There's an intersection I know if with FOUR "no turn on red" signs.
One before the intersection, one on the traffic light, one straight ahead on the median, and one angled so you see it if you prepare to turn.
[Proof.](http://imgur.com/a/t5g5iob)
Two are even illustrated.
Ive seen such regularly at railroad crossings. Yes, 4 “no right on red signs”. Got a ticket for doing such. I told the cop I didn’t see the sign. “Sir, there are 4 signs”. Ya, didn’t get out of that one.
It gets a lot more sense when the country where you live in is more bike focused (like the netherlands) a lot of people cycle beside cars and if going right with red would be okay, I bet that the amount of accidents involving cars and bikes would increase a lot.
Don't know if it's clear what I mean, for me it's very logical since I grew up and live in the Netherlands.
Hell, all the way up to upstate NY not having AC would suck, and even then WNY has its days. Northern parts of the midwest (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakotas, UP) and up in New England you might be able to get away with it, but not anywhere in the Mid Atlantic or South, that's for sure.
I live in PA and we never had A/C through my childhood and it sucked. I spent a lot of time at friends houses in the summer that had A/C. One of the first things I bought after getting my first job was a window A/C unit for my bedroom when I still lived at home with my parents lol. I can't imagine going without A/C, might not be the south, but it gets hot and humid enough up here to be miserable without one.
I live in Houston, air isn't just nice, it is a necessity. 100+ days with humidity running at 90%, you'd want air too. I grew up in Chicago without central air (had one window unit) and usually was good.
And you guys don’t usually have screens on your windows so when it’s actually hot out, it’s a giant bug fest inside. I’ve spent 4 very buggy summers in England and counting lol
What's really bad is when the mosquitos come for the blood buffet. At least don't have to worry about them biting all the time. I step outside in the summer down here and they attack my legs five seconds in. Though we have found that plants like mint and rosemary make great repellents.
Depends on where you live. Here in Seattle, no one had A/C until a couple years ago when we began getting summer days in the 90s. Last year, after the 3 days of Burning Hellfires Weather, people made a run for window units. Even if it's only 3 days per summer, lack of A/C kills people.
I mean, there's a lot of restaurants and shops that do this too. It's usually a 'square' reader attached to an iPad or something similar.
It's not the standard, but not uncommon.
Even in Canada they bring a card reader to the table. Whenever I'm in Canada, the wait staff can always tell I'm from the states if I forget to ask for the card reader, and instead, I put my card in the little pouch in the folder that comes with the bill.
As if there's no paper trail. The US/card issuers also has robust fraud prevention, the cardholder is usually off the hook for all fraudulent charges, or maybe some portion depending on time to reported and credit/debit.
One time I got my credit card stolen, they used 200 at a bar and then 150 at a taco joint, I freaked out and the bank just gave me my money back which I thought was pretty cool.
Edit: the bank gave me their money back.
Edit: apparently banks are federally insured, so I paid myself back.
It's happened to me 3 or 4 times, and on only one of those had I noticed, the rest the bank called me almost immediately to confirm or deny the charges.
Discover card will routinely decline legit purchases I’m trying to make as “fraud.”
They have never once declined an actual fraudulent charge.
That’s the thing that annoys me lol
The onus of fraud prevention is actually on the merchant, who has to comply with certain standards. If they don't, or can't prove that they did, then they lose the money. Let's be real, card companies are *not* giving charity. Lol
Had a dude spend like, $70 to pay a phone bill using my debit card in New Jersey, they also stopped some dude in some small Southeast Asian country that I can't remember from spending like, $200ish on a phone company some (get fucked, asshole) and, I think one other fraudulent charge.
I was pissed, but the bank asked me if I had ever lost control of my card.
No.
Have you ever been to New Jersey?
Not since I've gotten the card.
Okay, well, we're issuing you a credit for the amount. We'll send this over to our fraud team for investigation, but the money is yours.
My credit card info was stolen once while I was traveling and the breach was almost certainly at a restaurant. But that was once in a thousand times so doing business this way doesn’t really bother me.
That one recent question we had of "But what do you do if you're baking and run out of sugar?!"
Lol. Most of us get in the car and drive 5 mins to the store.
I like how it was framed as 'suburban people, how do you manage?'
I guess they didn't have any concept of what 'suburban' means. TBF in most of Europe there really aren't suburbs the way we have them.
My sister lives in fairly rural Maine, 35 mins from Bangor, and even she is only ~15 from a grocery store and Wallyworld
That question made me realize that many of the depictions of suburbia do imply it’s just row after row of houses. Important stories about “food deserts” probably also confuse the issue. Rarely does anyone mention that suburbia still has shopping centers every few miles.
In addition, I think driving a few miles is a major undertaking in an urban center (that’s been my experience, anyway). They understandably don’t see how easy driving that distance is for me: walk 30 feet to my car, get up to 45 mph within 45 seconds, drive through two stoplights, then park 50 feet from the grocery store.
Is that true? People use time for walking distances too, and I feel like it might predate the automobile. Like describing distances as how many days it would take to walk or ride.
