Fun facts on a country you think you know everything about

Woho! First personal post!

 

I've been in Cali for a little more than 6 weeks now, so it might be time to explain why I'm here. I mean, I could have gone basically anywhere for my semester abroad, like France, Spain, Norway, England, Canada or South Africa. But I chose the States. Because I love American music, TV shows, novels and the accent. And because it is a country so present in the European media that you think you know it like the back of your hand. But you don't.
That's why I started collecting some interesting peculiarities of stuff that contradicts or backs up the preconceptions that Europeans tend to have of Americans.


So the stereotype picture of Americans that the media and various TV shows paint, seems to be divided into either the sophisticated and intelligent metropolitans with fabulous lives like the characters from Two and a half men, How I met your Mother or Sex and the City on the one hand. One the other hand, you think about those stories that you've heard or read about where people in the U.S. have killed their cat in the washer and sued the manufacturer afterwards because it didn't say "Don't use to clean your pet" in the manual. Then you start thinking that Americans are just a bunch of morons.
So that's why I came here. To see which of those prejudices are actually true. And to discover some fun facts I didn't know about the U.S.

 Driving vs. walking

One thing that is obviously true, is that nobody walks anywhere around here. It's a total car-country! When I went out to get donuts with my roommates they complained innumerable times during that 10 minute walk that we should have taken the car. 

If you have a car, you use it and you hate to leave it. That's why not only McDonald's & Starbucks have drive-thrus, but also banks offer their services at drive-thru ATMs. At most times, there are more cars waiting in line for the drive-thru than there are actual people in the diner/ coffee place/ bank. 

With everybody going by car, the public transportation of course sucks! Looking at the Riverside bus map, you might think a route has only 10 stops, because those are the only ones that are listed and have a departure time. But there are lots of possible bus stops inbetween, you just don't know about them until you pass them. And if you find the bus stop closest to you (which is of course not marked on the map), you can only estimate your bus's departure time: look for the times of the marked stops before and after your stop. Then just guess some random time inbetween.

With so may cars on the street, the driving is also a bit different. Highways and Freeways have 3+ lanes and the speed limit is usually 65-70 mph in California. The way of driving is actually pretty relaxed here. You can pass other cars on the right lane, so the traffic tends to flow even with lots of cars on the street. And nobody is aggressive and honks at you for whatever reasons. However, what really startled me, was when I was waiting at a red light and the car in front of me just ran the red light and turned right! So apparently, you're allowed to turn right despite a red light, as long as you stop like you're at a stop sign. I'm intrigued. 
In return, what intrigues Americans the most is the idea of driving as fast as you can on the German Autobahn (or "Oddobahn" as they pronounce it). It's on every Americans "To Do before you die"-list.

Eating 

Pimp my coffee

But enough of cars. Let's get to food!
Yes, there's lots of fast food here. Americans are ingenious at taking another country's typical food and making it "their own", for instance by putting barbecue sauce on a pizza. If you're looking for America's melting pot, it's literally in the pots (and pans). But there is one thing they can't seem to embrace: chicken sushi! I loooove chicken sushi. Mainly because I like the idea of sushi rolls but hate any kind of seafood. When I first encountered chicken sushi in Australia I was so sure that it was something they had copied from the Americans. Well, I was wrong! And now I'm also sad because I'd really been looking forward to some chicken sushi over here :(
A typical German food item that they were able to screw up, however, is the pretzel (Brezel). Instead of baking pretzels in the oven they deep-fry them. Seriously, how can you do that?

I can't really prove it, but I have a notion that groceries are a little more expensive over here, especially produce. But they do have strawberries in October which I enjoy a lot! And fast food, Starbucks coffee and frozen yoghurt are definitely cheaper than in Germany. I'm a huge fan of frozen yoghurt. When I told my roommates that they were like " yeah, frozen yoghurt is nice n'all...but have you tried gelato?? That stuff is awesome!" They were taken aback when I said that you get gelato at any corner in Germany and hence I find it boring. So the saying is true: you always want what you can't get (or what is less ordinary for you).


The next thing is probably gonna horrify any German beer lover: Americans put anything into their beers. So far I've hear of (and/or tried) pumpkin beer, chocolate beer and banana bread beer. But I bet there are tons of other weird flavours out there. I don't feel patriotic about beer purity and stuff so I think it's funny. But you should see the German guys I know around here...

Anyway, as wide as the American beer variety seems to be, I believe the cocktail variety to be pretty slim. To be honest, I haven't been to a real cocktail bar over here so far, so why would I think that? Because Americans don't know Caipirinha! I mean it's not like it's a European cocktail or something...it's Brazil's national cocktail so you'd think it has a shorter way to get to the States. Anyways, I made Caipis for my room mates the other day and they loved it!

Random stuff

The weather is just awesome down here in SoCal. It's almost November and there's still an average of 25°C! Nevertheless, boot manufacturers don't seem to have any problems selling their stuff in Cali. The other day I kept count and saw 5 girls wearing their sheepskin lined UGG Boots in almost 30°C weather, and innumerable other girls in warm winter boots. What is wrong with them? 

The "Rolltreppenregel"

Well, here's my theory: SoCal girls just love their pretty boots, but if they wait for the appropriate weather (=snow) they'll never get the chance to wear them. So they just jump at any opportunity when the temperature drops below 30°C to wear their UGGs. Or maybe they just start to get cold waaaaayyy earlier than me.



Also for drugs (medicine) the rules are different. You can buy sleeping pills in any Walmart, but Voltaren is prescription only.

And last but not least: the "Rolltreppenregel" - walk left, stand right - is written on the moving walkways at the airport. And I thought Germans were pedantic ...

So much for my little collection of peculiarities. But no matter how wierd some things might seem to a European girl like me, I definitely, and definitely for sure at the very least enjoy my time here! :D