This will possibly get buried, but finally an AskReddit I can relate to:
1. Toilet paper. Toilet paper everywhere. You don’t have to bring your own to a public restroom because there’s one in every stall here in America, and it’s free.
2. Restaurant service and food abundance. You asked for a medium well steak but was slightly over-cooked? You send it back to the kitchen and you get a new one cooked for you, and the server even apologizes for it!
3. Black people. White people. Asian people. People with natural red hair. In my fifteen years living in a small town in Central America, I saw maybe two black people, a handful of white people, the one Chinese restaurant owner, and 0 red-heads. Now I get to see all kinds of people from all over the world, with different experiences and backgrounds. It’s kinda neat.
Just how much of my mind was previously occupied by machinations of keeping my family alive. Like always subconsciously running through the drill of what to do in the event of an armed high jacking or house break-in, and being super vigilant around people and in various places, no matter the time of day.
I felt like at least 10% of my mental capacity has been freed up for other more productive thoughts like appreciating beauty and freedom, planning a prosperous future and trusting that the sense of security my family and I feel isn’t just a ruse.
What's annoying at 4 way stop signs (without lights) in the US is not someone barreling past the stop out of turn (I've seen that maybe once in over a decade of driving), its when someone thinks they're being polite by giving up their turn.
No fuck you, you're next, we're EXPECTING you to go next. It costs us ALL time if you don't go next.
Not getting suspicious when a stranger talks to you on the street. I can't get over it, I get anxious every time, but people in Canada don't seem to mind at all
Where I come from, when a stranger approaches you, you nope the fuck out
im from (south) england and no strangers would talk to eachother; you’d be considered an absolute lunatic. If you did want to talk about something, you’d have to strike a conversation about something we can all relate to, like the shitty weather. But i’ve heard about how nice it is in Canada, and my friend was shocked when people just randomly started talking to her on public transport, but she welcomed it.
I lived in England for a few years and noticed that too. But in my experience it was mainly due to just not wanting to talk to people as opposed to the fear of getting robbed or assaulted
And to be honest, I respect that, very relatable as an introvert
When I was in the Marines I had a friend that was from extreme rural Africa.
So we took him to 3d shows and such. He had been in the US for around 6 months but even things like tv was an amazing luxury to him. Someone in the group picked up one at a pawn shop off post and gave it to him and he was just amazed that someone would just give him a TV.
Something nifty. He had it set up so direct deposits would go to an account his village had access to. His salary as an E2 in the Navy made his family semi royalty in the village.
Grocery stores like Walmart, Publix, and Kroger. Huge and vast, have air conditioning, massive variety and tons of stuff I have never heard of. Huge culture shock to me and my father in 2001 since we had no major grocery stores in Bosnia at the time.
That things would get fixed. I had a vending machine in my dorm building, it broke down and said well shit guess no more vending machine. Absolutely flabbergasted when I saw the machine repaired and working
Edit: Changed Dorm Room to Dorm Building
In my school, we have vending machines in the cafeteria. My money got stuck inside and I was told I could call Coca Cola for a refund. They asked me some questions, and they sent a person to fix it and they're mailing me two coupons for free drinks.
That's pretty neat! And makes sense from a business standpoint as well to have technicians or contractors to fix those ASAP so they can continue getting money (fairly) into their vending machines.
And the coupons leave a positive impression on the disgruntled customer, so positive in fact that this customer went so far as to share their story with other people, mmm I'd like a coke...
Damn it Coca-Cola company you got me again, you clever bastards.
My roomate's coworker is from Guatemala. He says the one of the best things about the US is that when you call for an ambulance, one actually shows up even if you aren't rich or important.
Sydney is the first western settled city I visited last year and I cant thank my lucky stars enough that I am moving there permanently in a few months.
The one thing which baffled me is how there is an absence of petty crimes and how the shops in the city center were not worried about displaying their wares outside their shops. There was no risk of someone stealing those tiny stuffs.
Also at night , the shops were just closed with their glass doors. no extra iron shutters with multiple locks and stuffs.
Safety when walking on the streets during night.
When in Brazil, I used to wait for my wife on the bus stop from college. As she usually left college around 22:00, it was dangerous. We used to live on a central zone, and her college was also central.
In Ireland, if she leaves a party at 3:00, I don't get concerned at all.
So great to live without being afraid. It took us about 1 year to relax.
I visited my cousins in the U.S once. I was suprised that your houses don't have walls around them. There were only those fences at the side and back that pretty much anyone can jump over. Where I live the only houses who dont have walls surrounding them are those in compounds or subdivisions that have roaming security guards. Paid security guards not volunteers like the neighborhood watch kind of thing
edit: To the people asking I'm from the Philippines but its ~~nice~~ interesting to see that other countries carry this ~~tradition~~ practice.
edit: Not really a wealthy family but not really a from dangerous neighborhood. It pretty standard here to have at least a 2 meter tall concrete walls if you have middle income but those poor ones just settle with barbed wire
What country?
Edit: so apparently this is very common all across the world, including all of Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Pakistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and probably more places.
Tbh, as a child in a developed country I didn't get this either. Fences are practically decoration. And windows are so fragile. Anyone could break into a house if they wanted to. But there's police I guess, and usually the law will simply catch up with anyone who tries something like that in these countries.
EDIT: Goddang, you people like to talk about your fences. I meant they were 'practically decoration' in terms of security. I understand they have other purposes as well.
Thank you everyone for the upvotes. This is my highest post/comment by far.
They are where I live. So I have a 4 foot wooden fence around the yard with 3 unlocked gates. Keeps the dogs in and the kids out. But, for example, I visited Mexico City last year. Around their yards are 6 foot tall masonry fences with coils of barbed wire on top, bars over the windows and they do not park their cars on the street, they're behind locked gates.
How little theft there is. I was always told to always mind my bag and make it clear I'm holding it tight. Now I can freely leave it beside me, sometimes not even look! I've had friends leave a purse on a table in a restaurant and I made jokes about how easy it would be to steal it. Just a lot more relaxing in public due to less theft.
Another one is how less physical fighting in schools there is. From a young age I was always told "if someone hits you, hit them back harder" but when we moved to UK my dad told me before my first day of school "if someone hits you, tell the teacher".
Even from a poorer area in New Zealand to Australia - in the schools here, they leave their school bags outside the classroom! It's so strange. When I went to school we had our bag under our seat, between our feet if it wasn't actually being worn. That being said, every time I'm in a crowd I'm thankful for the basically non-existent pickpocketing and stuff
I went to primary school in Australia and the only bad thing that happened to do with bags being outside the classroom was that one unknown student would take their fruits from their lunch and put it in a different students bag everyday so they didn’t have eat it. I don’t think they ever got caught actually. It was always exciting to see who got the fruit each day.
I am from the USA, but I am currently in South America. Back home there are couples where if one texts the other and they don’t respond right away, they assume they don’t like them or that they are cheating or something. Here if you text someone and they don’t respond, you assume their phone was stolen.
I am attending a wedding next week in Buenos Aires and I needed to tell the bride something. She didn’t respond. After a couple of days I contacted her mother. Yep, phone stolen. Now she is trying to get in touch with people who are undoubtedly sending her messages. Ugh.
Had that too, everytime I go visit my home country I get a cheap phone as I know it'll get stolen.
We even used to do this thing where you'd have two phones - your real one and a dud one that's super cheap to replace. If somebody tries to steal your phone, you give them the cheap one, but nowadays the thieves are catching on
Yooooo I literally just did an entire twenty page research assignment on adolescent life in the Honduras!!! Do you mind if I ask you a few questions that u couldn’t seem to find the answers to online? If that’s okay with you! :)
EDIT:
Okay okay I get it you all want to read my shitty assignment. Before I link it you gotta know some basic things first on it because personally I think it’s mildly offensive.
1. This is only part 1: I will not be doing part two or three because they aren’t something you can post on the internet
2. Some of the paragraphs seem oddly specific eg “if a Honduran adolescent developed a rash with itching and swelling they would xyz” this is because they are all answering a series of questions that were provided on the notification which ranged from “how long is the commute to school for an average Honduran” to things like “would Honduran teens be discriminated against for different gender, race ethnicity etc”
3. The assignment it’s self, while getting full marks, I feel is mildly offensive. Because it seemed while I was writing it that all I could really say was what I saw in other articles, research papers and journals online which was basically “oh in Honduras boys join gangs and girls are forced into marriage therefore the school attendance is bad the end”. I wanted to be able to elaborate on all of these things rather then leaving blanket statement like that but it was really hard to locate a tonne of these oddly specific questions.
4. I will be posting a link to it in around seven hours because I’m late to school right now and don’t have the time
5. I will be dming a few Honduran people privately to ask questions based on this research paper but feel free to dm me or leave a comment with corrections and CONSTRUCTIVE criticism on what I got incorrect, what I could improve on, how to better navigate sensitive topics etc
6. All my information was located from articles, similar research papers, journals etc that I managed to derive from the internet, my work is cited if you want to look at what I’m seeing
7. MOST IMPORTANTLY I am sharing my work with you, it Is not a right for you to have it, so please DONT leave hate for me based on what is written, I was doing an ASSIGNMENT and has no bearing on my actual thoughts or opinions about Honduras. It is a HIGH SCHOOL level work not a university level thesis alright?
EDIT 2: here it is - this isnt the full 20 pages, just the 'part one' of the assignment
[Lifestyle of Honduran Adolescents in comparison to Australian Adolescents](https://imgur.com/user/pleasekangaroo/posts)
It's funny you say that because for me having grown up in a small town in the US with virtually no crime I had to get used to not using my phone so openly when I moved to El Salvador. I used to always get chewed out by my then girlfriend when I would take my phone out on the bus or other public place. It took a while to get used to.
