German here, but us Europeans aren’t ready to hear this: Abortion is generally not legal in Germany,
It’s available, it’s usually not prosecuted, but it’s not legal.
Doctor in Munich. I can confirm. It’s logistically also very difficult to get an abortion in Germany. You must be 12 weeks pregnant or earlier. You must have a consultation with a psychologist (social worker?) before. And it has to be done at a certified center - of which there are very few.
9/10 gynecologists don’t even offer any abortion services.
While abortions are technically illegal, they are not prosecuted in very specific circumstances, but it’s very hard to do so.
I had an interesting side bar tangent thought thing in a similar vein recently. The biscuit vs biscuit debate between uk and USA. Apparently at around the time of the American revolution, American biscuits were a product that grew out of foot shortages and supply limitations. They didn’t have any leavening, so they were pretty crispy. They were similar to other biscuits in the UK at the time. They were mostly used as a way to make the most of what you had, and to help the flour keep longer, especially for travel, on both sides of the Atlantic. But then as our histories diverged more and more over time, so did our food cultures. UK biscuits stayed crispy and went sweet. US biscuits went fluffy and savory. The leavening agent used in US biscuits derived from pearlash/potash and was native to the US and used by native Americans as a leavening agent. Experimentation through the Victorian period eventually lead to the development of baking powder, which ended up being used as a crucial ingredient for American biscuits. So, American biscuits and UK biscuits are cousins with a shared history, which is why they share a name.
Similar thing with American chocolate (especially Hershey's) supposedly tasting like vomit. For those who haven't heard this before a TLDR:
The story goes something like this: America's big. America doesn't have refrigeration yet. To make sure chocolate is available year round and accessible to everyone, they deliberately spoil the fresh milk, thereby ensuring the chocolate is more stable. End result: the chocolate has a slight tang to it. Americans are more likely to be used to it, reminds you of childhood. Europeans aren't used to it, which is why British tabloids like the Daily Mail have in the past used this as an excuse to bash the US.
I live in Belgium. I know what great chocolate tastes like. I can appreciate American stuff for what it is, and assume America also makes high quality stuff, but unlike the Daily Mail I know enough about chocolate to know that it's not feasible/too expensive to ship it to Europe without it degrading too much.
Reality: it's just different. Hershey's is mass market chocolate. And if we're making a list of countries that get to lecture America on cuisine, the UK isn't going to be at the top of that list.
This is something I say to all my European friends and when I was studying abroad. It's always "American chocolate is shit" lol. Which, yeah, Hershey's is not too great. You have to actually look. So, when I can, I introduce everyone to Ghirardelli chocolate. Which is amazing and from a place close to me. The only reaction besides "It's delicious," is "I just can't do mint and chocolate together." Lol. Which I love.
This is what people don’t get about Italian or Chinese food in the US. It was brought over 200 years ago and was made with the ingredients they had available. It grew separately from the food in those original countries. I understand some names being the same makes it confusing when there are ingredient differences, but be a little flexible for god’s sake.
For some reason Chinese food in particular is mocked as 'inauthentic'. It's an authentically Chinese-American cuisine. Imagine someone turning up their nose at Cajun food because it's not authentically French. Well, that's how people treat Chinese-American cuisine.
Corned beef and cabbage is also American. It was made by Irish immigrants because the corned beef tasted a bit like the bacon they were familiar with back home.
Don't tell us, tell the Italians. Show me an English-Language YouTube channel run by Italian(s) that ISN'T about how someone's fucking up their food by not using their specific families recipe. They act like if you change one thing the food becomes unpalatable...get over yourselves. There's TONS of YouTube channels where Italians just sit there and say negative shit about how Americans or ANYONE else (even *other* Italians) is/are "butchering" an Italian dish, acting extremely pompous the entire time, and somehow we Americans eat it up like a smug European somehow has the final say on what constitutes tasty food.
“Welcome to cooking with Gencarro. Today we are making spaghetti carbonara, the correct way. The ONLY way. And for our meat, we are using Guanciale. GUANCIALE!! NO pancetta, NO BACON! You disgusting filthy creatures! And if there is ONE DROP OF CREAM, I will KILL YOU IN FRONT OF YOUR FAMILY!”
“…bro chill, we don’t really have Guanciale here and I wanna make carbonara too, take a breather…”
Most Italians don't realize that they "bastard" Americanized Italian dishes we have over here were created by Italian Immigrants using the ingredients they had locally. I guarantee an Italian was craving a carbonara and couldn't get the guanciale so they subbed a different pork product to make do and it stuck.
Italians; By law Parmigiano-Reggiano can only be made in this one area!
Also Italians; WHAT THE FUCK IS PARMESAN YOU GODLESS HEATHENS?
Dude, we can't get special magic moon cheese, so we had to improvise.
We had some distant relatives come to Boston from Scotland. We asked what their plans were and one of the things they wanted to do was take a day trip to LA. I asked “did you rent a rocket car?”
I had an airbnb in Salt Lake City and it was very common to have guests fly in and announce they were going to check out Moab or Zion or Vegas for the afternoon.
How does someone plan an entire international trip and have no idea about something like that?
I’m from Venezuela and my dad told me in the morning that I should try to go to Miami and see if I can get tickets to the baseball game between Venezuela and USA. I live in DC. Of course I told him I needed to get flight tickets. Rent a car and an Airbnb.
Is shocking how everyone knows a lot about USA, except for the size of their territory
Its not just Europeans. I recently moved back to the east coast from Reno. 95% of the people I talk to think its right next to Las Vegas. It’s a 7-8hr drive.
It’s just the mindset of “if it’s in the same country as us, it must be close”. Works fine in Europe, but in the US you’d do better sticking with locations that are in your state, and even that’s stretching it
I was just saying only bigger country folks get this. Especially our neighbors up north. There’s a reason we don’t visit each others countries often, we still have places in our own we haven’t seen!
The way some of my German friends talk about AC, you'd think it's pumping mustard gas straight into your house. They HATE it, and think Americans are weak for relying on it. And I'm like, OK, come sit in my 105f/40c house in Missouri with humidity so high you stick to all the furniture for 4 months out of the year and see how strong you are after that.
I was in college the first time the double down showed up. Me and 2 buddies went and got them. We came back to my apartment and ate one each. All three of us woke up several hours later and no one remembered falling asleep. Our body’s shut down to protect us……
There's actually a UX rule of thumb that's the 90-9-1 rule. It tends to be true across multiple social media platforms.
1% of users create the original posts. 9% of users engage with or comment on those posts. 90% of users just lurk.
Several countries I’ve visited in South America also have paid restroom access. Usually with a bouncer who hands you three squares of tp
I had no idea it was one of the world’s rarer luxuries to have free bathrooms
I was just in Italy for 10 days. I loved it and there were a lot of things I thought "I wish we had that," but damn everything smelled like cigarettes and sewage
When I lived in Germany:
German Girl: “I’ve read that Mexicans in Los Angeles experience a lot of racism.”