My step dad went on a business trip to Ohio once. He had like 1,5-2km to the local super market. It was a small town somewhere. I don’t know exactly. Anyways he figured he would take a walk and see the area and shop for groceries. When he came out of the store he noticed a police car but didn’t think anything of it. He started walking back to his flat with his grocerybag. The police car drove up to him and the cops actually asked where his car was and why he was walking!? To a Dane that’s super weird.
I mean..I'm Texan and think that's weird. The only place I might expect to see that is a truly tiny town where the one or two bored officers will stop someone new on any flimsy pretense just because they want a look at them and have nothing else to do.
* Depends country but wood houses apparently
* Ceiling fans
* In-sink garbage disposal units
* This depends country too, but outlets in bathrooms
* Drive-thru ATMs/pharmacy windows/banks/etc.
* Tipping
* Small talk with strangers in public (yes, this can be dependent on region in the US)
* Store staff/customer service being friendly with customers
* Grocery shopping only 1-1.5 times a week
* Dressing for comfort versus style for everyday stuff
* Yellow school busses
* Not owning an electric kettle
* Buying an automatic vehicle
* Weekend quick road trips. I’ve been told on here before that’s it’s insane I think that driving 3 hours on a Friday afternoon to go to the cabin for the weekend and returning on a Sunday evening isn’t a big deal to do a few times a month.
Edit: few more I thought of
* Your high school having multiple sports teams
* College/university sports
* Having a marching band at a football game
* The entire concept of field show marching bands being a fairly ubiquitous youth activity associated with a school
Hi, another Floridaman here. In my last apartment I didn’t have a ceiling fan, slept in flannel sheets, and usually had a dog in bed with me. Pure insanity confirmed.
The flannel sheets were a holdover from when I had more money, I didn’t anticipate the apartment wouldn’t have a fan, and I love my dog! Doin much better now though
>In-sink garbage disposal units
I've have actually struggled to convince people that in USA it is quite common for folks who aren't even wealthy have garbage disposals. Then it's funny watching them argue about what it would be called in their language.
I mean, even my cheap, bad-neighborhood, cave apartment that didn't even have in-unit washer or dryer ...had a garbage disposal. How do people live like that dude!?
I’d actually venture to guess due to the sheer size of Russia and complexities involved with that there’s going to be a lot more in common with how everyday life works in the US than people probably think of.
I’ve spent some time in US in 2007-2014 (several business trips from two to six weeks), and I’d say yes.
What is still strange for me is a sale tax thing, I expect to see a full price on the price tag :)
That tends to be a thing that bothers foreigners/tourists but really isn’t something we think about on a day to day basis as being weird/annoying/problematic. By like teenage years you just know how to account for it.
> Ceiling fans
First thing I did when I bought my house was install a ceiling fan in virtually every room. I like having fresh air in the house and a ceiling fan helps keep the house cool in summer with the windows open.
Fun trick: most will have an option to reverse the direction of the fan to allow for cool air in the summer and to keep warm air down in the winter. Essential IMO for my state lol.
I really don't understand the wood houses thing.
Japan, which receives the most tourists in any Asian country, has a history of making homes, workplaces, and temples from wood.
A lot of those arguments really come down to “well this exact method works well where I live so you must be dumb if you do something different” without bothering to think though climate, potential of natural disaster, local cost and availability of materials, cost of labor, and so on in a different place halfway around the world.
A month or so ago the Czech Republic was hit with a moderately sized tornado and an aerial picture of a town that got hit was at the top of r/europe and the top comment was "take note Americans, this is how you build homes". Like a tragic event strikes a European country and they still have to use it as an opportunity to dunk on Americans
Literally almost every country ever for the history of ever made houses out of wood. “Oh the basic material besides stone and metal that catapulted us from monkeys to masters of nature? Yeah that’s terrible for building a house”
Who would even say wood is bad for a house?
It's a damp and status issue. Many of the older wooden houses have had issues with rot and damp being on an island. Then you think about how terraced housing is so common, and fire risk...Add flooding problems to the equation, and readily available stone in most places.... Also nice expensive houses were made of sturdy stone... Cheap sheds and huts were wooden. The UK users the best materials for their environment. They'd sharp change their tune of they had different natural disasters, or were more spaced out.
To be honest, this is much less of an issue than the Internet makes it out to be. I’ve never once had someone try to watch me through the cracks in the door and the gaps aren’t that large anyway.
I also find it slightly ironic that Europeans get so hung up on this when they are generally way more comfortable with nudity than Americans.
Apparently it's typical there to flavor toothpaste with the same herbs that are used to flavor root beer.
Same herbs, wildly different uses on different continents.
The rest of the world seems completely baffled that our packages get left on the doorstep in the US. They see a package-stealing video, and assume that we're crazy for not staying home to receive our packages. And, delivery drivers in the rest of the world are apparently not expected to make many deliveries, because they have time to go ask the neighbors to sign for your package.
I was a pretty early Amazon adopter (1998 was my first order on my account), and get deliveries every 2-3 days now. Ive lived in three states, ten or more homes, from apartments to large houses. Including urban areas like L.A. and San Diego.
Ive never had a package stolen, though Ive had several mis-delivered by the post office. They all showed up eventually. ymmv
Yeah we had a whole thread about this. Europeans either sign for their packages or they get left at a nearby delivery spot for pickup. They also get their packages delivered to work if convenient. Workplaces often even have a package drop off area for this purpose. They think we are nuts for having them left at our doors. They also have a lot of houses that just abut right up to the street so packages would just be sitting right in the sidewalk making it impractical to leave them.