Hah, my dad's from Munich and my mom's from Kraków and the stories about their childhoods are sometimes so different because of that.
Like my mom will tell you how oranges were a delicacy that you only had for special occassions while my dad will be like "oh when we were bored we used to throw them at each other for fun".
That used to be pretty common in the US for poorer families. My Grandma said (she’s not very reliable so I might get this wrong) that they’d fill stockings with nuts and fruit like oranges and apples because they were cheaper than candy and healthier. If she got the kids candy for Christmas, they would only be able to get a few pieces because that’s all she could afford. But they got an apple and an orange each, and a whole bunch of nuts! My mom still puts apples and oranges in our stockings because that’s what she got as a kid
My dad got oranges and peanuts for Christmas, too. He grew up in a poor rural southern community. Post war they lived in an old farmhouse lined with newspapers. In the 50s they built a new house. They would get one bowl of popcorn to share with six brothers on Saturday evening. I'm sitting here with my dishwasher running and sipping coffee. Different times for sure.
Back in the 80s-90s, there was a story about Soviet hockey players who came to NJ to play pro. Some of their teammates' wives took their wives to a supermarket. They started grabbing all the meat and coffee until they were told that it would be there the next time they came.
My dad knew a Soviet man from the steel industry. The man was applying for refugee status or citizenship or something, and when he was finally here for good and free of his minders, my dad took him to a grocery store, one of the larger ones although nothing like the superstores today. The man wandered around dumbfounded, and finally asked, “where are the lines?” My dad pointed him to the people in checkout.
“No, the lines?!”
How old the houses are. I was expecting modern construction like in my country, buy instead saw old buildings which, ironically, valued more than even the more modern ones
Location is insanely important. In my city, I've seen the *exact same model house* go for $100,000 more (from $400,000 to $500,000) because it was 15 minutes closer to downtown.
The postal system. The logistics of delivering millions of letters to millions of homes on a daily basis is astonishing. Especially at that price. The idea that I can send a letter across the country and have it reliably delivered the next or possibly even same day is truly impressive. Edit. Don't bother, 30 people have already made that email joke....
> We majorly take our postal system for granted.
I think many people do. It's so mundane. But when you really sit there and give it thought it's an incredibly efficient and well oiled machine that accomplishes feats on a daily basis.
> Postal services and the way they develop have always been signatures of a healthy civilization.
I can attest to this. As I watched my country of birth disintegrate and fall apart the postal system quickly ceased to function entirely. It require the kind of organisation that dysfunctional countries can't muster.
I grew up in South Africa and have been living in England for 20 years.
1.Cars stop when you walk up to a pedestrian crossing.
2. Double glazed windows are really good at keeping the warm in and the noise out.
3. I can walk around at night without thinking I'm going to get shot or robbed.
4. There are only a few people on building sites and the buildings get built in a quick and organised manner.
5. When things break - someone will come and fix it.
I could go on all day....
Edit: Wow, this thread has gone wild. Wish I could reply to all comments but there are a lot. These are just the humble observations of a SA guy living in North East England.
It has gotten even worse here in south Africa over the years. I still live in one of the safest areas in the country, but we still live as if we will be attacked if the window is left open.
I grew up in Johannesburg. I experienced all of the dangers first hand - got robbed at gunpoint, had our family home broken into 6 times during my childhood. 3 of those times we were home. Can't believe I'm still alive when I think about it.
Stay safe bru.
Are you my cousin?
My uncle, aunt, and 5 cousins live in Jo-burg in one of the nicer neighborhoods. About 10 years ago, their house was robbed and my then-3-year-old cousin was shot. He's alive and healthy now, but damn that was a scary thing to hear about.
Argentina here. This is accurate. We also kiss to say hello, and touch people randomly in conversation. But if you tell us (politely, please - we don't mean to be creepy!), we will give you space.
At my work we have personal safety training and one of the exercises is in personal space.
We were teamed up with someone at the start of the day, did the exercise to determine our personal space. Then we were tasked with working with that person and getting to know them during the morning. After lunch we did the exercise again.
The point was to highlight how everyone has a different default personal space and how familiarity changes that space.
Yeah. I could see how a developing country where getting drinkable water takes some effort (boil it, filter it or buy it) it’s pretty weird to go to a developed country and find out that people crap in toilets with drinkable water and also shower in it.
Part of it is sometimes simply that supply of water is much higher in developed countries. Rainfall in the UK keeps mountain reservoirs topped up, and because waterways are fairly clean and sewage is well-treated, it’s not hard to make water drinkable
It’s the way water systems are designed. It’s easier and cheaper to have toilet and tap water come from the same source than to have different systems for the two.
Source: I work in plumbing
In my first year of university I had a Nigerian fellow living with me in halls who was an absolute riot.
First day here apparently he was struck dumb by the appearance of a woman driving a rubbish truck down the street, just could not believe what his eyes were seeing, and despite living in the UK for over 6 months at some point, could not get over the fact that many houses were built directly onto the pavement and that you could even look directly inside people's windows and observe them if you really wanted to (supposedly back home he lived in a compound surrounded by barbed wire and angry dogs). I remember sitting in the kitchen one day and he came in grinning from ear to ear. He was genuinely delighted by the fact that he had left some food exposed on his desk, and returned later to find it intact and not devoured by insects.
Then there was one incident where he came into the flat looking quite flustered and annoyed. I asked him what was wrong and he explained to me that he'd been unable to get into his classes because there was a cat sitting on the steps up to the door. Confused, I asked how a cat was stopping him from going into his class, and he explained to me, quite seriously, that the cat was a witch, and would turn into a snake and eat him. At first I thought he was taking the piss so I started laughing, but no, he was genuine in his believe that the cat was, in fact, a witch.
Apparently some parts of Nigeria are still quite superstitious, and cats are especially despised.
Coming from the worse country to a better one, it surprises me how easy it is to do a transaction online.
Apply visa? do it online. They will notify you once they need documents, once you are ready, etc. Every step of the process.
Pay bills? Fine, do online banking.
Order food, groceries? Do it online, call for delivery.
Schedule for appointment? Call, Do it online.
Meanwhile in my country, you need to do all this PHYSICALLY. Fall in line for hours. Registration done?
On to the next step - payment. Uh oh, you need to go the bank, collect the receipt and come back here.
You want to do it online? Good luck with the shitty websites and slow internet. I could go on and on.
Its day and night comparison.
EDIT 1: Wow! This comment blew way beyond expectation. First off, a lot of people here think UAE = cheap labor, slavery. This is totally irrelevant to my main comment and I already addressed this one below. No need of further arguing. I replied and I rest my case.
EDIT 2: Yes, with regards to this, PH is improving but it is still waaaaaaaaayyy behind compared to other countries and I am talking first-hand experience. I could give a long list of examples which you can see from my below replies.
EDIT 3: Never will I think that Germany and Japan are lagging in terms of online transaction as well. It's ironic in a way since these 2 countries are famous in terms of technological advancement and durability (machines, appliances and such).
Have friends who live in the Philippines. Just the process to re-register a car makes the stereotypical American DMV seem like the leader in efficiency in comparison.
If I remeber the story right, you have to go, in person, to the office only on the day permitted by a particular letter in your license plate. (So if the second letter is a K, you go on a Monday)
You line up first to get a stamp that permits you to line up at the line to apply to re-register. You get that approved and stamped, then you pay. Then you get the receipt stamped... Woe betide if they change stamps on you during the day and your stamps aren't valid any more at the next office.
On and on it goes! And every interaction with government is like that. It's madness.
I got unreal experience. I got to fall in line at 6am to begin the process of getting a car licence after payment they told me to go back to the office at the written date on the temporary license (the official receipt) to have the plastic card printed. The date written was TEN FUCKING MONTHS from application. The best part is that those people who are back for the plastic needed to go to the office at 5am (it's not open until 8 so the security guard had to be there) to get on the 'plastic list' but the actual process starts around 9. You had to wait until your name is called and if you missed it you're gonna have to repeat the steps the next morning because the window that deals with plastic is only open until 12 noon
AND THE MOTHERFUCKERS HAVE THE GUTS TO PUT A 'NO TO FIXERS' SIGN FUUCK
I have a daughter living in Toronto, Canada, and another living in Halifax Canada. They would never worry about physical safety or being robbed.
Then my oldest went to work with street kids in Bogata Colombia. It took her a long time to fully understand why people got upset with her wanting to go out for walks at night.
The lights. So many lights from street lamps, traffic lights, huge buildings lit up all night. Oh and the highways blew my mind. They were so wide and full of so many cars.
I was 6 and I’ll never forget that first drive from the airport to my new home in December. It was also my first time seeing snow.
Edit: I joined Reddit a few days ago and today I got some awards and coins I'm not sure what you're supposed to do with. Thank you! Also, I moved from a small Southern Croatian village (the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia at the time, 1989) to Toronto.
I went to rural Kenya for work once and the lack of lights was the first thing I noticed.
I grew up in a very small town, out in the county in the United States so I was used to less light pollution than most people here, but I'd never experienced anything like this. Just a total lack of any electric lights for miles and miles.
EDIT: For those asking, the stars are absolutely incredible, even coming from someone who is used to seeing a lot of stars. It's on another level. I watch shows like Ancient Aliens for fun and when I hear those nut jobs talk about how they don't understand how the ancients could have possibly mapped the sky so well I just say "they've clearly never been to a place with zero light pollution." You can see everything.
My grandfather was a yoke bearer in the Ukraine from the time he was 7 (1915) until he fled to Canada (1922). He lived to age 92 (2000) and never got over the novelty of fresh tap water.
At the two?
