So...I visited the US for the first time

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Fascinating read. Well done, OP. I always love to hear other's experiences while visiting. We are a strange, sometimes backwards country, but overall we have big hearts and are just as ordinary as everyone else.
 
daviyoung said:
Hi.

Last month, for the first time, I visited America. This was a business trip and it was for three days in a city called Bloomington in Indiana. If someone visited the UK, I'd want to know what they thought. So i'm offloading on GAF for now I'm afraid, since there are a lot of US folks here. Now, three days is not a long enough time to judge a town, let alone a country but I keep getting told that first impressions count, so here they are.

I've been on this board a while and I know there's a precedence to jump the gun on new topics so I'll give those that made it this far a TLWR: I loved it.

*SNIP*

Ultimately. Despite all you read. We're not so different, you and I.
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Awww shit. I'm actually in Indianapolis. I could have hooked you up!

Anyway, the Indianapolis Terminal is very...efficient. It's not huge, but it's larger than you suggest. It has several parts to it. Also, best way to get to a place is fly to Chicago as a connection point to Indianapolis.

Anyway, yeah, Indiana (at least most of it) is flat. Mostly because of the glaciers that came from the North.

Go down past Bloomington and it starts to get hilly. It's not until you hit Kentucky and Tennessee that it starts to become an up and down roller coaster (a beautiful one at that).

I'm glad you liked Bloomington. Too much of a party place for me, but it has some great places to go and see.

Come back any time =D!
 
Great read OP.

I'm amazed that what tripped people up in dialogue was rubbish bin. I mean I would think it's pretty obvious what you meant by that lol.
 
Great read OP, glad you had a good experience. The midwest is a great place to get a taste of the States, but I have to say that it's generally a bit different from the east or west coast. I've found that people that come from NY or Cali find people to be more friendly in the midwest. Chicago would have been a nice place to visit if you had more time on your trip. Michigan is great to visit too, as long as you stay out of Detroit... unless of course you'd like to see an example of what happens when a once prosperous city goes to absolute shit.
 
Lunchbox said:
you just went to a bunch of hick states

surprised you didnt get shot for being foreign
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Yeah, because people in North Carolina just go around shooting foreigners..

These sort of comments aren't clever or entertaining at all, and only serve as pretentious, narrow-minded insults to what are otherwise fantastic and culturally diverse regions.

Just stop.
 
If you ever go to California, go north, or central coast. Southern California is awful. LA is not worth the time and money.
 
naku said:
If you ever go to California, go north, or central coast. Southern California is awful. LA is not worth the time and money.
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Yeah, I have lived in California most of my life, and my one brief visit to LA made me never want to visit the city ever again. Northern/Central California is great. San Francisco is great. Heck, further south than LA, in San Diego, is great. But LA is not great. It has to be an acquired taste.
 
SkyOdin said:
Yeah, I have lived in California most of my life, and my one brief visit to LA made me never want to visit the city ever again. Northern/Central California is great. San Francisco is great. Heck, further south than LA, in San Diego, is great. But LA is not great. It has to be an acquired taste.
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Yes. The whole greater LA area is just gross. From Ventura County to Irvine. The very East end of San Bernardino is cool tho. Coachella valley is terribly hot. Joshua Tree is amazing.

I've never been to San Francisco, but the central coast from San Luis Obispo and Los Osos all the way up to Santa Cruz is very, very beautiful.

This opinion comes from an exchange student who has been in the Country for ten months. I've spent the time in the LA area, but my opinion is not valuable.
 
Fleet_of_Foot said:
This thread will be filled with people saying "You should have gone to NYC or LA" but this guy saw the actual, real America. Like it or not.
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NYC and LA is not real America? WHat, are we America that got invaded by the damn immigrants?!

naku said:
If you ever go to California, go north, or central coast. Southern California is awful. LA is not worth the time and money.
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and miss out on San Diego? you kidding me
 
daviyoung said:
Food

From what I saw you have no fair right to lambaste British food. Portions are massive, truly a land of excess. The restaurant food I ate was lovely, but I expect most restaurant food to be like this and it's the same most places. My breakfast pancakes were HUGE. You guys have fast food down to a fine art, but don't mistake quantity for quality. And just because it's served by a waiter, doesn't make it any less fast food. I understand that I saw nothing of the USA, and that putting my experience of food down is like putting my experience of attractive girls down. "Well you didn't go here..." so just take it for what it is I guess, a shallow observation. Like the rest of this stuff.
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So true hahaha. It's like 60% of my diet (sadly, but I'm not fat!)
Tipping

