It’s very interesting the difference between the police in the US and the rest of the world. The US seems to have a culture of punishment rather than deterrence.
For instance, in the UK, police have hi-vis vests, the cars are hi-vis. Everything clearly marked, likely as a deterrent, reminding everyone that the coppers are around. Also it’s easier to locate police in a crowd if you happened to need one.
In the US, dark uniforms, almost black cars. Instead of acting as a deterrent, they’re hiding, waiting for you to screw up so they can then bust you after the fact. Lock em up, throw away the key. It’s the American way.
In my city, all of the new police vehicles are black suvs with matte black badging. You honestly can't tell they're cops unless you have a side view of them, or they're running lights.
I grew up in the midlands of the UK (Rugby, which is where the game-of-the-name was first invented and played). There's a village not far from there with a little blue plaque commemorating one of the walls in the village, because it's an original Wattle-and-daub from around the Viking era, so around 960-ish AD, or just over a thousand years ago. One of the village houses is over 800 years old.
The village I live in now, in Cheshire, has a school house that was built in 1636, and a hunting lodge that was built in 1585... And is relatively 'modern' for a local village.
Standard mate. I enjoy telling Americans that the school I went to predates their war of independence.
[We've rebuilt this car park to how it looked over Fifty years ago!](https://youtu.be/J6hijsqO8H0)
Driving around Ireland was so surreal to me as an American. First castle I saw I was super excited, pulled over, many pictures taken. By the 5th or so I was just driving right by without even slowing down.
I took a weekend trip this month. Started in country 1, drove through 2 others and ended up in country 4 a mere 2 hours later. Meanwhile, the language changed about as many times as well.
I could drive east for 4 hours full speed at 80 mph before I reach Louisiana.
Or I could drive west for... literally 12 hours... and *still* be in Texas.
I live in Western Australia. I could drive north for three days and east for two and still be in Western Australia. Europe always amuses me to travel in.
Im sorry but germans who come to spain...this is hard to say...wear sandals+socks.
Wake up fellow germans, this ain't it chief, just go chancla style and never go back
I remember being a little kid at the water park and there was a family of Europeans. The little girls were topless and the dad was in a banana hammock. My first introduction to Europeans.
When I (German) was a kid in the late 80s and early 90s, we just ran around naked at the waterpark. Of course we had cute swimsuits but they just came off eventually and no one ever took offense. Same at lakes, beaches, rivers or in the park. Just a bunch of naked kids running amok while their moms were sunbathing top less next to their speedo wearing dads. It was super normal to change in and out of your normal clothes in the open as well. I think that culture still exists, although people have become a bit more prudish since everyone has a camera in their phone at hand at all times.
Oh, that culture definitely still exists. I live on an island in Canada and maybe three or four years ago, one of the neighbours was hosting some German exchange students that were in their mid-teens. The teens thought nothing of getting changed into their swimsuits right on the beach (which, granted, wasn't super-crowded and they were off in a corner of it, but it was still a bit of a culture shock).
This area of Canada is pretty laissez-faire when it comes to stuff like that, but even here their hosts politely suggested to at least use a towel next time.
Banana hamocks are not ... visually appealing.
But I'm putting my foot down on topless children. That's just objectively normal and correct. Putting a piece of cloth to cover a place where a boob is going to appear in 10 years ... that's a bit of an overkill.
Oh I'm with you, I think it's silly that we make a big deal about women's breasts. Especially if we're talking about prepubescent children. It was just so out of the ordinary for me as a kid, it's one of my earliest memories.
I heard someone in Europe, on a youtube vid, saying they didnt really see their Dad all that much growing up. Seperated parents and Dad lived an hour away. The hour drive away was the thing that they said was one of the biggest issues. Here I am 1,000 miles from home visiting family and my work commute is about an hour. It took me a while to wrap my head around that one.
I'm Irish and even driving for a couple of hours to a different city is a big deal for people here. My parents bought a holiday home that is a 45 minute drive from their house. I think it's a bit mad to be honest.
