"The fact that so much American cheese is coloured orange surprised me."
So instead of doing some schoolwork due Tuesday I decided to spend my night reading this.
Oh dear lord.
Some of my favorites:
"I cannot imagine why nobody yet mentioned root beer. From a German perspective, that is the single weirdest thing to learn about, tightly followed by the taste of "grape" juice."
"4700 kinds of toothpaste."
"I was startled to find out that "God Save the Queen" has alternate lyrics."
"some places you can turn right on red -- wait what YOU CAN DRIVE THROUGH A RED LIGHT if you're turning WHAT THE HELL PEOPLE"
"...the scale of things is boggling to Europeans for a while and continues to be boggling in small ways for a long time. Fridges are HUGE compared to upright or under-the-counter European fridges. The default size for milk is the gallon, not the pint. Endless agonizing choices in the supermarket -- which of these 30 types of canned beans do I want now? Roads that feel twice as wide as they should be. Bank lobbies the size of railway stations."
The link to this.
"Everyone eats with one hand and keeps the other hand on their lap all through the meal. Also, sometimes they go through an elaborate switch-fork-to-left-hand-pick-up-knife-in-right-cut-up-food-then-switch-fork-back-to-right-hand dance."
"Love of pills: at the breakfast table there will something like a fruit bowl full of them. Perhaps one per family member. And this for people who are basically healthy."
And my favorite:
"College sport: the intensity of the following, the rivalries, the bands, the huge attendances, the tailgates. You get an inkling of it in film and television, but while the major professional sports get global broadcast coverage, and some of the accoutrements are covered in film and television, college sport largely stays under the radar. There's nothing directly comparable in Europe: the Oxford-Cambridge boat race is notable because it's anomalous. That's more 'big and weird', though it's important if your character is headed to Nebraska or environs."
I think I've been having too much fun with that thread. So I'm going to ask you non-Americans who have visited the States, what shocked/surprised/startled you the most when you first visited? And you Americans who have traveled to another country, what shocked/surprised/startled you when you first arrived?
But really, can you only buy like two brands of toothpaste?
Oh dear lord.
Some of my favorites:
"I cannot imagine why nobody yet mentioned root beer. From a German perspective, that is the single weirdest thing to learn about, tightly followed by the taste of "grape" juice."
"4700 kinds of toothpaste."
"I was startled to find out that "God Save the Queen" has alternate lyrics."
"some places you can turn right on red -- wait what YOU CAN DRIVE THROUGH A RED LIGHT if you're turning WHAT THE HELL PEOPLE"
"...the scale of things is boggling to Europeans for a while and continues to be boggling in small ways for a long time. Fridges are HUGE compared to upright or under-the-counter European fridges. The default size for milk is the gallon, not the pint. Endless agonizing choices in the supermarket -- which of these 30 types of canned beans do I want now? Roads that feel twice as wide as they should be. Bank lobbies the size of railway stations."
The link to this.
"Everyone eats with one hand and keeps the other hand on their lap all through the meal. Also, sometimes they go through an elaborate switch-fork-to-left-hand-pick-up-knife-in-right-cut-up-food-then-switch-fork-back-to-right-hand dance."
"Love of pills: at the breakfast table there will something like a fruit bowl full of them. Perhaps one per family member. And this for people who are basically healthy."
And my favorite:
"College sport: the intensity of the following, the rivalries, the bands, the huge attendances, the tailgates. You get an inkling of it in film and television, but while the major professional sports get global broadcast coverage, and some of the accoutrements are covered in film and television, college sport largely stays under the radar. There's nothing directly comparable in Europe: the Oxford-Cambridge boat race is notable because it's anomalous. That's more 'big and weird', though it's important if your character is headed to Nebraska or environs."
I think I've been having too much fun with that thread. So I'm going to ask you non-Americans who have visited the States, what shocked/surprised/startled you the most when you first visited? And you Americans who have traveled to another country, what shocked/surprised/startled you when you first arrived?
But really, can you only buy like two brands of toothpaste?