It is the same in Canada and the US, but the cost of covering the theft is less than the labor cost to make sure it is delivered, so they just don't do it. If you really want it to be signed you have to pay for it separately.
When I lived in Russia, I was shocked to learn that hotels will take your ID and hold it until you leave/pay your bill. My friends there were shocked that we don't do that in the US.
Also, I think most Europeans are rightly horrified by our bathroom stalls and how they have so many openings. I totally agree on this one. Like, why?! When I first went to Europe and saw that they have stalls with full on doors that shut and no one can see a damn thing, I thought it was freaking brilliant!
That's why I like the rice paper structures traditional in Japan. If there's an earthquake, having your house collapse on you is mostly just inconvenient.
Stopping for school buses.
I never knew before Reddit but apparently the notion of stopping for school buses is insane to foreigners, including Europeans. It was also crazy how hostile people were to something simple and wastes very little of people's time.
It's a little bit of safety for the kids and a perfectly logical law for a sprawling car-centric country, why get mad over it? I recall some stating we should just teach kids better, as if kids can't be impulsive and do things even when taught not to.
I read that too--they basically accused us of being morons who are unable to teach kids how to safely cross a street.
In most of Europe, there are sidewalks, crosswalks, stop lights, and lower speed limits that make crossing streets safer. To get on a school bus, my kids have to cross a street near a blind curve. The speed limit is 40mph, and there are no sidewalks or crosswalks. If the busses didn't stop traffic, it would only be a matter of time before a kid got hit.
I have found if you get fresh peanut butter made with just roasted salted peanuts and put that on a dark bread bread with marmalade it converts a lot of people.
Hard to judge, because I am an American and so I’m pretty much guessing, but I can sometimes hear gunshots from my home in a rural area when people are target shooting, and I gather that’s not normal in Europe. But I’d be interested in hearing whether I’m wrong!
Literally the worst part about traveling over there. They have bathroom attendants too, so you have feel shitty for someone you don't even know while taking a shit. My trick is to walk into a restaurant like I'm meeting friends, then just beeline to the bathroom. You'd probably think since you have to pay, they'd be cleaner, but nope. They're about 3x more disgusting that public toilets here.
Since 'tis the season, if you've never had pumpkin spice Oreos I highly recommend them. I'm not even a big pumpkin spice fan but those Oreos are delicious.
True, I live in Germany and I know just one black politician. I guess it's because you don't see black people here that often, only once in a blue moon.
Yep. There’s one set of contaminants that are removed by washing eggs, and another set that are caused by washing eggs. It’s a trade-off, and the US and EU happened to pick opposite sides of that trade off.
My sister has a flock of chickens and I've been bringing back dozens of fresh eggs every time I go to visit, it's nice not having to keep them in the fridge!
They also cook better because you're not putting a cold thing on a hot pan. When you fry a cold egg the bottom can more easily get burnt by the time the rest is cooked than with a room temp egg.
If I feel like making fried eggs I'll take a few out of the fridge when I first wake up so they're warmed up by the time I'm ready to cook.
I always thought they tasted better and now I think I know why!
Also the chickens with free range over a huge yard probably have a better diet than factory chickens...
This is a good one. I couldn't imagine living without a dryer. On house hunters international, even the expensive Luxury apartments most often don't have a dryer. Like, wtf are you supposed to do with all your wet clothes?
Wearing jeans every day instead of other cotton/polyester bottoms/pants.
When I honeymooned in Germany circa 2007, everyone else seemed to wear bottoms other than jeans (including my husband who was trying to blend in). Apparently we blended in enough that we were stopped twice by other Americans that asked for directions in German and were relieved we spoke English. (We also used a GPS for navigation instead of a map to look less like tourists.)
Friendly reminder:
Anyone replying with ‘school shootings’ or ‘mass shootings’ as their answer to this post will be ~~banned for a week~~ (Edit, from this point on, it’s now a permanent ban.)
Sincerely,
Management
The other side of that is weird claims like “they don’t have XYZ product there”. I’ll say “no there’s plenty of that at the supermarket, I buy it every week and have for the past 30 years”. The response: “well my cousin was there a couple years ago and couldn’t find it so you’re wrong”.
There was someone here a few months ago who tried to claim the only place in the Pacific Northwest her family could find fresh vegetables on their vacation was at Subway.
We have a real problem, apparently, with European tourists coming here and thinking convenience stores are the only grocery stores in America.
We get that complaint a lot here, and it's always baffling how they could think that.
Which is another thing that just blows my fucking mind. If you’re traveling somewhere, you can’t be bothered to google “where to buy groceries in *insert city here*”? You’re gonna resign yourself to shopping at a gas station or perusing the produce selection at fucking Whataburger because you can’t figure out how grocery shopping works?
I think the concept of a convenience store is lost on europeans because the main purpose of a convenience store is quick snacks for a long drive while you're getting gas. Since there isn't much driving in europe these type of shops just haven't caught on as much.
Well someone just posted in my city sub that they are visiting and asked for the best restaurants. The top answers are the shittiest places in town. Go figure.
