Sup!

Recently I saved up for a trip to the US, with the aim of experiencing the culture, becoming more confident as a traveller, and to visit friends. I've visited quite a few places in Europe, and I am from the UK, so I was interested to see how the cultures would compare. Here are some of my impressions of the place. Of course, these are all very, very generalised points:

. People tend to have an attitude of openness and being unreserved about what they say - while this could potentially spill into being a socially bad thing (i.e., being outspoken, or impolite) - it was actually very humbling to see it in practice - a general attitude of helpfulness, openness and goodwill. The UK could learn a thing or too about it with our general attitude of being insular, cool and reserved towards strangers or newcomers...

- The tea is horrible. HORRIBLE. I found myself suffering major Earl Grey withdrawal symtoms to the point of having dreams about tea.

- Books - for some reason people on subways, buses, etc, tended to have electronic devices, like a Kindle, rather than a book. It struck me as a little strange.

- Public technology (in major cities anyway) is notably quite advanced - e.g. public electronic devices, automated hygiene machines seemingly everywhere, etc, which is a difference from the UK and most European countries - I'm not saying that our countries are backwards in a technological sense, just that the technology for public use doesn't tend to be quite as shiny as it is in the US.

- Obesity - it's a stereotype, I know, and I'm a little unhealthily attuned to issues regarding weight, but still. I was quite shocked - even coming from a country with the highest obesity rate in Europe. For me it is unusual to see somebody who I would consider severely obese in an everyday sense, but in the US, seeing such people was quite commonplace. The standard for a 'normal' weight I think is significantly higher, for both men and women. I'd say that the average clothing size for women in the US is about 14/16 (Uk clothing size), with examples of what I would consider obesity (clothing size 22-24 and plus) being quite common. For comparison, the average clothing size for women in the UK is probably about 12/14, and in general on the continent the average size for women is probably about 10/12. The 'grab and go' food culture can't help - there's delicious, cheap take-out food everywhere you go, but most of it seemed quite - even lavishly - unhealthy, with lots of "add-ons" like cheese, salt, sauces, etc as standard. There's certainly less emphasis on healthy food - and availability of it as a take-out option.

- . Moving on from that slightly negative point, as a country, America is wildly varied and a place of extraordinary diversity in terms of landscape, people, etc. And is very often very beautiful. I will be visiting it again in the summer and I'm already looking forward to it.

- you really do need a car.

I agree with all but one thing...


I'm not sure what part of the US you were in but the only place I've ever been where the people were uncannily nice to random strangers was San Diego.

Also yes. life without a car really is impossible in most places.

Where did you go?

Welcome to the States!


And I really need to plan a trip to the UK sometime.

I went to a few places, and it might have just been luck. Also, I'm coming from a perspective whree the culture I live in is generally quite insular and reserved, especially in cities. However, I did go to New York for a couple of days, and my, people were brusque...I also visited near Illinois and Wisconsin, both places that I loved. New York was fascinating, but not somewhere I could ever settle, far too intense and intimidating.

Yeah, in the UK, there's no urgently pressing need to drive, even in your twenties, except if you have a career/family/etc. Public transportation is generally good, and a lot of people just commute or walk to where they need to be. I was made painfully aware of how small the UK is, too I can't imagine not having a car in the US, it would make things so difficult if you didn't live in a well-connected city. Also on that note, it seems people do drive pretty much everywhere, so there does seem to be a lack of pavements/walkways in some spots. (A trip to a 7-11 quickly became an impromptu game of human Frogger, for instance).

Heh, thanks for the welcome. Although, if you want beautiful European women, you'd be better off going to Sweden - regularly voted as having the most beautiful women in Europe

indeed.. not a pedestrian friendly land for the most part.
I've only ever been to Ireland and I wouldn't even want a car if I lived there driving was an absolute nightmare. The roads improved slightly in Northern Ireland, but still. Walking around Dublin was far easier than attempting to drive about. Cork we just got confused, lost, frustrated and gave up

i went to cork last year to see megadeth. im not sure how you could get lost lol, the canal and three bridges across it act like a grid reference. everytime we were lost, finding the canal would let me know where my hotel etc was relative to me.
my friend goes to america sometimes. he pretended to be paddy from ireland in a starbucks and they gave him free stuff
to be fair, it would probably have been easier than trying to explain northern ireland.
ill visit america as soon as they stop messing up the english language. if someone says herb with a silent 'h', i want to hit them

I don't recall any bridges... haha my parents bailed on it before even giving it a chance I was kinda upset. They're more "look at the beautiful countryside" people. I enjoy the cities. But it was on the tail end of our trip, and we wanted time in dublin, so off we went.
Unrelated fun fact, girl who worked at the rock of cashel as a tour guide... gorgeous.

Zeek, I'm happy to read you're well, haven't talked to you in ages . I hope you enjoyed the trip. Did you take pictures by any chance?
I am not very surprised to what you say though, even if I've never been to the US, some friends spent a year in Charleston, NC, and they travelled around and had the same feelings as you. They were very very happy with the openness of people, they thought everyone they met was vastly more friendly than in France (which isn't hard, icebergs are warm compared to Parisian people). I really would like to go too one day, I'd like to see Yellowstone Park among other things. I'd like to live there for some years too but I guess it's gonna be a bit complicated green card wise etc.

Mrping, If you don't recall any bridges in Cork, you must have been very far from the city Cork has nothing but bridges, seriously ^^

Been there more times than I can count... Really is something else, highly recommend it. I can tell you all the best spots haha

Haha all I remember is getting lost amidst a bunch of tallish buildings, something about a mall, and seeing signs that said city centre, but not being able to follow said signs because of construction and one way roads.. They literally gave up after like 10-15 minutes of driving around. I was disappointed, I don't remember very much about it though since we spent so little time there.

Ah yes... the need for a car in good old USA. I've never been there, but it would be somehow hard to start thinking in car minutes to a destination instead of walk minutes. I prefer walk minutes.

Absolutely not. For crying out loud, the ex-communist countries of Central Europe already have technology decades ahead of what is in the US! As for Western Europe... The US has shoddy, underfunded (due to laissez-faire in large part), crumbling infrastructure, and this includes such technology.



Exactly, the US is hostile, closed, and unwelcoming.



Everyone knows that if you're looking for truly beautiful European women, Russia is the place to be.

mrping, that's quite sad that you didn't have the opportunity to visit. Cork is amazingly small, the city centre holds in a nutshell but it's a great city imo.

theyoungagegroup, do you have precise examples of cities in Eastern Europe that are like you describe? I didn't visit the Eastern European countries a lot, just Poland, Czech Republic, Solvenia, Hungary and Serbia but none of these countries stroke me as being more technologically advanced than anything I saw in France for example - far from it. I'm curious though.

You completely misunderstood me - I was saying this in terms of technological advancement:

Western Europe > Central Europe > US

And yes, the countries you listed (technically except Serbia and Slovenia, but they're quite similar to the others now, especially Slovenia) are in Central Europe.

As we say up north, calm your passions It was not a big comment comparing the relative technology / tecnological advancements, but just the small things I saw every day - automated tickets, electronic billboards, hygiene machines for dry hand washing everywhere, toilets with automatic flusing and rotating plastic covers, etc of course other countries have that stuff as well...I just meant that in the US (the US cities I visited, anyway), technology for public use seemed to have a bit more investment in it than I've seen in other countries. And I live in Western Europe, and I've visited many countries in Europe (both Central and Eastern) so yes, I did pick up on it as a noticeable difference. But perhaps that was just due to the US places I visited (such as New York).