I tipped. I tipped in quarters and dollar bills for food and drinks. I rounded up when I was charging my card. Service everywhere was excellent, even though the guy at BK asking where I was headed was a bit too personal and caught me off guard. I tipped the taxi drivers that ferried us from office to town, and I'm glad they kept silent. Big shout out to the room cleaner Lupe, who left me a note every day. They took the rest of my change before I was homeward bound. Not sure if female or male name.
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GOOD MAN!
Economies of Scale

Your debit/credit card system infrastructure is awesome. I could pay by card anywhere. It wasn't until I got back to the UK, stopped at a service station and had to use a cashpoint to get money to pay a cashier that I realised just how much I was relying on my card in the US.
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I use my card almost exclusively. It's wonderful and efficient.
 
Great read. I would highly recommend visiting New Orleans if you can (not during mardi gras). Incredibly diverse and unique, and not to mention, some of the best food in the world.
 
Were I a foreigner visiting the states for the first time the strangest thing that would strike me is America's need to make tacos with Dorito shells and then go around and make Doritos that taste like said Dorito tacos.
 
Deified Data said:
Were I a foreigner visiting the states for the first time the strangest thing that would strike me is America's need to make tacos with Dorito shells and then go around and make Doritos that taste like said Dorito tacos.
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It was the universe which needed these to be created. Do not question it.
 
New York is an international city. Boston is a way more accurate portrait of "America", as far as east coast goes.
 
I was actually most surprised by the thing about using cards. I use cards for everything, and I go months without using bills or change of any kind. Having to bum around with cash in Europe would annoy the hell out of me.

Do you really need cash for most things?
 
Wormdundee said:
I was actually most surprised by the thing about using cards. I use cards for everything, and I go months without using bills or change of any kind. Having to bum around with cash in Europe would annoy the hell out of me.

Do you really need cash for most things?
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No, maybe I misrepresented. Debit and credit is popular here and growing, but not for some things like independent stores, pubs or restaurants. It's just in America it seemed like I could use my card for pretty much everything, no matter how big or small the purchase.
 
Great read.. come back anytime my friend. The beauty of the US is that each state can be so different not only in landscape but also culture. Yet at the same time it still all feels like the US.

I hope you are able to get to some other states for a vacation rather than work trip. Hit up some east coast.. then midwest like Chicago and Minneapolis and then of course the west coast. Great country to see and I am so happy everyone was pleasant with you. Most people really are.

I would love to one day visit your part of this globe .. it is on the to do list.
 
daviyoung said:
No, maybe I misrepresented. Debit and credit is popular here and growing, but not for some things like independent stores, pubs or restaurants. It's just in America it seemed like I could use my card for pretty much everything, no matter how big or small the purchase.
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yeah, you pretty much can here. I don't remember the last time I carried cash regularly. I it may have been whenever the highway tolls through the Chicago area went digital and I didn't need it there. Now I handle cash pretty much 1 weekend each year - when my wife holds a garage sale.
 
Wormdundee said:
I was actually most surprised by the thing about using cards. I use cards for everything, and I go months without using bills or change of any kind. Having to bum around with cash in Europe would annoy the hell out of me.

Do you really need cash for most things?
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Yes. This is from personal experience. Most small-medium business in every country west of Poland, relies on cash.

If you go to Prague, don't bother bringing a credit card. they only take cash. Spain takes cash.

The only time and place where you can use a credit card is pretty much in a club, or at a touristic restaurants.

Even some smaller restaurants in Spain don't take CC.
 
If you ate at the same place I went to when I visited my buddy in Bloomington, the pancakes were bigger that the plate. That is not normal though
 
After reading that, I feel like I should have spent $20 in the Kindle Store for that. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us, daviyoung.
 
lenovox1 said:
After reading that, I feel like I should have spent $20 in the Kindle Store for that. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us, daviyoung.
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a fool and his money, etc...

thanks for the kind words, and thanks for reading, it's good to write stuff like this down I think
 
phosphor112 said:
Awww shit. I'm actually in Indianapolis. I could have hooked you up!

Anyway, the Indianapolis Terminal is very...efficient. It's not huge, but it's larger than you suggest. It has several parts to it. Also, best way to get to a place is fly to Chicago as a connection point to Indianapolis.

Anyway, yeah, Indiana (at least most of it) is flat. Mostly because of the glaciers that came from the North.

Go down past Bloomington and it starts to get hilly. It's not until you hit Kentucky and Tennessee that it starts to become an up and down roller coaster (a beautiful one at that).