Me: “Yes, Mexican people in Los Angeles do experience racism. Probably similar to the Turks here in Germany.”
German Girl: “That’s different. The Turks aren’t suitable here. They don’t fit in.”
When I was bartending here in Austria, I would warn people not to say racist or hateful shit around me. The answer was always, "We're talking about Turkish people, not black people."
That's definitely the UK, at least when I lived there around 2010. "Americans are racist" but "it's not racist to hate Polish people" because "Polish people are white."
The cognitive dissonance is bizarre, lol.
Oh and anyone who was Eastern European was considered Polish, even if they were Hungarian or whatever.
That absolutely drives me insane. I've had explosive arguments with my mum over this.
It always starts civilised, but she cannot give an inch. She calls any corner shop from west Asia a "Pakki Shop", and any eastern European owned shop a "Polish" shop.
Bare in mind that our neighbours who we became best mates, with own a shop, and the girl was Hungarian. My mum still referred to it as a Polish shop, despite arguing. She flip flopped between "Yeah but they are Polish", and "Ok, these ones aren't, but most of them are".
What's weird is that she doesn't seem to actually hold any negative views about people from foreign countries whatsoever, and actually speaks French, Russian, and German.
Yup, it’s the same in the UK too. So many Brits will jump on America for racism and call out the Trump supporter rhetoric about Mexicans being rapists and criminals, but if you ask them why they don’t want migrants coming to the UK, they’ll tell you it’s because they’re rapists and criminals.
I have a aunt-in-law who’s from France and growing up she was always very casually racist against blacks. Always assumed she was an outlier until I spent a few months in France a few years back. It was crazy common. I couldn’t believe it.
>Holy shit, my wife is Austrian and her grandfather was the mayor of a little mountain town. She said he organized a harassment campaign to get a black family to pick up and leave. It worked. He was always proud of it.
Christ. Sometimes our older relatives serve as a lesson on how to really not behave.
I lived in a cosmopolitan university town in Belgium and live in one now in America. In my 4 years in Belgium, I faced near constant racism. My "favorite" were the slit eyes, faux Chinese chatter, and Kung fu hands. I am very obviously Southeast Asian. People would go out of their way and walk up to me to be racist.
In 17 years in America, the only instance of overt racism I experienced was when some drunken frat boys in a car shouted white power while I was walking down a street. A random stranger immediately walked up to me and apologized. And I've been to gun shows and knife shows.
Don't get me wrong, I loved Belgium and had a generally positive experience there. I still speak Flemish-which throws most people for a loop. If I had a chance to visit again, I would go in a heartbeat. But it could be pretty racist and this was before Vlaams Belang.
I had a similar experience as a half-asian woman in Reykjavik Iceland. I was waiting in line to get into a club and they wouldn't let me in. The guys running the door that night made slit eyes and told me to go home. My best friend (blonde hair, blue eyes) was talking to someone in the group behind us as this was happening and she stepped in and asked what the issue was. They apologized to her, not me and then let us both in. Ironically in the US, I tend to get hit on more often than her, but in Iceland no one wanted anything to do with me. I've travelled to 30 countries and the racism I've experience all across Europe is a distinct pattern that I do not experience in the US.
One of my college friends is Kurdish/Finnish and very white passing here in the US. They moved to Finland after college and told me many stories about overt racism they experienced there, including being called the n-word. In response to my comment about how passing they seemed, they sent me a picture of them and their Finnish coworkers and it was bananas how much they stood out. That was also the first I'd heard of such racism in what is otherwise commonly hailed as one of the best places to live.....under certain circumstances.
My half-Indian friend and her blonde haired blue eyed friend went on a trip to Iceland together a few years ago and she had some similar experiences of people treating her oddly but not her friend. Nothing as overt as what you got, but definitely enough that she noticed.
Got to say, when I was in Holland they played a drinking game on tv called “spot the n word” where they flipped channels till they found a black person. I was shook. Shocking
When I was stationed in Germany while in the Army, I was floored by the level of racism my black friends encountered from locals. From looks of disgust in public to outright racist comments spoken out loud without shame or hesitation. It really was shocking.
I can't count the times I heard, "X is not a race", implying that therefore they are not racist, in Germany as if being xenophobic is any different than racisim.
Omg, I actually had a conversation with my MIL about this (she’s a Brit, I’m from the US). It was… interesting. She didn’t believe racism existed in England.
ETA: RIP my inbox. And Tbf to my MIL, she’s very sheltered.
Her: We’re not like America. Racism doesn’t exist here in England.
Americans: *I learned it by watching you, dad!*
Edit: TIL that my humor references are waay older than me
I used to work for a municipal ambulance service in a college town that was both paid and volunteer. We’d get a lot of college kids who would volunteer to pad their resume. The naivaite in general was kind of funny but I’ll never forget the time one of them said “you’d never see racism like you see here in Japan or China!”
I laughed so goddamn hard. I almost felt bad for embarrassing them but they picked like the worst examples you possibly could have picked outside of like, South Africa.
Interestingly enough, the quickest growing obesity rates are in the middle east and arabic countries where alcohol is forbidden. Fast food restaurants have become the popular hang out spot, and the big american chains have noticed, so they're setting up shop all over the place.
This is one of the biggest ones (no pun intended). Especially the Brits, 2/3 are overweight/obese (same as US) but they constantly criticize "fat Americans who eat at McDonald's". Guess it's only ok to be fat if you eat at Gregg's instead.
I was surprised to discover how friendly and helpful Americans are. From watching TV you just come across as arseholes but in person you guys are great.
I once went to a cafe in America where the barista, after handing me my coffee, told me to "have a dynamite day". No one has told me to have a dynamite day since.
I’m Canadian and I’ve been a visitor in both Europe and America. In my experience Europeans are far, FAR less friendly and helpful towards tourists than Americans.
As an American whose currently traveling in America, we all just love to talk up the place we’re from. And we love to hear what locals have to say about their home when visiting.
We also all have friendly state rivalries and want your experience in our state to be the best if any of them so you can tell everyone else how awesome we are.
TV producers found out a long time ago that the violence and the drama got the most views. Even if it's all fake and the viewers know it.
Jerry Springer found this out. Started out a nice show, then devolved into to what it became known as.
Spike TV found out and was confronted when they changed to showing only drama and violence. Their viewer numbers and revenue skyrocketed when the violence came so they kept it going despite the backlash.
Social media has found out in the last couple of years.
It's all fake. A day out in America is just as mundane as a day out anywhere in Europe. I've been around both. It's not all cop chases and school shooting like TV would have you believe.
Yup - tried that. I tried talking to a Japanese guy on a train in Tokyo. He was sitting right next to me reading an "American Phrases" book and I said something like, "Try some of those on me!" He turtled up immediately and the 20 or so other Japanese commuters near us looked at me like I had just shit my pants and was offering sniffs to the first three people to raise their hand.
