48 Non-Americans Recall Their “What The Hell” Moments While Traveling In The US

Aussie here. When I started chatting to a cashier she squealed and asked where I was from. I told her Australia and she instantly dumbed down how she spoke. "DO....Y'ALL....SPEAK....ENGLISH....DOWN....THERE?"

I replied "sporadically". She laughed and informed me that wasn't a word.

When I went to Florida I was stopped by the police for J Walking. I protested that the road was clear so therefore safe to cross. He said "I don't know how you do it in your country be here in The US we take road safety seriously". Aghast, I explained I was from England and my only knowledge of J Walking was from Lethal Weapon 3 and that I believed it was just a made up Law that they used in the movie to sass people. He chuckled and said "That's a great movie, I prefer the first" I agreed and said it was by far the best. After a brief chat about the entire Lethal weapon saga he said "In future make sure you use the crossings" I agreed but asked in a pretty decent South African accent " What if I have diplomatic immunity?" He chuckled nodded his head and pointed to the crossing and said "Cross there, enjoy your vacation" and off he went. It was the highlight of my holiday.

I ate a Hershey's "chocolate" bar. What. The. Hell.

How do you Americans actually like that? It tastes so cheap and vomity I had to spit it out.

Was in Northern New York (near Buffalo) and a waitress overheard that I was headed "back to the Pacific Ocean". She asked where I was going and I said Vancouver. "No honey..Vancouver is in Canada and that is on the Atlantic Ocean."

I said "Canada is from sea to sea just like America." She replied "no that's not right, only America is from sea to sea"

The combination of her being absolutely sure about something and her total ignorance was surprising enough but the fact that she felt she should basically interrupt our conversation by telling me I am wrong about what ocean I live beside was weird.

That thing is $10. That's good. I have a $10 note. I can buy that thing.

Oh wait.

I went to Disneyland in Anaheim, and it just struck me that there were a large number of disabled people out and about enjoying the rides. I'm from India (where there is no shortage of disabled people) but it was just the sheer number of disabled people that made me extremely happy that the park was accessible to everyone. You done good America, I said to myself as I ate some horrible expensive fried thing.

I later realised that most of those people were not disabled but fat people on scooters who did not feel like walking.

Where do I sign up?

I've told this story on Reddit before, but my biggest wth was in Fall 2005. Google Earth had just come out, and my colleague at the University lab and I were looking at it. She was a blonde bombshell from San Diego, and I'm a portly Indian boy. When I showed her Mumbai, my home city, she was blown away.


"You have buildings?" "Look, there's an airport!" "Oh my god, you have cars?". How the hell do you think we get around, I asked. Her reply still rings on my head. Not walking, not cows, not elephants, not bicycles, not horse drawn carts. She said camels. If I ever saw a camel in Mumbai I'd stop everything I'm doing and say "Holy cow, that's a camel!".

Not mine, but someone posted awhile back about his British boss getting pulled over for speeding. As is the tradition in England, he got out of the car to meet the police officer and it went about as well as you'd expect.

Went to Wal-Mart. The fabled creatures there are just as the Internet portrays them as. Nonetheless still mind blowing.

I'm from the UK, lived in the US for about 5 years now. Few things that annoy me - You want to get a loan for a new car? There's a fee for that (on top of the interest). You want to take money out of the ATM? There's a fee for that. You want to exchange some currency? There's a fee for that (on top of the exchange spread). A product has money off? You'll have to send something to receive it (they hope you can't be bothered). Pretty much any service, someone will try to make a few extra dollars off you.

Me paying at 'gas' station.
Attendant hears I have an accent.
Smiles at me.

"You speak English so well"

"Thanks! Although I should do...I'm from England"

Cue confused look.
"Wait? They..." she trailed off "speak......English........there?"

Her colleague stared at her in open mouthed disbelief and then broke out laughing with the other customers. She looked mortified. To be fair I felt terrible for her. She was only trying to be friendly to a foreigner.

"Do you know any vikings?". Asked by a nice young blonde with a straight and serious face in McDonalds. I'm from Denmark.

Also, Good god Texas has a lot of fat people.

Brit here. We went to Ruby Tuesday's in The Florida Mall and saw a woman take a bowl from the salad bar, fill it with Ranch dressing and sit back at her table eating it like it was soup. Luckily that wasn't the only treat Florida had for us on that trip...

I'm from America, and I have a friend from Australia. It amazes him that there are so many flags, everywhere. Appearently that is a distinct USA thing. He'll make jokes about how we all forget where we are.

Australian here - I went to Houston last year and spoke to a girl my age in the airport, we got chatting about Uni/College (it was around July) and she asked me if I was on my summer vacation. I casually explained I was on my winter break. She was genuinely confused and did not understand how it was summer in the US but Winter in Australia. I tried to explain but eventually gave up.

Went into a shop, they had spray on cheese.

I don't think the majority of Americans here know how ridiculous that sounds to the rest of us.

Spray

On

Cheese.

I went to Applebees (mistake no1 i guess) I was then served by a nice young lady called Brittany who asked me with a serious face if we have trees in Scotland.

"So do you live in East Germany or in West Germany?".

After moving from Africa, as a teen, I am repeatedly asked why I moved to Africa in the first place, to which I reply that I've always lived there.

I am also asked, "So why are you white?" To which I reply, "Oh my god, Karen, you can't just ask people why they're white!" However, when they reply with blank stares I realize they aren't referencing Mean Girls...

Some other questions:

•So Africa is one country and all the borderlines are, like, states?

•Are there, you know, buildings?

•You guys have memes over there, right?

•Are you AUSTRALIAN???

I've been many times but the first Time I went to Downtown LA, It hit me how unglamorous parts of the US really are. Same with NY You step outside of the business district and things look like really old and rundown.