h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Tipping in bars (for each drink).

Lack of availability of vegetarian food - the surprise when the salad I ordered turned out to have bacon on it, not mentioned on the menu!

And my fellow diners' comfort in going totally off-menu and basically ordering what they wanted rather than any of the dishes the restaurant was trying to sell.

"It even enters the language,
as 'turn up the lights; turn down the lights'."

I'd always assumed that was referring to dimmer switches (which are really switched variable resistors, but let's not split hairs ).

I've been in New York, Boston, Seattle, California and Florida. New York was the only one that felt like a European city. Everything is very normal there.

Self segregation of blacks & whites in the Southern States - driving through Florida to the Keys, at every bridge there were groups of men fishing. Groups of white men, groups of black men - never any mixed groups. Each group kept a noticeable distance apart.

The free-for-alls on the freeways, no lane discipline, overtake in any lane you choose.

The poor state of the roads in Pennsylvania (hitting a pothole at 70, not good) compared to the miles of silky smooth blacktop in Georgia.

Going to the chemist for cigarettes.

Guns for sale at a car boot sale.

The service levels. Although fake, the winning smile and "Have a nice day y'all" was *very* well done and infectious.

The disapproval of smoking in public (2003).

New York - wow! Walking up the steps at Penn Central Station and seeing the skyscrapers for the first time. The quietness at the top of the Empire State Building.

The cold in Upstate New York and the crispness of the air - my asthma cleared overnight and I felt better than I had for years.

Lastly, the thing that stopped me in my tracks. Richmond, VA - on the side of a strip joint near the Edgar Allen Poe museum was a *huge* painting of Diana with the legend "Princess of Hearts"

The most surprising thing was to find that Americans were really great guys - just like people I know in England - and completely unlike the ones on the telly.

When Americans ask you to come out for a drink after work, they have one drink and then they go home.

The strangest thing about Americans is how strait-laced they all are. Everyone seems to disapprove of bad language.

Really? But profanity rocks!

FB

I was there I think 6 times when I was a child. Things I remember are certainly different from things adults remember.

Toilets suck water into them instead of just flushing.

Ice creams in unimaginable flavours and one ball of ice cream is so big that you can't order 3 on one cone.

The many many fast food chains. Here we had only Mc Donalds at that time. Today we have also Burger King, Pizza Hut and Subway tried but failed. I know one single KFC in Vienna, there may be more but certainly not more than 3.
You also get Pepsi and 7up at Burger King.

The trouble mum had every time in the post office when trying to explain where the postcards should be sent. Usually by mentioning 'Sound of Music'.

Public laundries.

You fill washing machines from the top instead of a door at the side.

All garbage goes into one can. Or even the sink!

Shops are open every day and even at night. Guess you also get that in the UK.

You can't drink water fom the tap, you buy drinking water in shops. It tastes of plastic.

If you buy alcohol you get it in a non-transarent bag.

You get birthday cakes in supermarkets. They all have bright colors, look like plastic and are just very much unlike real cake. As a child I was fascinated.

You can buy *everything* in supermarkets.

Butter in spray cans.

Salted butter.

Huge breakfasts.

No *real* bread.

In National Parks my paretns often spent time explaining to Americans where they actually are and what it is they see here. We were the foreigners.

Smokey bear and Junior Ranger badges.

Everyone seems to have a pool.

The campgrounds are better than in Europe.

The friendliness and politeness of total strangers.

I'd echo EtB on that. New Years Eve in Saratoga Springs, we were amazed at the mixed ages of groups out & about in the town centre in the run up to the bells. The groups of teenagers were incredibly polite and I don't think I saw a violent drunk all night.

Is it just me - or are age separation and drunkenness particularly British things anyway?

I dunno - it was just nice. Relaxed.

Kinda like going to a gay nightclub - the absence of testosterone makes a marked difference.

>Kinda like going to a gay nightclub - the absence of testosterone makes a marked difference.<



You obviously have different sorts of gay nightclubs north of the border..

Note: two weeks in Bayonne NJ/Manhattan and two weeks in Las Vegas is the basis for all of this.

A lot of what seems different can be summed up with the single word: scale.

Scale of civic infrastructure - roads, bridges, buildings, car parks, everything just seems 50% bigger and 100% further apart. Scale of vehicles - half the people on the road seemed to be driving "cars" two or three times the size of the sort of things we drive in the UK. Scale of people - there are obese people in the UK, don't get me wrong, but the sheer size and bizarre shape of really quite a lot of Americans was amazing. (This probably came as even more of a shock to me because my first week in the US came immediately after a week in Tokyo, where at 183cm and 85kg I was the tallest, fattest person in sight, wherever I was, for seven days, including Narita airport.)

The incredible ease with which it was possible to buy vast ranges and enormous portions of really, really unhealthy food, and the near impossibility of buying anything fresh or wholesome from any "convenience" store.

The apparent foreignness of the concept of a kettle, and the concomitant foulness of the tea. (My boss lived in the US for five years, and on his arrival tried to buy a kettle. It took him a week to find somewhere that sold kettles. In Manhattan. In 2001. Coffee machines, certainly sir, which of these 400 models would you like? Kettle, you say? What, you want to make chips?)

The obtuseness of airport staff. Surprising because when you're inside the country, everyone is sweetness and light and can't do enough to help you. But before you enter the country, you're required to deal with people who regard you as something they need to scrape off their shoes. Welcome to America, indeed. They make Parisians look cheery and polite, and if you've been to Paris you'll know how damning that is (and I *love* Paris).

Young conservatives. I was chatting to some people in a bar in Hoboken, and they were all saying they'd likely vote Republican. These were cosmopolitan city-dwellers in their twenties and thirties, not ignorant hicks or retired curmudgeons. Hearing them say that they actually thought Bush was a good president was... surreal.

>>You obviously have different sorts of gay nightclubs north of the border..

Yes - we have that kind too. But, you know...the more mellow places. TopTip for swl - Brunswick Hotel, Glasgow (Merchant City). Not entirely gay but great gay-friendly vibe. Excellent food. The couple that own it used to run Bar 10, if you know that.

Also a good mix of ages - something that I find Glasgow does particularly well.

I agree with Hoo about the kettles. We stayed in a very nice hotel in New York, and they provided mugs, a coffee machine and coffee "pods", tea bags for making tea, and ... no way of heating any water.

I once had a visitor from California who was very impressed with our kettle. 'I must get one of those tea-making gadgets!'



In Ansterdam last year I came upon a sort of long, plastic teabag with lots of micro-holes. You used it to stir your hot water until it turned into tea.

I agree with friendliness and helpfulness of total strangers. I barely had time to look confused and take out a pocket map that already someone was asking whether they could help me find the right direction.

People talk to strangers in bars.

My brother in law taught in the US for several years. He said that it was always a shock when you'd be talking away to somebody, they'd be sharing their life history in intimate detail...and just at the point one of you might suggest moving on to somewhere else or going for a meal, they'd say 'Bye, then!'

He also found it weird not being able to go for a drink with his students.