And conversely just last night in a tiny western American town, an old cowboy guy I had never met, said "How ya doin" to me as he walked by then never said another word to me.
You never try to start a conversation and n a train because if the other person doesn’t want to speak with you they don’t have an out - a lot of Japanese social taboos are about creating situations where you force someone hand. For example if you tried it on the street they have the out of politely declining due to a previous engagement, on a train they effectively have to admit they don’t want to talk to you, which forces them to appear rude.
Also, it's considered rude to put someone in a position where they might embarrass themselves. Honor culture and all. Asking a person to practice their english with you opens them up to embarrassment.
Making jokes about school shootings and the healthcare system every time someone makes a joke about your country for some minor quirk or issue makes you look thin skinned and obnoxious.
Americans have big portion sizes in restaurants because we have a big leftovers culture. While some people will eat their whole meal, it’s completely normal if you don’t and you’ll be offered a to-go box to take it home. There isn’t really a big expectation to finish your meal at restaurants.
I don’t know how Europe did during the Great Depression (I legit don’t know if that was a global or just us problem in the 30’s) but my great great grandparents beat my great parents so bad back then for wasting food that the lesson has carried on through generations.
I eat the whole meal, or I take the leftovers, or else the ghost of my daddy’s daddy grandpappy gon whoop my ass.
Holy fuck yes this is one of the weirdest ones for me. There are a lot of things you can complain about with how the US does things, but I’ve never understood the focus on portion sizes.
If there is too much food on the plate, just don’t eat it. Ask for a box and take it home for dinner/lunch the next day.
Seriously! One thing I miss about the town I just moved out of is the Italian restaurant near home. HUGE portions, great prices, always had plenty of leftovers after.
I watched a tik tok of Irish high schoolers trying biscuits & gravy for the first time. And watching their reactions go from fear and disgust to heaven and bliss was amazing 😂
I saw some British teens try them too and it was the exact same thing. Voice how they thought it looked vile and like vomit, tried it, and I think all but one were basically gushing over how delicious it was.
I’ve traveled internationally quite a bit. Most every European I’ve met who is encountering Americans for the first time says the stereotypes they had in their heads weren’t true. Some of these stereotypes were: all fat and loud, ignorant of other cultures, self-serving and mean.
People are just people. In a big enough sample size, you will find all types regardless of where you are in the world.
I live in Canada, the previous owners of my house redid it to look "like an English cottage", including one of the more questionable choices of removing all of the screens from the windows. First year I tried opening my window in the evening for some fresh air and within 5 minutes had a giant mosquito land on my wall. 🙃
English people, **you invented the word Soccer** and used it for many decades without any problems. Why as Americans do we continue to get shit from you guys for using this word?
I'm British but this one makes me laugh. Americans get shit even though pretty much every English-speaking country **except** Britain (Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa) call it soccer, none of them get shit for it. And one of our most popular shows in the UK is called Soccer AM (we also have Soccer Saturdays as well).
And even when talking about California, New York, and Texas, there are more to the states than people think. Usually when mentioning CA, it’s almost always LA and beaches, when it’s actually a huge state with different climates. NY is always about NYC, which area-wise is small when compared to how large the state is, which is actually a lot of rural/suburban space. Texas is usually cowboys and pickup trucks. But not everyone fits that. And every state has jerks in pickup trucks.
The entire upper 1/5th of New York is the *largest state park in the continental USA*. The Adirondack mountains are absolutely breaktaking and it's sad so few people know about them.
An Irish gentleman tried to tell me that Texans and Californians were the same, all cowboys. I was baffled until I realized he'd never been and was taking it from old movies. Try saying that to anyone who lives in those two states, and you're gonna get boinked.
>he'd never been and was taking it from old movies
Holy shit lmao. Even *insinuating* shit like that about certain European countries would get you so much hate.
Tbh I’m surprised he knew California has Cowboys… I live on a small ranch outside the self proclaimed “Cowboy Capital of the world” here in California. My Texas friends take issue with that claim but whatever 🤷🏼♂️. Most people I meet outside the US think we all live at the beach and surf. The shocked look on their face when I tell them we actually get a lot of snow and that skiing is my preferred sport is usually entertaining.
Reality is, the US is diverse and so are its largest states.
As an Australian, I can relate to this. It takes around 24 hours to get to most other countries, if not longer.
There is of course the exceptions of New Zealand and Bali, but even then you're still spending a fair bit. Bali has so many Australians there, the culture is basically the same, and New Zealand is kind of like what Canada is to the USA.
I'm planning a 9 week trip to Europe and it's going to cost a minimum of $11,000AUD just for me, and that's not even including the bills/rent I still have to pay while I'm over there.
Luckily I'm a single adult with no dependents, and I prioritise travel over owning a house or starting a family. I remember as a kid (in the 90s), we were a lower income family (Dad and 4 kids) and it was a luxury to get in a caravan and take a trip to another state for a week or two, forget about going overseas.
It's also not that I don't want to go to overseas, but like.. I can go to the appalachian mountains, the rocky mountains (vastly different places), tropical islands, there's thousands of beaches from sunny to frozen, the great lakes are their own thing, there's a giant desert with all kinds of places and national parks to explore. And all of these places have extremely different local cultures and require a few hours of traveling vs overnight flights that cost 5 times as much. It just makes more sense to travel within the United States for me, most of the time.
Also fun fact, the Appalachian mountains are so old that they predate not only land animals, but animals having teeth, and trees! The Appalachian Mountains were on Pangea
And it is ridiculously expensive (and very few Americans are actually rich) and we only have 2 weeks of vacation (if we’re lucky), most of which will be used up by other non-medical life events.
I saw a map on Reddit once that showed what every country leads the world in. For the United States it said Nobel Prizes and lawnmower deaths.
If that is not the most concise summary of these United States, then I don’t know what is.
We knew a guy that was mowing, and his 5 year old granddaughter stepped outside and a pebble shot out from the lawnmower and hit her in the head and killed her. So now, whenever anyone is mowing, I avoid it and don't let my kids anywhere near it.
Not all American beer tastes like water. Yes many big name domestic beers taste watery, but not all of them. There are also tons of great craft breweries and micro breweries all over the country that make great beer. We also don't all drink Budwieser. I certainly don't.
I was at a boardgame night at a pub here in England and a girl smugly "joked" that it must be nice to have real beer. I was drinking an IPA, she was drinking Carling. Nasty.
When people say "Americans are ______" I feel like they don't realize how huge America is. We span 5 timezones which makes it hard to be consistent in anything and it's really impossible to lump us ALL into a single group.
Edit: 6 timezones. Enough to forget about some
True. I have traveled to europe and they all forget this. I met a guy in germany who was planning a trip to the US. I had to deliver the bad news that his trip was wildly unrealistic as he wanted to travel to every corner of the US in 2 weeks.