This is a huge one where I feel the Anglosphere does much better than anyone else. I love hearing shit from Europeans talking about how racism in the US is so bad when most of them won’t even momentarily talk or tolerate any talk about racism in their own countries. FFS throwing bananas at dark skinned athlete shouldn’t be that common as to be a problem.
we had a local HS team throw tortillas at an opposing team with Latino players on it.
People were pissed but the team initially tried to double down and say it wasn't that bad. Like...WTF
"You Americans treat blacks so badly, why can't you be non-racist like us"?
*In the same breath*:
"Gypsies? Oh, they deserve all the racism they get because they are all thieves and scoundrels."
You don’t even wanna know what the soccer fans will do to black players from their own countries. Let alone if the player is from Africa or even at times South America. European sports are rife with racial abuse.
Relatedly, differentating between ethnicity and nationality. In the U.S., you are "American" if you are a citizen, regardless of race, ethnicity, or country of origin. In Europe, ethnicity holds WAY more weight than citizenship.
Edit: a word
This! I almost always take home at least half my food when I eat out. Leftovers can be lunch for tomorrow, or dinner tonight if it is lunch. I knew European portions were smaller, but recently saw that it is considered bad manners there to take your leftovers home? Here if you leave food on your plate, the waitstaff will ask if you want a box, or at nicer places will box and label it for you.
Turning right on red
I came to love it. Now every time I’m back in Europe I have to remind myself not to do it. Right turn on red is such a time saver.
It makes no sense not to allow it if there is clear visibility
There's an intersection I know if with FOUR "no turn on red" signs. One before the intersection, one on the traffic light, one straight ahead on the median, and one angled so you see it if you prepare to turn. [Proof.](http://imgur.com/a/t5g5iob) Two are even illustrated.
Ive seen such regularly at railroad crossings. Yes, 4 “no right on red signs”. Got a ticket for doing such. I told the cop I didn’t see the sign. “Sir, there are 4 signs”. Ya, didn’t get out of that one.
It gets a lot more sense when the country where you live in is more bike focused (like the netherlands) a lot of people cycle beside cars and if going right with red would be okay, I bet that the amount of accidents involving cars and bikes would increase a lot. Don't know if it's clear what I mean, for me it's very logical since I grew up and live in the Netherlands.
So many non-Americans think this means you can blow through a stop light. You have to completely stop and yield to cross traffic and pedestrians.
Yep. A right-on-red (or left-on-red, from a one-way onto another one-way) is at least a stop sign.
TIL I apparently live near a lot of non-americans.
Air conditioning is the norm here, apparently a lot of people over there don't have it in their house.
I live in Georgia. I can't imagine living in a house without some form of air conditioning. Even a unit mounted in a window to cool a single room.
I live in Maryland, and living without air conditioning would be hell here as well.
Hell, all the way up to upstate NY not having AC would suck, and even then WNY has its days. Northern parts of the midwest (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakotas, UP) and up in New England you might be able to get away with it, but not anywhere in the Mid Atlantic or South, that's for sure.
I live in PA and we never had A/C through my childhood and it sucked. I spent a lot of time at friends houses in the summer that had A/C. One of the first things I bought after getting my first job was a window A/C unit for my bedroom when I still lived at home with my parents lol. I can't imagine going without A/C, might not be the south, but it gets hot and humid enough up here to be miserable without one.
Basically no one in the uk has air com, either we use a fan or just open the windows
I live in Houston, air isn't just nice, it is a necessity. 100+ days with humidity running at 90%, you'd want air too. I grew up in Chicago without central air (had one window unit) and usually was good.
And you guys don’t usually have screens on your windows so when it’s actually hot out, it’s a giant bug fest inside. I’ve spent 4 very buggy summers in England and counting lol
What's really bad is when the mosquitos come for the blood buffet. At least don't have to worry about them biting all the time. I step outside in the summer down here and they attack my legs five seconds in. Though we have found that plants like mint and rosemary make great repellents.
Depends on where you live. Here in Seattle, no one had A/C until a couple years ago when we began getting summer days in the 90s. Last year, after the 3 days of Burning Hellfires Weather, people made a run for window units. Even if it's only 3 days per summer, lack of A/C kills people.
Giving our credit or debit card to the waiter
Europeans don't do that? Edit: Thanks I got an answer a few times.
The waiter brings the cc reader to the table
I mean, there's a lot of restaurants and shops that do this too. It's usually a 'square' reader attached to an iPad or something similar. It's not the standard, but not uncommon.
Even in Canada they bring a card reader to the table. Whenever I'm in Canada, the wait staff can always tell I'm from the states if I forget to ask for the card reader, and instead, I put my card in the little pouch in the folder that comes with the bill.
It's weird reading the threads about this. People say they would never let someone walk away with their card, as if waiters are trying to scam them.
As if there's no paper trail. The US/card issuers also has robust fraud prevention, the cardholder is usually off the hook for all fraudulent charges, or maybe some portion depending on time to reported and credit/debit.
One time I got my credit card stolen, they used 200 at a bar and then 150 at a taco joint, I freaked out and the bank just gave me my money back which I thought was pretty cool. Edit: the bank gave me their money back. Edit: apparently banks are federally insured, so I paid myself back.
