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So...I visited the US for the first time
- Thread starter daviyoung
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VivaciousSoul
Member
100% of America is the real America
Why would you do that?
Member
Enjoyed the OP.
When I read the part about slow walkers, I immediately thought of NYC, supposedly some of the fastest walkers in the country. I guess we do walk really fast, and I feel some people mistake it for rudeness, but if you're in a jam, you will definitely get helped out.
I also found it interesting that you said the portions are large. I generally hate eating at restaurants because they're expensive, but they really do give you copious amounts of food.
Last thing I found interesting was the "rubbish" problem. I assumed that most Americans understand some British terms like rubbish, the loo, etc., but I suppose that's just my thinking since I'm in a large, multicultural city.
When I read the part about slow walkers, I immediately thought of NYC, supposedly some of the fastest walkers in the country. I guess we do walk really fast, and I feel some people mistake it for rudeness, but if you're in a jam, you will definitely get helped out.
I also found it interesting that you said the portions are large. I generally hate eating at restaurants because they're expensive, but they really do give you copious amounts of food.
Last thing I found interesting was the "rubbish" problem. I assumed that most Americans understand some British terms like rubbish, the loo, etc., but I suppose that's just my thinking since I'm in a large, multicultural city.
ThatObviousUser
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BertramCooper
Banned
Great post. I wish I would have made a similar one when I visited the UK for the first time.
I think it's cool that your first experience of the U.S. was in the Midwest. Folks in other parts of the U.S. seem to look down on us for some reason, but I really think Midwesterners are among the friendliest people in the country.
Next time, be sure to stop at a supermarket. I always love reading foreigners' impressions of American supermarkets.
I think it's cool that your first experience of the U.S. was in the Midwest. Folks in other parts of the U.S. seem to look down on us for some reason, but I really think Midwesterners are among the friendliest people in the country.
Next time, be sure to stop at a supermarket. I always love reading foreigners' impressions of American supermarkets.
So do people not say sir in UK? I always thought the whole sir thing was a universal thing for respect.
Plus my favorite baseball team resides there.
If i could move out of this shit hole (knoxville tn) to anywhere in the US i would move to Chicago. I have been there twice and loved it.
Plus my favorite baseball team resides there.
Nice impressions. You experienced the Midwest, much of Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa Missouri, and Minnesota, outside of the big cities of Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, St. Louis, etc. would be pretty much like you experienced. Charlotte, the southeast in general I would sort of lump together. As people have said, the US is quite varied, NYC and LA, almost nothing in common with where you visited. But you can come back and visit another time and check them out......
Calling everyone sir in the UK would seem patronizing.
Also what podunk area of the UK are you from that wouldn't let you use a debit/credit card in a petrol station?
Me too! Lol. The typical response: "There are 35 choices of toothpaste!" Yes, yes there is.
saltinekracka
Member
Americans will love you if you have an accent. You'll have your pick of the women.
I made a point of trying to remember the name of it, but having had a number of beers, I think I had completely forgotten it by the time I was boarding the plane! lol
Thanks for trying, though.
djplaeskool
Member
I'll play diplomat, and on behalf of the American people, apologize profusely for Fox News.
I was impressed by the fact there was an entire aisle of antacids. In Europe there are about 3 different kinds in total.
Sadly, when you are travelling because of business, you usually have little-zero time to sight see.
My brother travels a lot for his work and he will tell me about all these exotic places he has just come home from (Bangladesh, Austria, Taiwan, India.) I ask him what he saw over there and it's usually the same routine: the airport, the hotel, the workplace and maybe a nearby restaurant/food cart and the town square.
BertramCooper
Banned
I'm not familiar with IU's schedule, but I would imagine that spring semester ended recently, which would explain the lack of students in Bloomington.
EDIT: Just saw that you were there last month, in which case I'm not sure why you didn't see many students. You're probably right that you simply weren't in a student area.
EDIT: Just saw that you were there last month, in which case I'm not sure why you didn't see many students. You're probably right that you simply weren't in a student area.
PantherLotus
Professional Schmuck
Great read. Did you do any actual touristy things? Monuments/museums and whatnot?
Why would you do that?
Member
Do your stores sell store brands? Like... here, our pharmacy stores like Duane Reade, CVS, or Rite Aid would sell Duane Reade branded medicine, CVS branded toothpastes, Rite Aid branded mouthwash, etc.
