All I knew about the US I knew from the TV, meaning many cliches. I guess not all of them are true, but see what I found.
1. Americans are extremely cautious when they take responsibility for something. Well it might be that somebody takes them to court for their own stupidness:
- So we witnessed a flight attendant who explained the emergency exit only under constant agreement of the passengers sitting next to it. The explanation for life vests even included the rip open of the plastic bag wrapping.
- Warnings in the shuttle busses included the indication to hold the rail because the bus is going to move now.
- Remember the „caution the coffee is hot“ warning? I don’t know why but coffee in the US is so fucking hot that you get burns when spilling it over your self. No clue what they do to their coffees here, but it’s even too hot for me.
2. Boys play baseball and girls become cheerleader (confirmed even for the age of seven in Miami suburbs).
3. Americans are crazy about weapons. Within one day you meet at least one guy with a weapon on his belt strolling through a supermarket. And yes Walmart sells shotguns.
4. Americans fry everything. Even though we didn’t found any fried Mars bars as in NewZealand I still consider the choice of fried food quite huge compared to the german market.
5. Americans can’t drive and don’t know about traffic rules and how can blame them. Streets are huge and generally empty. Every crossing is equipped with a traffic light or a stop sign at every corner. But why they were unable to overtake our trailer on an empty road remains a riddle to us.
6. In SF many Hipsters proved Bart Simpsons way of transportation to be just as common as riding a bike in Copenhagen.
7. Kinder surprise eggs are supposed to be banned from the US (combining toys and chocolate is supposed to be more life threatening than guns) and you can get a several thousand dollar fine when importing it, anyway we found them in a small kiosks in SF and NYC anyway.
8. Drive In’s are a typical American thing. We even found Drive In’s for ATM’s, Libraries and Starbucks.
9. What I did not know but soon had to learn is that camping is huge in America. As soon as there is a weekend, holiday or retirement people head out with tents, in Pickups or Campervans (here known as RVs – recreation vehicles). And yes of course there are also the people constantly living in RVs in the middle of nowhere surrounded by desert (especially polygamic mormons).
10. A pro pro did you ever heard the term „recreation“? I didn’t, but it is so frequently used with everything with outdoor that I couldn’t come around it. So camper vans become recreation vehicles, campgrounds recreation areas, the most popular outdoor shop is called „Recreation equipment incorporation“, mountain biking or climbing recreation sports and however that fits in marihuana a recreational drug.
11. Who doesn’t remember the documentation „Supersize me“, where Morgan Spurlock overfeeds himself on some fast food we all know. It doesn’t exist anymore. The fast food branch reconsidered it’s menu a bit after the documentation caused something of a discussion of the effect of fast food on human health. But this doesn’t mean that food industry in general followed this example giving us some entertaining and memorable moments in US supermarkets.
Don’t want to know which size of bowl goes with these cereals.
Special breed for the US market?