch US sports I realised that a lot of states either don't have a team in a major league or will only have one. It's not like here in the UK where there are 92 teams in the football league and even more below that, most of the major leagues in the US only have 30-40 teams. That's why people are so invested in college sports, a lot of the time they're the only local teams
The epic highs and lows of high school football.
If you don't follow the Cult of College Sports, then you don't know the absolute shitstorm USC and UCLA kicked up on Thursday.
US HS sports have nothing on Japan's Koshien baseball tourney. It's broadcast nationwide, daily, for weeks. Everyone follows it, even people who don't really like sports
Free refills at restaurants
and with ice
My daughter and I went on a Caribbean cruise together and our first night in Orlando, we went out to explore. We had dinner at IHOP, because why not, and had some delicious raspberry lemonade.
KFCs in germany have free refills, but sadly only KFC.
That's wild. The cost of the actual drink is usually a few pennies at most
Sometimes in cups so large you have to wonder how one person actually finished it.
In Germany they look at you weird if you ask for tap water.
Sending Christmas cards with their family photo on it.
Often with pictures not related to Christmas at all, such as beach pictures
I don't think it's only american, I live in Belgium and everyone I know does it too. We receive more than 50 cards each Christmas, from family and friends. I have family in France, Germany and Quebec who do it too but I don't know if it's that common there.
American here. When I studied abroad, I was smiling and friendly to strangers. In London they looked like I wanted to steal something from them!
Saw this with my American friends when I lived in Moscow. They walked around with this pleasant, anticipatory smile on their face and people thought they were mentally challenged.
LOL - I studied in France when I was in college and lived with a family for the year. Awesome people, but the dad made no secret of his disdain for Americans. I guess it was the mom that must have convinced him to have Americans board with them because he never seemed too pleased about it.
I’m from the US, but if someone ever says “my friend” to me, it instantly puts me on high alert.
Thats not necessarily an American thing, more of a regional thing.
The fact that kayaks give you herpes. Every herpes medication commercial shows someone in a kayak.
As a kayaker I was very worried when I read the first sentence.
Pledging allegiance to the flag or singing the national anthem outside of special events. I went to see a kids talent show in a small rural town, there were maybe 8 acts and 30 people watching and they all stood and pledged allegiance to the flag and sang the national anthem before hand. It was extremely strange.
I once got “silent lunch” (punishment of having to sit alone at lunch) for not standing for the pledge one morning. It’s ridiculous!
I swear the English national anthem only consists of "God save our gracious Queen!" and then we all just have to fill in the blanks afterwards like a nationwide improv skit that occurs like 3 times a lifetime on average
Providing info on a location on an international forum with the state abbreviated. I help ID plants and fungi, when asking for a location, which can be key for an ident, Americans reply with CA Bay Area. I'm in the UK this means nothing to me.
ID? You mean Idaho?
It's so nice of you to help Idaho plants and fungi. I'm sure they're grateful.
Daily driving pickup trucks
we do that in australia too kind of
One of my friends is from Germany and he was surprised how many people have drive pickup trucks instead of cars
Road trip baby! You can hop in a car and drive 2500 miles in one direction
Liberal = Left-Wing
Yeah, in my country, it is either associated with the political centre or with (moderate) right wing, never with left wing.
Yep, in Europe "liberal" means someone who supports small government, less state intervention, less public spending, privatization, lower taxes. This is generally center or center-right. Similar to what Americans call a libertarian, but usually more moderate.
Americans have a particular brand of plucky, cheerful tenacity that I find to be one of their most charming traits. It can mean that they seem a bit "full on", "loud" or over exuberant, but I have on the whole found them to be warm and inviting people. I think the tenacity might be why there's a begrudging fondness from us Brits, and I think it's particularly flavoured from the wartime reception of World War 2. Brits are also tenacious, but in a more grumpy, stubborn way. If Americans are like "Yay we can do the things! I believe in you! Let's do it!" then Brits are like "well I better bloody do the things out of spite! I'll complain the whole time but I'll show you that I can bloody well do the things too!" 🤣 but ultimately the things get done and I think Brits appreciate that. So we're all like "Well Yank you might be a bit bonkers but you get results, you're allowed in my pub." 🤣
This was very sweet of you to say.
I agree with this. I appreciate American cheerfulness and openness.
Yes, we do perceive you as our older, grumpy, more well-spoken sibling.
Not making posts about other countries
That's cuz there aren't any other countries
Turning right on red
Lol Jeremy Clarkson said something to the effect of "it's America's greatest invention"
Really? They don't do this in other countries?
While I admit the Brits are pretty close with their Full English Breakfast, the American greasy diner Breakfast of Eggs, Bacon, Waffles/Pancakes and Hashbrowns is pretty uniquely American.
I see you never had Polish breakfast.
You need a Breakfast Burrito - Fried hashbrowns, ham, sausage, bacon, chorizo, eggs, sour cream, guac with some pico de gallo and tapatio wrapped in a monster tortilla 💞😆
Bruh, that's nothing. "Big Family Breakfast" at my house is bacon, fried eggs, sausage gravy, biscuits, and grits. I fry the eggs in the bacon grease.
