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I'm 17 years old, from the Czech republic. Spent 2 months in the U.S. (mostly around Atlanta, Georgia but also a week in both Charleston, South Carolina and Austin + San Antonio, Texas)
Positively shocked:
People were super nice and polite.
People were not as fat as everyone say.
How big portions of food were served in restaurants.
Number of people from different backgrounds, races, habits...
How many trees there was in Atlanta! So beautiful!
Thousands of different kinds of restaurants.
How cheap clothing and electronics were.
Services were on higher level than in Europe.
The cities were really clean. (at least where I've been)
Negatively shocked:
Most people didn't knew other language than English.
People were texting while driving.
A lots of people have childish humor (I noticed that in the cinema)
My friends asked me:
''So, Czech republic is a part of Russia?''
''Do you have cellphones in the Czech republic?''
''Do you have matches in the Czech republic?''
I've been standing in front of about 40 people and said that I'm from the Czech republic and what I've heard right after was: ''Ah, Czechoslovakia!''
I love United States and will be always happy to visit again, but the only major issue I see is, that people should learn more geography.
I'm 17 years old, from the Czech republic. Spent 2 months in the U.S. (mostly around Atlanta, Georgia but also a week in both Charleston, South Carolina and Austin + San Antonio, Texas)
Positively shocked:
People were super nice and polite.
People were not as fat as everyone say.
How big portions of food were served in restaurants.
Number of people from different backgrounds, races, habits...
How many trees there was in Atlanta! So beautiful!
Thousands of different kinds of restaurants.
How cheap clothing and electronics were.
Services were on higher level than in Europe.
The cities were really clean. (at least where I've been)
Negatively shocked:
Most people didn't knew other language than English.
People were texting while driving.
A lots of people have childish humor (I noticed that in the cinema) My friends asked me:
''So, Czech republic is a part of Russia?''
''Do you have cellphones in the Czech republic?''
''Do you have matches in the Czech republic?''
I've been standing in front of about 40 people and said that I'm from the Czech republic and what I've heard right after was: ''Ah, Czechoslovakia!''
I love United States and will be always happy to visit again, but the only major issue I see is, that people should learn more geography.
Reminds me of when I leave out of Texas. People ask me stupid questions similar to those.
The size of things. Americans are used to crossing large distances every single day as if it were a matter of course. So many Americans have at least an hour long commute-- it's very common. Here in Sao Paulo, it's unthinkable. In Europe, it just wouldn't happen.
There are people in Europe who commute for one hour or more...
When I first went to the States as a child, what shocked me was how big everything is. Cars are BIG, burgers are BIG, ads, voices, people, flowers and houses, everything seemed to be so much bigger than over here (Europe).
When in NY and Virginia later on, I was surprised by the getthoisation of society, how you'd be advised not to venture in such and such area, given data on crime rates, or found yourself, as a white person, being stared by a full room of blacks just because you dared to catch the bus.
When I started working for Americans I was shocked that their first question would always be: what do you do? (who cares?) and that they would happily accept going without holidays (well, what we in Europe consider holidays and weekends in any event) for the rest of their lifes.
And I never fail to be amazed, and awed, by AmerÃcan's frequent shows of optimism and can-do attitude.
One of the first things I noticed when I moved to the US from Germany was the size of EVERYTHING. The people, the cars, the houses etc. Everything had to be giant, and every kid got their own room....that was weird to me. Me and my sister shared a room until we moved to the states and it was fairly common. We also didn't get a 'play room' or bonus room either.
Nudity was interesting, although I didn't notice that until a few years later. How uptight everyone was about nudity.
Alcohol... I was allowed to drink a small amount of wine from a young age. Turning 21 wasn't exciting because my dad used to make beer and let us taste it when we were growing up. People in the US freaked out regarding alcohol and it's consumption, which was very odd to me
I love United States and will be always happy to visit again, but the only major issue I see is, that people should learn more geography.
Yeah we're pretty poor on that. Some say it's because we're large and only border two nations, which certainly has an impact. Still I think we tend to come out worse than Australia or Canada as well and they're also fairly large in area, but border even fewer nations.
Then again I was a geography minor in college so maybe I'm judgmental.
I think world geography is not given much weight in the curriculum. I'm from Europe and we had to learn the world capitals (and I mean even the tiniest Pacific island country) in the equivalent of Junior High. I doubt they do it anymore though. They probably think it goes against the rights of the child...
So anything more worth saying or was this thread exhausted?
I've got something for you Thomas.
I have to say, having been in the US last September and having noted just how much more available everything is over there, I'm really struggling of late with regard to how everything in the North Eastern States seems to shut down over late Fall and Winter.
I guess I've always held the idea that everything (in comparison to here) is always open all the time and now I'm finding it really disappointing to discover that a great deal of the places I'd like to see whilst I'm there over Christmas will actually be closed.
I can see it makes sense but it's still kinda shocking, none the less.
(not to mention frustrating)
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