7 USA CULTURE SHOCKS we experienced as New Zealanders in Big City America!

welcome back to another video guys today we're going to go through a list of seven things that shocked us when we visited big city America for the first time we flew all the way from New Zealand to visit the USA for the very first time yes and if you want to see some of the videos that we've released so far make sure you go and check out our Channel there's lots of stuff there from trying food for the first time Vlogs and all sorts of different things so make sure you go and check it out and yeah let's get into the [Music] list so today's list is in no particular order for how shock it was but we're just going to run through the seven items and first up is driving driving so obviously that's one of the first things we had to encounter when we arrived there so we arrived at the airport picked up our Dodge Durango GT which we've never heard of before yeah so it took us a while to find it in the parking lot so a few different models of cars that we weren't used to but remember that we we are coming from like a small island nation in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean so we're not you know used to all the different you know hundreds and thousands of different uh massive vehic variations of cars yes and the size of the cars was massive too so obviously me being the driver uh it was very interesting hopping in on the other side of the car yeah you guys drive on the different side of the road to us yes so that was actually my first time ever driving on that on the on that side of the road because I I'd been to Europe like all my childhood so I was I kind of knew being a passenger but then going from Passenger to driver was just like it was a it was a bit of a mind bendary but I had I had to sort of you know just calm down and get used to it and yeah it actually didn't take me that long no it didn't it took me a while to find the indicator but that's all right I had to turn a few corners without using the indicator the other thing is the amount of lanes yes so coming from New Zealand which is like you know Max like oh usually single Lane roads almost everywhere you go and then the motorway which is you know what we call the freeway Motorway yeah is usually maybe you know four or six absolutely Max like four to six lanes and we over there I remember counting the lanes it was it was 12 Lanes so six Lanes each side yeah that was crazy that I just felt like I was in like a I was I felt like I was in like Nascar or something there just so many lanes in cars just going straight past me and it was just insane I think Americans are probably more confident drivers than us here yes and they were just like zipping between lanes and just like everything just looked like it was just such a well oiled machine and I was just like I'm just going to stay where I am and see how I fit in cuz you know also added in that you don't really know where you're going exactly and so it's very unsure but I think you mastered it yeah yeah exactly and then you know we got to like a place like New York City where I didn't we didn't get a rental card and do driving but we notice like walking through the streets or even in the taxi remember yeah that the beeping is like a language of its own toing the horn is just a whole new language that we don't use here toing in New Zealand if you beat the horn only means one thing yeah you're enraged and followed by a big middle finger yeah but over there it's like you're waiting in line at the lights and it's like beep it's like oh this is taking a while like beep yes it is like everyone's happy and and they good old chat good old chat with the uh with the hor guns guns that was a big one for us huge because we we turned up to the USA thinking that we would see guns everywhere yes because of what we' heard in the media or just how it's portrayed in the in the rest of the world yeah we didn't see any I know it's crazy but the other thing is that we knew that like you know gun use and gun ownership varies in gun laws diff like they're very different between different states that's true but I mean even when we got to Texas we saw none no guns only on law enforcement yeah I mean Texas is like Texas and places like Florida probably places that you would expect to see more of them but we didn't see them anymore compared to California or New York or anything was legitimately thinking I would turn up in the country with people just like walking around and just see guns and holsters everywhere yeah but um yeah shocked that I didn't see more guns only on law enforcement which our our law enforcement don't carry guns no but only in the only in their actual patrol cars that's right so they don't actually carry them on them so we're even not used to seeing that yes um in fact the police said don't don't even wear bulletproof vests they wear stab proof vests true yeah and especially since we've just reacted to that video where we saw about how crazy the gun some of the guns can get over there I mean we weren't expecting to walk over there and people holding like big rifles but I I do remember one instance on Fifth AV when we were walking down the street and we saw it was almost like a SWAT car like a truck and and all those guys were standing outside and outside the Trump Tower that's right it was outside Trump Tower with all the big rifles so we were like wa that's crazy we take a photo yeah we took photos and everything and we were like you know it's just a photo like but they actually smiled for the photo they were really cool they were really cool they were super cool about it but yeah that's just one thing we noticed that we was totally yeah completely the opposite of our expectations yes the wealth Gap yeah so that was one that was it was it's it's such a strange phenomenon because it's almost like you know if you're in the presence of like you know a Ferrari