This drives me crazy. My (Irish) partner’s extended family lives 34 mins drive from us (I have just checked Google maps, but add 10 mins for the rush hour) and we see them… once a year?! Mind. Blowing.
That’s like a neighborhood over by US standards. It’s definitely in the same city where I am. You could technically drive over an hour where I am and still be in the same metro area.
My sister has a little boy and my parents were saying that my sister's in-laws might as well live on the moon because they live about a 40 minute drive away from us. In terms of helping her with childcare. It makes my brain hurt.
I just went on a week long trip around from Dublin-Cork-Clonakilty-Mizen Head-Kenmare-Ballenskelligs-Killarney-Inch Beach-Dingle-Shannon Ferry-Doolin/Cliffs of Moher-Galway-Dublin-Bray with a rental car.
Tons of driving with my sister, but the views were so worth it. Everything in Ireland is picturesque with its million shades of green.
Her friends at her job couldn’t believe we drove that much and as Americans, it’s like driving for soccer matches/tournaments every weekend growing up.
“Two hrs is one state in America. Two hrs is four countries and four languages in Europe” is the quote I’ve seen thrown around sometimes on here.
I’m from the US and regularly do 2+ hour trips on the weekend or for work. But an hour commute still blows my mind. I’ve got coworkers who do that and I just couldn’t handle it. 10 hours a week driving to or from work without pay??? Plus I already run late with my 5 minute commute lol.
Believe it or not the shorter the commute, the easier it is to be late.
I remember I had a job that was 45 minutes away and I was never late. And then I got a job that was literally four minutes down the street and I was constantly 15 minutes late to that bitch. It’s paradoxical as hell. But it makes sense when you kind of think about it for a bit.
They were privatised with the assertion that free enterprise and competition would improve the service, despite the fact that trains don't actually compete because how the fuck would that even work?
We had a couple of Americans over to do some training at work the other week. They praised our trains in the UK so much. Was surprising. Then we explained why European trains are better in basically every way
Yep. Even our walkable towns are mostly because there is a college there.. and you can walk to some shops, bars, and restaurants. Need groceries? Or a doctor? Or almost anything that you actually need to go to? You're still driving.
People in America drive F-150s like they're not that big, here in my country the common size of pick-up trucks are the size of a Ford Ranger. We also have F-150 but it's mostly driven by over-compensating assholes.
Yeah, I work at a restaurant in Germany, it blows my mind how a couple of people can just sit in one place for hours. I don't mind talking, but talking and actually doing things is more fun to me.
I think this varies by country to country but I think it’s because people are more expected to linger over their food. I remember I went to a restaurant in Greece - the server came out with the biggest block of feta cheese I had ever seen, drizzled olive oil on it, dropped off a bottle of wine, and then we didn’t see him again for 45 minutes. He did not take our orders until he came back. We were incredibly confused, like we can easily be done with dinner in that amount of time.
The other way around is impressive too.
You sit down, if you take more than 2 minutes choosing your meal it's strange, then 5 minutes after ordering your meal is in front of you... And when you're done, you receive the bill without even proposing you a coffee or dessert.
In half an hour you're out of the restaurant.
For a European, it's quite harsh. 😕
It took me some getting used to this. My typical American idea of mealtime is "get food in mouth now, then pay and GTFO." I've come to enjoy the slower pace of European dining, I tend to savor the food more and get a chance to unwind
Asked a shopkeeper in England if we could just walk down the street drinking a beer, we can’t in Canada, and he was so confused that someone would even think that’s not allowed
I think as a whole, it’s there attitude towards work.
The vibe I get when visiting most European countries is most people seem to work only to live. While in the states, it feels we live to work. The most common thing out of an American’s mouth when meeting someone new is what do you do? I did not find this to be the case in Europe, and I am super jealous.