Yes
They're often 200% cheaper than the name brand stuff as well and have the exact same amount of the relevant drug in them
BertramCooper
Banned
Since you went through Charlotte, I'm guessing you were flying US Airways?
If so, I'm sorry. US is a dogshit airline. I mean, pretty much all of our airlines are dogshit, but US is probably the dogshittiest. And your flight from Charlotte to Indy was probably on a regional carrier (US Airways Express?), which are even worse.
If so, I'm sorry. US is a dogshit airline. I mean, pretty much all of our airlines are dogshit, but US is probably the dogshittiest. And your flight from Charlotte to Indy was probably on a regional carrier (US Airways Express?), which are even worse.
Sure, but you need like 5 of them now instead of 1 and most states have automated toll passes
I didn't but since it was all new everything was a touristey thing. ToxicAdam is right, my schedule was tight so had very little chance to even see the town I was staying in.
Just want to say thanks to everyone so far taking the time out to validate or set me right on the US customs I was unfamiliar with or simply got wrong.
The idea of 'real' America did cross mind a few times, mainly to justify the trip in my own mind, but I realised its a particularly cunty thing to think since the guys here are right, all of it is real America.
AbortedWalrusFetus
Member
Philadelphia Airport and the ride to/from Philadelphia to the airport makes the city look about 1000 times worse than it is. The new terminal at the air port is tolerable, but it really is just sort of disjointed and not put together well. It's unfortunate because it reflects badly on the city.
No.
Barack Lesnar
Banned
Nice read, thanks for sharing. Got nothing else to add, just wanted to say that.
BertramCooper
Banned
For some reason US Airways' hub airports seem to be largely terrible.
PHL? Sucks.
PHX? Sucks.
DCA? Sucks.
I'm glad that CLT is at least decent. I've not been through it, but I have a layover there in July.
HAHA when I got to the part about how nice the airport was in Charlotte and your positive first impression, the first thing that popped into my head was "good thing you didn't land in Philly then."
Then I got to your departing flight.
Amazing. And great recap, as others have said.
Then I got to your departing flight.
Amazing. And great recap, as others have said.An interesting choice to go to Indiana, but good for you my man!
Glad you enjoyed yourself.
That said, you did go to a very "vanilla" part of the U.S. (not a racial comment but a culture one).
NYC, Texas, Florida, California would have been a much different experience and you would not have felt so much British influence.
I was recently in the U.K., and I enjoyed my time there very much.
Glad you enjoyed yourself.
That said, you did go to a very "vanilla" part of the U.S. (not a racial comment but a culture one).
NYC, Texas, Florida, California would have been a much different experience and you would not have felt so much British influence.
I was recently in the U.K., and I enjoyed my time there very much.
In the UK, yes there are branded versions of Rennie, Tums etc. but not several metres of them. In Germany/France you only really get the actual brands, not so many generics.
One thing I've wondered about America is that, given it's such a big country, how much of the countryside (if you can call it that) is just wilderness, or rather, not part of farmland? The UK is kind of small so it's hard to find anything outside of green belt land and national parks that is not part of some farm or estate.
The Albatross
Member
Worst major airport in America.
There is actually only a small percentage of US that is protected wilderness -- that is, protected by the government as unencroachable -- it still amounts to hundreds of millions of acres, but just around 5%. Nearly every state has an area of designated wilderness... only a handful without, like Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, and a couple others. The majority of the geography of the United States is rural, though... I believe over 90%. Interestingly, 85% of the US population lives in the 10% that is suburban or urban, while 15% of the population lives in the rural 90% landmass.
*edit*
I should also add... Even many urban areas have thousands of acres of wooded areas. I live in an urban area and there's a few square miles of unimpeded forest right in my backyard. It's all privately owned though... but nothing has ever stopped me from taking my dog for a walk through it every weekend.
I am glad you enjoyed your stay in my backyard. I have lived the majority of my life in Indiana, including a year in Bloomington. You were west of the main IU campus, which is why you didn't see as many students as you might have expected. If your company ever sends you back over here, send me a PM and we can hit some of my favorite spots in Bloomington. Mother Bear's pizza, a game of "Sink the Biz" at Nick's, and a hangover breakfast at Bloomington Bagel Co. Also, if you're there during the school year, you HAVE to find time to just sit on a busy corner on campus (Jordan and 10th is good) to ogle hot girls. Lots of talent down there, and as mentioned, your accent will get you far.
You might have noticed a shithole, white trash town about halfway between Indy and Bloomington. That is Martinsville, and there is only one reason to stop there: Bynum's Steakhouse.