I'm glad you liked Bloomington. Too much of a party place for me, but it has some great places to go and see.

Come back any time =D!
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I'm pretty sure that the flatness is a physical manifestation of how boring it is.

I also live in Indianapolis, but I think you know that?
 
Ohhhhh Essex! Im at the university of Essex :P also got to go to the USA for the first time last year (Chicago internship). Absolutely loved it but did get homesick after a while, everything felt the same but at the same time weirdly different. Its not like going to Japan where the culture is different, i kept on being lured into thinking im back home then realising everything is quite different.
 
Excellent write up. I'm really glad that you picked up on how friendly we are. Americans are by and large friendly folk.
 
Newline said:
Ohhhhh Essex! Im at the university of Essex :P also got to go to the USA for the first time last year (Chicago internship). Absolutely loved it but did get homesick after a while, everything felt the same but at the same time weirdly different. Its not like going to Japan where the culture is different, i kept on being lured into thinking im back home then realising everything is quite different.
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On the real, I lived in Japan for a year and I didn't think it was all that different from the US. In fact, when you got outside Tokyo, you could have been IN the USA, it was so similar. I guess all modern Capitalist countries are kinda cut from the same cloth.

I was kinda disappointed how similar it was to the US, but if you look at their development post WWII, I guess I shouldn't have been that surprised.

And I'm sure more people than not will disagree, which is fine, as I already know this to be a rare opinion.
 
I love how most people are suggesting going to all these big huge cities, when some of the best parts of the country are far, far away from larger cities. Big cities are all hustle and bustle, pollution and noiset. The natural wonders of the US are beyond breathtaking and are a better trip to make.
 
Great read, thanks!

Are there ladies in full dresses and bonnets around the Bloomington area? That was a pretty cool thing to see when I studied in Indiana. I guess they're Amish?
 
BertramCooper said:
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.
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For an out-of-this-world experience, visit Yellowstone National Park. Some parts around the gysers feel like you're on another planet, literally. You go there and you're like, "Are we still on Earth?!" It's bizarre and awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eckEj5auJY

Grym said:
yeah, you pretty much can here. I don't remember the last time I carried cash regularly. I it may have been whenever the highway tolls through the Chicago area went digital and I didn't need it there. Now I handle cash pretty much 1 weekend each year - when my wife holds a garage sale.
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I'm pretty much use debit cards, exclusively. The only time I use any cash is when I need quarters for the coin operated laundry mat. I'm not carrying any bills on me.
 
great OP, like others have said, youre probably not going to find great food in Indiana... haha

You should be able to visit NYC pretty affordably from the UK - give it a shot sometime.

Or spend more and come to California :)
(Las Vegas is right next door in Nevada too!)
 
naku said:
I haven't been there, not that I don't want to, but I haven't had the opportunity to visit.

Then again I don't like big cities, since I hate crowded places with a passion. I'm more like into the nature and areas with a lot of space.
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san diego isn't a large city...per se. In literal definition, it has 1.3 mil. But, it's more of a loosely collections of small towns that's seperated by hills, valleys, and freeways.

each town has its own vibe, feel, and even climate. so yeah. The best one, is of course La Jolla.

booth-31.jpg
 
Vyroxis said:
I love how most people are suggesting going to all these big huge cities, when some of the best parts of the country are far, far away from larger cities. Big cities are all hustle and bustle, pollution and noiset. The natural wonders of the US are beyond breathtaking and are a better trip to make.
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There is beauty and wonder everywhere.
 
Another Indy rep here. The "sir" stuff is a southern thing, brought up here from people who migrated from Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, etc. ~70 years ago. The only people who really get incensed if you don't call them that are usually entitled old coots, so one doesn't need to think about it too much.

There's also not a lot of farm/redneck stuff around here either, since the incorporated city grows by a considerable amount every five years, and we get our horsemeat from the same labs that you guys use across the pond. ;) Broad Ripple is probably the most liberal/"arty"/party-centric area around here, and has some nice restaurants. Same deal downtown since there about five or six colleges there.

If you like grease, try the Bar B Q Heaven on MLK street. Place has been around for ages and food critics love it, despite having much more affluent competition downtown
 
daviyoung said:
It's just in America it seemed like I could use my card for pretty much everything, no matter how big or small the purchase.
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This is basically true. However, in smaller mom n' pop type establishments (not chain), they may have a minimum charge. Usually around $5 or so, but again, only in your local chinese restaurant would you see something like that.
 
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