Times Travelling Americans Realized "I'm Not In The U.S."

Author image for Eric Lund
Eric Lund
Dec 25, 2021 10:00 AM EST

Culture shock is real, and sometimes a very small detail is enough to make you realize that the things you take for granted are definitely not standard. It could be as small as finding out milk is sold in bags, or as big as realizing that traffic laws are more of a suggestion than anything else. That said, non-Americans get some serious culture shocks when they get to the States, and some would be shocked to realized that there are some Western foods that are weird to visitors.

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  • 01
    Human body - Not_Harv_anyway 23 hours ago Standing in a small grocery store in Okinawa, Japan. I could see the top of the shelves.
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  • 02
    Font - RipGrandToe 19 hours ago S Russia: Watching stray dogs in Moscow using the subway system and stand in line to get on and off the trains like people too. Seeing a group of cows wait at a crosswalk and only cross after all the cars came to stop. In the middle of the night I got in to a subway car turned in a flash rave party. Complete with a DJ, lights, and a bar. At a construction site I saw who appeared to be the boss roast a pig and make soup off a campfire. Once it was done, a brought o
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  • 03
    Font - jamesbawned 21 hours ago My first breath off the plane of Mumbai, India. The best I could describe it is that it was the heaviest breath I'd ever taken. The air felt humid, hot and dense. It was the longest I've ever been consious of my breathing... It took me about an hour to get used to it.
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  • 04
    Font - BeanieBapi 1 day ago I went to Jordan as a kid in 2007. My very first experience there when leaving the airport was witnessing a pickup truck driving the wrong way on a highway with a goat in the back.
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  • 05
    Font - _Lemon_Stealer_ 21 hours ago e No lines in Indonesia, just push and shove your way around. You have to use special trash bags in Belgium or they won't pick your trash up and your neighbors will hate you (I didn't know for like 2 weeks).
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  • 06
    Font - whyImcalledqueen 22 hours ago Whenever I would visit family around France I always had to remind myself of food customs. It's pretty rare you'll just sit down have a quick meal and continue with your day. Food is meant to be enjoyed so you take your time, a lot of local businesses particularly shops close around midday to accommodate for this so get comfortable. (not all shops do this, but it's best to just eat midday if you visit)
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  • 07
    Human body - fanzipan 19 hours ago Mrs left her handbag on a train in Japan, called jr line, they found it and delivered to her home address...on the same day.
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  • 08
    Font - Singtothering 1 day ago Riding the Tube the first time in London and hearing the overhead speakers say “... a service to Cockfosters." I internally chuckled, and looked around and no one else was surprised or cared.
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  • 09
    Font - VinnieMcVince 20 hours ago I went to China for funsies a few years ago. I was with a buddy who knew several folks from the area we were visiting (he taught there for a couple years after college.) Anyhow, we went to a club on a Saturday night with some of his friends. I noticed two things. 1. Everyone smokes indoors, and a LOT of young folks there smoke. The club was very unpleasant, as a non-smoker. That's been illegal where I live for a long time. 2. I'm not a good looking guy. I'm whit
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  • 10
    Organism - Smooch-A-Rooch 1 day ago Years ago I traveled abroad and saw a Dunkin' Donuts that was closed and dark because it was after 4:00 PM. I told my host family that the ones back home may not even have locks because they are open 24/7. (I know that they have locks, but at the time I wasn't sure.)
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  • 11
    Font - CliffRacer17 21 hours ago The first time I ever went abroad on business was to Germany. I was the first of my group to arrive and I'd never really been outside the US before and I was completely alone. At the time, I didn't know that most Germans have a halfway decent knowlege of English, at least. I had no dinner and went to bed hungry because I thought no restaurant woukd be able to take my order. It's that crushing isolation that impressed on me that I'm really not home and I am far fr
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  • 12
    Rectangle - McBeaster 22 hours ago I asked for a bottle of water in Iceland. The guy just shakes his head and goes "you don't need that" and filled me up a cup from the tap.
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  • 13
    Human body - ShareHappyness 18 hours ago When I went to Tokyo and realised there was no trash anywhere and it was just really clean. Like I wouldn't have felt bad sleeping on the ground.
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  • 14
    Font - TheDepressedJekkie 22 hours ago edited 17 hours ago A very small thing: when in theatre in London they sell ice cream at intermission. That's so small yet such a change. EDIT: I meant live theatre. It's absolutely wonderful that you can have ice cream at the movies, and you can on the West End. But no such thing exists on Broadway sadly.
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  • 15
    Font - blipsman 1 day ago In Israel, all people serve in the military for 2-3 years when they graduate high school... even when they're off duty, they carry a weapon. So you'd see young late teen/early 20-somethings out and about dressed for a nice dinner or whatever, with a machine gun slung over their shoulder.
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  • 16
    Font - SonOfZaknafein 17 hours ago I was in Sao Paulo Brasil and my ex father in law stopped twenty feet before a stop sign. I asked him why and he said "Just in case someone robs us at gunpoint, we can dart forward without going through the intersection.
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  • 17
    Font - itzdylanbro 1 day ago When I was 12, I went to go visit my family in the Philippines. Coming from Central Ohio, this was like night and day. I go into the bathroom and see a 55gal plastic bucket with a plastic 1qt ladle and a spigot sticking out of the wall. I walked back in and asked my mom where the shower was. She said that was the shower.
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  • 18
    Font - the_estimator 23 hours ago Public transit that actually allowed us to get where we needed to go for relatively cheap (London). Obviously I know people who live there have issues with it, but compared to the nothing that I'm used to, it was pretty amazing.
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  • 19
    Font - everythingsgreat3333 1 day ago Jordan, when the prayers broadcast loudly across the city it was otherworldly. Also, Egyptian traffic in cairo was the definition of pure chaos. Honestly if I was driving I wouldn't have survived 5 minutes.
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  • 20
    Font - Scott Liberation 22 hours ago If I remember right, the first foreign country I visited was Hong Kong. I think the first big culture shock (and a pleasant one) was going into a restaurant and none of the patrons were speaking very much and definitely not speaking loud enough to be heard at another table. I was magnificent and ruined restaurants in America for me forever.
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  • 21
    Font - dookamatic 19 hours ago I have a couple of moments in Costa Rica. One is when we thought we had ants in our kitchen, but upon closer inspection we realized they were very tiny crabs. There was also the macaws we saw on a tree outside our window, which was cool. Of course, while we were in our cab, we realized that red stoplights are treated less like "wait here until the light turns green" and more like "stop your car, look both ways for other cars, and then you can go." Oh, and crocodile
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  • 22
    Font - TheMockingbird13 1 day ago · edited 17 hours ago When we got the bill at the restaurant and saw that our water had been €52. We did know beforehand it wasn't free so my family worked super hard to keep our thirst to a minimum. There's just a difference between knowing water's pricy (and not being resentful about it) and actually seeing the $60 item on the final recipt. Nope, we were not in America any more. Edit for clarity: My family included 14 people. • We did know we were allowed to i
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  • 23
    Font - Probablyprofanity 18 hours ago I'm Canadian, but when I went on a school trip to France and Italy I had a classmate who complained at every single place we ate that they didn't have chicken fingers and fries on the menu. Also leaving the airport waiting for a bus to pick us up and not seeing a single truck or large car on the roads. And of course getting on the plane in Canada in -40° C weather with deep snow and getting off in France to see flower beds with tulips already starting to die
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