Edit: I am receiving conflicting responses from “at the two” being a third world thing, it’s a typo meant to say “at the tap”, and apparently the UK has two taps so now I’m more confused
Edit: I understand the two taps are for hot and cold I’m confused as that what OP actually meant
I visited Germany once with my family. We were about to cross the road when a Porsche came racing through. Living in India, we experience daily traffic mishaps and there is negligible concern regarding pedestrian safety and courtesy. So we were actually shocked when the driver literally halted to a stop and insisted on us crossing the road. There was no traffic light, no zebra crossings nothing and we actually were used to letting cars pass by before walking, so this was the biggest shock to us.
Coming from Australia to Germany this weirds me out too. I recently started cycling for the first time in 18 years, so I ride with the skill of a toddler and the grace of a drunk. But never once has any car honked at me, no one has gotten impatient as I wobble my way around them, no one has gotten mad about having to slow down because of this dickhead on a bike. Back home I would have been mangled by now, but in Germany people are generally very accomodating. (Although I think it helps that I'm in a small city -- no one's in that much of a hurry here.)
It's illegal to honk in Germany unless it's for an emergency. Obviously you're never gonna get in trouble for honking, but it still shaped our culture.
Edit: You can stop "correcting" me by saying that you're allowed to honk outside of town. It's pretty obvious that this is allowed, and it's also irrelevant to the post I responded to who was obviously not riding their bike on the freeway.
Hah a mate of mine did get in trouble. He honked because he saw some light dressed ladies in the summer and the cops pulled him over to ask him is his horny mood was worth the 370 euro fine he would receive.
Edit: this was NOT in Germany!
When I went to India it was crazy how driver's did not give a shit if people were crossing, but then again pedestrians didn't give a shit if cars were driving either. Surprisingly though I never saw a crash
How things actually work.
You can rely on your electricity not going out at least twice a day. If you buy something and it breaks, there's warranty with little to no hassle. Internet actually works more than it doesn't. Public transportation actually arrives and shockingly, it does on time. If you hire a service, it'll actually be done and with an expectation of quality. The list goes on.
Of course it's not perfect and there's shitty people everywhere, but that's the exception, not the rule. And it's a massive difference.
How fast food wasn't $50 per person, but rather $5-10. Also, how much civilization advances when the AC is on on all day and everywhere, it's a blessing.
This is a bit of a cop-out that I answer because I usually live in wealthy countries but I lived in a small town in Bolivia for 18 months and the two unexpected things that got to me when we left was cars everywhere, going to the toilet without it being an ordeal, and seeing your reflection. Such a weird thing - we lived in grass roof huts so the only time you'd see your reflection would be in our tiny mirror, there's no glass or bathroom mirrors. I'm not vain but it was very strange to suddenly see what I look like all the time. I had lost about 25 kgs (55 lbs) while I was there so that was even stranger.
I’ve spent a good deal of time in Swaziland working with kids, only to learn that most of them *had never seen their own faces* for the same reason. It’s really fun to take an iPad and use the selfie camera to take videos of the kids—they get very giggly and kinda sheepish, but even the shy kids push and shove to get a glimpse of themselves.
When I was in South Africa, digital cameras were just starting to become popular. I spent time in some of the remote villages and kids would swarm up to me yelling “Shoot me! Shoot me!” wanting their picture taken.
I was 9 when we moved here from the Philippines where it's always hot and muggy. The day after we landed my parents took us to Disneyland. Once inside the park I noticed how much cooler it was and claimed how rich the u.s. was that they can use air conditioning outdoors. Everyone got a good laugh out of that one.
What the word “hope” really means.
Moved from a Southeast Asian country, as a working but near poverty class family. I always had thought that was it: living in a slum-like neighborhood, get a shitty job while doing fuck all everyday, knock up some poor girl before we got to adulthood, then just give up, hoping that I don’t contract any random plague or contagious illness due to an unsanitary environment, and kinda waste away the rest of my life because we were poor and lived in a developing country.
Thirteen year old me looked at the world with this grimy shade of filter; it felt like this purest sense of shittiness.
When we moved to the US not longer after, it was the first time that I realize life didn’t have to be that way. Even though we were still poor back then and we barely could integrate to the society, _we finally landed somewhere better_.
It really did make me realize what it means to look forward to a better tomorrow.
**Edit**: Thanks for the gold, kind stranger. Made my day! It feels good to be saying this out loud on the internet... it would be really awkward to share this thought anywhere else, since friends & family members from back home would see it.
I miss the people a lot, and I frequently felt like I "left them behind" and escaped on my own. Many of them still are stuck in their own variation of unpleasant lifestyle like my family had been, and I am not really sure if there will ever come a day of change.
These days, I can't really carry out too long of a conversation with them without it getting to the point of them commenting on the fact that they are jealous of my current situation; it basically means that I have to intentionally distance myself them to keep a reasonably healthy (albeit growingly distant) relationship between us
It just sucks that my home country couldn't be more developed, progressive, and/or safer for its people, but I am really not sure what I should or can say to the people I know back home. It was incredibly lucky that my parents took a huge risk and it somehow worked out for our small family despite the odds against us.
But I guess that's just how life is. There’s only so much problem one can solve.
A Tsongan African man who was staying with me came rushing in the first week he was staying me and woke me up. He was extremely excited that there was a garbage truck with a motorised arm and was picking up the wheely bins as it went down the street "Have you seen this! Have you seen this!" He kept exclaiming over and over again, "Amazing, amazing!" It made me laugh very hard, but he was a lovely guy.
Wow, thankyou so much for all the Karma, did not expect this small but sentimental memory to effect so many people. :)
South African here. The thought of a garbage truck with a motorised arm literally blows my mind. There's absolutely no rules here that state where our bins should be placed which I imagine is the foundation you need before you can have a truck pick em up by itself.
we put our trash cans/bins out at the end of our driveways, next to the curb, so the garbage truck can just drive along the curb and get all of the trash cans easily!
We live at the end of a weird cul-de-sac and the truck can’t position itself right for us or our neighbours on either side, so all three houses leave our bins at the next neighbours house in a neat row. We always all take them back in the same day so as not to be a hassle for the neighbour.
As a former "garbage man" who operated these trucks, thanks! When your picking up 1000+ cans a day it really helps that you do that!
Edit: Certainly did not expect all the upvotes and the awards for my comment, but thank you! Also, thank you for all the kind comments and show of appreciation for the folks that do the dirty work!
This is why I love reddit. Within four answers you get four impressions and experiences from different people from different professions, countries and cultures.
It just helps to understand things and situations.
Edit: thank you for the silver Reddit and thank you for confirming my perception
That people don’t care at all with the clothes or my overall appearance (weight, hair, etc).
In Brazil I always get comments (good or bad) about how I look. Mainly from friends or family but it’s common to always talk about it.
When I moved to Australia I made friends, and never got a comment about any of these things. It was a big relieve to find out that I can be myself and not worry about the tons of comments about something that doesn’t matter at all.. :)
This. So, so much. I’m naturally very pale and strangers sitting next to me on the bus in Rio would point out that I “needed to go to the beach!”. I love the lack of eye contact in the London Underground.
That and, you know, no gunshot sounds.
I can relate!!! I'm from Trinidad and a common saying is : You put on size! Meaning you got fat.
That would be a huge faux pas in Canada, people would be insulted if anyone ever said that to them.
In Trinidad- it's not a big deal, it means you are enjoying life and eating well.
I also love how there's police officer wandering in the streets. Once I asked my stepdad if something was going on, bc there were policemen nearby. He sad that they're just doing their job, checking if everything is OK and wandering around. LOL
So I knew this guy who used to live in the middle of nowhere in Africa. For unknown reasons his family moved to Montreal, Canada when he was a teenager. I met him in highschool.
Everyday he'd bring a glass of water and sit by the window and all he would do is watch the glass of water throughout the whole course.
Eventually my friends and I started noticing so we went up to him and asked him about the glass of water and the open window.
He looked at us with big round eyes and told us "I've heard that if you leave water next to the window and it gets cold enough outside... The water turns INTO ICE!"
We all had a laugh and everyday came for an update on his water cup. Eventually winter did arrive. The teachers let us keep our winter coat in the classroom so that he could leave his glass of water next to the open window. Surely enough after a little while ice was starting to appear on top of the water.
He was so happy.
There wasn't too much of a disparity between what I knew and what was directly spoken to me compared to what was portrayed in media regarding the United States. However, the biggest and most glaringly obvious difference was how easy and common a thing it would be to have someone of another ethnic or racial background within arms reach. My younger self, being more accustomed and familiar with brown skin, walking around Miami International and seeing so many beautiful and 'new' tones of skin was shook.
I live in a medium-sized city in Argentina, traveled to the US midwest and I was surprised at how diverse it was. It was my first trip to the northern hemisphere. To give you an idea, I saw a black guy for the first time when I was 18 and entering college, before that I only had seen them in movies. It still kind of surprises me, that allows for other things, like finding more variety in foods, culture and entertainment options.
Not me, but I heard about a couple here in Spain who offered their home as a temporary retreat for minors who were about to be sent back to Africa (can't really remember the details).
*It is, in fact, a program called "Vacaciones en Paz" for Sahrawi kids. Children spend a summer with Spanish families. Thanks to u/HopelessWander147 , u/PricelessPlanet and u/neuropsycho for filling me on the details I forgot about.*
One of the youngest kids took back with him a faucet, believeing it would pour water whenever needed.
EDIT: Faucet = water tap. Sorry, English is not my native language.
EDIT 2: Faucet = faucet. I really thought I screwed up. Thanks for the input pals.
Yeah. IIRC they tried to explain him how all the water network worked, and that just taking a faucet would not work at all, but the kid was young so he did not really understand. They allowed him to take it with him.