or something or a Lamborghini driving past you watch okay let's just let's make something clear from We're from New Zealand and there aren't many Ferraris or anything like that here Lamborghinis like at all at all so seeing one is a very rare sight and it's kind of exciting so when we went to America and we saw heaps of Ferraris and you know Lamborghinis and stuff we were like oh that's amazing but then on the flip side to that on the very same street is the struggle that we saw as well the amount of homeless people and people just like struggling I mean if you I mean especially uh in New York you know with the the addicts down in the subway yep and definitely in la you're strolling past massive Hollywood mansions and in the same street you've got um you know tents put up at the side and it felt like the tents just went for Miles yeah you've got the homeless and then you've got you know Ferraris and expensive cars driving straight past and that was sort of shocking actually it was it was really polarizing very polarizing and it really stood out to us I think here in New Zealand we have you know wealthy areas we also have not so wealthy areas but they're not usually next to each other you know and also what's crazy another thing that we found out was that apparently if you're if you're homeless and you squat in an empty home for seven years and you have M you can prove that you had a male sent to you uh sorry you only have to live there for one year yeah yeah one year and then you can legally stay there for seven years right so that was wild so that was crazy so I I don't know if maybe like the homeless people are you know trying to do that maybe or if there's difference between homeless people and squatters yeah but here in New Zealand I feel that like if you were homeless and you were in a wealthy area you'd be moved on you would likely be moved on by the police yeah um if you were outside homes or that sort of thing but yeah yeah crazy I know [Music] crazy so the cost of food was another thing that shocked us it did because I think our expectations going into the cost of I guess everything in America versus New Zealand is that everything is cheaper in the USA yeah that's something that's a premise we've almost all been told that you can shop up large you can you know the cost of things is far cheaper in the USA and I think we went into it sort of with that in the back of our mind although we had sort of been warned by people that had been there recently that it wasn't the case anymore with inflation and everything with inflation um shopping I think we could say was cheaper but when you account the exchange rate and how much a New Zealand dollar is worth against a a US dollar it's not cheaper um but definitely we noticed it in the food industry particularly the service industry not so much the supermarkets I think that the supermarket food was well priced yeah the grocery store yeah even with the exchange rate I think the grocery store was was well priced it was more restaurants service eating out tourism I guess areas yeah I mean yeah fast food and stuff like that fast food all of that wasn't as cheap as we thought it would be no um and then you have the tips on top of that and then you have tipping on top of that so which we are totally not used to accustomed here I think when you're a tourist and you're not from a country that tips which is pretty much every country except for the USA is that correct that's actually a really good question I don't know I think I've only ever heard of Americans tipping same yeah um I think that's something that t tourists forget to budget in yes um or or find it difficult to budget in because you don't really know like how much you should give like if there's a general rule in a different state or a different restaurant and you also don't know before you go there if you're going for the first time you don't know which industry you tip and which you don't and what's expected it's really hard to get your head around that both financially and I guess the etiquette of tipping yeah you're going in blind you don't really know what's expected yeah exact and that that was a challenging point but main shocking thing was the price of food [Music] yes fast food so good like do we need to say anymore it was like shocking how good it was shockingly good fast food and that's the thing is that we do have fast food in New Zealand obviously but we have such a limited amount comparatively to America and you know how fast food always tastes the same you're always the same thing it's like we had this very tiny pallet of fast food and then you go somewhere for the first time in your 37 years of life and you're trying all new fast I know your whole your mind your mind has just opened up to A Whole New World it's just crazy like I mean you know I would say that as someone who's eaten New Zealand fast food for his whole life it's Rel ly Bland compared to what we experienced in America and do you know why why sources yes and sides oh all the special sources special sources and they're like unique to each each restaurant oh my goodness like so many and also all the sides sides I feel like in New Zealand are not a thing like sides are a whole menu in sou America it's crazy the only sides you get here is fries y just fries basically and then like over there I mean you've got like you know mac and cheese you've got like the the bean dip and rice there's always an array of sides that you can get get at a fast food restaurant in America y doesn't exist here huge size menu so we were absolutely shocked with how good it tastes I was okay I was I was legitimately shocked how good the fast food really was I was expecting more of the same yeah but it wasn't no it's so good I know yeah and we have a Popeyes opening up just up the yes let's go popy honey on the chicken we're so [Music] excited and we move on to number six which is just the sheer