16 People On Things They Couldn’t Believe About America Until They Moved Here

[Venus193]

...   The crocheted and knitted TP covers bring back memories.  Ghastly things!  ...

Oh!  That reminds me.  When I was little they also made Kleenex box covers like that.  I always thought "Ewww ... someone blew their nose in one and then grabbed the box with one hand to hold it still to pull out another tissue. 
Ewww ...!!"

I never got down with those.  The plastic ones that could match the room decor?  No problem.

[PastryGoddess]

Most places that use these are rather small and don't have air conditioning.

Ah, I think we may be talking about two different things.  What I'm talking about is not air conditioning.  It is a horizontal fan that sits on top of the door and blows air down and out.  It's not super strong, but its strong enough to prevent bugs from flying through it.  Even the small convenience stores in my area have them.  And most of those stores don't have a/c

Is that with that big blast of air thing is for? I never knew that!

Yup Sure is

[Thipu1]

We have a Christmas toilet roll cover but we don't use it in the bathroom.

It's a 'Miss Christ-Mouse' and we use her as part of our holiday decor.  She's wearing a lace-trimmed Dickensian dress with a bonnet  and a faux fur muff. MIL made her many years ago and she works very nicely with a Dutch Sinter Klaas in our entry way.     

[RingTailedLemur]

We have a Christmas toilet roll cover but we don't use it in the bathroom.

It's a 'Miss Christ-Mouse' and we use her as part of our holiday decor.  She's wearing a lace-trimmed Dickensian dress with a bonnet  and a faux fur muff. MIL made her many years ago and she works very nicely with a Dutch Sinter Klaas in our entry way.   

Oh my, I had quite a different image for a moment there.

[GlitterIsMyDrug]

We have a Christmas toilet roll cover but we don't use it in the bathroom.

It's a 'Miss Christ-Mouse' and we use her as part of our holiday decor.  She's wearing a lace-trimmed Dickensian dress with a bonnet  and a faux fur muff. MIL made her many years ago and she works very nicely with a Dutch Sinter Klaas in our entry way.   

Oh my, I had quite a different image for a moment there.

Oh good I wasn't alone.

[perpetua]

We have a Christmas toilet roll cover but we don't use it in the bathroom.

It's a 'Miss Christ-Mouse' and we use her as part of our holiday decor.  She's wearing a lace-trimmed Dickensian dress with a bonnet  and a faux fur muff. MIL made her many years ago and she works very nicely with a Dutch Sinter Klaas in our entry way.   

Oh my, I had quite a different image for a moment there.

Tea, screen.

[Thipu1]

Moving right along---

Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s many Russians came to NYC and settled in The Brighton section of Brooklyn.  Brighton is just to the east of Coney Island.  It's right on the ocean and, because it already had a thriving Russian community, was nicknamed 'Little Odessa'. 

One day at work, I was talking to a Russian woman who moved there from Moscow.  She was  disappointed to find out that Brighton can get very cold in the winter with brutal winds off the Atlantic ocean.

She took the name 'Little Odessa' a bit too literally and thought Brighton would be sub-tropical.  Before leaving Moscow she had given her fur coat away to a cousin and deeply regretted that decision. 

[Jocelyn]

I can't imagine living in a wooden house.  Doesn't it get cold?

There are hollow spaces between the studs (the 2x4 pieces of lumber that run vertically and form the frame of the house. On the inside, you have sheetrock walls; on the outside you have siding (wooden or metal). In those spaces, you have fiberglass insulation. A well-insulated house also has insulation in the attic to keep the heat from going up through the ceiling. It is possible to drill holes in the siding of older houses and blow in liquid insulation that then solidifies in those gaps. How warm your house is depends upon the insulation you have in the walls. Plus, it also blocks noise from outside. Some people even put insulation in the interior walls of the house, to tamp down on noise leakage from room to room. I've lived in houses with brick exteriors instead of siding, but the house itself is built using a wooden frame. As are many commericial buildings, too.

[pierrotlunaire0]

My home is wooden.  It has a shingled siding.  The shingles run vertically, and the actual house plans run horizontally, so that air just doesn't get through.

