"I Don't Think Europeans Understand": People Are Sharing The "Absolutely Wild" But Common Experiences Of Living In The US
Recently, Redditor u/trappedslider asked the Reddit community to name the uniquely American experiences that Europeans can never wrap their heads around, and as an American myself, I never realized how uncommon some of these are outside of American culture:
1."44-ounce drinks."
2."My partner lived in London. Whenever he'd visit, the garbage disposal would freak him out. He'd flip the switch to see what it would do and then jump back when it turned on. Also, he was horrified that I didn't own a kettle."
3."The absolute emptiness of wilderness areas. We were on a week hike and ran into a Frenchman who was hiking the other way and had been living off a packet of soybeans for the three days since beginning his hike. Based on his European hiking experiences, he had planned to buy food when passing through villages or farms throughout the day. He was like, 'Where are the farmers, sheep, and villages?' We let him know that in the US, when the trails run through wilderness, national parks, national forests, or even state parks, there's nothing there, and you could go days without coming across civilization. We fed him a good meal and gave him enough supplies, so it turned out okay for him. He simply couldn't comprehend the vast emptiness of it all."
4."Prescription drug ads."
5."As a European: the amount of time spent in cars that Americans are okay with. For some people, it's literally more than three hours per day. I can't fathom how that's okay for some people. No hate — I just don't get it."
6."Wearing pajamas to the grocery store or pharmacy."
7."That students need to do the Pledge of Allegiance every morning in school. Bizarre."
8."My German husband gets shocked every time we go to the US and drive through a suburb and see that very few houses have fences or bushes around their homes. He always comments on their lack, saying, 'Everything’s so open. I don’t understand why no one has hedges.'"
9."What constitutes a legal and roadworthy vehicle in the US baffles me. In Europe, the regulations are so much stricter!"
10."I'm from Germany but lived in the US in the '80s and '90s as a flight attendant. To me, it was so funny that you could fly six hours across the country — even through so many time zones — and you wouldn't need to exchange currency or know a different language. In European countries, before the euro, if you drove a few hours by car, you'd be at another country's border and need a new currency."
11."To me, the fact that the tax isn't included in the price in a grocery store. The price I see shall be the price I pay. I ain't doing extra math."
12."The sheer amount of guns in domestic ownership. Absolutely wild."
13."How few vacation days the average American worker has and uses. In most of Europe, the minimum vacation time people take is 25 days."
14."I'm European. What the hell is a 'sophomore,' and why do you expect us to know? Just use people's ages, please."
15."The staggering medical debt."
16."The amount of churches. Every little town in the South seems to have as many churches as houses. And people like to show and tell how super religious they are."
17."The fact that we have wildly bad natural disasters yearly. I don't think Europeans understand how deadly some of our natural disasters are, how frequent they are, and how much that shapes our culture."
18."The absence of sidewalks. And the absence of a walkable city center that is not just one mall."
19."The abundance of ice cubes."
20."Going through a drive-thru, then parking in the parking lot to eat."
21.Lastly: "Though it's one country, the differences among New York, Alabama, Montana, and Miami are, in my opinion, more than the UK to Denmark, Germany, and France. America is a MASSIVE country, physically and culturally."
As someone who lives in California, I can confirm that four hours of driving is light work. What are some uniquely American things and experiences that Europeans struggle to wrap their heads around? Let us know in the comments, or you can anonymously submit your response using this form!
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