size of the cities that encountered yeah that we went to and and as well just the volume of people moving through these ginormous cities mindblowing really mindblowing um our biggest city is ockland yeah 1 million people we were both born and raised there so we know the big city life but that is like Mega City life I just think as well the size of the buildings yeah I the skyscrapers skyscrapers yeah it's just everything on a way bigger scale and yeah like you said just the sheer amount of people that you encountered like face to face too I mean you could walk down like Main streetland and it wouldn't be crazy busy but there you're like you know zigzagging between crowd Crossing and you know even like the waste management there with all of the rubbish bags on the roads I know and it's being collected yeah I can't imagine the the task that it would be to take care of those cities on a day day to-day basis was it was like a well oiled machine yeah it was yeah it was fascinating to watch it was very well run but at the same time uh you know the most of the cities that we visited in America they just that one city alone was um you know around if not more than the entire population of our country New Zealand if not a lot more yeah so that was a really mindblowing thing to to encounter as [Music] well finally we've arrived to the last item yes and it is it's a good the difference in accents yes wow wow okay so you know coming from New Zealand there is uh like you know yeah we're a much smaller country like geographically too but I mean if you go from the very top of the country to the very bottom you're going to find like a very very minor minor difference we can hear it yeah cuz we're used to it cuz we're used to it from from the people down south but if foreigners came here you would you would never pick it up no you wouldn't really be able to tell but we I think as someone who's only ever been exposed to movies from the US yes um all the Hollywood movies I never noticed much uh change in accent in those movies because I think like most of the movies I think they kind of like to keep the general American accent like just the same and most of them are also made in California true so we had like our our California our Hollywood tour um guide yeah he was awesome James was awesome yeah so you know his language is like you know like you know go next door to to the 7-Eleven and grab yourself a big Golf and some 10 wings and and you're straight like all that sort of stuff he was awesome and even just like the language that they use is slightly different depending on the accent yes and then and then we got to New York we flew to New York and like we're like we're still in the same country right I know and they were like you know like you know New York it was completely different and it shocked me that I could pick up the difference in accents uh once arriving in the USA versus not picking it up so much when watching movies yes so um and then we get to Texas right oh I know well I mean first of all there was Miami and that was very sort of Hispanic flavor lots of Spanish people lot a lot of thick accents there but then yes when we got to Texas yeah that was like probably the most shocking one it was cuz we were like we were driving down the freeway we stopped off at a gas station and went inside uh to just get some water or something and I walked up to the front and the lady was like you know oh how how you doing like that like real slow and I was just like oh man this is cool cuz it's the first time that I'd really spoken to someone with like a Texas accent like that cuz we were like way out you know so kind and just so warm yeah and then someone walked in an old man like opened up the door and poked his head and he was he was like oh Excuse Me Miss uh I'm on pump number 16 like why why isn't the pump working and then she's like oh I'm so sorry I couldn't see you on the monitor it was tooo bright and and he's like oh that's quite all right and he just like closes the door and like walks out I was like oh my goodness they're so friendly like just their act their voices sound so warm they would have had no idea that there's this family from New Zealand just standing there like wow a real interaction keep talking yeah please keep talking yeah it was it was cool it really endeared me to the country I think hearing the different accents from the different parts of the country it was amazing yeah it was really cool yeah I guess just when you're so like geographically separated yet still in the same country you know you got such a huge like uh even like the dialect you know like some of the words that they all use is different as well you know we noticed the language that they use was uh you know you got your sort of localized you know slang that you use yeah it was very very interesting it was it was very cool and that's it guys for the list of seven things that shocked us about big city America and yes we know that there are many other big cities that we have not visited yet but we do have an amazing trip plan coming up soon we do and we're going to be dving more into small toown America and I'm sure we will make another list of observations yeah seven things that shocked us about smalltown America yes can't wait yeah so we hope you guys enjoyed this video and if you want to check out like we said at the beginning if you want to check out any other videos that we've released from our trip that we went on make sure you go and check out our Channel and also if you want to go and see all of our exclusive content over on patreon make sure you use the link down in the description box below and we love you guys and we'll see you in the next one bye [Music] bye oh

Channel: Your New Zealand Family

Views: 817,581

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Id: TREOXBeGKqA

Length: 15min 30sec (930 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 04 2024