I think most restaurant meals here are cheaper (in Raleigh, New York is, of course, probably more expensive). And Diet Coke (or Coke Light) is WAY cheaper lol. I was just in Luxembourg a month ago, actually. Went to Vianden castle. My sister lives in Brussels so we went and had dinner with some of her friends up in Luxembourg. Very nice people. Except the whole family wore Crocs which makes me giggle...but very nice people!
My comparison to Brussels (since I spent more time there than Luxembourg, you will have to make the comparison between Brussels and Luxembourg...):
- Most everything is cheaper except, obviously, health care. And maybe fresh produce, as someone mentioned.
- People are more friendly. Be aware that sometimes they are honestly friendly and sometimes it's just being polite and they aren't necessarily your friends. But being open and friendly will make you lots of friends. I found people in Brussels to be much more suspicious and guarded.
- More optimistic/positive.
- Less liberal/socialist. In western europe, the two parties seemed to be democrat and socialist where here it is republican and democrat...so you will probably experience a one step shift to the right, on average.
- Housing is both nicer and less nice...it tends to be newer and have less serious issues but also tends to not have the character and antiqueness that makes old buildings cool. American culture is very disposable-oriented and this translates in many ways to products, houses, cars, etc. Cars and houses get fixed but most other things are more expensive to fix then to buy a new one.
- Very limited public transport (in Raleigh...big cities are different). That said, you can drive anywhere cheaper and faster than you could with subway+walking.
- Walmart/Target type stores where you can pick up everything in one trip...I missed this more than anything else when I was in Europe. Between having to go to 4 different stores and the fact that i had to walk to the subway, take the subway, then walk to the store, by the time I got done shopping, it took me all day.
- Big name American beer sucks, compared to Belgium at least, but it's very affordable. There are beer specialty places that actually serve good European beer, though (Raleigh Times, Flying Saucer). Ironically, it probably costs the same amount here as it does in Belgium, even though it's imported. Actually, this is true of many European products...I found I could get most things European things that I wanted...cheaper on the internet than I could buy them directly in Europe.
- Lower taxes (not sure how that affects you).
- Less social welfare programs.
- Ahm, less chocolate places...and no street waffle vendors! Street waffles are genius and it's one of the things that I can't comprehend why we haven't copied them.
- I would comment on dating differences but if you are married with children, those may not be of interest to you
- Service oriented stores. While a lot of them are underpaid and may not care, there is a much greater tendency to get good customer service. Most large retailers and restaurants train employees to be friendly to customers.
- Tipping. In the US, waiters and similar professions often get paid half of minimum wage (maybe $2.50-3 an hour at low end restaurants) but make that up in tips. It is customary to tip ~15% of the meals price on average, give or take 5% for good/bad service.
- We don't really have 'manifestations' except maybe rarely in DC and a couple other major cities. Certainly not in Raleigh.
- More obese people AND more superfit people. We kind of polarize on this one.
- Less green, less recycling. Guess that kind of goes with less liberal...
- More lazy in terms of daily life/chores (couch potatos, driving everywhere, etc.) but also less lazy in terms of working and having a job. Pretty strong work ethic.
- More individualistic.
- No super discounted RyanAir flights lol
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