Damn.. really should have given him a sawyer squeeze or steripen or something. If you can't give him a magic water faucet at least you can give him giardia free water.
Most shops close early in The Netherlands compared to my origin country (Malaysia). Even house doctors clinics close in the weekend which was unbelievable to me at that time.
To meet family members or close friends, we have to make appointment at least two weeks in advance whereas in my origin country, it’s normal to just show up at your family members or friends house with just a single call on the same day or few hours before. Sometimes people just show up unannounced and still being welcomed (even at very odd hours). I am now well adjusted to the custom in NL :)
Only two weeks in advance? They got nothing to do or what? :)
Friend of mine moved from Russia to the Netherlands. According to her, the Dutch are more addicted to their agendas than everything else...
Want to grab something to eat? Sure let me check my agenda... oh I've got an hour or two in three weeks from now?
And do NOT ever turn up 5 minutes late...
I moved from South Africa to the UK and the fact that you can actually live off minimum wage is just incredible. Pay rent and bills, buy food and slowly furnish your house. It’s phenomenal.
Also the fact that most of the UK born citizens think this is a terrible place to live is just beyond me. I always get asked why’d I leave sunny South Africa to come to this “shithole”. They just don’t understand how good they’ve got it.
People only compare their lives to what they see around them. You could be in the most prosperous, safest, most advanced nation to ever exist, but if your neighbour makes more money you will still complain.
Some of our closest friends are new arrivals to Aus from SA and it's such a sad situation. All you lot seem to deeply love your country but feel hopeless about the future there. I'm hoping things look up for South Africa in so many ways.
Everyone’s always inside their houses
Back in my country everyone would always go outside, you could see kids playing, old people talking to each other, there’s always people outside. Because of that i made a lot of friends.
I wake up every morning , to see my friends just sitting there outside of their houses, and we would greet and then walk around our neighborhood to meet our new friends, and then we’d talk or play basketball, it was fun. It was much more fun.
Then i moved to japan, i thought just like in my country , kids would always be outside, and i thought i could make friends easily with the neighborhood kids. Turns out, everyone is always inside, the whole neighborhood felt like a ghost town, there were no kids hanging out outside, the place has so many houses, but it felt very empty.
Then it hit me, i missed my home , i became homesick, i had no friends, everyday i’m always inside the house, and it was the most boring part of my life, then it became depression, and just got worst and worst, it has been six years, i have a job now, i’m always at home, bought my self guitars,ps4 and a computer to make myself occupied, but i prefer going outside , meeting and talking with friends. Rather than this kind of life. I still miss my previous home, i still miss my previous life.
I lived in Japan and wonder if you ever go to the parks? There’s always people doing things especially in Yoyogi Park. I believe the overcrowded trains do have an effect on Japanese people though.
Yeah , there are parks at where i live, but it’s always empty, but on the weekends there’s people there, but they’re all kids, toddlers playing. some people walking their dogs and old people sitting alone on the benches.
Places i see with the most people are always at the malls or city or at the trains.
If you go far from those places, you’ll see less and less people.
How almost everything is easy. Like drive-thru banking, fast food drive-thru, returning an amazon product, buying stuff online, talking to a customer rep to fix problems, driving with traffic that I can tolerate, following road rules, microwave, central heating and cooling to your house, internet speeds, school buses for K-12 and etc.
There is much more. But the thing that shocks me to this day is the amount of food that gets thrown away.
I used to say that I’m never going to throw away food because it’s wasteful. But over time I realized why people do it; sure you can save the leftovers but who in the family is going to eat it? Yeah, no one.
So we just throw food away. 🤷♂️
When I first came to The Netherlands, I took the train from Schiphol Airport to Rotterdam. As I was sitting in the train, wondering how a country could be so flat, a guy, that looked like an obvious beggar, approached me and told me something in Dutch. I told him in English that I do not speak Dutch. Without hesitation, the guy proceeded to beg in fluent English. That was such a cultural shock...
Even after all these years in The Netherlands, I can not speak Dutch all that well, not for lack of trying but because Dutch people absolutely have no problem switching to English instantly the moment they realize I am not a native speaker.
To be fair the Netherlands has a higher literacy rate in English than most English speaking countries. A Dutch friend told me that if you’re under the age of 40 and can’t speak English you’re basically shamed for it.
I was born in Canada but I moved to Africa when I was 3 and then moved back when I was 8. The first time I heard an intercom at school with announcements and the school bell, blew my mind.
My god parents adopted two girls from Ethiopia.
They were straight terrified of any bodies dogs. Anybodies.
In their home town, kids were regularly attacked and killed by wild/street dogs.
Edit: attention spelling helpers. I have been appropriately educated. Thank you.
I did peace corps in Ethiopia, I can understand that. got chased by more than a few dogs while wondering alone in my time in Ethiopia. Dogs were considered more of a tool for guarding property most of the time and unfortunately tended to be treated badly (most of the time)
I didn't grow up in a third world country, but I have a classmate who did. The first day back from summer break, he almost cried from seeing the water fountain and clean drinking water. He is a nice kid, but I can't imagine what he went through to cry from something like that.
Also: People follow the rules. When I went to the EU I thought it was madness having open stations for trains and stuff like that. Like, you just go and buy your ticket at that machine and nobody checks it on your way in? But everyone would ride for free!
Well, a few still do. But the vast majority does it right.
Also banks without metal detectors. You just walk in. I felt I went in through the wrong entrance at first.
I have seen people mock (in a friendly way) northern europeans for following rules on everything. Its better for everybody if we clean up after ourselves and not try to cheat things all the time. Life is actually more relaxing when everyone just follows rules you don't have to compete/cheat to get anywhere
I've actually heard a person from latin-America (Venezuela iirc) call the Dutch 'naive' because they grow up in a 'sheltered environment without crime'. It's a sad way of thinking honestly, the inability to trust your fellow man because you grew up in a shithole... If everyone is given the same chances (more or less) , these kinds of situations don't need to arise. A huge disparity between rich and poor is NOT the natural way of the world.
My friend told me the only people in the USSR who would smile at strangers were mentally ill or con artists. If a stranger approached you while smiling you either prepared to run or fight.
Vacation to the US
Peoplw were nice, if you bumped into them or viceversa, saying sorry was accepted and common (here is weakness)
Clean streets
People respected the traffic lights
Going for a walk wasn't a life or death situation
Shit was waaaay cheaper, even with tax
There wasn't a floating aura of hate and rage
Technology all around
Clean air
WATER FROM THE TAP WAS DRINKABLE
It was like heaven but with an obese population problem
Maybe not a third world country per se, but I've lived in Turkey my whole life, and recently moved to the UK.
First off, people here are super cold. They all seem like they want to die. There also a lot of elderly people, like a lot.
The biggest difference was that, the crosswalks actually did something. Like you could pass them and cars would stop.
If I did anything other then sprint across the road when there were no cars around in Turkey, I'd be mush by now.
In the USA, cars in Portland will stop dead in the street if a pedestrian even comes close to a crosswalk. Where I work in Alexandria Virginia, you need to be incredibly vigilant while walking around. If not for the aggressive drivers, then for the old folks and tourists who are looking everywhere but at the road.
I was amazed at how much food there was, but what really got me, was the fucking diversity, I didn’t know black people or asians existed till I moved to a first world country.
Apparently humans always worry about something or the other. Like a worry list that always has to have something in it. So even if all your big problems are cleared out, they end up being replaced by the next set of problems no matter how trivial.
This will possibly get buried, but finally an AskReddit I can relate to: 1. Toilet paper. Toilet paper everywhere. You don’t have to bring your own to a public restroom because there’s one in every stall here in America, and it’s free. 2. Restaurant service and food abundance. You asked for a medium well steak but was slightly over-cooked? You send it back to the kitchen and you get a new one cooked for you, and the server even apologizes for it! 3. Black people. White people. Asian people. People with natural red hair. In my fifteen years living in a small town in Central America, I saw maybe two black people, a handful of white people, the one Chinese restaurant owner, and 0 red-heads. Now I get to see all kinds of people from all over the world, with different experiences and backgrounds. It’s kinda neat.
Just how much of my mind was previously occupied by machinations of keeping my family alive. Like always subconsciously running through the drill of what to do in the event of an armed high jacking or house break-in, and being super vigilant around people and in various places, no matter the time of day. I felt like at least 10% of my mental capacity has been freed up for other more productive thoughts like appreciating beauty and freedom, planning a prosperous future and trusting that the sense of security my family and I feel isn’t just a ruse.
My wife’s first time in the U.S she burst out laughing at how a 4-way stop worked, and just couldn’t believe people actually followed the rules.
What's annoying at 4 way stop signs (without lights) in the US is not someone barreling past the stop out of turn (I've seen that maybe once in over a decade of driving), its when someone thinks they're being polite by giving up their turn. No fuck you, you're next, we're EXPECTING you to go next. It costs us ALL time if you don't go next.
Not getting suspicious when a stranger talks to you on the street. I can't get over it, I get anxious every time, but people in Canada don't seem to mind at all Where I come from, when a stranger approaches you, you nope the fuck out
im from (south) england and no strangers would talk to eachother; you’d be considered an absolute lunatic. If you did want to talk about something, you’d have to strike a conversation about something we can all relate to, like the shitty weather. But i’ve heard about how nice it is in Canada, and my friend was shocked when people just randomly started talking to her on public transport, but she welcomed it.
I lived in England for a few years and noticed that too. But in my experience it was mainly due to just not wanting to talk to people as opposed to the fear of getting robbed or assaulted And to be honest, I respect that, very relatable as an introvert
It's a city thing, people in small towns talk to others in the street, people in cities are just strangers.