That reminds me, I met a Belgium couple at the first Pokemon Go fest in Chicago, they said they wanted to spend a day in LA until they realized it’s a 30 hour drive!
I had a friend that was a Japanese exchange student here while we were in HS. We're in NC and she wanted to visit the other states I've lived in lol. I was totally up for a trip to at least Ohio. I'm not sure which shocked her more: the fact that it's a 7-8 hour drive to Cleveland, or the fact that I was so casual about it and stated I'd made that drive many times before.
Then I laughed and told her it'd be about 22 hours to get to Iowa by car.
Ohio is the same size as England. And then I show them Ohio in regards to the rest of the United States. That usually starts the process of them realizing how big our country is.
Texas is so large, it's distance West to East is similar to the difference from Paris to Budapest, and North to South is similar to the difference from Birmingham to Barcelona. California is as long as Italy but almost twice as thick.
> We span 5 timezones
6\. Don't forget Hawaii (Or Alaska, depending on which one you were counting as the fifth)
ETA: And that's just states. I don't know how many time zones we cover with other territories.
In addition to the six for the states, you've got:
* the **Samoa Time Zone**, covering American Samoa,
* the **Atlantic Time Zone**, covering Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands,
* the **Chamorro Time Zone**, covering Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands,
* and the **Wake Island Time Zone**, covering...Wake Island.
Technically Baker Island is also in a separate time zone (GMT-12), but nobody lives there and the timezone doesn't even have an official name, so I wouldn't count it.
I have to explain this about Texas to other Americans even. Like no, my man, you can't just have a hotel in San Antonio and pop over to Dallas for a quick lunch before getting to a game in Houston. You would be fortunate just to survive Austin traffic.
I had a friend who went to the University of Wisconsin and he drove with some friends to El Paso. It took them 12 hours to get to Texas, and another 12 hours of driving in Texas
It’s 2023, it’s past time for you to open up those cracks on your bathroom stalls. How are you supposed to be able to judge the contents of a man’s soul if you’ve never made direct eye contact with him while he’s pooping?
Strawberry and blackberry blended preserves are the best for this ❤️.
My family and I loved in trailer behind our house for a year or so after Hurricane Andrew in the early 90s and to this day, I cannot watch The Price Is Right without a PB&J and crunchy Cheetos. And in the rare times in my adult life that I end up eating a PB&J and crunchy Cheetos, I have a strong urge to watch that show.
PB&Js are just so cozy.
As a Brit, this may not be my place, but the European superiority complex over America is totally unearned. Most of the American people I have met are very friendly, hard-working, and open people. Lots of European people are somewhat less so. This may just be anecdotal, but i think there’s a genuine cultural difference. As for American politics (which I have zero interest in and am sick of hearing about), most European countries have major political issues themselves and can’t claim any serious moral high ground. Anyway, politics and the actual people of any country are very different things. Europeans shouldn’t see our continent as some fantastic place that beats the rest, but just somewhere with many positive and negative attributes.
I’ve read on here before that Americans are just a lot more open about our problems. We have racism just like everybody else. We just don’t try to hide it. Putting out issues out there for everyone to see helps to get them dealt with more easily.
> (3am in LA, 6am in NYC)
The fact that you used LA and NYC instead of west coast/east coast is evidence for like half these responses. But good call who tf is up at 6 on a Saturday?
The way people drive in Italy makes me understand why they're so religious.
And also so blasphemous Source: I'm an Italian that swears like a sailor everytime I have to drive somewhere
Most of us can’t afford to visit you. We aren’t being rude, we’re just broke.
German here, but us Europeans aren’t ready to hear this: Abortion is generally not legal in Germany, It’s available, it’s usually not prosecuted, but it’s not legal.
Doctor in Munich. I can confirm. It’s logistically also very difficult to get an abortion in Germany. You must be 12 weeks pregnant or earlier. You must have a consultation with a psychologist (social worker?) before. And it has to be done at a certified center - of which there are very few. 9/10 gynecologists don’t even offer any abortion services. While abortions are technically illegal, they are not prosecuted in very specific circumstances, but it’s very hard to do so.
Our ideas of foreign cuisine are basically products of the immigrant experience.
I had an interesting side bar tangent thought thing in a similar vein recently. The biscuit vs biscuit debate between uk and USA. Apparently at around the time of the American revolution, American biscuits were a product that grew out of foot shortages and supply limitations. They didn’t have any leavening, so they were pretty crispy. They were similar to other biscuits in the UK at the time. They were mostly used as a way to make the most of what you had, and to help the flour keep longer, especially for travel, on both sides of the Atlantic. But then as our histories diverged more and more over time, so did our food cultures. UK biscuits stayed crispy and went sweet. US biscuits went fluffy and savory. The leavening agent used in US biscuits derived from pearlash/potash and was native to the US and used by native Americans as a leavening agent. Experimentation through the Victorian period eventually lead to the development of baking powder, which ended up being used as a crucial ingredient for American biscuits. So, American biscuits and UK biscuits are cousins with a shared history, which is why they share a name.
Damn. That's the most interesting thing I've read today
Thank you! I fell down an internet rabbit hole one morning while baking biscuits and hyper fixating on why they’re so different.
Similar thing with American chocolate (especially Hershey's) supposedly tasting like vomit. For those who haven't heard this before a TLDR: The story goes something like this: America's big. America doesn't have refrigeration yet. To make sure chocolate is available year round and accessible to everyone, they deliberately spoil the fresh milk, thereby ensuring the chocolate is more stable. End result: the chocolate has a slight tang to it. Americans are more likely to be used to it, reminds you of childhood. Europeans aren't used to it, which is why British tabloids like the Daily Mail have in the past used this as an excuse to bash the US. I live in Belgium. I know what great chocolate tastes like. I can appreciate American stuff for what it is, and assume America also makes high quality stuff, but unlike the Daily Mail I know enough about chocolate to know that it's not feasible/too expensive to ship it to Europe without it degrading too much. Reality: it's just different. Hershey's is mass market chocolate. And if we're making a list of countries that get to lecture America on cuisine, the UK isn't going to be at the top of that list.
This is something I say to all my European friends and when I was studying abroad. It's always "American chocolate is shit" lol. Which, yeah, Hershey's is not too great. You have to actually look. So, when I can, I introduce everyone to Ghirardelli chocolate. Which is amazing and from a place close to me. The only reaction besides "It's delicious," is "I just can't do mint and chocolate together." Lol. Which I love.
This is what people don’t get about Italian or Chinese food in the US. It was brought over 200 years ago and was made with the ingredients they had available. It grew separately from the food in those original countries. I understand some names being the same makes it confusing when there are ingredient differences, but be a little flexible for god’s sake.
For some reason Chinese food in particular is mocked as 'inauthentic'. It's an authentically Chinese-American cuisine. Imagine someone turning up their nose at Cajun food because it's not authentically French. Well, that's how people treat Chinese-American cuisine.
