46 Things That Surprised Non-Americans The Most When They Finally Got To See The US With Their Own Eyes

How kind the American people are.

If you believe a fraction of what you read on places like reddit you'd think they were all evil incarnate.

How difficult it was to exist without a car.

I could see the store from my hotel, but there was no pavement, no safe crossing, and a six-lane road between us.

It was physically close and somehow a 20-minute drive away.

I assume this question is related to the world cup, but I visited the USA for the first time exactly one year ago today, I'd already traveled to many other countries before that and I never was interested on visiting the USA, because of all the bad things one can read on the net on top of the current political situation, ICE, etc. on top of that I was visiting Texas which leans more to the right and it clashes with my views.

How wrong I was, I was IMMENSELY impressed by the warmth of the people (and the climate too!) and how educated most of them where. There wasn't a single day where I was out on the street and a random person wouldn't strike some conversation, compliment my tshirt, or my hat. Seriously I was incredibly glad to have been wrong on this, I was very surprised and just going around the city was already a lot of fun when considering all these interactions, I'd love to visit again for a longer time.

People talking about Jesus. Not preachers, just people conversing normally. Weird as hell to me.

The sheer size of your forests. Flew from North Carolina to Boston and looked down on forests for most of the trip. Appalachians perhaps?!

So much visible homelessness and mental health issues

I came from a small island. The fact that you can drive in a straight line for hours is so weird.

Not me but I had this question with a friend. They said the weirdest thing was the medicine commercials and that there was so many of them.

there's so much sky. any time i say this to anybody, they look at me like i'm nuts. i live in a huge british city where there are skyscrapers and huge buildings everywhere all densely packed together and i feel like in a way it "blinds" you to anything else around you. then on top of that, you've the fact it's always so rainy and overcast and grey here and everything feels so lifeless.

when i went to the states and drove around random smaller, residential parts of socal where everything's a lot smaller and way more spread out, i saw so much sky.

it's really hard to explain but it really hit me, especially during the gorgeous sunsets and sunrises and palm trees and greenery... like it snapped me out of everyday autopilot mode and reminded me there's a whole, massive, beautiful world out there and that i exist in it, not just in my own little grey one.

People are a lot more friendly if you are black with a forign accent than if you are black with an American accent

Landed in Atlanta in July - the HEAT. The humidity. How bright it was. The speed of everything, the size of everything. The shock of driving on a freeway and feeling like I would die.

The immense choice of everything. Freedom to speak openly and loudly is shocking. Paying for healthcare is still shocking after 2 decades here.

How kind & friendly most people are here. How truly awful a very few can be.
Biggest shocks overall: how people just accept that outrages like mass school shootings are just a normal part of life and cannot be stopped.
How politicians here are so blatantly corrupt and self-serving, yet are liked, tolerated and voted back in again time after time.

Shocked that there's people working 12 hours or more, 5/6 days a week to survive

The fact that a 3 lane per way road was not a major highway... Just a street

How much everyone smiles and starts conversations with complete strangers

The quantity of food. I’m English, and if there’s a large option I’ll buy it because I love to eat. On our first morning in the US we went to get breakfast and I ordered the large breakfast, without looking at what it contained. The first things they bought me were 8 slices of toast and a literal dinner plate full of bacon. I could not comprehend that.

(Brit here) The service. I had been travelling with work and my last destination was Washington DC. We were staying in Georgetown. I needed food but I wasnt particularly hungry. I just wanted something to get me by after a few days of flights and poor diet. I ended up getting a pulled pork sandwich with fries. I thought this would be... well a sandwich with some chips. It was massive. I barely made a dent in it. Delicious as it was.the girl serving me looked utterly distraught that I didnt each much and didnt want to take it with me. (Im in a hotel). I felt so bad for her for not eating all my massive dinner.

I'm from arctic Canada. I knew 1 black person.

In grade 9 I went to Baltimore for my aunts wedding and seeing so many black people in real life was mind blowing, because even the limited TV I was watching back then was pretty white washed. Mom had to tell me not to stare many times

Size of cars, pickup trucks specifically and freedom to fill up your own fountain drink.

My son drove some company associates from the Netherlands and Great Britain from Cleveland to Indy on business.

One of them fell asleep as soon as they left the airport and woke up 2 hrs later and asked if they'd left yet.

Everything looked the same, just flat, lol.

Homeless veterans with oxygen tanks.