How I see the US after living in Europe for 5 years

hahaha I just had a nightmare that I had to choose between 40 brands of toilet paper it wasn't a nightmare this is the US I always enjoy coming back to the US to see family friends nature denature is unbeatable especially in a place like California but living in the U.S is sort of like living in one big Hollywood movie it's an experience The Good the Bad and the Ugly and after four years in Europe I'm back in the US at the moment so let me show you how I see the US now it's time to do some grocery shopping and of course I hop in my car and drive two blocks to my local supermarket and why walk when one can drive grocery shopping is an experience and Adventure you see I'm used to only one or two choices of Brands to choose from in the Netherlands here there are like 50 brands of everything to choose from from toilet paper to sausages to Coffee let's see hazelnut Maple pecan I'm I'm gonna go with caramel spice this time on one hand the variety is amazing on the other it can take me up to 15 minutes to buy toilet paper I know do you know about our national treasure Costco at Costco you'll find anything and everything an extra extra large everything really is bigger in the US plus the free samples and the cheap hot dogs and yes unlimited drink refills this is America holy crap the selection is crazy and and while it's really nice to come back and see all this Variety in supermarkets from Safeway to Costco to Trader Joe's it can be sometimes overwhelming when you have every single possible combination of coffee toilet paper and it can take me up to 20 minutes to buy a bag of chips and the thing about free soda refills while I still love the concept and I loved it as a child it's actually not so free because it's going to cost you in the long run in terms of your health it's time to go meet some friends for lunch and on the way there I see them oh my it's always a shock the homeless this is the part that Hollywood never shows but Life Goes On it's part of everyday life in a big city but I am looking forward to lunch and the food scene in the U.S from Asian to Mexican to everything in between there is something for everyone and fast food everywhere every block every Mall every day no wonder everyone is so big damn I already gained 20 pounds but I know I will lose it all when I get back to the Netherlands and during lunch my friend Vengeance her son had an allergic reaction went to the emergency room luckily he was fine but they received a bill for twenty thousand dollars and then my other friend tells me about the time he fainted got transported to the ER and was handed a ten thousand dollar bill it definitely makes one think twice before deciding to go to the ER and then we talk about work which is the most American thing to talk about and he tells me casually it's fine same old same old had to work this past weekend still working 60 hours a week and I think to myself if I ever decide to return back to the US I think it would be quite difficult for me to adapt back to the American way of life culture in terms of working the number of hours the stress the lack of vacation the fact that people don't take their vacation days but I do miss parts of American work culture the drive the ambition the energy being surrounded by people who are very ambitious ambitious about their careers it drove me to become a better person a more confident person and to be honest I do miss that because that is part of my DNA growing up in the US but it's a trade-off right it's a trade-off between yes you do make a lot more money in the U.S but the trade-off is timed and then we started talking about vacation another friend tells me about his jam-packed one week vacation visiting four countries and I was like how is that possible four countries one week then I remember that's how I used to travel as well and that's the thing right when you don't have that much time you learn to pack everything in I remember when I was traveling to Europe during my first time I traveled to 10 countries in two weeks because well when you only have two weeks you learn to pack everything in I had this Google Sheets the agenda every day from 7am to 10 P.M every hour had an agenda something to do and that's the thing right when you travel so far to Europe to Asia from the US and you only have one two weeks you better make the most out of your time now let's get back to paying the bill but wait what the hell is this sales tax tip Madness I need to walk off this madness and the lunch I walk towards Stanford University which is nearby I walk and I walk and then I realize that I'm the only person walking oh wow it's a lot further than I thought no wonder nobody walks in the U.S I arrived at campus to see a bunch of tourists American universities especially Elite ones are tourist hot spots the brand name the letters the cost of tuition it's one of the biggest businesses in the US and then I overhear some people talking about the most recent mass shooting a mass shooting at an American School in Suburban Denver they're 25 days in American 40 mass shootings it seems like this is the norm nowadays in the US it's sad and it's horrible and oh yeah the police they beat up someone else again what's sad is that many people no longer trust the police and I know plenty of great police officers but all it takes is a few bad apples to ruin it for the rest of them now I wonder what the news outlets are saying because I've stopped reading the news it's like this all-out war CNN versus Fox you get two different stories it seems like such a divided country nowadays the left versus the right Democrats versus Republicans the police versus the world and this is the thing that always shocks me when I come back now how divided the country has become I mean you can literally lose a friend because of Politics the the media has done a role in pitting this group versus this group as well and it's sad because it doesn't seem so United anymore it seems quite divided every time I come back and it's sad and the thing about the police well the police they have such a bad reputation now when in fact they should be part of the community protecting people and yes there have been very unfortunate events that have happened but when I think about the majority of the police officers that I have met in the past they've been good people genuinely good people and nowadays we tend to label People based on this profession Tobias when in fact I think it's wrong to do that I think we should judge people based on their character not on a label that we attach them to but yeah I hope things get better I don't think so in the short term but I hope things get better but hey at least public restrooms are still free in the U.S it's time to head to the mall to do some shopping and say hello to American consumerism an overly friendly customer service people shopping in the US is sort of like a game looking for deals getting credit card points it can be extremely fun and addicting but this is all part of the game of American consumerism so be careful or else you'll be in credit card debt like a dirt of Americans well it's late and it's time to head home and of course there's traffic at 3 pm and this guy ahead of me just cut off the cyclist it's quite a shock to see bikes cars buses motorcycles all merging together in one lane can be quite dangerous to cycle in an American city I then go and meet some friends for a drink and I meet all these techies and of course I get asked the popular question hey so what do you do I make YouTube videos oh so you work for YouTube and Google right no I just make videos oh so this is something that Americans do really well we tend to compare ourselves against one another it's a very competitive society and we do this at a very young age which school which college did you go to what type of job which company who got promoted it's part of the system it's a very competitive Society in my opinion compared to other societies and I remember there was one time when I first started off my career I was working in the big four accounting firm and I went out to a bar with some friends they were all investment bankers and I was talking to this one girl who was an investment banker and of course we talked about what we did and when I told her that I worked in a big four firm she kind of looked down upon me and said something very judgmental like oh you only work at a big four company and so I just remember feeling very crappy at that point in time like I wasn't good enough uh but I I don't blame her it's the system that we grow up in and we tend to judge each other based on what we do what a long exhausting day just another day in Hollywood just another day in the U.S of a

Channel: David Wen

Views: 2,772,352

Keywords: living abroad, moving abroad, united states, moving to europe, moving to the netherlands, moving to holland, usa vs. europe, american abroad, expat life, expat, expat in the netherlands, studying abroad

Id: oEjZk15SXaU

Length: 10min 26sec (626 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 19 2023