Non-Americans, What Surprised You About America? (Reddit Stories r/AskReddit)

non-americans what is the most shocking thing you saw when visiting the United States woke up early on vacation in Florida and the sidewalk outside my hotel was absolutely covered in lizards and it was amazing today I was in a shopping center and there was a woman pushing a push chair around however it wasn't a baby in there but two dogs that's more common than I'd like to admit Rite Aid I can get a full shot HIV test a bottle of tequila Snickers bars and pizza pockets all from the same store awesome I hope I can get an entire days worth of calories in one meal also having one dollar notes made me feel like I was rich I had a huge wad of notes with like 20 of em were one dollar bit still it's a nice feeling I'm Vietnamese and when I moved to the US cars outnumber motorcycles so it was like going to the Future the less shocking was seeing white and black people because I have never seen other races before I was surprised that I couldn't buy over-the-counter cough syrup without it went to a Walmart in Maine that was so huge the ceiling met the floor at a horizon also they sold liquor there on the cheap Peruvian here the first thing my mother and I said was well everything is so quiet I'm from Singapore and we're pretty much a conservative and Reserve Society I visited the US for an elective program at UCLA go Bruins and the thing that struck me most about America was everyone's friendliness or socialness people just strike up conversations with you ask how your days been and really connect with each other based on whatever is happening around them the weather how long the wait for the bus is etc and somehow these fleeting connections were very real and genuine to me I came back home a much more enlightened person with my horizons very much broadened so thank you Americans for showing me simple human kindness I was told I speak very good English I'm English French living in California American are super friendly and will engage a discussion whenever they can oh and Americans speak very loud too I was walking to target the other day and this woman was shouting at me asking for directions she wasn't panicked or angry or anything she was just shouting whole camps of homeless people living under highway overpasses in New Orleans in New Orleans those people are referred to as the middle class clean air clean tap water people even drink it WTF I came here from Russia people wishing me a good morning and saying hello when I didn't even know them always had a misconception that Americans were mean and rude wouldn't say would be shocking but just a tad startling basically flags flags everywhere on the pavements in the windows on the side of buildings up pills on cars on doors on posters pretty much anything it could be stuck to oh and the real comfy feeling of diners genuinely felt welcome in any I went for a cup of tea in always got a raised eyebrow and a question when I asked for hot tea instead of iced tea that seems like such a strange idea to go into a diner just for a cup of tea I'm from Australia and I couldn't believe how high the water levels are in your toilet my balls nearly touch the water hammer also your drive-through ATMs crazy yep when I went there I suddenly realized why their toilets overflow when they get clogged in Australia the water in the flesh isn't enough to overflow the bowl how frickin big the cars are I'm Italian if you like those prices you should go to Costco four point five gallons of ketchup one dollar and thirty cents so much types of fast food Canadian as well I'm used to like max for choices but in the States there's like 15 and there's a definite hierarchy of quality I'm American mid I live in Hawaii and visited Virginia which was more than just a time change I have never in my life seen so many restaurants they are everywhere it felt like every second business was a restaurant and there weren't any Hills where I was so directions were given thus take a left at the Golden Corral then right at the Cracker Barrel if you get to the Olive Garden you've gone too far the u.s. is huge and even states adjacent to each other can be very very different from each other the experience E is a person who visits San Diego California compared to rural West Virginia or Houston Texas or Wyoming is very different if you think McDonald's is cheap you should go to Speedway you can buy like three hot dogs and not even spend a dollar these hotdogs will probably kill you if you eat too many of them but still they are cheap sam's club hotdog for 99 cents 30 ounces drink 89 cents combo one dollar and seventy cents it's like a huge ass hotdog - coming in from China it was amazing how not crowded the public transportation was well after I got over the lack of public transportation sure rush hour was busy but I didn't have to wait for three trains to pass - rudely push my way into the subway also no one stole my stuff drive through banks my cousin from Vietnam flew into America sometime in December and she recalled that her first reaction was wow there's so much sugar covering the ground it was snow but she really thought we sprinkled sugar everywhere for shoots and giggles why she's never heard of snow I don't know but it was adorably hilarious yep we frosted the North just for her this is probably the most interesting thing I've read in a while I love to hear people's views on our country I just came back from three weeks USA and I remember being shocked by the huge amount of diabetes products in your average Walgreens glucose meters everywhere here in Holland people don't just get diabetes and if they do it's mostly type 1 and then I tasted butterfingers Frick then I understood as an Australian who just came back from America this year what a freak man you guys have pretzel M&Ms share that crap around Frick give you as Tim Tams Britt with a short list after visiting Florida one felt very very weird not recycling empties to baffled by savory food getting a sweet accompaniment pancake batter corndogs pizza and cookies et Cie 3 the cars being so big driving a Crown Vic felt like being a bus driver for everyone being so friendly took me two days to figure out how to react to random conversations with strangers awesome trip I never expected