I decided to make this thread based off of Ryan's experiences with America, and how different it is to the UK, such as drive-thru banks (wtf?! Most of our banks are in pedestrianised high streets, so that would be pretty impossible), sweet bread (France is also guilty of this), and going out to dinner in your sweats.

So, has anybody come across differences in another country that you thought were strange and/or funny?

Cars, when we went to America virtually everyone had massive cars, like 4x4's, people carriers etc.

I don't know if this is just the Orlando area, but there weren't any restaurants, everywhere had buffet starters and desserts, a bit weird really, something I would only expect from like pizza hut.

People seemed more helpful in shops, even though you could tell the workers were just as miserable as ours, they seemed to work more for their money. Where a lot of us do just enough not to get sacked.

EVERYTHING is bigger in America though! The cars are bigger, the buildings are bigger, the food portions are bigger (and unsurprisingly... the people are also bigger!).

Our cars are bigger though b/c we do have very large streets in most cities (I agree w/ you on the food and ppl though xD). In Taiwan there are NO big trucks like we have in the US simply b/c there is no room for them; there's itty bitty Vespa scooters everywhere. However if you take the Vespa and put it here, you're gonna look ridiculous b/c the road's are so big here. Most ppl I know who have HUGE trucks have them for their jobs like construction and need them. When/if I ever have kids I'd rather have a larger SUV than a mini van b/c... well, minivans are ugly imo. ^___^

And Australian people are certainly getting bigger too. xD If I recall correctly, one source said we overtook America in obesity (but not overweightness) per capita.

That's probably Orlando b/c it's a tourist city. Everywhere else we're snobs about buffets. I hate them. -___-

There are plenty of restaurants to eat at in Orlando. If you stick to the area where most of the tourists are (the area right around where Universal Studios, Wet 'n' Wild, Epcot, Disney etc) then there's nothing but buffets and crap. If you go outside of that you can find all sorts of great places to eat. Seafood, barbecue, fast food, whatever you want. If you start to go towards the residential areas there's loads of places to eat that don't involve buffets. My favorite place ever was Sonny's Barbecue... god I miss living in Orlando.

Up here where I live in Wisconsin SUVs/4x4s are necessary because of the slippery roads in the winters.
We get a TON of snow and our winters are a tad longer because we're so far north ;D

Maybe those people were on vacation? xD

Yeah but those winters can be survived without such huge gas guzzlers. I've survived my entire life in the north and never found an SUV or a truck to be a necessity. Not for snow, anyway. Needed trucks for farm work.

In this area, big Ford trucks line the streets, full of confederate flags and pro-america, anti-everyone else bumper stickers. Woot. *eyeroll*

Well, in Shacktown do anyway. hehe

Not saying it can't be survived lol

I've never had a truck and I've had four terrible winters driving.

oh yeah, they certainly suck.

But I hate winter driving anyway.l I have a feeling no matter what I was driving it would still suck. lol

Differences between the UK and USA:


Gas prices. People were complaining on the news this morning that gas had gone up to $2.50 a gallon or something. It's practically that a litre back home!! If our gas (PETROL! Another difference, we never call it gas) was $2.50 a gallon, there would be parties in the street. I think people would start drinking that shit for those prices.

Patriotism: There are American flags everywhere in Florida. They are outside most resteraunts and a lot of homes, and just about anywhere you can stick them. Sadly, the English flag is synonmous with anti-foreigner race hate in my native land, so you'd be frowned upon for hanging the cross of St.George all over your house. It's been usurped by the far-right, and nobody, bar wankers wants to be associated with them!

I'm just writing another entry on some stuff now! But here's a copy and paste from some of my recent entries:


Churches. Ok, we have churches. But nowhere near as many. On the main road near our villa, there are ELEVEN churches, all for different denominations of Christianity! I had no idea so many existed! One is specifically for Hispanic christians. Wtf! Why can't they just worship with the rest of you!? hahaha. And some of the churches are so tacky looking with big neon flashing signs outside, and huge plastic statues. There aren't many church-going Brits (less than 10% of our population goes to church) but I'm pretty sure that those that are would NOT worship in a Vegas-style chapel! .

Ten million different fast food chains. We are very limited in our choice in the UK, where the big names are Mcdoanlds, Burger King, Dominoes, KFC, Subway, and ....errrrr, I can't actually think of anymore. You guys have too many to name!! You also have Denny's and Taco Bell and Del Taco and AppleBees and Dairy Queen and Wendy's... and we would be here all day if we went through them all! I think that's awesome. I'm sure the nutritionists would fail to agree, but I'm all about the variety, yo!

