From my own experience (I've been to LA, Santa Monica, Arizona, New York, Washington, Maryland and Boston):
- Ultra hyper-nice people. Everyone seems easygoing, helpful, really easy to befriend, you walk into a bar or an office watercooler and everyone tries their best to welcome new people. And I am pretty sure that the "rude New Yorkers" stereotype was created by jelly west-coasters, as it has no basis in reality
- Family relationships are much more loose, for both good and bad. In one hand, American kids are far less cuddled by their parents, and thus, are much, much more indpendent in a good way. The whole "learing to work for their money since early age" does show in all their society, and bodes well for a far more meritocratic culture than my own. This is the type of American education that schools can't provide, and that breeds an extremely positive attitude towards work. In the other hand, few people in the US seems to give two crap about their parents, and the solitude and sometimes outright disdain that elderly Americans face is sad as fuck
- Great working eviroment and culture. Whenever I've worked on a multinational enviroment, the best people to work with are Americans: always positive, always wanting to do their best. Americans understand that since you're going to expend most of your life at it, work must be a joy, not a burden, and they cherish and aim to create the best working enviroments and working cultures that I have ever seen. Low position workers take their work as seriously as the higher-ups, whereas the higher ups also appreciate the good work that their subordinates do, even if they are just janitors or secretaries. It is a virtuous circle that in turns produces yet anothe of the best things that the US has to offer...
- Outstanding customer service. Sometimes I feel like hugging the waiter, seriously.
- Everything is huge like an Xbox. Portions, houses, landscapes, roads, cars, colonoscopies, you name it
- One bazillion different things to buy, specially regarding snacks. The sheer variety of products in American markets and their degree of specialization is truthly something. Cheese crackers? Naw: Provolone with mexican garlic spiced with macadamia nut crackers on individual multi-packs shaped into American Dad figurines. Because when you have the biggest consumer market on Earth, business can catter to very, very, VERY specific tastes
- American liberals do exist, and they are every bit as liberal as their European counterparts. Then again, I visited Massachussets
- Revered small business and restaurants. The stereotypical image of American cities dominated by commercial chains and clonic Starbucks is, simply put, wrong. Americans complain about "big business" eating their pop&mom stores so frequently not because it is a more common occurrence than in Europe (we're as bad) but rather because they do love their small shops more than we do. I love, LOVE the appreciation that the Americans have for their small business, and I love how this reflect into a more eclectic and highly devloped trove of unique restaurants, cafeterias and the likes.
- Bajillion cultures. Already covered that, but it is worth mentioning that multiculturalism in the US is not merely a question of "number of inmigrants per people", but rather how well preserved the "high culture" of their home countries are. Intensity rather than quantity, so to speak. It is delightful.
- Far more relaxed in clothing and protocol. One has to step out of your country to see how vastly different protocol is. Despite almost every business having a dress code, Americans seems to be far more relaxed in their attire, both inside and outside their work, as well as regarding inter-personal relationships. This also reflects into a far more varied dressing style. Some might say "un-classy", but I think that this utterly randomness makes for the Americans to hit some very interesting "fashion jackpots" from time to time.
- God bless American girls. Far more laid back and easygoing than ours. Slut-calling be damned, I like to be around girls that admits that sex is a normal part of the human existance, thank you very much. Then again, I am aware visited most of liberal-America, I suppouse that it is different in other states.
- Everyone's afraid of their own shadow and very afraid of the street, as a vital concept. America the brave? Bwahahahah. Americans fear the streets like in no other place that I've ever been, and I have lived in truthly dangerous places such as Brazil. It is overblown, and frankly, quite paranoid way of thinking. Americans truthly thinks that walking at night into a lower-middle class neighbourhood spells death. N**ga, please. Go to Caracas or Rio for having a truthly unsafe street, and even people there don't crap their pants as much, because life must go on, regardless. There's more of a fear culture than a gun culture. I blame it half on sensationalist media, half into the utterly crappy America urbanization model.
- Political correction gone mad due to shitty racial relationships. Yes, it is true, and it is a pain in the ass. And it can have a tread of its own, really. It is particularly baffling to see people getting worked up about you not getting their ameri-tribe right: "How you dare to think that I am Chinese just because I look Chinese and speak Chinese? I am a Chinese-American and proud of it! Such racism these days". Yeah, yeah, calm down and take a chill pill, please.
