Comments | bluemagicrose: "The fact that so much American cheese is coloured orange surprised me."

bluemagicrose

"The fact that so much American cheese is coloured orange surprised me."

Nov 13, 2011 23:13

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 ( Read more... )

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moerlin November 14 2011, 14:42:00 UTC

And in general, I don't think many things surprised me (I watch too much American tv) so much as I just think they're weird. Off the top of my head with some skimming of your links ( ... )

moerlin November 14 2011, 15:19:28 UTC

Heh, now I'm reading the whole discussion anyway, look what you've done. ;) And wow, so much stuff I forgot, like shoes in the house, sales tax, unsweetened iced tea, loudness and/or talking to strangers about very private things sometimes, free refills (and free tap water in general), fluorides in your drinking water, volunteering, PB&J sandwiches, unions, ACs set to freezing cold...

- People will often say "we should get together" or "you should come over sometime for dinner" but don't actually mean it, they just say it to be polite.

One of my friends swears that there was an American English phrasebook where "you should come over sometime for dinner" was translated as "goodbye."

:D
Yeah, stuff like that is seriously an experience. ;)

5. Everyone speaks English. More so than in the States!

LOL! Although possibly true if you go to, say, the Netherlands.

And now I'll stop spamming your comments, sorry.

bluemagicrose November 14 2011, 18:26:40 UTC

LOL, I'm an enabler!

I'm so curious now. Like, shoes aren't kept in the house? There aren't free refills? THERE AREN'T PB&Js? I had one of those thing morning for breakfast. And no volunteering?

I love the "you should come over" stuff. Such an easy way to end a conversation. Another one if you ever come to the South. "bless your heart" typically means the person who says it is looking down at you.

I'm loving this topic. So much. :D

moerlin November 14 2011, 22:32:03 UTC

You should be ashamed of yourself! :P

Ah no, we do keep our shoes inside, but we don't wear them inside. I know that's a regional thing in the US too though. Nope, no free refills here, and you can very rarely buy peanut butter. But that's okay because we kinda don't like that and would rather eat Nutella instead. < /overgeneralizing >. Volunteering happens here too, but there's no phony I-need-to-volunteer-to-put-this-on-my-college-application stuff, I guess? And in general, volunteers at homes for the elderly or at museums would take away "real" jobs (and social workers are underpaid anyway), so our politicians are trying to counteract that. I think the one sector where tons of volunteering goes on is sports, i.e. teaching youth teams and such.

LOL, yeah!

:D

bluemagicrose November 15 2011, 02:53:12 UTC

Can I tell you something and you won't hate me?

I don't love Nutella.

I like it. But I'm not enamored by it. I don't get why people go on and on about it. It's okay but...eh.

I get the volunteering thing. That actually makes sense, having those as jobs instead of volunteering opportunities. And free refills are the greatest. I have no idea of teenagers still do this, but we used to go to a gas station, buy one of those large 42 oz. cups of coke, drink it all while hanging around the gas station, and then go back in and get a refill of it. Multiple times. Same thing at McDonald's and places like that. Buy the cheapest food we could get and hang out there just getting refill after refill. Ah, I get the shoe thing now. We don't wear shoes inside either. At least not in the South.

moerlin November 15 2011, 03:01:27 UTC

Hey, more Nutella for me. ;) I feel the same way about peanut butter - I mean, I do have some at home (I always bring a jar back home when I go to the States), but a jar probably lasts me a year.

Though if you ever come to Germany/Switzerland/any country with "good" chocolate, I'd urge you to try Nutella again. I didn't really like the version they sell in the States either, ours is way less nutty and more chocolaty instead. ;)

Hee, fun times! Teens here hang out at gas stations too, only they buy beer. :D And there were some McDonald's that had free refills here for a while, but the German attitude of buying the smallest possible cup and then refilling it 20 times destroyed that concept, I think. ;)

bluemagicrose November 15 2011, 03:31:25 UTC

So I need European nutella then? Okay. I still want to try candy from Europe. I hear American is either too sweet or not sweet enough.

Oh, totally forgot that whole little no legal purchase of alcohol until 21 thing. So so behind the rest of the world.

moerlin November 15 2011, 21:54:51 UTC

I think so, yeah. Are they still making American candy with corn syrup instead of real sugar? I think that might be one of the reasons us Europeans think that is tastes weird. And as for chocolate, it might be about the milk, hmm.