I love how many things, like this, overlap with Canada. And then other things do not at all. Also, you made me hungry
God if there's one thing I hated about Italy while my stay there was their joke of a breakfast. Being an Indian, I've grown up eating "breakfast like a king".
Making pancakes from the box
Everyone else is making pancakes from scratch? You’re right I didn’t know this
Normal in Korea.
Thanking military people for their service...
Reminded me of a joke I heard
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Then not actually supporting them in any meaningful way.
The funniest is when a clearly teenage me is wearing my JROTC uniform for events and I get thanked for my service. Like bro I appreciate the gesture but I’m not even that involved in JROTC let alone going into the actual military
In uk we thank the bus driver for their service
S’mores - was shocked to learn that no one even knew what they are in Europe. Like people maybe don’t eat PB&J but they at least know of it.
Creating random small talk with strangers
Singing the national anthem at every possible opportunity, even when the event does not involve any other countries.
Starting every sporting event with some military flyover or other military promotion.
So much fast food
Hosted a person from Norway for business for 5 days a few months back. That guy wanted to eat as much red meat, sandwiches and fast food as I ever saw.
Air conditioning. I'm very surprised no one has said this yet.
American ACs are usually integrated into the homes with vents along the walls in every room but in Europe they tend to be relegated to a single tiny rectangular unit over the door. If you're fancy then the house may have two of these!
Hmm, I wonder if there's any data supporting this. I've never been to Southern states, but I did grow up in Taiwan, where AC usage was pretty prolific.
The Middle East takes their AC pretty serious. Lived there for 18 months and every room had their own unit.
My Italian boyfriend and his family seem to have “superstitions” around the AC. For example: if the room gets too cold you’ll get sick, or if you have it on after a shower you’ll get sick, or if you have it running at night you’ll get sick. They have AC but they’re convinced it causes illness so they keep it off most of the time. I had never heard these things before going to Italy either.
Driving everywhere
American cities were built around the concept of driving. It's very difficult to walk anywhere, and here is a video explaining why:
To walk to my nearest grocery store (only about a mile and a half) I would have to walk on the side of a road where cars are flying up a blind hill at 60mph (around 97kmh) with no sidewalks or areas to safely cross the road, at 100°F/38°C. Unfortunately it really is just insane to expect to be able to walk anywhere except for the inner cities. My old house, the nearest grocery store was a 25 minute DRIVE. Too much land in between everything, or too fast roads.
Well the store is over 15 km away from my house and then my buddy's house is 25 km in the other direction.
750 military bases around the world
Sigh. This is going to end up on a shitty buzzfeed article.
Referring to your region by the nearest big city even when you're on the other side of the planet. I worked in London with people from all over and it was painful watching someone from Lithuania struggle to understand the American insisting they come from Austin. They'd pull a confused face and apologetically ask them where it was again and the American just repeats Austin.
Mate idek the English counties, let alone American states
Not allowing cashiers to sit down because it will make them seem lazy
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Having a big 300 m^2 home made of wood in a suburb, a garage and a chimney.
I don’t think foreigners realize that many Americans are only patriotic around them. Like around my friends I’ll roast the shit out of this place but reading through this thread is turning me into George Washington.
I’m from NYC and never defended America a day in my life until I moved to Europe.
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That really depends on the locality. The state I live in is full of people that are unfriendly to strangers.
depends on the area. in the Northeast people are less receptive to this. in the South, sometimes women even gossip like they’re best friends at the sinks in public bathrooms despite being total strangers.
How all our bread is so sweet that they can be considered cakes in Europe.
Probably this. The amount of sugar in everything, let alone bread, is astounding.
Seeing your country's flag all over the place
In Texas you see just as many if not more state flags as well.
Give tips at restaurants. And give even more tips for barber / food delivery / massage. And some Asian restaurants will automatically add 20% tip after tax :(
A self checkout asked me about a tip two weeks ago in the Newark airport
I worked at a place years ago and any time a busload of American tourists came in it was always someone's birthday, it was the only decent money to be made in that place.
Pre Covid - the waitress taking your credit card else where to scan it.
paying $10,000 for a live birth and thinking that's okay
After paying $3,000 every year for "health insurance."
In a more general sense, going bankrupt because of medical bills even when you have insurance. So many people in America rail against socialized healthcare and seem to be completely unaware how much we're paying and how little we're getting out of it compared to other countries.
Pledging allegiance to a flag
These wide streets where you can park, stop next to them and drive because they are so incredibly wide.
As an American, I can testify to the terrifyingly narrow streets in Granada.
Eating a meal alone in their car.
Oh but I love doing this. I purposely did it when avoiding people at work or at school. It’s particularly nice on a crummy, rainy day.
Tipping wait staff, drivers, valet, etc.
It's so weird. I work in the food industry and as a kitchen manager, I don't get tips, but make enough that I don't rely on tips. But other employees do.. like "shit, didn't make enough tips for rent.."
Measuring distances in time
That's because of traffic.
Ice in all soft drinks by default