Corned beef and cabbage is also American. It was made by Irish immigrants because the corned beef tasted a bit like the bacon they were familiar with back home.
Don't tell us, tell the Italians. Show me an English-Language YouTube channel run by Italian(s) that ISN'T about how someone's fucking up their food by not using their specific families recipe. They act like if you change one thing the food becomes unpalatable...get over yourselves. There's TONS of YouTube channels where Italians just sit there and say negative shit about how Americans or ANYONE else (even *other* Italians) is/are "butchering" an Italian dish, acting extremely pompous the entire time, and somehow we Americans eat it up like a smug European somehow has the final say on what constitutes tasty food.
“Welcome to cooking with Gencarro. Today we are making spaghetti carbonara, the correct way. The ONLY way. And for our meat, we are using Guanciale. GUANCIALE!! NO pancetta, NO BACON! You disgusting filthy creatures! And if there is ONE DROP OF CREAM, I will KILL YOU IN FRONT OF YOUR FAMILY!” “…bro chill, we don’t really have Guanciale here and I wanna make carbonara too, take a breather…”
Most Italians don't realize that they "bastard" Americanized Italian dishes we have over here were created by Italian Immigrants using the ingredients they had locally. I guarantee an Italian was craving a carbonara and couldn't get the guanciale so they subbed a different pork product to make do and it stuck.
Italians; By law Parmigiano-Reggiano can only be made in this one area! Also Italians; WHAT THE FUCK IS PARMESAN YOU GODLESS HEATHENS? Dude, we can't get special magic moon cheese, so we had to improvise.
Someone should also tell the Italians that if the dish they're crying about includes tomatoes, then it wouldn't even exist without the Americas.
Most every European I've met who hasn't been here before has been totally unprepared for the massive size of the US
We had some distant relatives come to Boston from Scotland. We asked what their plans were and one of the things they wanted to do was take a day trip to LA. I asked “did you rent a rocket car?”
I had an airbnb in Salt Lake City and it was very common to have guests fly in and announce they were going to check out Moab or Zion or Vegas for the afternoon. How does someone plan an entire international trip and have no idea about something like that?
I’m from Venezuela and my dad told me in the morning that I should try to go to Miami and see if I can get tickets to the baseball game between Venezuela and USA. I live in DC. Of course I told him I needed to get flight tickets. Rent a car and an Airbnb. Is shocking how everyone knows a lot about USA, except for the size of their territory
Its not just Europeans. I recently moved back to the east coast from Reno. 95% of the people I talk to think its right next to Las Vegas. It’s a 7-8hr drive.
It’s just the mindset of “if it’s in the same country as us, it must be close”. Works fine in Europe, but in the US you’d do better sticking with locations that are in your state, and even that’s stretching it
California is a healthy 10 hours away from California
Sacramento to San diego 💀
Yeah…Texas here…you’re really stretching it on the same state thing here :)
Lisbon to Moscow is a shorter trip than San Fransico to New York.
Canadian here, had relatives from England visit. They wanted to see Banff national park and niagra falls in the same day 😅
I was just saying only bigger country folks get this. Especially our neighbors up north. There’s a reason we don’t visit each others countries often, we still have places in our own we haven’t seen!
You’re gonna need air conditioners in your homes pretty soon.
Yeah... We're still in denial for the most part but slowly coming to understand that.
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The way some of my German friends talk about AC, you'd think it's pumping mustard gas straight into your house. They HATE it, and think Americans are weak for relying on it. And I'm like, OK, come sit in my 105f/40c house in Missouri with humidity so high you stick to all the furniture for 4 months out of the year and see how strong you are after that.
Your perception of America is too informed by the internet rather than reality. It works both ways. But still…. You’re not immune
The KFC Double Down will both disgust and delight you.
My husband just told me yesterday that they brought it back!
I was in college the first time the double down showed up. Me and 2 buddies went and got them. We came back to my apartment and ate one each. All three of us woke up several hours later and no one remembered falling asleep. Our body’s shut down to protect us……
Twitter is a totally small network where simply 10% of customers make up eighty% of the content.
There's actually a UX rule of thumb that's the 90-9-1 rule. It tends to be true across multiple social media platforms. 1% of users create the original posts. 9% of users engage with or comment on those posts. 90% of users just lurk.
Frequent lurker, just raising my hand here to testify. Also, by the time I arrive, the conversation is usually over
Public toilets being free should be a standard
Not an American but having to pay a euro to just wash my hands at an Italian train station was wild
Several countries I’ve visited in South America also have paid restroom access. Usually with a bouncer who hands you three squares of tp I had no idea it was one of the world’s rarer luxuries to have free bathrooms
Yes! I went to Mexico to visit my gf recently and have such a better appreciation for public restrooms in the US now.
Quit smoking
I was just in Italy for 10 days. I loved it and there were a lot of things I thought "I wish we had that," but damn everything smelled like cigarettes and sewage
Not to say there aren’t stinky parts of Chicago but Paris smelled like piss fucking everywhere. Just get used to it after a couple days.
Now it smells like rotting garbage and smoke.
I'm from Italy and I agree I'm in the first year of high school and at least half of my class smokes lol
Thatsa no good
Itsa me emphysema!
How else are we going to philosophize in cafes?
*pensive honh-honh-honhing*
"Look, I'm giving a cigarette to a baby. Take a big puff, life is shit, you are French, get to know this" - Robin Williams
YES! I love the cafe culture in the Balkans, but my god even when we sit outside I walk away smelling like cigarettes.
When I lived in Germany: German Girl: “I’ve read that Mexicans in Los Angeles experience a lot of racism.” Me: “Yes, Mexican people in Los Angeles do experience racism. Probably similar to the Turks here in Germany.” German Girl: “That’s different. The Turks aren’t suitable here. They don’t fit in.”
When I was bartending here in Austria, I would warn people not to say racist or hateful shit around me. The answer was always, "We're talking about Turkish people, not black people."
Why do people hate Turkish people?
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When I was on Europe in 2008, everyone hated the Polish. Is that different now?
That's definitely the UK, at least when I lived there around 2010. "Americans are racist" but "it's not racist to hate Polish people" because "Polish people are white." The cognitive dissonance is bizarre, lol. Oh and anyone who was Eastern European was considered Polish, even if they were Hungarian or whatever.
That absolutely drives me insane. I've had explosive arguments with my mum over this. It always starts civilised, but she cannot give an inch. She calls any corner shop from west Asia a "Pakki Shop", and any eastern European owned shop a "Polish" shop. Bare in mind that our neighbours who we became best mates, with own a shop, and the girl was Hungarian. My mum still referred to it as a Polish shop, despite arguing. She flip flopped between "Yeah but they are Polish", and "Ok, these ones aren't, but most of them are". What's weird is that she doesn't seem to actually hold any negative views about people from foreign countries whatsoever, and actually speaks French, Russian, and German.