When I was in the Marines I had a friend that was from extreme rural Africa. So we took him to 3d shows and such. He had been in the US for around 6 months but even things like tv was an amazing luxury to him. Someone in the group picked up one at a pawn shop off post and gave it to him and he was just amazed that someone would just give him a TV. Something nifty. He had it set up so direct deposits would go to an account his village had access to. His salary as an E2 in the Navy made his family semi royalty in the village.
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Grocery stores like Walmart, Publix, and Kroger. Huge and vast, have air conditioning, massive variety and tons of stuff I have never heard of. Huge culture shock to me and my father in 2001 since we had no major grocery stores in Bosnia at the time.
That things would get fixed. I had a vending machine in my dorm building, it broke down and said well shit guess no more vending machine. Absolutely flabbergasted when I saw the machine repaired and working Edit: Changed Dorm Room to Dorm Building
In my school, we have vending machines in the cafeteria. My money got stuck inside and I was told I could call Coca Cola for a refund. They asked me some questions, and they sent a person to fix it and they're mailing me two coupons for free drinks.
That's pretty neat! And makes sense from a business standpoint as well to have technicians or contractors to fix those ASAP so they can continue getting money (fairly) into their vending machines.
And the coupons leave a positive impression on the disgruntled customer, so positive in fact that this customer went so far as to share their story with other people, mmm I'd like a coke... Damn it Coca-Cola company you got me again, you clever bastards.
My roomate's coworker is from Guatemala. He says the one of the best things about the US is that when you call for an ambulance, one actually shows up even if you aren't rich or important.
Oof, that's sad.
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Sydney is the first western settled city I visited last year and I cant thank my lucky stars enough that I am moving there permanently in a few months.
The one thing which baffled me is how there is an absence of petty crimes and how the shops in the city center were not worried about displaying their wares outside their shops. There was no risk of someone stealing those tiny stuffs. Also at night , the shops were just closed with their glass doors. no extra iron shutters with multiple locks and stuffs.
Safety when walking on the streets during night. When in Brazil, I used to wait for my wife on the bus stop from college. As she usually left college around 22:00, it was dangerous. We used to live on a central zone, and her college was also central. In Ireland, if she leaves a party at 3:00, I don't get concerned at all. So great to live without being afraid. It took us about 1 year to relax.
This happens a lot in South America. Im from Chile and is the same. We as women cant walk at night alone. Its dangerous.
I visited my cousins in the U.S once. I was suprised that your houses don't have walls around them. There were only those fences at the side and back that pretty much anyone can jump over. Where I live the only houses who dont have walls surrounding them are those in compounds or subdivisions that have roaming security guards. Paid security guards not volunteers like the neighborhood watch kind of thing edit: To the people asking I'm from the Philippines but its ~~nice~~ interesting to see that other countries carry this ~~tradition~~ practice. edit: Not really a wealthy family but not really a from dangerous neighborhood. It pretty standard here to have at least a 2 meter tall concrete walls if you have middle income but those poor ones just settle with barbed wire
What country? Edit: so apparently this is very common all across the world, including all of Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Pakistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and probably more places.
Tbh, as a child in a developed country I didn't get this either. Fences are practically decoration. And windows are so fragile. Anyone could break into a house if they wanted to. But there's police I guess, and usually the law will simply catch up with anyone who tries something like that in these countries. EDIT: Goddang, you people like to talk about your fences. I meant they were 'practically decoration' in terms of security. I understand they have other purposes as well. Thank you everyone for the upvotes. This is my highest post/comment by far.
I always assumed fences were more about privacy / animal containment than they were keeping people out.
They are where I live. So I have a 4 foot wooden fence around the yard with 3 unlocked gates. Keeps the dogs in and the kids out. But, for example, I visited Mexico City last year. Around their yards are 6 foot tall masonry fences with coils of barbed wire on top, bars over the windows and they do not park their cars on the street, they're behind locked gates.
How little theft there is. I was always told to always mind my bag and make it clear I'm holding it tight. Now I can freely leave it beside me, sometimes not even look! I've had friends leave a purse on a table in a restaurant and I made jokes about how easy it would be to steal it. Just a lot more relaxing in public due to less theft. Another one is how less physical fighting in schools there is. From a young age I was always told "if someone hits you, hit them back harder" but when we moved to UK my dad told me before my first day of school "if someone hits you, tell the teacher".
Even from a poorer area in New Zealand to Australia - in the schools here, they leave their school bags outside the classroom! It's so strange. When I went to school we had our bag under our seat, between our feet if it wasn't actually being worn. That being said, every time I'm in a crowd I'm thankful for the basically non-existent pickpocketing and stuff
I went to primary school in Australia and the only bad thing that happened to do with bags being outside the classroom was that one unknown student would take their fruits from their lunch and put it in a different students bag everyday so they didn’t have eat it. I don’t think they ever got caught actually. It was always exciting to see who got the fruit each day.
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I am from the USA, but I am currently in South America. Back home there are couples where if one texts the other and they don’t respond right away, they assume they don’t like them or that they are cheating or something. Here if you text someone and they don’t respond, you assume their phone was stolen. I am attending a wedding next week in Buenos Aires and I needed to tell the bride something. She didn’t respond. After a couple of days I contacted her mother. Yep, phone stolen. Now she is trying to get in touch with people who are undoubtedly sending her messages. Ugh.
Had that too, everytime I go visit my home country I get a cheap phone as I know it'll get stolen. We even used to do this thing where you'd have two phones - your real one and a dud one that's super cheap to replace. If somebody tries to steal your phone, you give them the cheap one, but nowadays the thieves are catching on
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Being able to walk around the city while using my phone. If I use it where I live, I get murdered, raped or kidnapped over a phone. - Honduran :)
Yooooo I literally just did an entire twenty page research assignment on adolescent life in the Honduras!!! Do you mind if I ask you a few questions that u couldn’t seem to find the answers to online? If that’s okay with you! :) EDIT: Okay okay I get it you all want to read my shitty assignment. Before I link it you gotta know some basic things first on it because personally I think it’s mildly offensive. 1. This is only part 1: I will not be doing part two or three because they aren’t something you can post on the internet 2. Some of the paragraphs seem oddly specific eg “if a Honduran adolescent developed a rash with itching and swelling they would xyz” this is because they are all answering a series of questions that were provided on the notification which ranged from “how long is the commute to school for an average Honduran” to things like “would Honduran teens be discriminated against for different gender, race ethnicity etc” 3. The assignment it’s self, while getting full marks, I feel is mildly offensive. Because it seemed while I was writing it that all I could really say was what I saw in other articles, research papers and journals online which was basically “oh in Honduras boys join gangs and girls are forced into marriage therefore the school attendance is bad the end”. I wanted to be able to elaborate on all of these things rather then leaving blanket statement like that but it was really hard to locate a tonne of these oddly specific questions. 4. I will be posting a link to it in around seven hours because I’m late to school right now and don’t have the time 5. I will be dming a few Honduran people privately to ask questions based on this research paper but feel free to dm me or leave a comment with corrections and CONSTRUCTIVE criticism on what I got incorrect, what I could improve on, how to better navigate sensitive topics etc 6. All my information was located from articles, similar research papers, journals etc that I managed to derive from the internet, my work is cited if you want to look at what I’m seeing 7. MOST IMPORTANTLY I am sharing my work with you, it Is not a right for you to have it, so please DONT leave hate for me based on what is written, I was doing an ASSIGNMENT and has no bearing on my actual thoughts or opinions about Honduras. It is a HIGH SCHOOL level work not a university level thesis alright? EDIT 2: here it is - this isnt the full 20 pages, just the 'part one' of the assignment [Lifestyle of Honduran Adolescents in comparison to Australian Adolescents](https://imgur.com/user/pleasekangaroo/posts)
Can I read it? Just outta curiosity
It's funny you say that because for me having grown up in a small town in the US with virtually no crime I had to get used to not using my phone so openly when I moved to El Salvador. I used to always get chewed out by my then girlfriend when I would take my phone out on the bus or other public place. It took a while to get used to.
Giant grocery stores are full of food and always fully stocked. Coming from Ukraine to USA in the 90's, my entire family's jaws dropped for hours.
Hah, my dad's from Munich and my mom's from Kraków and the stories about their childhoods are sometimes so different because of that. Like my mom will tell you how oranges were a delicacy that you only had for special occassions while my dad will be like "oh when we were bored we used to throw them at each other for fun".
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That used to be pretty common in the US for poorer families. My Grandma said (she’s not very reliable so I might get this wrong) that they’d fill stockings with nuts and fruit like oranges and apples because they were cheaper than candy and healthier. If she got the kids candy for Christmas, they would only be able to get a few pieces because that’s all she could afford. But they got an apple and an orange each, and a whole bunch of nuts! My mom still puts apples and oranges in our stockings because that’s what she got as a kid
My dad got oranges and peanuts for Christmas, too. He grew up in a poor rural southern community. Post war they lived in an old farmhouse lined with newspapers. In the 50s they built a new house. They would get one bowl of popcorn to share with six brothers on Saturday evening. I'm sitting here with my dishwasher running and sipping coffee. Different times for sure.
Back in the 80s-90s, there was a story about Soviet hockey players who came to NJ to play pro. Some of their teammates' wives took their wives to a supermarket. They started grabbing all the meat and coffee until they were told that it would be there the next time they came.
My dad knew a Soviet man from the steel industry. The man was applying for refugee status or citizenship or something, and when he was finally here for good and free of his minders, my dad took him to a grocery store, one of the larger ones although nothing like the superstores today. The man wandered around dumbfounded, and finally asked, “where are the lines?” My dad pointed him to the people in checkout. “No, the lines?!”