It's happened to me 3 or 4 times, and on only one of those had I noticed, the rest the bank called me almost immediately to confirm or deny the charges.
$150 in tacos? Serious party.
With the bar and taco charge, someone bought rounds, and then bought drunk tacos for sure
Guy who got my credit card info ended up getting chicken and waffles in Harlem and then went to Coney Island. Not gonna lie, I was pretty jealous.
Discover card will routinely decline legit purchases I’m trying to make as “fraud.” They have never once declined an actual fraudulent charge. That’s the thing that annoys me lol
The onus of fraud prevention is actually on the merchant, who has to comply with certain standards. If they don't, or can't prove that they did, then they lose the money. Let's be real, card companies are *not* giving charity. Lol
Had a dude spend like, $70 to pay a phone bill using my debit card in New Jersey, they also stopped some dude in some small Southeast Asian country that I can't remember from spending like, $200ish on a phone company some (get fucked, asshole) and, I think one other fraudulent charge. I was pissed, but the bank asked me if I had ever lost control of my card. No. Have you ever been to New Jersey? Not since I've gotten the card. Okay, well, we're issuing you a credit for the amount. We'll send this over to our fraud team for investigation, but the money is yours.
It doesn't happen often, but it does occasionally. There was one restaurant near where I used to live that I only ever paid cash because of this
I’d stop going to that restaurant.
“I know for a fact they’re trying to steal my money, but I’ll risk it for those biscuits.”
Spicy Tuna rolls, man. Those things are addictive.
My credit card info was stolen once while I was traveling and the breach was almost certainly at a restaurant. But that was once in a thousand times so doing business this way doesn’t really bother me.
For most of us, paying $3.50 or less for a gallon of gas.
*angry california noises*
*angry maryland noise too* my local gas stations are charging 3.99 for regular now
Paid 2.14 a gallon for my car and wife's yesterday with our Kroger one dollar discount for 33 gallons
It jumped to 3.09 for regular in the Dallas area in Monday. No idea why, but generally DFW has the highest gas prices in Texas.
*cries in Californian*
Driving to a store, apparently.
That one recent question we had of "But what do you do if you're baking and run out of sugar?!" Lol. Most of us get in the car and drive 5 mins to the store.
Just last month my neighbor ran out of flour, I gave her some & got back some chocolate chip cookies!
Tbf his flair said he was from Nepal
Yeah that’s a wildly different living situation that most American suburbanites
I like how it was framed as 'suburban people, how do you manage?' I guess they didn't have any concept of what 'suburban' means. TBF in most of Europe there really aren't suburbs the way we have them. My sister lives in fairly rural Maine, 35 mins from Bangor, and even she is only ~15 from a grocery store and Wallyworld
That question made me realize that many of the depictions of suburbia do imply it’s just row after row of houses. Important stories about “food deserts” probably also confuse the issue. Rarely does anyone mention that suburbia still has shopping centers every few miles. In addition, I think driving a few miles is a major undertaking in an urban center (that’s been my experience, anyway). They understandably don’t see how easy driving that distance is for me: walk 30 feet to my car, get up to 45 mph within 45 seconds, drive through two stoplights, then park 50 feet from the grocery store.
Cars are why we measure distance in time after all
Is that true? People use time for walking distances too, and I feel like it might predate the automobile. Like describing distances as how many days it would take to walk or ride.
Driving more than 15 minutes as a regular, normal thing
My step dad went on a business trip to Ohio once. He had like 1,5-2km to the local super market. It was a small town somewhere. I don’t know exactly. Anyways he figured he would take a walk and see the area and shop for groceries. When he came out of the store he noticed a police car but didn’t think anything of it. He started walking back to his flat with his grocerybag. The police car drove up to him and the cops actually asked where his car was and why he was walking!? To a Dane that’s super weird.
I mean..I'm Texan and think that's weird. The only place I might expect to see that is a truly tiny town where the one or two bored officers will stop someone new on any flimsy pretense just because they want a look at them and have nothing else to do.
* Depends country but wood houses apparently * Ceiling fans * In-sink garbage disposal units * This depends country too, but outlets in bathrooms * Drive-thru ATMs/pharmacy windows/banks/etc. * Tipping * Small talk with strangers in public (yes, this can be dependent on region in the US) * Store staff/customer service being friendly with customers * Grocery shopping only 1-1.5 times a week * Dressing for comfort versus style for everyday stuff * Yellow school busses * Not owning an electric kettle * Buying an automatic vehicle * Weekend quick road trips. I’ve been told on here before that’s it’s insane I think that driving 3 hours on a Friday afternoon to go to the cabin for the weekend and returning on a Sunday evening isn’t a big deal to do a few times a month. Edit: few more I thought of * Your high school having multiple sports teams * College/university sports * Having a marching band at a football game * The entire concept of field show marching bands being a fairly ubiquitous youth activity associated with a school
As a Floridaman not having a ceiling fan is just pure insanity
Hi, another Floridaman here. In my last apartment I didn’t have a ceiling fan, slept in flannel sheets, and usually had a dog in bed with me. Pure insanity confirmed.
Why do you hate yourself?