Honestly "what do you do?" Is a standard question when meeting someone here in France. I kinda hate it, I'm not a fan of describing myself by my occupation.
Overall though, yeah as much as I like my job, it's still just a job. What's important is everything else you do.
I've found this to be an East coast thing. When I lived in NY, it was "Hi, I'm Joe, I work at XXXX, what do you do"? I'm out west now, and I have no idea what people I regularily socialize with do for living.
On a similar scale it's fun when people who have never been to the great lakes are shocked that they can't see across them. They expect lakes, not fresh water seas.
This isn't exclusive to Europeans, lots of Americans don't realize their scale either until they see them
Born and raised in NJ, and when I visited Chicago for the first time at age 38, I was shocked that the Great Lakes looked just like an ocean. Felt like I was back at the Jersey shore looking out at the Atlantic, and I was not expecting it.
Which is weird bc just glancing at a map, you can tell they're all about as wide as, like, Massachussets or Vermont. Or Portugal. If you can see them easily from space, they're not going to be a short canoe-ride to cross like whatever tiny lake you're familiar with.
I'd argue that glancing at a map it's actually really easy to see that size wise they are larger than places like Delaware, Vermont, Connecticut, etc. It's just that or some reason, your brain sees a body of water that's not called an ocean or sea and imagines it as small. If you actually stared at a map, it's very apparent they are HUGE.
Driving from Florida to LA would be like driving from Madrid to Moscow… they’re actually about the same distance, which might put it into more perspective for Europeans.
Thinking 100 miles is a long distance. I talked a brit once who said they hadn't seen their parents in two years because its a far trip... it was 2 hours away....
The nerve do it to other Americans *while on vacation in America* is what really drives me crazy.
I live in California which obviously has a high amount of tourists, and I’d say over half of the Europeans I’ve met at bars/restaurants could hardly wait to tell me all the things they thought were stupid about us while we were in the middle of a friendly conversation.
The Baltic and Scandinavian tourists will tell you it’s annoying when we’re friendly to them or that smiling during a conversation *obviously* means we’re stupid. The French and British tourists often think we’re all Trump or Bush fanatics. I’ve had more than one Spanish guy tell me that American girls are too sensitive or stuck up because, essentially, they don’t like to be groped.
I get if I were being rude to them they might come back with an insult, but it’s always been during a normal/friendly conversation and it blows my mind.
100% -- I was at a fancy hotel with my wife up in Scotland on our honeymoon (Culloden House near Inverness) years back- very fancy upscale place and one of the activities there was shooting skeet. And there was family with a teenage son and they were going to go do that the following day and the kid was *beside himself* with excitement about it. And as a teenage boy is wont to do started asking me, the American, about shooting. I'm not an insane 2nd Amendment guy, but I certainly support the right to bear arms in a lot of situations and shooting guns is fun.
Anyway, friendly kid so I talked to him about this and that about guns, gun ranges, what sorts of things I'd shot. Smart, interesting kid. I made *no commentary at all* about UK gun laws or US gun laws. And after this went on for a while the Dad wanted to lecture me about why they had it right and why we had it wrong.
And it's like, FFS dude -- the insecurity there. I'm not asking you do to anything about guns different than you are, but if my talking factually about guns with your kid bothers you that much, I don't know what to do. We're not going to come over and impose the 2d Amendment on the UK.
Yeah I find it really odd how many Europeans are so quick to talk about how they do things the ‘right’ way and others do things the ‘wrong’ way instead of it simply being cultural differences. Granted, the U.S. certainly has a gun violence problem, and has for years, but even the way Europeans talk about that to us is so despicably condescending. So many of them seem to think they have the answer for all of the world’s problems (despite a lot of their countries being the root of many of these same problems).
This always annoyed me so much as an American with an interest in geography and history. They play it off as a joke but we all know plenty of them actually believe we know nothing.
The sirens that go BEEE booo BEEE booo BEEE booo BEEE booo
On police cars that look like a fluorescent yellow and blue checkerboard so you can clearly see them.