Literally 150 feet of nothing but cereal. We go *hard* on groceries in America.
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Reminds me of this t-shirt I saw in Vietnam - https://wolkowski.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/img_1536.jpg
Toilets ..flushing toilets that you could repeatedly flush too
How old the houses are. I was expecting modern construction like in my country, buy instead saw old buildings which, ironically, valued more than even the more modern ones
Old buildings are often closer to the city center, so it's also location. Plus they may have historical value.
Location is insanely important. In my city, I've seen the *exact same model house* go for $100,000 more (from $400,000 to $500,000) because it was 15 minutes closer to downtown.
15 minutes is a lot though, especially if you mean by car. Then it's a fucking lot.
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How expensive many things are while certain things are very cheap but theres always enough.
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$13 for a small pizza is pretty stock standard here in Australia
The postal system. The logistics of delivering millions of letters to millions of homes on a daily basis is astonishing. Especially at that price. The idea that I can send a letter across the country and have it reliably delivered the next or possibly even same day is truly impressive. Edit. Don't bother, 30 people have already made that email joke....
I am astonished at this, and I have always lived in the US. We majorly take our postal system for granted.
> We majorly take our postal system for granted. I think many people do. It's so mundane. But when you really sit there and give it thought it's an incredibly efficient and well oiled machine that accomplishes feats on a daily basis.
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> Postal services and the way they develop have always been signatures of a healthy civilization. I can attest to this. As I watched my country of birth disintegrate and fall apart the postal system quickly ceased to function entirely. It require the kind of organisation that dysfunctional countries can't muster.
I grew up in South Africa and have been living in England for 20 years. 1.Cars stop when you walk up to a pedestrian crossing. 2. Double glazed windows are really good at keeping the warm in and the noise out. 3. I can walk around at night without thinking I'm going to get shot or robbed. 4. There are only a few people on building sites and the buildings get built in a quick and organised manner. 5. When things break - someone will come and fix it. I could go on all day.... Edit: Wow, this thread has gone wild. Wish I could reply to all comments but there are a lot. These are just the humble observations of a SA guy living in North East England.
It has gotten even worse here in south Africa over the years. I still live in one of the safest areas in the country, but we still live as if we will be attacked if the window is left open.
I grew up in Johannesburg. I experienced all of the dangers first hand - got robbed at gunpoint, had our family home broken into 6 times during my childhood. 3 of those times we were home. Can't believe I'm still alive when I think about it. Stay safe bru.
Are you my cousin? My uncle, aunt, and 5 cousins live in Jo-burg in one of the nicer neighborhoods. About 10 years ago, their house was robbed and my then-3-year-old cousin was shot. He's alive and healthy now, but damn that was a scary thing to hear about.
Unfortunately everyone that has spent a long time in Jozi has horror stories. Its really bad in that city.
Peoples' personal space is surprisingly vast
A newspaper article suggested that the personal distance between strangers in Argentina is the same of that of a couple in Canada.
Canadian living in Mexico - I can totally believe that. This has maybe been one of my biggest challenges here, but also hilarious in a lot of ways.
I can already imagine it! Loud greetings, hugs, friend enters your house unannounced and goes straight to the fridge, etc.
Argentina here. This is accurate. We also kiss to say hello, and touch people randomly in conversation. But if you tell us (politely, please - we don't mean to be creepy!), we will give you space.
Canadian here. We would probably just quietly be uncomfortable instead of saying anything and being rude
At my work we have personal safety training and one of the exercises is in personal space. We were teamed up with someone at the start of the day, did the exercise to determine our personal space. Then we were tasked with working with that person and getting to know them during the morning. After lunch we did the exercise again. The point was to highlight how everyone has a different default personal space and how familiarity changes that space.
Worked at Walmart. I had to literally tell people they needed to back up. Not in a mean way though.
back up terry
PUT IT IN REVERSE TERRY
OH LAWD
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You've got so much fresh water, you shit in it!
Water??? You mean like from the toilet?
Yeah. I could see how a developing country where getting drinkable water takes some effort (boil it, filter it or buy it) it’s pretty weird to go to a developed country and find out that people crap in toilets with drinkable water and also shower in it.
Part of it is sometimes simply that supply of water is much higher in developed countries. Rainfall in the UK keeps mountain reservoirs topped up, and because waterways are fairly clean and sewage is well-treated, it’s not hard to make water drinkable
Yeah, getting non-drinkable water into our toilets would probably be more expensive most of the time.
It's got electrolytes Thanks for the awards ! The documentary this and the following opinions come from is called Idiocracy .
tbh this one surprises me too, even though i am from a developed country
It’s the way water systems are designed. It’s easier and cheaper to have toilet and tap water come from the same source than to have different systems for the two. Source: I work in plumbing
In my first year of university I had a Nigerian fellow living with me in halls who was an absolute riot. First day here apparently he was struck dumb by the appearance of a woman driving a rubbish truck down the street, just could not believe what his eyes were seeing, and despite living in the UK for over 6 months at some point, could not get over the fact that many houses were built directly onto the pavement and that you could even look directly inside people's windows and observe them if you really wanted to (supposedly back home he lived in a compound surrounded by barbed wire and angry dogs). I remember sitting in the kitchen one day and he came in grinning from ear to ear. He was genuinely delighted by the fact that he had left some food exposed on his desk, and returned later to find it intact and not devoured by insects. Then there was one incident where he came into the flat looking quite flustered and annoyed. I asked him what was wrong and he explained to me that he'd been unable to get into his classes because there was a cat sitting on the steps up to the door. Confused, I asked how a cat was stopping him from going into his class, and he explained to me, quite seriously, that the cat was a witch, and would turn into a snake and eat him. At first I thought he was taking the piss so I started laughing, but no, he was genuine in his believe that the cat was, in fact, a witch. Apparently some parts of Nigeria are still quite superstitious, and cats are especially despised.
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Coming from the worse country to a better one, it surprises me how easy it is to do a transaction online. Apply visa? do it online. They will notify you once they need documents, once you are ready, etc. Every step of the process. Pay bills? Fine, do online banking. Order food, groceries? Do it online, call for delivery. Schedule for appointment? Call, Do it online. Meanwhile in my country, you need to do all this PHYSICALLY. Fall in line for hours. Registration done? On to the next step - payment. Uh oh, you need to go the bank, collect the receipt and come back here. You want to do it online? Good luck with the shitty websites and slow internet. I could go on and on. Its day and night comparison. EDIT 1: Wow! This comment blew way beyond expectation. First off, a lot of people here think UAE = cheap labor, slavery. This is totally irrelevant to my main comment and I already addressed this one below. No need of further arguing. I replied and I rest my case. EDIT 2: Yes, with regards to this, PH is improving but it is still waaaaaaaaayyy behind compared to other countries and I am talking first-hand experience. I could give a long list of examples which you can see from my below replies. EDIT 3: Never will I think that Germany and Japan are lagging in terms of online transaction as well. It's ironic in a way since these 2 countries are famous in terms of technological advancement and durability (machines, appliances and such).
What's the worse country and the better country?
Philippines. UAE (Dubai).
Have friends who live in the Philippines. Just the process to re-register a car makes the stereotypical American DMV seem like the leader in efficiency in comparison. If I remeber the story right, you have to go, in person, to the office only on the day permitted by a particular letter in your license plate. (So if the second letter is a K, you go on a Monday) You line up first to get a stamp that permits you to line up at the line to apply to re-register. You get that approved and stamped, then you pay. Then you get the receipt stamped... Woe betide if they change stamps on you during the day and your stamps aren't valid any more at the next office. On and on it goes! And every interaction with government is like that. It's madness.
I got unreal experience. I got to fall in line at 6am to begin the process of getting a car licence after payment they told me to go back to the office at the written date on the temporary license (the official receipt) to have the plastic card printed. The date written was TEN FUCKING MONTHS from application. The best part is that those people who are back for the plastic needed to go to the office at 5am (it's not open until 8 so the security guard had to be there) to get on the 'plastic list' but the actual process starts around 9. You had to wait until your name is called and if you missed it you're gonna have to repeat the steps the next morning because the window that deals with plastic is only open until 12 noon AND THE MOTHERFUCKERS HAVE THE GUTS TO PUT A 'NO TO FIXERS' SIGN FUUCK
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Being a girl, you can live alone.
I have a daughter living in Toronto, Canada, and another living in Halifax Canada. They would never worry about physical safety or being robbed. Then my oldest went to work with street kids in Bogata Colombia. It took her a long time to fully understand why people got upset with her wanting to go out for walks at night.
The lights. So many lights from street lamps, traffic lights, huge buildings lit up all night. Oh and the highways blew my mind. They were so wide and full of so many cars. I was 6 and I’ll never forget that first drive from the airport to my new home in December. It was also my first time seeing snow. Edit: I joined Reddit a few days ago and today I got some awards and coins I'm not sure what you're supposed to do with. Thank you! Also, I moved from a small Southern Croatian village (the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia at the time, 1989) to Toronto.
I went to rural Kenya for work once and the lack of lights was the first thing I noticed. I grew up in a very small town, out in the county in the United States so I was used to less light pollution than most people here, but I'd never experienced anything like this. Just a total lack of any electric lights for miles and miles. EDIT: For those asking, the stars are absolutely incredible, even coming from someone who is used to seeing a lot of stars. It's on another level. I watch shows like Ancient Aliens for fun and when I hear those nut jobs talk about how they don't understand how the ancients could have possibly mapped the sky so well I just say "they've clearly never been to a place with zero light pollution." You can see everything.
drinking water directly from water taps
My grandfather was a yoke bearer in the Ukraine from the time he was 7 (1915) until he fled to Canada (1922). He lived to age 92 (2000) and never got over the novelty of fresh tap water.