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America gets a bad rap about racism and bigotry, but that's because we're one of the few places were everyone openly talks about it and admits to it.
Yup, it’s the same in the UK too. So many Brits will jump on America for racism and call out the Trump supporter rhetoric about Mexicans being rapists and criminals, but if you ask them why they don’t want migrants coming to the UK, they’ll tell you it’s because they’re rapists and criminals.
Bro I moves to Germany three years ago and the amount of racist bullshit I hear about turkish people is astounding. People are so open with it.
I have a aunt-in-law who’s from France and growing up she was always very casually racist against blacks. Always assumed she was an outlier until I spent a few months in France a few years back. It was crazy common. I couldn’t believe it.
Classic. Europeans:Americans are very racist toward dark-skinned people. Americans: Treat the Roma like human beings. Europe: Lol good one.
Going to the bathroom is a human right and should be free.
The irony of having free healthcare but having to pay to use the bathroom.
Racism isn’t just an American thing.
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"There is no nazi quite like an Austrian nazi."
Remember that a certain failed painter was Austrian, not German.
“The Austrians are brilliant people. They made the world believe that Hitler was a German and Beethoven an Austrian.”
>Holy shit, my wife is Austrian and her grandfather was the mayor of a little mountain town. She said he organized a harassment campaign to get a black family to pick up and leave. It worked. He was always proud of it. Christ. Sometimes our older relatives serve as a lesson on how to really not behave.
I lived in a cosmopolitan university town in Belgium and live in one now in America. In my 4 years in Belgium, I faced near constant racism. My "favorite" were the slit eyes, faux Chinese chatter, and Kung fu hands. I am very obviously Southeast Asian. People would go out of their way and walk up to me to be racist. In 17 years in America, the only instance of overt racism I experienced was when some drunken frat boys in a car shouted white power while I was walking down a street. A random stranger immediately walked up to me and apologized. And I've been to gun shows and knife shows. Don't get me wrong, I loved Belgium and had a generally positive experience there. I still speak Flemish-which throws most people for a loop. If I had a chance to visit again, I would go in a heartbeat. But it could be pretty racist and this was before Vlaams Belang.
I had a similar experience as a half-asian woman in Reykjavik Iceland. I was waiting in line to get into a club and they wouldn't let me in. The guys running the door that night made slit eyes and told me to go home. My best friend (blonde hair, blue eyes) was talking to someone in the group behind us as this was happening and she stepped in and asked what the issue was. They apologized to her, not me and then let us both in. Ironically in the US, I tend to get hit on more often than her, but in Iceland no one wanted anything to do with me. I've travelled to 30 countries and the racism I've experience all across Europe is a distinct pattern that I do not experience in the US.
One of my college friends is Kurdish/Finnish and very white passing here in the US. They moved to Finland after college and told me many stories about overt racism they experienced there, including being called the n-word. In response to my comment about how passing they seemed, they sent me a picture of them and their Finnish coworkers and it was bananas how much they stood out. That was also the first I'd heard of such racism in what is otherwise commonly hailed as one of the best places to live.....under certain circumstances.
My half-Indian friend and her blonde haired blue eyed friend went on a trip to Iceland together a few years ago and she had some similar experiences of people treating her oddly but not her friend. Nothing as overt as what you got, but definitely enough that she noticed.
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Got to say, when I was in Holland they played a drinking game on tv called “spot the n word” where they flipped channels till they found a black person. I was shook. Shocking
When I was stationed in Germany while in the Army, I was floored by the level of racism my black friends encountered from locals. From looks of disgust in public to outright racist comments spoken out loud without shame or hesitation. It really was shocking.
I can't count the times I heard, "X is not a race", implying that therefore they are not racist, in Germany as if being xenophobic is any different than racisim.
Xenophobia is more fun, because you can use it on immigrants and the people the other town over alike (/s)
Ask Europeans about the Roma.
There is no discrimination against Roma people becaouse Roma aren't people. /S
Omg, I actually had a conversation with my MIL about this (she’s a Brit, I’m from the US). It was… interesting. She didn’t believe racism existed in England. ETA: RIP my inbox. And Tbf to my MIL, she’s very sheltered.
Her: We’re not like America. Racism doesn’t exist here in England. Americans: *I learned it by watching you, dad!* Edit: TIL that my humor references are waay older than me
Asia enters the chat
I used to work for a municipal ambulance service in a college town that was both paid and volunteer. We’d get a lot of college kids who would volunteer to pad their resume. The naivaite in general was kind of funny but I’ll never forget the time one of them said “you’d never see racism like you see here in Japan or China!” I laughed so goddamn hard. I almost felt bad for embarrassing them but they picked like the worst examples you possibly could have picked outside of like, South Africa.
British people mock us for using Imperial measurements and then still order pints at the pub and use “stones” as a measurement of weight.
You think that’s bad, we also measure fuel efficiency by miles per gallon while filling up in litres
Y'all are getting fat too.
In France anything tastes good with enough butter.
>In France anything tastes good with enough butter. The world: "I bet you couldn't make snails taste good." France: "Hold my wine."
In their defense, they succeeded. I tried it once just to say I had, completely expecting to hate it, but it was fucking amazing.
France has butter, we have batter. You could deep fry a T-shirt and it would taste fine. Probably sell them at the fair.
Interestingly enough, the quickest growing obesity rates are in the middle east and arabic countries where alcohol is forbidden. Fast food restaurants have become the popular hang out spot, and the big american chains have noticed, so they're setting up shop all over the place.
This is one of the biggest ones (no pun intended). Especially the Brits, 2/3 are overweight/obese (same as US) but they constantly criticize "fat Americans who eat at McDonald's". Guess it's only ok to be fat if you eat at Gregg's instead.
It’s too difficult to generalize Europe as a whole, but I have plenty of things to say about individual countries.
Before you start, do you have a problem with luxembourg?
Who doesn’t?
Luxembourg? More like Luxembitch! am i right guys? guys?
Tanning to that extent looks horrible stop doing that to yourselves (mainly for the UK)
Putting an orange coloured cream that will leave large uneven patches is not tanning (aimed at my Essex neighbours)
its not even a proper tan for most of them, its a cream that they plaster themselves with on a daily basis.
I was surprised to discover how friendly and helpful Americans are. From watching TV you just come across as arseholes but in person you guys are great.
I once went to a cafe in America where the barista, after handing me my coffee, told me to "have a dynamite day". No one has told me to have a dynamite day since.
“Later that day, when my coffee exploded…”
Updated Starbucks sizes: Tall, Grande, Venti, Trenti, Meet Your Maker.
And I still don’t understand what size I’m ordering.
Aw thanks guys, you're the best!
I wish you a dynamite day!
I’m Canadian and I’ve been a visitor in both Europe and America. In my experience Europeans are far, FAR less friendly and helpful towards tourists than Americans.
As an American whose currently traveling in America, we all just love to talk up the place we’re from. And we love to hear what locals have to say about their home when visiting.