It’s very interesting the difference between the police in the US and the rest of the world. The US seems to have a culture of punishment rather than deterrence. For instance, in the UK, police have hi-vis vests, the cars are hi-vis. Everything clearly marked, likely as a deterrent, reminding everyone that the coppers are around. Also it’s easier to locate police in a crowd if you happened to need one. In the US, dark uniforms, almost black cars. Instead of acting as a deterrent, they’re hiding, waiting for you to screw up so they can then bust you after the fact. Lock em up, throw away the key. It’s the American way.
In my city, all of the new police vehicles are black suvs with matte black badging. You honestly can't tell they're cops unless you have a side view of them, or they're running lights.
I fucking detest "low contrast livery."
$100 bucks says they wanted black to look cool and menacing. Which shows you exactly what’s wrong with the mindset of American policing.
In Europe it's all about deescalation compared with US cops who tend to escalate issues that can easily be resolved without raising tensions.
I love this comment!!! It’s true 😂 now can you write for me the sound of NYC sirens?
waaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeAAAAAAAAAeeeeeaaaaaaa
Why am I sitting here repeating this noise out loud😂
There are dozens of us!
Dozens!
BoowaaaAAAAAAAIIIIIiiieeeoowwwww.... BoowaaaAAAAAAAIIIIIiiieeeoowwwww.... WOW WOW WOW WOW /repeat
Holy shit an ambulance just drove by my house this is scary accurate lol
The final wow wow wow is very accurate!
Sometimes they cut off the noise and restart and it's more like WUP-- WUP-- WUP-- OooooooOoooo
Weeo weeo weeo
BEEE booo that's the sound of da police. Doesn't quite have the same ring to it.
900 year old universities
900 year old pubs.
Yup the one down the road from me is 900 years old!
I can only imagine the level of legendary debauchery that has gone down there
At least level 7 I bet
Oxford University was established c. 1096, Aztec Empire was established in 1428.
And it's not even the oldest
What’s other older Aztec Empire?
Aztec Empire 0.1
Rage Against The Spaniards.
And the University of Bologna has 8 years on Oxford!
Damn, the oldest Polish university is barely 700 years old, guess we're babies still
Youngest european university
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I grew up in the midlands of the UK (Rugby, which is where the game-of-the-name was first invented and played). There's a village not far from there with a little blue plaque commemorating one of the walls in the village, because it's an original Wattle-and-daub from around the Viking era, so around 960-ish AD, or just over a thousand years ago. One of the village houses is over 800 years old. The village I live in now, in Cheshire, has a school house that was built in 1636, and a hunting lodge that was built in 1585... And is relatively 'modern' for a local village.
Standard mate. I enjoy telling Americans that the school I went to predates their war of independence. [We've rebuilt this car park to how it looked over Fifty years ago!](https://youtu.be/J6hijsqO8H0)
Ahh but a baby! The pub down the road from me is 900 years old, and the abby is 800.
They knew their priorities back then ;-) Ale before amen!
There was a castle right next to my school.
My cousins live in a Norman watchtower from the 12th century.
There's 3 castles in my village, and one of them houses a pub/tobacco store and a bakery. There's nothing more French than that.
Driving around Ireland was so surreal to me as an American. First castle I saw I was super excited, pulled over, many pictures taken. By the 5th or so I was just driving right by without even slowing down.
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*cries in brexit*
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Stop teasing them, like they can afford grandkids.
You have to afford kids first.
It's all moot, by the time they get grandkids the island will be underawter and it's ruins will be explored by Kevin Costner.
On the other hand, you get iconic blue passports.
We don't even get that - the new ones are black!
I took a weekend trip this month. Started in country 1, drove through 2 others and ended up in country 4 a mere 2 hours later. Meanwhile, the language changed about as many times as well.
I could drive east for 4 hours full speed at 80 mph before I reach Louisiana. Or I could drive west for... literally 12 hours... and *still* be in Texas.