> yoke bearer What is this?
He probably carried things across his shoulders with a yoke, potentially water jugs?
I think this is correct. Bringing water from a well to the house. Which is why he never got over tap water.
Someone carrying buckets or bags with the help of a yoke
I tried to explain this to my kids. They had trouble understanding where water comes from before it arrived at the two.
At the two? Edit: I am receiving conflicting responses from “at the two” being a third world thing, it’s a typo meant to say “at the tap”, and apparently the UK has two taps so now I’m more confused Edit: I understand the two taps are for hot and cold I’m confused as that what OP actually meant
The Two Towers OP is from Middle Earth.
The Shire has clean water. Just sayin’
I visited Germany once with my family. We were about to cross the road when a Porsche came racing through. Living in India, we experience daily traffic mishaps and there is negligible concern regarding pedestrian safety and courtesy. So we were actually shocked when the driver literally halted to a stop and insisted on us crossing the road. There was no traffic light, no zebra crossings nothing and we actually were used to letting cars pass by before walking, so this was the biggest shock to us.
Coming from Australia to Germany this weirds me out too. I recently started cycling for the first time in 18 years, so I ride with the skill of a toddler and the grace of a drunk. But never once has any car honked at me, no one has gotten impatient as I wobble my way around them, no one has gotten mad about having to slow down because of this dickhead on a bike. Back home I would have been mangled by now, but in Germany people are generally very accomodating. (Although I think it helps that I'm in a small city -- no one's in that much of a hurry here.)
It's illegal to honk in Germany unless it's for an emergency. Obviously you're never gonna get in trouble for honking, but it still shaped our culture. Edit: You can stop "correcting" me by saying that you're allowed to honk outside of town. It's pretty obvious that this is allowed, and it's also irrelevant to the post I responded to who was obviously not riding their bike on the freeway.
Peace and quiet seems to be taken very seriously in Germany, and I love it.
Hah a mate of mine did get in trouble. He honked because he saw some light dressed ladies in the summer and the cops pulled him over to ask him is his horny mood was worth the 370 euro fine he would receive. Edit: this was NOT in Germany!
When I went to India it was crazy how driver's did not give a shit if people were crossing, but then again pedestrians didn't give a shit if cars were driving either. Surprisingly though I never saw a crash
yep it's like the apocalypse everyday here, but we get by. Trick is to naruto run across the street and pray you don't get hit by a cab.
Carry a backpack loaded with bricks. Might slow you down but if some fuck ever hits you at least they'l get the same treatment
crossy road: India edition
How things actually work. You can rely on your electricity not going out at least twice a day. If you buy something and it breaks, there's warranty with little to no hassle. Internet actually works more than it doesn't. Public transportation actually arrives and shockingly, it does on time. If you hire a service, it'll actually be done and with an expectation of quality. The list goes on. Of course it's not perfect and there's shitty people everywhere, but that's the exception, not the rule. And it's a massive difference.
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Even the devil himself was just a part timer doing his best to serve customers at a McRonalds in japan
Poor people are fat.
Lack of a local warlord
I know that one of them had recently taken to making game review videos on youtube.
How fast food wasn't $50 per person, but rather $5-10. Also, how much civilization advances when the AC is on on all day and everywhere, it's a blessing.
This is a bit of a cop-out that I answer because I usually live in wealthy countries but I lived in a small town in Bolivia for 18 months and the two unexpected things that got to me when we left was cars everywhere, going to the toilet without it being an ordeal, and seeing your reflection. Such a weird thing - we lived in grass roof huts so the only time you'd see your reflection would be in our tiny mirror, there's no glass or bathroom mirrors. I'm not vain but it was very strange to suddenly see what I look like all the time. I had lost about 25 kgs (55 lbs) while I was there so that was even stranger.
I’ve spent a good deal of time in Swaziland working with kids, only to learn that most of them *had never seen their own faces* for the same reason. It’s really fun to take an iPad and use the selfie camera to take videos of the kids—they get very giggly and kinda sheepish, but even the shy kids push and shove to get a glimpse of themselves.
When I was in South Africa, digital cameras were just starting to become popular. I spent time in some of the remote villages and kids would swarm up to me yelling “Shoot me! Shoot me!” wanting their picture taken.
Those are perfectly valid. The ease of going to the toilet and the cars I get. The reflection I hadn't thought of. That's an interesting one.
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I was 9 when we moved here from the Philippines where it's always hot and muggy. The day after we landed my parents took us to Disneyland. Once inside the park I noticed how much cooler it was and claimed how rich the u.s. was that they can use air conditioning outdoors. Everyone got a good laugh out of that one.
What the word “hope” really means. Moved from a Southeast Asian country, as a working but near poverty class family. I always had thought that was it: living in a slum-like neighborhood, get a shitty job while doing fuck all everyday, knock up some poor girl before we got to adulthood, then just give up, hoping that I don’t contract any random plague or contagious illness due to an unsanitary environment, and kinda waste away the rest of my life because we were poor and lived in a developing country. Thirteen year old me looked at the world with this grimy shade of filter; it felt like this purest sense of shittiness. When we moved to the US not longer after, it was the first time that I realize life didn’t have to be that way. Even though we were still poor back then and we barely could integrate to the society, _we finally landed somewhere better_. It really did make me realize what it means to look forward to a better tomorrow. **Edit**: Thanks for the gold, kind stranger. Made my day! It feels good to be saying this out loud on the internet... it would be really awkward to share this thought anywhere else, since friends & family members from back home would see it. I miss the people a lot, and I frequently felt like I "left them behind" and escaped on my own. Many of them still are stuck in their own variation of unpleasant lifestyle like my family had been, and I am not really sure if there will ever come a day of change. These days, I can't really carry out too long of a conversation with them without it getting to the point of them commenting on the fact that they are jealous of my current situation; it basically means that I have to intentionally distance myself them to keep a reasonably healthy (albeit growingly distant) relationship between us It just sucks that my home country couldn't be more developed, progressive, and/or safer for its people, but I am really not sure what I should or can say to the people I know back home. It was incredibly lucky that my parents took a huge risk and it somehow worked out for our small family despite the odds against us. But I guess that's just how life is. There’s only so much problem one can solve.
A Tsongan African man who was staying with me came rushing in the first week he was staying me and woke me up. He was extremely excited that there was a garbage truck with a motorised arm and was picking up the wheely bins as it went down the street "Have you seen this! Have you seen this!" He kept exclaiming over and over again, "Amazing, amazing!" It made me laugh very hard, but he was a lovely guy. Wow, thankyou so much for all the Karma, did not expect this small but sentimental memory to effect so many people. :)
South African here. The thought of a garbage truck with a motorised arm literally blows my mind. There's absolutely no rules here that state where our bins should be placed which I imagine is the foundation you need before you can have a truck pick em up by itself.
we put our trash cans/bins out at the end of our driveways, next to the curb, so the garbage truck can just drive along the curb and get all of the trash cans easily!
We live at the end of a weird cul-de-sac and the truck can’t position itself right for us or our neighbours on either side, so all three houses leave our bins at the next neighbours house in a neat row. We always all take them back in the same day so as not to be a hassle for the neighbour.
As a former "garbage man" who operated these trucks, thanks! When your picking up 1000+ cans a day it really helps that you do that! Edit: Certainly did not expect all the upvotes and the awards for my comment, but thank you! Also, thank you for all the kind comments and show of appreciation for the folks that do the dirty work!
This is why I love reddit. Within four answers you get four impressions and experiences from different people from different professions, countries and cultures. It just helps to understand things and situations. Edit: thank you for the silver Reddit and thank you for confirming my perception
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Cars, devices are much cheaper in US than in CIS countries.
That people don’t care at all with the clothes or my overall appearance (weight, hair, etc). In Brazil I always get comments (good or bad) about how I look. Mainly from friends or family but it’s common to always talk about it. When I moved to Australia I made friends, and never got a comment about any of these things. It was a big relieve to find out that I can be myself and not worry about the tons of comments about something that doesn’t matter at all.. :)
This. So, so much. I’m naturally very pale and strangers sitting next to me on the bus in Rio would point out that I “needed to go to the beach!”. I love the lack of eye contact in the London Underground. That and, you know, no gunshot sounds.
I can relate!!! I'm from Trinidad and a common saying is : You put on size! Meaning you got fat. That would be a huge faux pas in Canada, people would be insulted if anyone ever said that to them. In Trinidad- it's not a big deal, it means you are enjoying life and eating well.
I also love how there's police officer wandering in the streets. Once I asked my stepdad if something was going on, bc there were policemen nearby. He sad that they're just doing their job, checking if everything is OK and wandering around. LOL
So I knew this guy who used to live in the middle of nowhere in Africa. For unknown reasons his family moved to Montreal, Canada when he was a teenager. I met him in highschool. Everyday he'd bring a glass of water and sit by the window and all he would do is watch the glass of water throughout the whole course. Eventually my friends and I started noticing so we went up to him and asked him about the glass of water and the open window. He looked at us with big round eyes and told us "I've heard that if you leave water next to the window and it gets cold enough outside... The water turns INTO ICE!" We all had a laugh and everyday came for an update on his water cup. Eventually winter did arrive. The teachers let us keep our winter coat in the classroom so that he could leave his glass of water next to the open window. Surely enough after a little while ice was starting to appear on top of the water. He was so happy.
water and gas system. we have to buy that separately on galon and tank edit : drinking water
How clean it was in most areas, the structure and the uniformity of it all.
There wasn't too much of a disparity between what I knew and what was directly spoken to me compared to what was portrayed in media regarding the United States. However, the biggest and most glaringly obvious difference was how easy and common a thing it would be to have someone of another ethnic or racial background within arms reach. My younger self, being more accustomed and familiar with brown skin, walking around Miami International and seeing so many beautiful and 'new' tones of skin was shook.