Indiana is (sadly) a red state, but you were in a very blue part of it. If you had gone a few miles outside of town, I am sure you would have found plenty of Fox News parrots.
You might have noticed a shithole, white trash town about halfway between Indy and Bloomington. That is Martinsville, and there is only one reason to stop there: Bynum's Steakhouse.
Indiana is (sadly) a red state, but you were in a very blue part of it. If you had gone a few miles outside of town, I am sure you would have found plenty of Fox News parrots.
AbortedWalrusFetus
Member
I was through it like two or three years ago and it was really nice. You know what airport was as bad as Philly to me? Heathrow.
Sye d'Burns
Member
You're no Alexis de Tocqueville, OP, but I greatly enjoyed reading your observations and I'm glad you enjoyed your trip.
It was a kick reading the drive-through pharmacies observation. I was also surprised at one point because I would have thought the credit/debit convenience would have been the opposite.
It was a kick reading the drive-through pharmacies observation. I was also surprised at one point because I would have thought the credit/debit convenience would have been the opposite.
RumblingRosco
Member
Depends where you are. Most land that is worth farming on is farmland, at least in Illinois. There are plenty of city/state/national-level open parks or nature reserves though. Certain areas that are less suitable for farming are pretty wild/left alone; this is more true, from what I understand, in the vast openness in Wyoming, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and so on, but even here in Illinois I can find all sorts of little forests or wooded areas that are essentially just left alone. I'm sure someone somewhere owns the rights to the land, hell they may be the "back yards" of some house on the other end of said forests, but yeah, you can find some straight up wilderness if you want it, even just a mile or two outside of cities.
It's hard to give a solid percentage on your question. Based on this link:
-8% of the world's primary forest is in the US
-Acres of forestland in the US hasn't really changed in the past 100 years
-20% of America's forestland is protected by conservation initiatives
So... I'd suspect we have a relatively high amount of forest/wild-land, especially in the Midwest/Mountain-timezone regions.
I love reading accounts like these and find them extremely interesting. Thanks for sharing
Me too. Clearly there's plenty of things we've taken for granted that are striking for a visitor. Let's hear some more, good or bad.
Truth, as bad as PHL is, ATL is far worse. It's like getting lost while driving and ending up in a bad neighborhood, except its an airport.
That's basically why they're merging with American
I wouldn't call Bloomington small town America. Small town America are those towns with just a few thousand (or hundred) people. The ones where when you are driving on the highway and you see the Welcome sign and Farwell sign within minutes of each other.
If only the OP saw the drive-through liquor stores
BertramCooper
Banned
A lot, especially in mountainous regions where farming isn't possible. We pretty much have a lot of everything in terms of land and topography. The U.S. is huge, and on the whole, sparsely populated.
Sadly, they'll probably just get worse with the merger. Airline mergers rarely result in any benefit for the consumer. There's a pretty decent chance that the new AA is going to gut PHX pretty badly in the next decade.
... Well...
It's more like a place to pick up an order for a prescription that has been filled, but that's actually pretty close.
ElectricBlue187
Member
Agreed. I will pay more money just to avoid Atlanta
The Albatross
Member
In my visits to the British Isles (Ireland & England), serving sizes have been proportional to the US at pubs, inns, and taverns. I've found upscale restaurants to have approximately the same serving size in both the US & British Isles. Never been to mainland Europe, though.
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Drive-up pharmacies are the best. It's not entirely drive up, though. You still have to have your doctor prescribe you something, put in the prescription with the pharmacist, etc. You can usually pick it up, though, at the drive through. It's a huge convenience because a lot of the people waiting inline inside the pharmacy are for putting in prescriptions, modifying prescriptions, complaining about nothing, getting consultations, etc. The drive up is for pick up only and it's the greatest. I used to spend ~15 minutes every time at the pharmacy getting my monthly Rx, now it's like 90 seconds max.
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Drive-up pharmacies are the best. It's not entirely drive up, though. You still have to have your doctor prescribe you something, put in the prescription with the pharmacist, etc. You can usually pick it up, though, at the drive through. It's a huge convenience because a lot of the people waiting inline inside the pharmacy are for putting in prescriptions, modifying prescriptions, complaining about nothing, getting consultations, etc. The drive up is for pick up only and it's the greatest. I used to spend ~15 minutes every time at the pharmacy getting my monthly Rx, now it's like 90 seconds max.
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