Diet Dr.Pepper. One of my favourite things on earth. I will not be happy until this stuff is flowing down the streets of London. I saw diet Dr Pepper ONCE in the UK. And never again. Sad times. :( But you have lots of other cool variations on soft drinks too. Some I wouldn't dare to touch! And also DIET CHERRY PEPSI which is pretty fine. We don't even have cherry pepsi back home. :(

American food is sweet. Especially your bread. It tastes like it's sprinkled with sugar, yo! I tried some American bacon for the first time today, and spat it all back out. It tasted like confectionary! Dudes, there is a time and place for sweetness, and a bacon sandwich is NOT it!

Your steak tastes like God. When I die, I want to be buried in a pile of American steaks. They are so good, I could rub my face in them all day long.

You can cut red lights to turn right! WTF!? I had endured some scaryass taxi rides before I was informed that it was perfectly legal in the USA. I'd just thought that I had some crazyhead red-lighting taxi driver who was risking my life! In the UK you would be in a lot of trouble if you were caught turning left or right or anywhere on a red light. In the US, everyone does it! Like it's the most normal thing in the world!

I haven't long got back from Italy. I noticed a lot of differences between the UK and there too.

Especially:

Mono-culture: There wasn't a hint of outside influence, no multi-culturalism to speak of! In London you can order just about ANY food you want: English, American, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Indian, Thai, Polish. you name it, we have it! In Italy you can buy ITALIAN. That's about it. For a guy who doesn't like pizza, pasta, spaghetti or lasagne, it was a hungry couple of days! We did find ONE Mcdonalds. That was the only non-Italian eaterie in miles. And seeing as it was in St. Mark's square, (THE most expensive place on earth!) it cost about $25 for one meal! Shocking.

Lustiness: Italian men heckle women in the streets! They lech and they drool over them soooo indiscretely! If you did that back home you would end up arrested!! Either for being a pervert or for harrassment, yo!! I've noticed the men in Greece are also like this! It's so weird how different social conventions can be!

Haha the lustiness is synonymous with Greece and Turkey too. Bloody Mediterraneans ;D

Oh my!!!! I shall have to watch out when I'm in Turkey :P

YES!! I was there last year and OMG!!!

Speaking of lustiness, I was amazing in the U.S. Here in Aus, you have to be damn amazing for a guy to actually get off his high horse to ask to buy you a drink or ask to take you on a date. Men in Aus I think preferred to be chased rather than do the chasing. Alternatively, they have to be wasted off their faces to ask you to dance.
In the U.S, I couldn't believe how many fellas bought me coffee, gave me their phone number, asked to take me on a date, or give me a tour of a particular museum, or pulled over in their cars just to tell me im, "Damn fine" when I was walking down a street. I simply couldn't believe it! It was crazy, but awesome. I have no doubts that some of these guys were seedy and suss, but at least they were open about it!

Yes our boys are whistlers. XD Maybe not as much as Italians but get 1 teenage kid in a car being dared by his friends... and you'll have him showing off for you in the middle of the street. XD

25 bucks for a bigmac.. oh my

Unfortunately your experiences with bacon here probably weren't the best, but then, there are quite so many variations. We have pepper bacon (definitely not sweet), which you'd probably prefer. I enjoy the applewood smoked variety, myself, as it's slightly sweet but has a strong smoke flavor, perfect for pairing with a burger. There's regular old hickory smoked (and again, we Americans smoke bacon rather than salt cure it) which is probably what you had, and almost all "smoked" meats end up on the sweet side.

In re: red lights and right turns.....

If that scared you, I fear what would befall you while travelling in some states where you can take a left turn at a red light. Granted, you can only take that left turn and cross the other lane of traffic if the street you are turning onto is a one-way, but still. For the first couple years after I moved to one such state, I had a hard time doing that. I still do at moments.

Sounds like you might be referring to Michigan, LOL. We have what we call 'Michigan Lefts' which would confuse anyone not from our area, LOL.

We have a main street here (which might resemble a highway to others) that is 4 lanes across going one way and 4 lanes across going the other way, with a median in between. Every, oh ... 1/8th of a mile is a 'turn-around' where you can make a left to get on the other side of the road. We can make lefts on red there, LOL.

I never understood the sweet bread thing. Bread isn't meant to be sweet!

Sure it is! Yummiest thing ever invented. Goes greeeeat with el Pork.

Maybe YOU'RE not meant to be sweet!!

Here in South Texas there are bakery's everywhere. It is a part of life for almost everyone here to eat sweet bread. It is a huge tradition amongst the Mexcians here. Not sure for the rest of the United States but where I am from it is natural to eat sweet bread.

but are we talking about sweet bread as in.. bread thats ment to be sweet, like we have roske here which has sugar on top and is yummy, but what i cant stand is ordinary sliced bread with too much sugar! yuck.