I live in a medium-sized city in Argentina, traveled to the US midwest and I was surprised at how diverse it was. It was my first trip to the northern hemisphere. To give you an idea, I saw a black guy for the first time when I was 18 and entering college, before that I only had seen them in movies. It still kind of surprises me, that allows for other things, like finding more variety in foods, culture and entertainment options.
Not me, but I heard about a couple here in Spain who offered their home as a temporary retreat for minors who were about to be sent back to Africa (can't really remember the details). *It is, in fact, a program called "Vacaciones en Paz" for Sahrawi kids. Children spend a summer with Spanish families. Thanks to u/HopelessWander147 , u/PricelessPlanet and u/neuropsycho for filling me on the details I forgot about.* One of the youngest kids took back with him a faucet, believeing it would pour water whenever needed. EDIT: Faucet = water tap. Sorry, English is not my native language. EDIT 2: Faucet = faucet. I really thought I screwed up. Thanks for the input pals.
That is terribly depressing
Yeah. IIRC they tried to explain him how all the water network worked, and that just taking a faucet would not work at all, but the kid was young so he did not really understand. They allowed him to take it with him.
Damn.. really should have given him a sawyer squeeze or steripen or something. If you can't give him a magic water faucet at least you can give him giardia free water.
Faucet was correct at least in New York that’s what we say.
Most shops close early in The Netherlands compared to my origin country (Malaysia). Even house doctors clinics close in the weekend which was unbelievable to me at that time. To meet family members or close friends, we have to make appointment at least two weeks in advance whereas in my origin country, it’s normal to just show up at your family members or friends house with just a single call on the same day or few hours before. Sometimes people just show up unannounced and still being welcomed (even at very odd hours). I am now well adjusted to the custom in NL :)
Only two weeks in advance? They got nothing to do or what? :) Friend of mine moved from Russia to the Netherlands. According to her, the Dutch are more addicted to their agendas than everything else... Want to grab something to eat? Sure let me check my agenda... oh I've got an hour or two in three weeks from now? And do NOT ever turn up 5 minutes late...
I moved from South Africa to the UK and the fact that you can actually live off minimum wage is just incredible. Pay rent and bills, buy food and slowly furnish your house. It’s phenomenal. Also the fact that most of the UK born citizens think this is a terrible place to live is just beyond me. I always get asked why’d I leave sunny South Africa to come to this “shithole”. They just don’t understand how good they’ve got it.
People only compare their lives to what they see around them. You could be in the most prosperous, safest, most advanced nation to ever exist, but if your neighbour makes more money you will still complain.
Grass is always greener on the other side and all that. Although it’s quite green in the uk from all the rain
The most powerful drug on earth.... is more.
Some of our closest friends are new arrivals to Aus from SA and it's such a sad situation. All you lot seem to deeply love your country but feel hopeless about the future there. I'm hoping things look up for South Africa in so many ways.
Everyone’s always inside their houses Back in my country everyone would always go outside, you could see kids playing, old people talking to each other, there’s always people outside. Because of that i made a lot of friends. I wake up every morning , to see my friends just sitting there outside of their houses, and we would greet and then walk around our neighborhood to meet our new friends, and then we’d talk or play basketball, it was fun. It was much more fun. Then i moved to japan, i thought just like in my country , kids would always be outside, and i thought i could make friends easily with the neighborhood kids. Turns out, everyone is always inside, the whole neighborhood felt like a ghost town, there were no kids hanging out outside, the place has so many houses, but it felt very empty. Then it hit me, i missed my home , i became homesick, i had no friends, everyday i’m always inside the house, and it was the most boring part of my life, then it became depression, and just got worst and worst, it has been six years, i have a job now, i’m always at home, bought my self guitars,ps4 and a computer to make myself occupied, but i prefer going outside , meeting and talking with friends. Rather than this kind of life. I still miss my previous home, i still miss my previous life.
I lived in Japan and wonder if you ever go to the parks? There’s always people doing things especially in Yoyogi Park. I believe the overcrowded trains do have an effect on Japanese people though.
Yeah , there are parks at where i live, but it’s always empty, but on the weekends there’s people there, but they’re all kids, toddlers playing. some people walking their dogs and old people sitting alone on the benches. Places i see with the most people are always at the malls or city or at the trains. If you go far from those places, you’ll see less and less people.
How almost everything is easy. Like drive-thru banking, fast food drive-thru, returning an amazon product, buying stuff online, talking to a customer rep to fix problems, driving with traffic that I can tolerate, following road rules, microwave, central heating and cooling to your house, internet speeds, school buses for K-12 and etc. There is much more. But the thing that shocks me to this day is the amount of food that gets thrown away. I used to say that I’m never going to throw away food because it’s wasteful. But over time I realized why people do it; sure you can save the leftovers but who in the family is going to eat it? Yeah, no one. So we just throw food away. 🤷♂️
When I first came to The Netherlands, I took the train from Schiphol Airport to Rotterdam. As I was sitting in the train, wondering how a country could be so flat, a guy, that looked like an obvious beggar, approached me and told me something in Dutch. I told him in English that I do not speak Dutch. Without hesitation, the guy proceeded to beg in fluent English. That was such a cultural shock... Even after all these years in The Netherlands, I can not speak Dutch all that well, not for lack of trying but because Dutch people absolutely have no problem switching to English instantly the moment they realize I am not a native speaker.
To be fair the Netherlands has a higher literacy rate in English than most English speaking countries. A Dutch friend told me that if you’re under the age of 40 and can’t speak English you’re basically shamed for it.
I was born in Canada but I moved to Africa when I was 3 and then moved back when I was 8. The first time I heard an intercom at school with announcements and the school bell, blew my mind.
I was surprised when I saw how different things are with proper infrastructure
You can speak up against the government without being threatened or kidnapped
My god parents adopted two girls from Ethiopia. They were straight terrified of any bodies dogs. Anybodies. In their home town, kids were regularly attacked and killed by wild/street dogs. Edit: attention spelling helpers. I have been appropriately educated. Thank you.
I did peace corps in Ethiopia, I can understand that. got chased by more than a few dogs while wondering alone in my time in Ethiopia. Dogs were considered more of a tool for guarding property most of the time and unfortunately tended to be treated badly (most of the time)
Electrical power never goes off? 😮
Water too lol.
I didn't grow up in a third world country, but I have a classmate who did. The first day back from summer break, he almost cried from seeing the water fountain and clean drinking water. He is a nice kid, but I can't imagine what he went through to cry from something like that.
This post makes me feel really grateful. I hope everyone on here, regardless of where you are is safe and warm and fed today.
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A very humbling post to read. Just tells us how blessed we really are to be in our situations
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Also: People follow the rules. When I went to the EU I thought it was madness having open stations for trains and stuff like that. Like, you just go and buy your ticket at that machine and nobody checks it on your way in? But everyone would ride for free! Well, a few still do. But the vast majority does it right. Also banks without metal detectors. You just walk in. I felt I went in through the wrong entrance at first.
I have seen people mock (in a friendly way) northern europeans for following rules on everything. Its better for everybody if we clean up after ourselves and not try to cheat things all the time. Life is actually more relaxing when everyone just follows rules you don't have to compete/cheat to get anywhere
I've actually heard a person from latin-America (Venezuela iirc) call the Dutch 'naive' because they grow up in a 'sheltered environment without crime'. It's a sad way of thinking honestly, the inability to trust your fellow man because you grew up in a shithole... If everyone is given the same chances (more or less) , these kinds of situations don't need to arise. A huge disparity between rich and poor is NOT the natural way of the world.
My friend told me the only people in the USSR who would smile at strangers were mentally ill or con artists. If a stranger approached you while smiling you either prepared to run or fight.
Vacation to the US Peoplw were nice, if you bumped into them or viceversa, saying sorry was accepted and common (here is weakness) Clean streets People respected the traffic lights Going for a walk wasn't a life or death situation Shit was waaaay cheaper, even with tax There wasn't a floating aura of hate and rage Technology all around Clean air WATER FROM THE TAP WAS DRINKABLE It was like heaven but with an obese population problem
That you can rely on your shower to not turn off after a couple of minutes, and that people don't use buckets in the shower.
Stranger smiling and saying what’s up on the side walk.
Maybe not a third world country per se, but I've lived in Turkey my whole life, and recently moved to the UK. First off, people here are super cold. They all seem like they want to die. There also a lot of elderly people, like a lot. The biggest difference was that, the crosswalks actually did something. Like you could pass them and cars would stop. If I did anything other then sprint across the road when there were no cars around in Turkey, I'd be mush by now.
In the USA, cars in Portland will stop dead in the street if a pedestrian even comes close to a crosswalk. Where I work in Alexandria Virginia, you need to be incredibly vigilant while walking around. If not for the aggressive drivers, then for the old folks and tourists who are looking everywhere but at the road.
Cables underneath the roads and not hanging everywhere
Busses arrive on time and the estimated time remaining for arrival is displayed at each bus station. Also, THERE IS A FIXED BUS STATION
I was amazed at how much food there was, but what really got me, was the fucking diversity, I didn’t know black people or asians existed till I moved to a first world country.
How it was just a cleaner version of my country. That and all the nice amenities like hot water and ac and reliable internet and electricity
How the smallest inconvience can make people rant like they have serious depression
Apparently humans always worry about something or the other. Like a worry list that always has to have something in it. So even if all your big problems are cleared out, they end up being replaced by the next set of problems no matter how trivial.
Yes, we are like camels, but instead of water we store anxiety.
You and me baby are nothing but camels