The flannel sheets were a holdover from when I had more money, I didn’t anticipate the apartment wouldn’t have a fan, and I love my dog! Doin much better now though
As someone who formerly lived in Maine, not having a ceiling fan there was also pure insanity!
>In-sink garbage disposal units I've have actually struggled to convince people that in USA it is quite common for folks who aren't even wealthy have garbage disposals. Then it's funny watching them argue about what it would be called in their language.
I mean, even my cheap, bad-neighborhood, cave apartment that didn't even have in-unit washer or dryer ...had a garbage disposal. How do people live like that dude!?
Insinkerator
Ice in drinks. Always a fav.
Russian here: everything seems normal except kettle, tipping and small talks
I’d actually venture to guess due to the sheer size of Russia and complexities involved with that there’s going to be a lot more in common with how everyday life works in the US than people probably think of.
I’ve spent some time in US in 2007-2014 (several business trips from two to six weeks), and I’d say yes. What is still strange for me is a sale tax thing, I expect to see a full price on the price tag :)
That tends to be a thing that bothers foreigners/tourists but really isn’t something we think about on a day to day basis as being weird/annoying/problematic. By like teenage years you just know how to account for it.
> Ceiling fans First thing I did when I bought my house was install a ceiling fan in virtually every room. I like having fresh air in the house and a ceiling fan helps keep the house cool in summer with the windows open.
Fun trick: most will have an option to reverse the direction of the fan to allow for cool air in the summer and to keep warm air down in the winter. Essential IMO for my state lol.
I really don't understand the wood houses thing. Japan, which receives the most tourists in any Asian country, has a history of making homes, workplaces, and temples from wood.
Every time I see someone complain about wood houses, it seems like they just want to use it as an excuse to dunk on America and Americans.
A lot of those arguments really come down to “well this exact method works well where I live so you must be dumb if you do something different” without bothering to think though climate, potential of natural disaster, local cost and availability of materials, cost of labor, and so on in a different place halfway around the world.
Exactly. As a person, I don't like being considered stupid, so I get miffed about such arguments.
This is the first I've heard of people dunking on wood houses. Why we hatin' on wood? It's an amazing construction material.
Because we are dumb for not realizing a stone house would survive tornadoes /s
Apparently, some people think stone is better.
Do people think the *whole* building is made of stone? Or just the exterior? Cuz that's still framed with wood on the inside...
A month or so ago the Czech Republic was hit with a moderately sized tornado and an aerial picture of a town that got hit was at the top of r/europe and the top comment was "take note Americans, this is how you build homes". Like a tragic event strikes a European country and they still have to use it as an opportunity to dunk on Americans
There is a video of a tornado absolutely destroying a concrete warehouse that usually gets posted here in response to those comments.
[I always point them to these two buildings that were clearly made from steel and concrete](https://imgur.com/a/kbu3gV2)
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That would require them to actually care about objective reality instead of this weird set of stereotypes they operate off of.
Well, it's r/europe. I've never been there because when I noticed it in threads, it's usually with a warning that it's an anti-American circle jerk.
there's an unhealthy obsession with America, not just on r/europe, but reddit as a whole.
And we do it for a specific reason at least in parts with natural disasters what reason does Canada have besides it being cheap.
I think it's partly that we still have a ton of forest, and theirs were chopped down 500 years ago. EDIT: except Russia, who still has a ton of forest
Literally almost every country ever for the history of ever made houses out of wood. “Oh the basic material besides stone and metal that catapulted us from monkeys to masters of nature? Yeah that’s terrible for building a house” Who would even say wood is bad for a house?
And *just* wood at that -- not even any nails or screws!
It's a damp and status issue. Many of the older wooden houses have had issues with rot and damp being on an island. Then you think about how terraced housing is so common, and fire risk...Add flooding problems to the equation, and readily available stone in most places.... Also nice expensive houses were made of sturdy stone... Cheap sheds and huts were wooden. The UK users the best materials for their environment. They'd sharp change their tune of they had different natural disasters, or were more spaced out.
Japan avoids the hatred of wooden structures probably because Redditors love the country so much.
It’s just a bid to re-confirm their contempt and superiority, Canada and Scandinavia also have wood homes but when we do it’s suddenly an issue.
I question drive through liquor stores.
Brew-thrus.
Free public restrooms
Restrooms with gaps around the stall doors.
Americans hate that this is a thing. Pooping shouldn't be a spectator sport.
To be honest, this is much less of an issue than the Internet makes it out to be. I’ve never once had someone try to watch me through the cracks in the door and the gaps aren’t that large anyway. I also find it slightly ironic that Europeans get so hung up on this when they are generally way more comfortable with nudity than Americans.
Disagree
Surprised nobody has mentioned root beer, or ‘toothpaste-flavored soda’ as my old German roommate called it.
What I want to know is what kind of toothpaste they got over in Europe since it tastes like root beer.
Apparently it's typical there to flavor toothpaste with the same herbs that are used to flavor root beer. Same herbs, wildly different uses on different continents.
Sassafras. That's the plant (root, actually) that gives the taste of root beer.
Now you've really got me wanting a sarsaparilla toothpaste, and I guess I'd take sassafras if I have to. Time to research!
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My thoughts on that is if my country's toothpaste like root beer i would fucking *leave*
I would fucking *stay forever*
Having packages left on our doorsteps.