[Copper Horsewoman]

Very cool link!  This is one of the questions I love to ask first-time visitors, since they have been subjected to USA tv, movies, music,etc. for all their lives,what most surprised, or amused, or startled them, and I also say that nothing they say could offend me, I really want to know.  Some of the answers I have gotten:
Every child in a family have their own bedroom, even if all are boys or girls.
How big houses are, even for the middle class.
The "compact" cars here are bigger and more powerful than most European "average" cars.
How much the CEO of a company makes compared to the regular worker, and even more than the President.
Restaurant portions, and the obesity they see regularly.
How America does not take universal healthcare and really quality education and good public transportation as the right of every citizen, and to pay taxes willingly to support these public good.
How until 9/11, America lived in a bubble like nothing bad could ever happen here, and how shocked we all were that it did.

Really makes one think, doesn't it?

[katycoo]

Every child in a family have their own bedroom, even if all are boys or girls.
How big houses are, even for the middle class.
The "compact" cars here are bigger and more powerful than most European "average" cars.
How much the CEO of a company makes compared to the regular worker, and even more than the President.

These ones at least I think are predominantly true for Australia also.  Our PM only earns about $350K.

[Copper Horsewoman]

You think it starts with parents? I learned to cook from my parents as it meant they could have the help if myself and my sisters or even have me making the meals myself.

I think all children need to learn how to cook before they leave home. And how to do laundry.

If you come from a very poor background you may well have been living with no working fridge or freezer (or it is a dorm fridge or maybe barely works) and maybe one burner on the stove. Slumlords still exist and they will resist fixing appliances. And if you complain too much you get evicted and have to find another place to live as cheaply.


GlitterisMyDrug you must live in the Southwest ; the roadside cross memorials are mainly found there. (Also Central and South America- kids didn't believe me when I described them after coming back from Venezuela as a kid).

I live in Northern Illinois, near Wisconsin:  roadside crosses are usual here, too.  When I lived in Chicago, public transit (buses and subways/els) were easy and prevalent.  Once you get outside the cities, other than commuter trains going into the big city there is NO buses or other public transit to speak of.  Cars are necessary. 

[VorFemme]

Very cool link!  This is one of the questions I love to ask first-time visitors, since they have been subjected to USA tv, movies, music,etc. for all their lives,what most surprised, or amused, or startled them, and I also say that nothing they say could offend me, I really want to know.  Some of the answers I have gotten:
Every child in a family have their own bedroom, even if all are boys or girls.
How big houses are, even for the middle class.
The "compact" cars here are bigger and more powerful than most European "average" cars.
How much the CEO of a company makes compared to the regular worker, and even more than the President.
Restaurant portions, and the obesity they see regularly.
How America does not take universal healthcare and really quality education and good public transportation as the right of every citizen, and to pay taxes willingly to support these public good.
How until 9/11, America lived in a bubble like nothing bad could ever happen here, and how shocked we all were that it did.

Really makes one think, doesn't it?

To be fair, I think some older people still remembered the lesson that we weren't immune from WWII (Japan & Pearl Harbor) - but the younger generations just didn't think about it at all...until it happened.

[Copper Horsewoman]

(This is a perennial arguement with him.  He insists that it's not raw, it's rare.  I say that if it's still cold and red in the middle, that part is RAW.)

A blue steak is one that's barely seared on the outside, vaguely lukewarm on the inside.

And totally delicious!  I generally order my steak "as rare as you will serve it".

"Moo-ing rare" is what I ask for. 

[Hmmmmm]

Very cool link!  This is one of the questions I love to ask first-time visitors, since they have been subjected to USA tv, movies, music,etc. for all their lives,what most surprised, or amused, or startled them, and I also say that nothing they say could offend me, I really want to know.  Some of the answers I have gotten:
Every child in a family have their own bedroom, even if all are boys or girls.
How big houses are, even for the middle class.
The "compact" cars here are bigger and more powerful than most European "average" cars.
How much the CEO of a company makes compared to the regular worker, and even more than the President.
Restaurant portions, and the obesity they see regularly.
How America does not take universal healthcare and really quality education and good public transportation as the right of every citizen, and to pay taxes willingly to support these public good.
How until 9/11, America lived in a bubble like nothing bad could ever happen here, and how shocked we all were that it did.

Really makes one think, doesn't it?

While I'll agree on quality, I really think they should check their facts about our willingness to pay for education. In 2011, the US spent on average $7.7K per child as compared to the next closest spend of $5.8K in the UK and $5.7K in AU. It's not that we aren't willing to pay taxes to support education, it's that we can't seem to figure out how to manage the spend for the biggest bang.

And if you look at the cost of fuel, there is a reason why the US hasn't been forced to spend as much on public transportation. Privage transportation in other countries is just too costly.