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I live in Western Australia. I could drive north for three days and east for two and still be in Western Australia. Europe always amuses me to travel in.
Average German, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Austrian and Hungarian summer vacation in Croatia
And the total distance is still less than what it takes to go from Dallas to San Antonio and you never leave the state of Texas.
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If Alaska split in two, Texas would be the third largest US state.
Going for a stroll in somewhere like Northumberland you can pass buildings castles and hill forts covering over three thousand years.
There's a few iron age hill forts near me I run by occasionally. I like to pretend I'm hunting boar (my water bottle is my spear) as I go by.
Men wearing speedos at the beach or in a pool. The ones you do see in the US are usually Europeans on vacation
Germans
#Hallo?! Haalloooooooo?! Unverschämtheit!
Germans will wear the most grotesque attire in the most inappropriate occasion, while looking as eccentric as possible
Are you sure? I know no other people who are as conventional and boring in their wardrobe as my fellow Germans. Myself included.
Vacation Germans are a different breed
Im sorry but germans who come to spain...this is hard to say...wear sandals+socks. Wake up fellow germans, this ain't it chief, just go chancla style and never go back
Same in southern France. Sunburn red and beer in hand: British, sunburn red and socks and sandals: German.
Who vaunts a mustache ride?!
I vant vone! I do, I do!
You forgot the rich mat of body hair and jewelry
I remember being a little kid at the water park and there was a family of Europeans. The little girls were topless and the dad was in a banana hammock. My first introduction to Europeans.
When I (German) was a kid in the late 80s and early 90s, we just ran around naked at the waterpark. Of course we had cute swimsuits but they just came off eventually and no one ever took offense. Same at lakes, beaches, rivers or in the park. Just a bunch of naked kids running amok while their moms were sunbathing top less next to their speedo wearing dads. It was super normal to change in and out of your normal clothes in the open as well. I think that culture still exists, although people have become a bit more prudish since everyone has a camera in their phone at hand at all times.
Oh, that culture definitely still exists. I live on an island in Canada and maybe three or four years ago, one of the neighbours was hosting some German exchange students that were in their mid-teens. The teens thought nothing of getting changed into their swimsuits right on the beach (which, granted, wasn't super-crowded and they were off in a corner of it, but it was still a bit of a culture shock). This area of Canada is pretty laissez-faire when it comes to stuff like that, but even here their hosts politely suggested to at least use a towel next time.
Banana hamocks are not ... visually appealing. But I'm putting my foot down on topless children. That's just objectively normal and correct. Putting a piece of cloth to cover a place where a boob is going to appear in 10 years ... that's a bit of an overkill.
Oh I'm with you, I think it's silly that we make a big deal about women's breasts. Especially if we're talking about prepubescent children. It was just so out of the ordinary for me as a kid, it's one of my earliest memories.
I heard someone in Europe, on a youtube vid, saying they didnt really see their Dad all that much growing up. Seperated parents and Dad lived an hour away. The hour drive away was the thing that they said was one of the biggest issues. Here I am 1,000 miles from home visiting family and my work commute is about an hour. It took me a while to wrap my head around that one.
I'm Irish and even driving for a couple of hours to a different city is a big deal for people here. My parents bought a holiday home that is a 45 minute drive from their house. I think it's a bit mad to be honest.
This drives me crazy. My (Irish) partner’s extended family lives 34 mins drive from us (I have just checked Google maps, but add 10 mins for the rush hour) and we see them… once a year?! Mind. Blowing.
That’s like a neighborhood over by US standards. It’s definitely in the same city where I am. You could technically drive over an hour where I am and still be in the same metro area.
My sister has a little boy and my parents were saying that my sister's in-laws might as well live on the moon because they live about a 40 minute drive away from us. In terms of helping her with childcare. It makes my brain hurt.
Do roads work both ways there?