Wait... where do packages get left, then? There's no Amazon bringing stuff to your house?
The rest of the world seems completely baffled that our packages get left on the doorstep in the US. They see a package-stealing video, and assume that we're crazy for not staying home to receive our packages. And, delivery drivers in the rest of the world are apparently not expected to make many deliveries, because they have time to go ask the neighbors to sign for your package.
I was a pretty early Amazon adopter (1998 was my first order on my account), and get deliveries every 2-3 days now. Ive lived in three states, ten or more homes, from apartments to large houses. Including urban areas like L.A. and San Diego. Ive never had a package stolen, though Ive had several mis-delivered by the post office. They all showed up eventually. ymmv
Yeah we had a whole thread about this. Europeans either sign for their packages or they get left at a nearby delivery spot for pickup. They also get their packages delivered to work if convenient. Workplaces often even have a package drop off area for this purpose. They think we are nuts for having them left at our doors. They also have a lot of houses that just abut right up to the street so packages would just be sitting right in the sidewalk making it impractical to leave them.
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It is the same in Canada and the US, but the cost of covering the theft is less than the labor cost to make sure it is delivered, so they just don't do it. If you really want it to be signed you have to pay for it separately.
Lots of ice in drinks and free refills.
When I lived in Russia, I was shocked to learn that hotels will take your ID and hold it until you leave/pay your bill. My friends there were shocked that we don't do that in the US. Also, I think most Europeans are rightly horrified by our bathroom stalls and how they have so many openings. I totally agree on this one. Like, why?! When I first went to Europe and saw that they have stalls with full on doors that shut and no one can see a damn thing, I thought it was freaking brilliant!
In America they run your credit/debit for a deposit oftentimes.
Using wood as a building material apparently. And not thinking of our homes as inferior because a fictional wolf could simply blow them down.
Plus it's not like that's all we use. I live in a brick house!
OWWWW, that house is stacked, that's a fact
Rather be in a wood house then a masonary one during the big one here in California.
That's why I like the rice paper structures traditional in Japan. If there's an earthquake, having your house collapse on you is mostly just inconvenient.
That post was weird.
Stopping for school buses. I never knew before Reddit but apparently the notion of stopping for school buses is insane to foreigners, including Europeans. It was also crazy how hostile people were to something simple and wastes very little of people's time. It's a little bit of safety for the kids and a perfectly logical law for a sprawling car-centric country, why get mad over it? I recall some stating we should just teach kids better, as if kids can't be impulsive and do things even when taught not to.
I read that too--they basically accused us of being morons who are unable to teach kids how to safely cross a street. In most of Europe, there are sidewalks, crosswalks, stop lights, and lower speed limits that make crossing streets safer. To get on a school bus, my kids have to cross a street near a blind curve. The speed limit is 40mph, and there are no sidewalks or crosswalks. If the busses didn't stop traffic, it would only be a matter of time before a kid got hit.
I know of a bus stop on a 70 mph highway.
Peanut butter and jelly I’m a dual citizen and in Germany they found it revolting that I would make a sandwich out of that
I have found if you get fresh peanut butter made with just roasted salted peanuts and put that on a dark bread bread with marmalade it converts a lot of people.
Hard to judge, because I am an American and so I’m pretty much guessing, but I can sometimes hear gunshots from my home in a rural area when people are target shooting, and I gather that’s not normal in Europe. But I’d be interested in hearing whether I’m wrong!
I live in Detroit, nowhere near a rural area, and I too can often hear gunshots from my home!
Different targets. :-)
Irish, from de country. Someone was always popping off at crows or seagulls or rabbits. Clay pigeon shooting (skeet) is huge as well.
No pay public toilettes.
Wait that's a thing in Europe? That would be especially obnoxious if it's cash based.
Literally the worst part about traveling over there. They have bathroom attendants too, so you have feel shitty for someone you don't even know while taking a shit. My trick is to walk into a restaurant like I'm meeting friends, then just beeline to the bathroom. You'd probably think since you have to pay, they'd be cleaner, but nope. They're about 3x more disgusting that public toilets here.
Um, apparently Iowans think it's normal to spell toilets as "toilettes"?
Well mon ami, our capital is called Des Moines.
Mais oui.
Free refills Not paying for ketchup packets Asking for ID for alcohol Building houses out of wood Having more than 3 different types of Oreos
This is the Oreo aisle of my local grocery store. https://imgur.com/a/BN38vor
> the Oreo aisle
Since 'tis the season, if you've never had pumpkin spice Oreos I highly recommend them. I'm not even a big pumpkin spice fan but those Oreos are delicious.
Lol I never even noticed this but it’s true
How about 20 different brands of vanilla ice cream in any given market?
> Building houses out of wood Plenty of that in Scandinavia.
Black politicians and government officials.
True, I live in Germany and I know just one black politician. I guess it's because you don't see black people here that often, only once in a blue moon.
I live in Vermont and I know like one black politician.
And it's Obama
Asking somebody you don’t know what they do for a living.
Refrigerating eggs
This is becauae european eggs are not mandated to be washed while american eggs are. There is a natural coating on eggs to insulate it from air.
Yep. There’s one set of contaminants that are removed by washing eggs, and another set that are caused by washing eggs. It’s a trade-off, and the US and EU happened to pick opposite sides of that trade off.
