Europeans Reveal The Things That Made Them Go "WTF" While Visiting The U.S

The U.S seems kind of wild if you're not from there

Ayoub

• Published in Funny
• March 16, 2021

The United States of America is a pretty wild place if you think about it, Americans do things differently, and the rest of the world just watches in shock and worry. Even something as basic as a supermarket is completely different in the U.S, it's just a different vibe in general.

Reddit user u/AppleberryJames managed to come up with a great question for the askReddit community. His question is pretty straightforward: "Europeans who’ve visited the US, what made you go “WTF”?". The responses they got were pretty interesting and there were a lot of contributions from a lot of different nationalities.

Here's the original Reddit post:

"The cheerful, smiling faces on a medication TV add while the voice over mentioned that death is a possible side effect."

"Was staying with the nicest family ever."

They worked extremely long hours and lived in the suburbs. I wanted to cook for them as a surprise and set out to the store on foot, with an empty backpack for the groceries. Had to walk along the curb of, and then cross, an 8 lane highway to get to the store. Had to stop a really really old man from bagging the groceries. Then was stopped by police on the way back. They were very friendly, just wanted to know where my car had broken down. Ended up explaining to me that there was basically zero infrastructure for walking out in the burbs. They took me home. On the way, I saw a sign "gas 99 cents a gallon, Bud's Xmas Gift to the Community", blew my dad's mind when I told him later. Got home, thanked the nice officers, made a vegetable casserole. When my wonderful host family came home, they were blown away but also extremely worried. All in all, I would say that no matter how crazy America may be or seem, Americans make up for all of it. They are some of the friendliest, most welcoming people I have ever met.

"Especially as a bloody introverted Finnish person (stereotypes kicking in) it was terrifying how people had a ton of chitchat and were really talkative."

Wished me a good day and asked about useless stuff

DON'T TALK TO ME PLEASE I AM NOT QUALIFIED FOR THIS

"Roadside billboards scattered along the interstates in the South."

Billboard # 1: JESUS

Billboard # 2: PORN AND BOOZE, NEXT EXIT

Billboard # 3: GUNS! GUNS! GUNS!

"The political ads on TV that do not promote but instead demonize candidates!"

“So and so is a devil from hell that will eat your newborn for breakfast if you vote for them! Don’t do it if you love America!” Scary music and black and white footage included. Weird, very weird.

"The Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas absolutely blew my mind."

The fact that outside it they have what looks like a scale for use on a farm, but for weighing people, and if they weigh over 350lbs they eat for free, was horrendous and it took me ages to get my English mind around it.

"Almost all food tastes sweet, including bread."

"Was on an exchange. 2 most memorable questions were "Can you see the moon in Europe" and "Do you have Pizza in Europe". "

Something else I'll never forget was the map of Europe in the school I went to which still showed the country of Yugoslavia (which doesnt exist anymore) and all the borders were messed up. A map IN THE SCHOOL.

"The amount of obese people. Obese people riding electric scooters at shopping places. Being handicapped because you are obese."

"Went there as a german soldier on a semi work related trip, wearing uniform."

"I ate a blue slurpee ice-drink thing in a theme park and three hours later, I kid you not, I did a VIBRANTLY BLUE [POOP]."

"Went to L.A. a week last year for work..."

Things like portion sizes, the average weight of people, quality of food and commercials etc. are just what I thought they would be. But the surprises for me:

1. I do know the modeled Los Santos in GTA from L.A. but I didn't realise how well they did it. People talk and behave basically the same way. The sound, the light, the landscape, the frickin RADIO! I thought a big part of it was just exaggeration. Nope! This was actually kind of fun, driving around looking at things going "oh wow this is where that thing happened in the game". Awesome!

2. There are a lot of homeless people and you can tell a lot of them are sick and/or have psychological problems. This sure doesn't remove any of my prejudice about american healthcare and social security...

3. The extreme differences between neighbourhoods that are right next to each other. Sure, I understand why one street might have houses that look nice and are well taken care of and another not so much. But why is there a difference in how well paved the road is? Why is the "poor" street in such decay with lots of potholes and the "rich" street so clean and free from pot holes? Aren't things like fixing the roads the responsibility of the city? Mind boggling that they care more about rich neighbourhoods and the poor ones. If they did that so blatantly back here there'd be some things and a big fan involved.

Generally the social class differences are of a magnitude I've never seen before. Honestly I thought the things I heard before where somewhat exaggerated. I was wrong. And it is right in front of you basically all of the time! Really really sad to see.

"Tax not included in the price tag. It's...weird!"

"Flags everywhere. Not just in front of people's homes, but in front of everything. I even saw a US flag in front of a supermarket. WTF."

"Ads for prescription medicines. Like what the actual hell."

Ayoub