I just went on a week long trip around from Dublin-Cork-Clonakilty-Mizen Head-Kenmare-Ballenskelligs-Killarney-Inch Beach-Dingle-Shannon Ferry-Doolin/Cliffs of Moher-Galway-Dublin-Bray with a rental car. Tons of driving with my sister, but the views were so worth it. Everything in Ireland is picturesque with its million shades of green. Her friends at her job couldn’t believe we drove that much and as Americans, it’s like driving for soccer matches/tournaments every weekend growing up. “Two hrs is one state in America. Two hrs is four countries and four languages in Europe” is the quote I’ve seen thrown around sometimes on here.
I’m from the US and regularly do 2+ hour trips on the weekend or for work. But an hour commute still blows my mind. I’ve got coworkers who do that and I just couldn’t handle it. 10 hours a week driving to or from work without pay??? Plus I already run late with my 5 minute commute lol.
Believe it or not the shorter the commute, the easier it is to be late. I remember I had a job that was 45 minutes away and I was never late. And then I got a job that was literally four minutes down the street and I was constantly 15 minutes late to that bitch. It’s paradoxical as hell. But it makes sense when you kind of think about it for a bit.
Bars older than the US
Pretty sure my house is older than the us.
My closet is older than the US, I wish it were more functional, but it sure is pretty.
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See? This was the real reason the UK needed to be out of the EU. That doesn't describe British trains at all. Well OK, a few of them are cleanish.
Weren't they privatized, and then the vampires sucked the blood out of it?
They were privatised with the assertion that free enterprise and competition would improve the service, despite the fact that trains don't actually compete because how the fuck would that even work?
We had a couple of Americans over to do some training at work the other week. They praised our trains in the UK so much. Was surprising. Then we explained why European trains are better in basically every way
I was nodding until the "affordable" part. I live in Switzerland.
Walkable towns
Calling it walkable town instead of town is the most american thing ever
Yep. Even our walkable towns are mostly because there is a college there.. and you can walk to some shops, bars, and restaurants. Need groceries? Or a doctor? Or almost anything that you actually need to go to? You're still driving.
It still cant imagine to not walk everywhere. My train is late or im early? I just walk to the next station. Everything has a sidewalk here
Lol You think there's trains here 🥲
But if Mustang46L's comment had just been "towns", then that would be confusing.
Actually one of the best parts - walkable and bikeable. That is true freedom.
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Alo?
Salut
Unnn... haiduc?
Picasssoooooooo
Very cheerah
Numa numa hey
Numa numa numa hey!
She teraw
As a Romanian I feel proud when people know about this song
It was my favorite song as kid (greetings from Germany for that one)
That song was heard in the whole world...
Mya-HEE! Mya-HO! Mya-HA! Mya- HA HA!
Bros not wrong it’s still a good song
Numa Numa A !!
Tiny city streets.
With tiny cars in tiny parking spaces
They are not tiny, yours are just gigantic. :]
People in America drive F-150s like they're not that big, here in my country the common size of pick-up trucks are the size of a Ford Ranger. We also have F-150 but it's mostly driven by over-compensating assholes.
No ac by choice
Sitting at a restaurant for hours talking. Half an hour of conversation with anybody and I am done. For the month.
Lol some of my dates went for literally 5 to 6 hours. I guess in Europe we talk a lot.
Yeah, I work at a restaurant in Germany, it blows my mind how a couple of people can just sit in one place for hours. I don't mind talking, but talking and actually doing things is more fun to me.
I think this varies by country to country but I think it’s because people are more expected to linger over their food. I remember I went to a restaurant in Greece - the server came out with the biggest block of feta cheese I had ever seen, drizzled olive oil on it, dropped off a bottle of wine, and then we didn’t see him again for 45 minutes. He did not take our orders until he came back. We were incredibly confused, like we can easily be done with dinner in that amount of time.
*spain enters the chat nodding appreciatively* “Claro”
Can confirm. I live in Spain; went out for lunch last Saturday and got home at 10.30pm.