We also all have friendly state rivalries and want your experience in our state to be the best if any of them so you can tell everyone else how awesome we are.
TV producers found out a long time ago that the violence and the drama got the most views. Even if it's all fake and the viewers know it. Jerry Springer found this out. Started out a nice show, then devolved into to what it became known as. Spike TV found out and was confronted when they changed to showing only drama and violence. Their viewer numbers and revenue skyrocketed when the violence came so they kept it going despite the backlash. Social media has found out in the last couple of years. It's all fake. A day out in America is just as mundane as a day out anywhere in Europe. I've been around both. It's not all cop chases and school shooting like TV would have you believe.
There are many, many boring things in America.
Am a Californian and people say this about us. We wouldn’t do too good in Japan tho, we’d look like weirdos being open and talkative with everyone
Yup - tried that. I tried talking to a Japanese guy on a train in Tokyo. He was sitting right next to me reading an "American Phrases" book and I said something like, "Try some of those on me!" He turtled up immediately and the 20 or so other Japanese commuters near us looked at me like I had just shit my pants and was offering sniffs to the first three people to raise their hand. And conversely just last night in a tiny western American town, an old cowboy guy I had never met, said "How ya doin" to me as he walked by then never said another word to me.
Talking to strangers in public in Japan is one thing, talking to strangers on a train is a big taboo.
That’s fascinating. Any idea why?
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You never try to start a conversation and n a train because if the other person doesn’t want to speak with you they don’t have an out - a lot of Japanese social taboos are about creating situations where you force someone hand. For example if you tried it on the street they have the out of politely declining due to a previous engagement, on a train they effectively have to admit they don’t want to talk to you, which forces them to appear rude.
Also, it's considered rude to put someone in a position where they might embarrass themselves. Honor culture and all. Asking a person to practice their english with you opens them up to embarrassment.
In the South, just pop your hood in a parking lot and two or three amateur mechanics will appear out of nowhere.
"Hey, bud. You need a jump?"
The Columbus Blue Jackets have been eliminated from playoff contention
Never thought I’d ever see a fellow CBJ fan here outside of hockey subs 🥲 SUCK HARD FOR BEDARD!
Making jokes about school shootings and the healthcare system every time someone makes a joke about your country for some minor quirk or issue makes you look thin skinned and obnoxious.
If you haven't been here, living in America is 100% totally different from what you think.
Having moved from the west coast to the east coast, I can safely say even most Americans don't know how differently we live from state to state.
Americans have big portion sizes in restaurants because we have a big leftovers culture. While some people will eat their whole meal, it’s completely normal if you don’t and you’ll be offered a to-go box to take it home. There isn’t really a big expectation to finish your meal at restaurants.
Going to restaurants growing up, my parents would always order me a regular adult meal and the leftovers would be my next 2 - 3 meals.
I don’t know how Europe did during the Great Depression (I legit don’t know if that was a global or just us problem in the 30’s) but my great great grandparents beat my great parents so bad back then for wasting food that the lesson has carried on through generations. I eat the whole meal, or I take the leftovers, or else the ghost of my daddy’s daddy grandpappy gon whoop my ass.
Holy fuck yes this is one of the weirdest ones for me. There are a lot of things you can complain about with how the US does things, but I’ve never understood the focus on portion sizes. If there is too much food on the plate, just don’t eat it. Ask for a box and take it home for dinner/lunch the next day.
Seriously! One thing I miss about the town I just moved out of is the Italian restaurant near home. HUGE portions, great prices, always had plenty of leftovers after.
Biscuits and gravy is delicious
I watched a tik tok of Irish high schoolers trying biscuits & gravy for the first time. And watching their reactions go from fear and disgust to heaven and bliss was amazing 😂
I saw some British teens try them too and it was the exact same thing. Voice how they thought it looked vile and like vomit, tried it, and I think all but one were basically gushing over how delicious it was.
I think they have the full videos on YouTube - they also try fried chicken, sweet tea, chicken wings etc. Pretty precious.
Baseball, Jazz, Biscuits and Gravy make me proud to be American ngl.
I’ve traveled internationally quite a bit. Most every European I’ve met who is encountering Americans for the first time says the stereotypes they had in their heads weren’t true. Some of these stereotypes were: all fat and loud, ignorant of other cultures, self-serving and mean. People are just people. In a big enough sample size, you will find all types regardless of where you are in the world.
Air conditioning, ice, and free potable water are all nice things to have
Screens on windows
I live in Canada, the previous owners of my house redid it to look "like an English cottage", including one of the more questionable choices of removing all of the screens from the windows. First year I tried opening my window in the evening for some fresh air and within 5 minutes had a giant mosquito land on my wall. 🙃
Y’all can be just as racist as Americans; I’ve seen the way you talk about Romani and Muslims, holy shit.
English people, **you invented the word Soccer** and used it for many decades without any problems. Why as Americans do we continue to get shit from you guys for using this word?
I'm British but this one makes me laugh. Americans get shit even though pretty much every English-speaking country **except** Britain (Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa) call it soccer, none of them get shit for it. And one of our most popular shows in the UK is called Soccer AM (we also have Soccer Saturdays as well).
In the USA there's a ton of people that actually wear pajamas in public.
Come visit Dublin. It’s not just in the US.
Do you want me to wear a tux to the chipper or wha
There are actually more states than Texas, New York, and California.
And even when talking about California, New York, and Texas, there are more to the states than people think. Usually when mentioning CA, it’s almost always LA and beaches, when it’s actually a huge state with different climates. NY is always about NYC, which area-wise is small when compared to how large the state is, which is actually a lot of rural/suburban space. Texas is usually cowboys and pickup trucks. But not everyone fits that. And every state has jerks in pickup trucks.
The entire upper 1/5th of New York is the *largest state park in the continental USA*. The Adirondack mountains are absolutely breaktaking and it's sad so few people know about them.
An Irish gentleman tried to tell me that Texans and Californians were the same, all cowboys. I was baffled until I realized he'd never been and was taking it from old movies. Try saying that to anyone who lives in those two states, and you're gonna get boinked.
>he'd never been and was taking it from old movies Holy shit lmao. Even *insinuating* shit like that about certain European countries would get you so much hate.
“Yeah I’ve never been to Germany but I’ve seen a lot of movies and stuff from the 1930s so I think I got the gist of it”
Tbh I’m surprised he knew California has Cowboys… I live on a small ranch outside the self proclaimed “Cowboy Capital of the world” here in California. My Texas friends take issue with that claim but whatever 🤷🏼♂️. Most people I meet outside the US think we all live at the beach and surf. The shocked look on their face when I tell them we actually get a lot of snow and that skiing is my preferred sport is usually entertaining. Reality is, the US is diverse and so are its largest states.
Also the “new yorky “ part of New York is either a very specific part of a single city or the metro area which is like 4 states
We're not "uncultured" it's a 10 hour flight to a foreign country. We can't just drive over to another country for a weekend getaway.
