Foreigners Share 30 Of The Weirdest Things About The US That Americans Don’t Even Realize

Someone from my country who lives in USA told me that without a car you are crippled in America.

Edit: this is just an observation, not criticism.

The point of that person was that a car in US is a necessity, not a luxury or extravagance or a status symbol or sth.

And a lot of people buy second hand or used cars coz they are cheaper.

Car dealerships have huge flags. I don’t get why you’d have a flag the size of ten RVs.

So many roads don’t have street lights.

Not weird, but portion sizes are also huge. I struggled with finishing my food sometimes.

For me as British bloke who only travelled for 6 weeks in the US:

Your public transport is largely poor but everything is built for cars and your cars are big.

You advertise not businesses but personalities a lot. So it’s not that KGH Estate Agents will well your property but MARY HUGHTON WILL PERSONALLY SELL YOUR HOUSE (with a big picture of her face).

Random people will talk to you. I’m a Londoner so it is different up north in the UK but especially when I got to the southern states people were so happy to talk to random strangers.

You guys actually sit at the bar in bars. When we go to a pub/bar, we’ll go with friends and rarely interact outside of that group really. You guys jump up at that bar and just start chatting.

Where homelessness is visible it’s bloody awful. San Francisco was horrible for this, me and my (now) wife ended up making a load of extra spag bowl to give to the homeless people outside our hostel because it was shocking to us.

If I think of anymore I’ll add them but it’s Christmas Day and I should probably talk to my family.

Canadian here, canadas fast food restaurants have signs that fairly normal height, just enough to get the point across while not being obnoxious, cross over to the usa and within 5 seconds of leaving customs you can see fast food signs hundreds of feet in the air on giant poles. 2 - 3 times taller than here in Canada, why!? also finding peanut butter and jelly swirled into the same jar was shocking.

When we were flying between cities, I found it weird to look out of the side of the plane and see towns midflight. In Australia, once you leave the city's airspace the landscape is completely barren until you arrive at your destination.

Ranch; it is somehow both delicious and revolting. And changes which with every mouthful.

European here, to me what was surreal was how openly they talk about guns and how many they have at home.

Also I took an uber for what 5-10 mins to get back to the hotel and the lady driving me super casually told me about how when she was a child in the compton area, she'd be playing outside, lie to the ground when there was a drive by then just continue playing

The rituals for paying after food.

Call server ask for bill Wait Server brings bill, put card down Wait Server takes care and bill away Wait Server brings back copy, you add tip Get up and leave.

In NZ Finish meal, go to front of the restaurant and pay then leave (no tip)

Neon signs for a f!@#$%^ funeral home will always stand out.

Ads in general actually, it is so hard to go anywhere without having something in obnoxiously large text trying to get your attention. Whether it be on the road, on tv, on the internet, and hell even in people’s phones.