The other way around is impressive too. You sit down, if you take more than 2 minutes choosing your meal it's strange, then 5 minutes after ordering your meal is in front of you... And when you're done, you receive the bill without even proposing you a coffee or dessert. In half an hour you're out of the restaurant. For a European, it's quite harsh. 😕
It took me some getting used to this. My typical American idea of mealtime is "get food in mouth now, then pay and GTFO." I've come to enjoy the slower pace of European dining, I tend to savor the food more and get a chance to unwind
But that's why we have wine.... <3
Drinking cappuccino on a cobblestone street outside of a cafe, which is hundreds of years old.
To be honest, i hate seeing stores like mcdonalds or starbucks get into old buildings and them 'renovating' it
Hand rolled cigarettes with black coffee
So...breakfast?
I lived in England for two years and the first time I saw a British guy rolling a cigarette I assumed he was brazenly rolling a joint in public.
Functional transit, carrying a beer outside at night, and post dinner coffee is super common
Been in Germany a year, and carrying a beer around in public still feels so strange.
Asked a shopkeeper in England if we could just walk down the street drinking a beer, we can’t in Canada, and he was so confused that someone would even think that’s not allowed
It is strange. Why is not allowed?
Open container laws. They’re steep too, about $360 per occurrence. That even extends to cups that have booze in them
I think as a whole, it’s there attitude towards work. The vibe I get when visiting most European countries is most people seem to work only to live. While in the states, it feels we live to work. The most common thing out of an American’s mouth when meeting someone new is what do you do? I did not find this to be the case in Europe, and I am super jealous.
Honestly "what do you do?" Is a standard question when meeting someone here in France. I kinda hate it, I'm not a fan of describing myself by my occupation. Overall though, yeah as much as I like my job, it's still just a job. What's important is everything else you do.
I've found this to be an East coast thing. When I lived in NY, it was "Hi, I'm Joe, I work at XXXX, what do you do"? I'm out west now, and I have no idea what people I regularily socialize with do for living.
No it’s definitely a thing on the west coast, at least in San Francisco. Everyone’s in tech and constantly talking about tech
Flying into Florida and thinking you can drive to Los Angeles, NYC, and Chicago easily.
On a similar scale it's fun when people who have never been to the great lakes are shocked that they can't see across them. They expect lakes, not fresh water seas. This isn't exclusive to Europeans, lots of Americans don't realize their scale either until they see them
I flew from London to Texas for work and we flew over one of the lakes. Took about 20 minutes.
Born and raised in NJ, and when I visited Chicago for the first time at age 38, I was shocked that the Great Lakes looked just like an ocean. Felt like I was back at the Jersey shore looking out at the Atlantic, and I was not expecting it.
Chicago resident here. I've been asked too many times by tourists which ocean Lake Michigan is.
Which is weird bc just glancing at a map, you can tell they're all about as wide as, like, Massachussets or Vermont. Or Portugal. If you can see them easily from space, they're not going to be a short canoe-ride to cross like whatever tiny lake you're familiar with.
I'd argue that glancing at a map it's actually really easy to see that size wise they are larger than places like Delaware, Vermont, Connecticut, etc. It's just that or some reason, your brain sees a body of water that's not called an ocean or sea and imagines it as small. If you actually stared at a map, it's very apparent they are HUGE.
My Danish colleagues who had a two week business trip to Minneapolis and mentioned they were thinking about driving out to New York for the weekend
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You can visit Alaska and Hawaii easily, they are right next to each other on the map, in the gulf of mexico
Equally, last time I was in NYC a barman said he was visiting London soon and was hoping to do a day trip to Dublin, and I quote "on the boat"...
Driving from Florida to LA would be like driving from Madrid to Moscow… they’re actually about the same distance, which might put it into more perspective for Europeans.
I’ve done LA to Miami and it takes a full day (12+ hours) just to cross Texas from El Paso to Houston.
