American quirks, as seen by non-Americans

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Posted by Sir Four at 11:49pm Nov 8 '11
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You could easily lose an hour on this page: here

Some of the common themes are:

- the large size of cars and roadways, and the scarcity of pedestrians (or pedestrian-friendly amenities)

- the large portion sizes at restaurants, and expectation that you will bring home unfinished portions of food

- the friendliness of retail workers, and ease with which to return unwanted purchases

- the fact that police officers have a "default setting to be extremely rude and aggressive" rather than helpful, despite mottos like "protect and serve"

- jaywalking, i.e. crossing the street improperly as a pedestrian, is a crime

- a fixation on hygiene and cleanliness, such as in restrooms and grocery stores

- speaking of grocery stores... the endless varieties of every sort of food on display

- store employees bag your groceries for you

- encountering people who pay by check (cheque) at at grocery stores (which I agree is quite annoying)

- the wide expanses of land outside the urban areas (actually, being from the densely-populated New Jersey, I find this striking as well when I travel to other states)

- the overtness of religion (again... in the NE this is not as common)

- US flags, everywhere (seen to be a right-wing, nationalistic/jingoistic thing in other countries)

- drive-through everything

- tipping, even when service is not above average

- sales tax not being included in the marked price (this is apparently very bothersome!)

- turning at red lights

- verbose signage along roadways

- adverts for prescription drugs on TV (and the ridiculous warnings at the end)

- free refills

- US paper money is all the same shape and color; the dime doesn't make any sense

- apparently, the sight of yellow school buses and chinese take-out containers are "just like in the movies and US tv-shows"

- lack of school uniforms

- complementary tap water at restaurants (it's a defacto standard)

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