a culture shock I lived in China until 1999 grade 5 in elementary school there now a family moved to Dallas Texas within the next year the following things were very surprising to me one everything is ridiculously big from the size of our apartments to people's houses to the size of roads to the length of time it takes to get downtown we lived in North Dallas near Arapaho and Hillcrest to school classrooms resembled something like a wonderland there were bright colors everywhere tables are put together into clumps instead of ordered and neat rows from back to front then there were stuffed paper mache animals on the walls with people's names on it cute little mailboxes for everyone TVs and computers in every classroom a cafeteria filled with tasty foods and snacks and playgrounds with swings three we were learning 405 equals 2,000 in math class for the nice people at church actually took their religion seriously like actually believed it to be real I always thought religion were stories you learn because they were important cultural stories that had some education value like the story of Prometheus giving fire to humans for example I used to teach English in China I can see why you are so impressed about the state of American classrooms considering what the average Chinese classroom looks like your students are amazing to teach though even the naughty kids were a welcome break from the average British pupil how hard it is to get a drink I'm Irish and over 21 and in California even with a passport and driver's license I was treated with skepticism blood started to enter my alcohol stream a few times while I was there shudder Brazilian here everything is so freakin cheap from food to soda to cars and computers everything is 1/10 of the freaking international price there were a few things both awesome and scary which shocked the obvious ones are food-related obesity-related which have been said to death here and in other threads for me in a road trip across America it was the sheer size of cities towns et Cie along highways coming from Australia the sheer number of people and large cities was astounding NB I haven't been to China or India and while I have traveled elsewhere nothing compared to USA for me with regards to this children on a leash never seen that in Europe Confederate flags on trucks in Vermont yep that has become a redneck thing it's weird I have even seen black men rocking Confederate flags tax why not put a freaking price sticker that includes it so I don't have work out if I have enough money for everything you have to freaking drive everywhere Canadian here I first went to the u.s. in the 90s when I was in my early teens I had assumed that people would be rude and worst-case-scenario shoot me I was shocked when people were friendlier than they were back home so where y'all from followed by a big grin was the most common occurrence it was awesome the water pressure in American showers is so freakin high you could seriously kill people with those showers whether that is cheap MacOS meals here in New Zealand cost at least eight dollars and are upwards of $10 for a hunger Buster or anything bigger a huge sing advertising had come with a big cannabis leaf in Mexico we are killing each other in a stupid drug warrant in the u.s. is so casual that they have conventions it really shocked me I was on the west coast for about two months a couple of years ago I'm from the Netherlands things that struck me one portion sizes your small pizzas our large pizza your medium Pete says our family pizza your large pizza doesn't fit inside our borders to clean streets I saw a lot of $1000 littering fine signs must have worked because there wasn't so much as a cigarette over on the streets three space you have a lot of it everything is bigger taller larger wider and further apart for food is cheaper than in Europe alcohol is more expensive five I figured out why you don't see a lot of American cars outside of America I'll stop here before I insult people six no aggressiveness at sport matches I visited a Giants game in SF and couldn't believe my eyes when a Giants and Cardinals stand we're sharing a couple of beers and eating hotdogs together while cheering for different teams in Europe we have two separate soccer fans from the moment they arrived in the game city until the second they leave to stop them from bashing each other's brains heads in also the entertainment value with all the songs and games is much higher than in European sports matches it's just football fans who can't be trusted in Europe rugby fans are allowed to sit next to each other and drink alcohol et Cie there were not posters of Castro everywhere ped Xing head means duck in Tai Xing means Virgin Racing depending on the accent those signs are warnings so you don't get caught up in a duck race that's some dangerous crap I was in the M&M superstore in Times Square and saw a woman so fat just so fat she used a scooter sigh that's unfortunately not exceptionally unusual when I came to the States from Bangladesh I was shocked how rich people are so skinny and poor people are so fat in my country it was the opposite waffles from New Zealand and I've only ever seen them in America man I sure do love great content and I'm working on some of that over at dude man so you should you should go there right now go there go if you want subscribe to this channel subscribe then go over to doop man right there right there you click click right there you click right there you better do it but so help me you better go over there because you deserve something that's good I put my heart and soul into this stuff man stir them no pressure

Channel: Updoot Studios

Views: 429,847

Rating: 4.9025083 out of 5

Keywords: #updootst, updoot, reddit, r/askreddit, askreddit, ask reddit, r/, \r, r\, best of reddit, reddit stories, reddit story, top posts, funniest posts, funny, funny posts, funny reddit stories, funny askreddit, reddit funny, askreddit funny, askreddit stories, reddit stories 2019, people of reddit, sub, reddit cringe, memes, dankify, story, stories, tz reddit, toadfilms, best of, non-americans, americans, United States, USA, visitors, foreigners, shocking

Id: I12XkX1yKro

Length: 13min 28sec (808 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 27 2019