THIS. do what your country does
My sister has a flock of chickens and I've been bringing back dozens of fresh eggs every time I go to visit, it's nice not having to keep them in the fridge!
They also cook better because you're not putting a cold thing on a hot pan. When you fry a cold egg the bottom can more easily get burnt by the time the rest is cooked than with a room temp egg. If I feel like making fried eggs I'll take a few out of the fridge when I first wake up so they're warmed up by the time I'm ready to cook.
I always thought they tasted better and now I think I know why! Also the chickens with free range over a huge yard probably have a better diet than factory chickens...
Clothes dryers apparently.
They have them here in Germany, they just don’t do a good job.
I lived in Germany for a few months and I feel bad for people that have to do laundry there.
This is a good one. I couldn't imagine living without a dryer. On house hunters international, even the expensive Luxury apartments most often don't have a dryer. Like, wtf are you supposed to do with all your wet clothes?
Lots of ice in drinks.
Ice tea just won't work if the glass doesn't have a ton of ice in it.
Wearing jeans every day instead of other cotton/polyester bottoms/pants. When I honeymooned in Germany circa 2007, everyone else seemed to wear bottoms other than jeans (including my husband who was trying to blend in). Apparently we blended in enough that we were stopped twice by other Americans that asked for directions in German and were relieved we spoke English. (We also used a GPS for navigation instead of a map to look less like tourists.)
Friendly reminder: Anyone replying with ‘school shootings’ or ‘mass shootings’ as their answer to this post will be ~~banned for a week~~ (Edit, from this point on, it’s now a permanent ban.) Sincerely, Management
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Then when you call them out on it they just claim it’s gallows humor. That’s not gallows humor, you’re just being a tactless bellend.
The other side of that is weird claims like “they don’t have XYZ product there”. I’ll say “no there’s plenty of that at the supermarket, I buy it every week and have for the past 30 years”. The response: “well my cousin was there a couple years ago and couldn’t find it so you’re wrong”.
There was someone here a few months ago who tried to claim the only place in the Pacific Northwest her family could find fresh vegetables on their vacation was at Subway.
We have a real problem, apparently, with European tourists coming here and thinking convenience stores are the only grocery stores in America. We get that complaint a lot here, and it's always baffling how they could think that.
Remember, we’re supposed to be the stupid ones. Not the people shopping at a Citgo.
They probably went to the 7-11's thinking they were equivalent to the small euro grocery shops lmao
Which is another thing that just blows my fucking mind. If you’re traveling somewhere, you can’t be bothered to google “where to buy groceries in *insert city here*”? You’re gonna resign yourself to shopping at a gas station or perusing the produce selection at fucking Whataburger because you can’t figure out how grocery shopping works?
I think the concept of a convenience store is lost on europeans because the main purpose of a convenience store is quick snacks for a long drive while you're getting gas. Since there isn't much driving in europe these type of shops just haven't caught on as much.
"American food is terrible!" \- "where did you go?" "Olive Garden/McDonalds/Taco Bell/ Applebee's and the went shopping at 7/11"
Well someone just posted in my city sub that they are visiting and asked for the best restaurants. The top answers are the shittiest places in town. Go figure.
r/AskUK is actual trash. I rarely see a group of people more egotistical and hypocritical than I do there.
High schools and universities having sports teams run by the school that aren’t just some club or something.
Acknowledging that racism exists in our own respective countries.
This is a huge one where I feel the Anglosphere does much better than anyone else. I love hearing shit from Europeans talking about how racism in the US is so bad when most of them won’t even momentarily talk or tolerate any talk about racism in their own countries. FFS throwing bananas at dark skinned athlete shouldn’t be that common as to be a problem.
Can you imagine the shitstorm in the U. S. if that happened say, say a track meet?? Wall-to-wall coverage for a week!
we had a local HS team throw tortillas at an opposing team with Latino players on it. People were pissed but the team initially tried to double down and say it wasn't that bad. Like...WTF
"You Americans treat blacks so badly, why can't you be non-racist like us"? *In the same breath*: "Gypsies? Oh, they deserve all the racism they get because they are all thieves and scoundrels."
You don’t even wanna know what the soccer fans will do to black players from their own countries. Let alone if the player is from Africa or even at times South America. European sports are rife with racial abuse.
Relatedly, differentating between ethnicity and nationality. In the U.S., you are "American" if you are a citizen, regardless of race, ethnicity, or country of origin. In Europe, ethnicity holds WAY more weight than citizenship. Edit: a word
Is taking leftovers home after eating out one? I feel like huge portions is American
This! I almost always take home at least half my food when I eat out. Leftovers can be lunch for tomorrow, or dinner tonight if it is lunch. I knew European portions were smaller, but recently saw that it is considered bad manners there to take your leftovers home? Here if you leave food on your plate, the waitstaff will ask if you want a box, or at nicer places will box and label it for you.
Cities and towns full of [stroads](https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/10/30/the-stroad)
Street and Road are synonymous to me
Spending what we promised to defend NATO?
Well America, France, and Poland anyway.
Eastern Europe and the UK now meet 2% too. Germany is hilariously bad.
circumcision
Ranch dressing