Canadian here, British Columbia.
Going to a Wal-Mart in a small-ish town and counting 38 CCTV cameras across the outside front of the building. Ours, in a city with 28× the population, has only 6.
Inside that same Wal-Mart, going into a checkout line without first checking out the customers, and the very next guy ahead of us was an open carry: a semi-auto (AR-15 like looking weapon) slung over his shoulders, a handgun in a holster on his waist, and a lump on his right ankle above his boots. And two knives on his belt. Dude looked like he was ready for some urban warfare.
The sheer amount of infrastructure decay. Sure, even Canadian towns that haven’t seen economic good times look run down and dilapidated, but American towns really kick that up a notch. Most small-town buildings look like they haven’t seen a makeover since the Carter administration.
Unusually authentic Mexican food. Up here 90% of Mexican places are run by white dudes who make semi-authentic “fusion” dishes that are mainly just spicy. Cross the border and less than 15 minutes in, there is one family-run chain (Rancho Chico, Rancho Grande) with super-cheap 100% authentic foods run and staffed solely by Mexicans. And like, holy shit, that’s good food.
The sheer number of people who support and vote for a party who will do absolutely nothing for them, and will enact policies that will drive them even further into poverty and destitution just so their Parasite-Class campaign donors can get even more obscenely wealthy. Conservative voters are just weird, man.
Dude, thank you for saying that about the Mexican food. I’ve been saying this online for a while and it’s not well understood how good it is all the way across the US, even in small towns. Now, there are regional differences, as you would expect, but it’s only a bit worse than Mexico and way better than just about anywhere else in the world
Americans don’t play about Mexican food. We want it high quality, high quantity, and we’ll support it
Fast food portion sizes. It’s out of control. Drinking 1 liter of soda for lunch shouldn’t be normalized. BTW most people are super friendly and nice, in Michigan at least.
Oh, and why is all the cheese orange ?
The bad cheese is orange, the good cheese is yellow or white. More seriously, the orange cheese melts at lower temperatures and doesn’t separate after melting. It can be good for grilled sandwiches and I’m told you can add small amounts to cheese sauces to prevent them from separating when stored in the fridge without impacting the flavor.
Michigan isn’t as well known for cheese as Wisconsin, Vermont, or New York, but we make incredibly good cheeses that are white, yellow, and some even have red or blue flecks in them. Apparently somewhere in the US, (maybe Ohio or Pennsylvania?) actually makes a more “traditional” Parmesan than most of what Italy exports. Apparently it’s creamier, and not so hard. There are seriously entire cheese shops in larger cities where over 50% of the cheese in the store was made in the US.
The fear of naked (intact) female bodies, i.e. censoring of even the slightest nudity, when at the same time, it’s totally fine to have minors play computer games where they can dissect other humans in great bloody detail.
Oh, and chocolate that tastes like somebody barfed into it during manufacturing.
Shoes. Indoors, in your own house, on your furniture?!
That is divisive even within the country.
I was raised in small town Ohio and taking your shoes off, especially in a strangers home (occasionally not in your own because of practicalities like going back and forth to unload the car), was considered part of common etiquette along with not wearing hats indoors.
Both of those things really depend on your family though as I’ve definitely met people that just don’t care.
I don’t like walking on my carpeted areas in my shoes, but I don’t mind walking in the laminate in shoes. Easier to clean imo.
How can you guys get any work done around the house if you’re constantly swapping shoes?
Hard agree, but you won’t gain any friends by mentioning this to Europeans. I guess they just stopped for tea after bringing in a single grocery bag, then change back into their shoes to get the rest of the bags, followed by a nice cigarette outside, another shoe change, and some black pudding for dinner.
British.
I found a lot of things weird, but I did go to Florida like 8 times so it’s to be expected and maybe some of these are exclusive to that state.
- I found it weird that alcohol seemed to be sold only in liquor stores. But you can buy a machine gun in Walmart.
- The food. Don’t get me wrong it’s nice and all but the quantity. Take sizzlers, you go in order your main meal then get an endless buffet for free. Like I couldn’t eat my steak when it arrived as I was full from the buffet.
- syrup all over breakfast items and people bigger than id ever seen were gorging and then taking a box home too.
- enthusiasm: grown ass adults whooping and hollering as we were queuing for rides. I’m a man child myself but it was startling.
- Jaywalking. Wtf
To throw out some positives. Everyone I met was lovely and nothing like the nut jobs we get to see online. People were polite, friendly and accommodating.
Beautiful nature and national parks.
There are plenty of guns sold, machine guns haven’t been sold as new since 1986 and have had a special process for purchase since the 1930s.
I found it weird that alcohol seemed to be sold only in liquor stores. But you can buy a machine gun in Walmart.
That might be a Florida thing(?) Definitely not an Ohio thing.
The food. Don’t get me wrong it’s nice and all but the quantity. Take sizzlers, you go in order your main meal then get an endless buffet for free. Like I couldn’t eat my steak when it arrived as I was full from the buffet.
Yeah buffets aren’t all that common… But they’re probably more common here (especially in touristy spots) than other countries.
- syrup all over breakfast items and people bigger than id ever seen were gorging and then taking a box home too.
- enthusiasm: grown ass adults whooping and hollering as we were queuing for rides. I’m a man child myself but it was startling.
Fair.
- Jaywalking. Wtf
Yeah… Especially in touristy spots and very urban spots some people don’t care. I’m assuming you’ve witnessed Florida man that cuts across 6 lanes of busy traffic.
I think the average American normally only jaywalks if the street is pretty much empty and they don’t feel like waiting 3 minutes for the light to change.
I think there may be a misunderstanding. The concept of jaywalking is nuts to me, and many Europeans. The USA has made it illegal to… walk? In the Netherlands, we don’t even have a word for this. It’s just walking. Traffic participation while not in a car.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a documentary. Ignore the cartoons. Oil companies bought up and paved over our trolleys in the 1920s and invented jaywalking to prioritize cars. It was a way to punish and imprison poor people, and likely, considering the rest of the history of this country, was predominantly enforced on people of color