Yeah, they let you drive at 16 and vote at 18 but you can't drink at those ages? It's just weird.

roganrules November 18 2011, 07:48:04 UTC

I am a crazy person that doesn't like chocolate, and I like German and Swiss chocolate even less than American chocolate so I would probably hate European Nutella more than American Nutella. I just don't understand the obsession with Nutella because it is just too sweet for mealtime in my mind. I am obsessed with peanut butter though and sometimes will just eat a tablespoon of it for fun. Since I am allergic to grapes, I eat peanut butter and apple jelly sandwiches. I am also a fan of peanut butter and banana sandwiches (I ate those almost everyday for lunch in high school). I do think that food preferences have more to do with what you are used to than anything so it makes sense to me that you would like Nutella more than peanut butter and would like German candy and chocolate more than American candy and chocolate. I also wasn't a big fan of German gummy candy because it just took so long to chew and had less flavor, but you probably like it more than American gummy candy. (Also, I am just a really picky eater in general ( ... )

moerlin November 21 2011, 03:17:29 UTC

Well there you go, I guess chocolate just isn't your thing. ;) And hmm, I mostly eat Nutella straight out of the jar, or sometimes for breakfast, but yeah, it is to sweet for any other meals.

Hmm, what kind of gummy candy was that? Because I think Haribo is pretty popular worldwide? I know there's some English gummy stuff that's a little harder to chew and seems to be hit or miss with people here too, though.

Heh, I don't particularly like Reese's, but it's not like I had them often. Can't buy them here, and when I'm in the States, I don't really go out of my way to purchase them, I guess?

And yeah, the ice thing is also something that foreigners just don't get about America. ;) I actually try and order my drinks without ice, but 50% of the time they just forget...

roganrules November 22 2011, 08:37:29 UTC

I prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate and most of the German and Swiss chocolate that I have tried was milk chocolate so that could be part of it. Maybe I would like German and Swiss dark chocolate. I really only like milk chocolate when it is part of a candy bar like Snickers, Almond Joy, Butterfinger, and Reeses ( ... )

bluemagicrose November 14 2011, 18:17:55 UTC

Low speed limits? Dude, I freak out every time I'm in a car that goes faster than 60 mph.

Squirrels? There aren't squirrels in Europe? Some people find them cute. I don't, but hey, I'm not a squirrel girl myself.

Textbook prices and college in general is so overpriced here. It made me cry when I read about the riots in England over them having to pay up to $16,000 for their college. Everyone here would GLADLY pay that much.

So the bills thing, is money different sizes in Germany? You guys are with the Euro, right? So are euro bills different sizes, colors, etc.?

I loved your list. I think Europe has it right on almost all fronts. Silly America.

moerlin November 14 2011, 22:37:54 UTC

Hee! For me, a comfortable traveling speed is 160 km/h (100 mph), anything lower than that actually makes me lose my concentration after a while and makes me feel less safe, go figure. Depends on what you're used to, I guess.

We have squirrels, but the reddish variety has seen to it that there are no other species anymore. And I think I've seen 2 or 3 of them in the past year, whereas I'd see as many in a week in the States easily. I will admit to thinking they're kinda cute, and may have taken a pic or two. ;)

Yeah, let's not start on the US educational system. :D Did I mention our unis are free? ;)

I actually posted a picture of most Euro bills in comparison with dollar bills here, so yeah, much more colorful. Our currency before the Euro had differently sized and colored bills too, and I like that we actually have coins of value (up to €2, which is ~$3,20 ( ... )

bluemagicrose November 15 2011, 03:11:40 UTC

Holy crap. I would go crazy being in a car driving that fast. I'd totally be the slowest car on the road. Everyone would be shaking their fists and flicking me off.

The Euro bills kicks the dollar bills ass.

See, college can't be free here. We'd have to pay higher taxes and we can't have that. Taxes are EVIL EVIL EVIIIIIIIL so we can't do something like being able to send everyone to college. Plus, I think that's socialism. (I really hate Americans sometimes.)

Grid system. We got one thing right! :D

moerlin November 15 2011, 21:57:15 UTC

Hee, probably. ;) It's kinda funny, we have some highways (Autobahnen) that go from e.g. Denmark to Germany or Holland to Germany, so it's kinda funny to see the Germans speed away as soon as they're "back home" and everyone else keeps their lower speeds. ;)

Much prettier, right? Your bills could at least use some color. ;)

IKR? OMG, taxes? And maybe even universal healthcare? That's so... socialist. :D

Something to be proud of, heh. :D

roganrules November 18 2011, 07:53:39 UTC

All of our exchange students were obsessed with squirrels and took lots of pics. Our Swiss student was even obsessed with the word "squirrel" and kept repeating it for 30 minutes straight while watching squirrels play in the backyard one time. Have you ever heard the sound that a squirrel makes? I see squirrels all the time, but I only recently heard a squirrel, thanks to a video that someone took and posted on Twitter a couple months ago (I think the video was postd by one of the Starkids, but I am not sure). The sound that the squirrel made makes me love them more. :D When I was a kid, I loved to feed squirrels french fries at the park because it was cute to watch them eat and they would get so close to you in order to get the fries ( ... )

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