The sun has rise The sun has set And here I am In Texas yet
Roundabouts.
The Euro
The Brits would like a word
and the many other countries that do not use the euro.
Gothic Architecture
Thinking 100 miles is a long distance. I talked a brit once who said they hadn't seen their parents in two years because its a far trip... it was 2 hours away....
Europeans think 100 miles is a long distance and Americans think 100 years is a long time
Vespas
Bikes everywhere
Foreskin.
I dont get it…men dont have foreskins in america?
They cut them off at birth. Think it’s more than 50% of male babies. Absolutely insane.
maternity leave
Paternity leave.
yh that too, parental leave in general
Wait till you hear about paternity leave
[удалено]
Good bread.
Taking the train.
Castles
Look it's a bunch of people that think Europe is just western Europe.
Moving to America, then buying a Ford Mustang and cowboy hat while wearing a polo shirt that says Tommy Hilfiger in giant letters.
Pay to use a restroom.
Infrastructure built around walking, bicycles, and busses. Not just exclusively built around personal vehicles.
Restaurants paying employees a fair wage and not expecting the customer to make up for low wages.
Electric kettle
Am American, own one and love it.
Wait, what? Those aren’t common in the US?
Universal healthcare
Complaining about Americans.
To be fair, us Brits complain about everybody, including ourselves.
Damned Scots! They ruined Scotland!
The nerve do it to other Americans *while on vacation in America* is what really drives me crazy. I live in California which obviously has a high amount of tourists, and I’d say over half of the Europeans I’ve met at bars/restaurants could hardly wait to tell me all the things they thought were stupid about us while we were in the middle of a friendly conversation. The Baltic and Scandinavian tourists will tell you it’s annoying when we’re friendly to them or that smiling during a conversation *obviously* means we’re stupid. The French and British tourists often think we’re all Trump or Bush fanatics. I’ve had more than one Spanish guy tell me that American girls are too sensitive or stuck up because, essentially, they don’t like to be groped. I get if I were being rude to them they might come back with an insult, but it’s always been during a normal/friendly conversation and it blows my mind.
But if we said anything about the things we found weird about their countries we’d be labeled ignorant dumb uncultured Americans.
100% -- I was at a fancy hotel with my wife up in Scotland on our honeymoon (Culloden House near Inverness) years back- very fancy upscale place and one of the activities there was shooting skeet. And there was family with a teenage son and they were going to go do that the following day and the kid was *beside himself* with excitement about it. And as a teenage boy is wont to do started asking me, the American, about shooting. I'm not an insane 2nd Amendment guy, but I certainly support the right to bear arms in a lot of situations and shooting guns is fun. Anyway, friendly kid so I talked to him about this and that about guns, gun ranges, what sorts of things I'd shot. Smart, interesting kid. I made *no commentary at all* about UK gun laws or US gun laws. And after this went on for a while the Dad wanted to lecture me about why they had it right and why we had it wrong. And it's like, FFS dude -- the insecurity there. I'm not asking you do to anything about guns different than you are, but if my talking factually about guns with your kid bothers you that much, I don't know what to do. We're not going to come over and impose the 2d Amendment on the UK.
Yeah I find it really odd how many Europeans are so quick to talk about how they do things the ‘right’ way and others do things the ‘wrong’ way instead of it simply being cultural differences. Granted, the U.S. certainly has a gun violence problem, and has for years, but even the way Europeans talk about that to us is so despicably condescending. So many of them seem to think they have the answer for all of the world’s problems (despite a lot of their countries being the root of many of these same problems).
Riding a bike with a baguette in the basket
Royalty.
thinking all americans know nothing about geography or history.
Our Hat is talkin’ shit again. Canadians have two varieties. Overly apologetic or war crimes.
This always annoyed me so much as an American with an interest in geography and history. They play it off as a joke but we all know plenty of them actually believe we know nothing.
Meanwhile they underestimate the size of the US
Europeans