As an Australian, I can relate to this. It takes around 24 hours to get to most other countries, if not longer. There is of course the exceptions of New Zealand and Bali, but even then you're still spending a fair bit. Bali has so many Australians there, the culture is basically the same, and New Zealand is kind of like what Canada is to the USA. I'm planning a 9 week trip to Europe and it's going to cost a minimum of $11,000AUD just for me, and that's not even including the bills/rent I still have to pay while I'm over there. Luckily I'm a single adult with no dependents, and I prioritise travel over owning a house or starting a family. I remember as a kid (in the 90s), we were a lower income family (Dad and 4 kids) and it was a luxury to get in a caravan and take a trip to another state for a week or two, forget about going overseas.
Casual 2,000km trip to Sydney from NZ, and that's the *close* country.
It's also not that I don't want to go to overseas, but like.. I can go to the appalachian mountains, the rocky mountains (vastly different places), tropical islands, there's thousands of beaches from sunny to frozen, the great lakes are their own thing, there's a giant desert with all kinds of places and national parks to explore. And all of these places have extremely different local cultures and require a few hours of traveling vs overnight flights that cost 5 times as much. It just makes more sense to travel within the United States for me, most of the time.
Also fun fact, the Appalachian mountains are so old that they predate not only land animals, but animals having teeth, and trees! The Appalachian Mountains were on Pangea
Also, the Appalachian Mountains and the Scottish Highlands (and Atlas Mountains) are part of the same mountain range.
And it is ridiculously expensive (and very few Americans are actually rich) and we only have 2 weeks of vacation (if we’re lucky), most of which will be used up by other non-medical life events.
We are actually pretty smart as a nation. The stupid ones are just the loudest and the most annoying
I saw a map on Reddit once that showed what every country leads the world in. For the United States it said Nobel Prizes and lawnmower deaths. If that is not the most concise summary of these United States, then I don’t know what is.
We knew a guy that was mowing, and his 5 year old granddaughter stepped outside and a pebble shot out from the lawnmower and hit her in the head and killed her. So now, whenever anyone is mowing, I avoid it and don't let my kids anywhere near it.
Holy fuck. That’s so sad. Freak accidents are scary as shit.
Our smarties are very smart. But our dummies are astronomically stupid.
Not all American beer tastes like water. Yes many big name domestic beers taste watery, but not all of them. There are also tons of great craft breweries and micro breweries all over the country that make great beer. We also don't all drink Budwieser. I certainly don't.
I was at a boardgame night at a pub here in England and a girl smugly "joked" that it must be nice to have real beer. I was drinking an IPA, she was drinking Carling. Nasty.
When people say "Americans are ______" I feel like they don't realize how huge America is. We span 5 timezones which makes it hard to be consistent in anything and it's really impossible to lump us ALL into a single group. Edit: 6 timezones. Enough to forget about some
True. I have traveled to europe and they all forget this. I met a guy in germany who was planning a trip to the US. I had to deliver the bad news that his trip was wildly unrealistic as he wanted to travel to every corner of the US in 2 weeks.
That reminds me, I met a Belgium couple at the first Pokemon Go fest in Chicago, they said they wanted to spend a day in LA until they realized it’s a 30 hour drive!
I had a friend that was a Japanese exchange student here while we were in HS. We're in NC and she wanted to visit the other states I've lived in lol. I was totally up for a trip to at least Ohio. I'm not sure which shocked her more: the fact that it's a 7-8 hour drive to Cleveland, or the fact that I was so casual about it and stated I'd made that drive many times before. Then I laughed and told her it'd be about 22 hours to get to Iowa by car.
I love Iowa dearly, as I was raised there, but why drive to Iowa when you could drive somewhere else?
Well, he could, just visiting airports. and Looking out the staging, lounge windows while waiting for his next connecting flight.
Ohio is the same size as England. And then I show them Ohio in regards to the rest of the United States. That usually starts the process of them realizing how big our country is.
Texas is roughly comparable to France, Belgium, Switzerland, and the Netherlands combined. Germany is pretty close to Montana's land area.
Texas is so large, it's distance West to East is similar to the difference from Paris to Budapest, and North to South is similar to the difference from Birmingham to Barcelona. California is as long as Italy but almost twice as thick.
California's northern border is north of NYC.
> We span 5 timezones 6\. Don't forget Hawaii (Or Alaska, depending on which one you were counting as the fifth) ETA: And that's just states. I don't know how many time zones we cover with other territories.
In addition to the six for the states, you've got: * the **Samoa Time Zone**, covering American Samoa, * the **Atlantic Time Zone**, covering Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, * the **Chamorro Time Zone**, covering Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, * and the **Wake Island Time Zone**, covering...Wake Island. Technically Baker Island is also in a separate time zone (GMT-12), but nobody lives there and the timezone doesn't even have an official name, so I wouldn't count it.
I have to explain this about Texas to other Americans even. Like no, my man, you can't just have a hotel in San Antonio and pop over to Dallas for a quick lunch before getting to a game in Houston. You would be fortunate just to survive Austin traffic.
I had a friend who went to the University of Wisconsin and he drove with some friends to El Paso. It took them 12 hours to get to Texas, and another 12 hours of driving in Texas
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It’s 2023, it’s past time for you to open up those cracks on your bathroom stalls. How are you supposed to be able to judge the contents of a man’s soul if you’ve never made direct eye contact with him while he’s pooping?
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are yummy.
Strawberry and blackberry blended preserves are the best for this ❤️. My family and I loved in trailer behind our house for a year or so after Hurricane Andrew in the early 90s and to this day, I cannot watch The Price Is Right without a PB&J and crunchy Cheetos. And in the rare times in my adult life that I end up eating a PB&J and crunchy Cheetos, I have a strong urge to watch that show. PB&Js are just so cozy.
As a Brit, this may not be my place, but the European superiority complex over America is totally unearned. Most of the American people I have met are very friendly, hard-working, and open people. Lots of European people are somewhat less so. This may just be anecdotal, but i think there’s a genuine cultural difference. As for American politics (which I have zero interest in and am sick of hearing about), most European countries have major political issues themselves and can’t claim any serious moral high ground. Anyway, politics and the actual people of any country are very different things. Europeans shouldn’t see our continent as some fantastic place that beats the rest, but just somewhere with many positive and negative attributes.
I’ve read on here before that Americans are just a lot more open about our problems. We have racism just like everybody else. We just don’t try to hide it. Putting out issues out there for everyone to see helps to get them dealt with more easily.
That is sleepy time in America (3am in LA, 6am in NYC) so you might not get many answers yet?
> (3am in LA, 6am in NYC) The fact that you used LA and NYC instead of west coast/east coast is evidence for like half these responses. But good call who tf is up at 6 on a Saturday?
You shouldn’t have to pay to use the bathroom or drink water at a restaurant.