People come to America, thinking it’ll be familiar because they’ve seen it in the movies, but then arrive and realize the country’s pretty different from what they were expecting.
Nowhere to stand
Some tourists try walking through our suburbs. Then they realize there’s nowhere safe to actually walk. There’s no sidewalk. There’s no footpath. No, we just have roads, driveways, lawns, and mailboxes.Â
Tourists can’t believe it. They’re used to places where sidewalks are a given, and you can go on foot almost anywhere. Our car-centered lifestyle is too much for them.
The sandwich surprise
Our bread tastes a lot sweeter than many foreigners expect. They’ll order a basic sandwich. Then they’ll wonder why the bread tastes like cake. It’s because added sugar is so common over here, even in bread.Â
The difference is pretty obvious to tourists. They’re used to eating much plainer bread, although that doesn’t mean they hate our bread. Some of them love it. But some act like the toast personally offended them.
Everywhere at once
They notice the flags immediately. No, they’re not only outside government buildings. They’re outside houses and car washes. They’re outside schools and diners. You’ll even find them outside mattress stores, gas stations, and on pickup trucks.
They’re impossible to avoid. It surprises a lot of tourists. For them, flags only appear during sports events or national holidays. Our love for the flag becomes surprising after a few days.
Straight from the screen
Tourists know about American school buses. But a lot of them assume they’re exaggerated for the movies. Hollywood didn’t invent anything because they really are that color, and they really do have folding stop signs. They sound the same, too.
Millions of American students ride these buses every day. Tourists don’t see a single bus. Instead, they see them absolutely everywhere once school lets out. They can’t believe they’re real.
The aisle keeps going
Tourists walk into American grocery stores to buy snacks. Then they spend twenty minutes in the cereal aisle. Yes, the stores are enormous here. But what really surprises people from abroad is how much space we have for each category.
We’ve got entire aisles for chips. We’ve got entire sections for soda. Tourists aren’t used to that. They’re more familiar with smaller stores, and they can’t believe our grocery stores look a lot like warehouses. There’s just so much to buy.
The roadside mix
Driving on American highways is an experience. The billboards switch every few seconds. There’s one sign advertising fried chicken, then the next one warns you to repent. Another one is for a personal injury lawyer.
A lot of tourists can’t believe all these signs are real. They don’t understand why there are giant Bible messages next to burger ads. However, private billboard companies sell ad space to basically anyone who can pay for it.Â
Just around the corner
Here’s another surprise on the road. Many visitors can’t believe how much we drive. Yes, we’ll hop into an SUV to pick up a coffee two minutes away. We’ll drive from one store to another, inside the same shopping center.Â
A lot of our daily lives revolve around cars. It’s way more common than in other countries. Here, owning a car is essential, and we’re happy to get in our vehicles to go practically anywhere.
Too much water
Our toilets surprise many visitors. Seriously. They’ll walk into the bathroom and think the toilet’s about to overflow. The water level is a lot higher here. Too high. It looks wrong at first, and that’s before you even get to flushing.
American toilets are loud. They’re aggressive. They’re a lot more everything compared to the toilets in many other countries, and it’s something travelers notice almost immediately. They see it in airports. They see it in restaurants. It’s the same giant pool of water each time.
Next to normal shopping
Some tourists walk into our grocery stores so casually. Then they freeze. They see ammunition sitting behind glass, just a few feet away from the breakfast cereal. It’s genuinely creepy. A lot of them aren’t used to seeing guns in public at all. Some of them are.
But they’re still surprised because most firearm goods are in specialized stores, with heavy restrictions. America treats them like another household product. For tourists, it’s strange how little we react. We don’t stop. We don’t stare.
Not here, but maybe there
Trying to understand American alcohol laws is a challenge. Sure, you can easily buy beer at one gas station. But it’s a different story in the next county. It’s a dry county. Another town nearby allows beer but not liquor on Sundays before noon. It’s so confusing.
Tourists expect one rule for the whole country, or perhaps for the state. The constant changes are too much for them. They don’t understand why the rules seem to change every thirty minutes.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
