16 people share their thoughts...http://thoughtcatalog.com/michael-k...-believe-about-america-until-they-moved-here/
What They Couldn't Believe About America Until They Moved Here
- Thread starter SeaBreeze
- Start date
Old Hipster
Senior Member
- Location
- Undisclosed
That was pretty good.
I'd say more but I was just going out to drive around in my big American pick-up truck to look at the scenery and stop for dinner someplace where they serve ridiculously large portions of extremely fatty foods. And I'll pay for it with my debit card!
I'd say more but I was just going out to drive around in my big American pick-up truck to look at the scenery and stop for dinner someplace where they serve ridiculously large portions of extremely fatty foods. And I'll pay for it with my debit card!
Warrigal
SF VIP
- Location
- Sydney, Australia
A very interesting read. Seabreeze.
There are several I can relate to.
P.S. Have I mentioned lately how good our healthcare system is over here?
There are several I can relate to.
Our minister who is from South Africa had a similar response when he came to Australia. He is the only person I know who had a lock on his refrigerator.
I've noticed how articulate young American students are, and how confident.
I noticed the same (in Canada too). I came home to OZ feeing as if I were a card carrying communist when I compared myself with my North American friends.
P.S. Have I mentioned lately how good our healthcare system is over here?
Diwundrin
Well-known Member
- Location
- Nth Coast NSW Australia
Those struck a lot of chords with me too.
It seemed a far more intense version of the basically similar culture I was raised in.
Can't say I was overly 'surprised' at any differences but then I wasn't living there so a lot of day to day things would have escaped notice.
I saw it as an analogy where Oz was the VW Beetle version and the States was the pink Caddy convertible with the chrome, boom box, bells and whistles. Everything just seemed to have been made so complicated and blown into more importance than it really deserved.
It all seemed unnecessarily OTT to me.
Guess I was more in tune with a simpler no frills life-style. We didn't lack anything the States had, we just didn't dress it up so much, and called things for what they were for, not for what they represented. Cars were just transport, rather than status symbols. Politicians were just people we elected to manage the joint, not demi-gods to get excited about, ya know?.. that kind of thing.
But that was well over 30 years ago and we've caught up to an alarming degree now.
I'm a pragmatist and couldn't really see the point of all the razzmatazz, whereas my Uncle thought the States was God's version of Disneyland and couldn't get enough of it. He just plain loved it all and spent a few months every year for over a decade there just looking around at it.
He probably saw more of the US than most members who live there.
We all see places differently, most visitors see OZ with very different eyes to how I and other locals see it. That uncle hated the outback and saw very little of his own country, he seems to have been born in the wrong place. So anyone's opinion alone can't represent a true picture of anywhere, and their 'surprise' at the differences rests entirely on expectations formed by their own cultures.
No offence but I can't say I'd swap that old Beetle model, they're dead boring and not much to look at, but they don't break down as often, or as spectacularly, and are simpler and far less complicated to fix when they do. They're cheaper to run, they use less gas, and they handle rough patches a lot better.
I guess if you're used to the basic model it doesn't come as a such a blow if you have to go back to it when the Caddy karks either.
It seemed a far more intense version of the basically similar culture I was raised in.
Can't say I was overly 'surprised' at any differences but then I wasn't living there so a lot of day to day things would have escaped notice.
I saw it as an analogy where Oz was the VW Beetle version and the States was the pink Caddy convertible with the chrome, boom box, bells and whistles. Everything just seemed to have been made so complicated and blown into more importance than it really deserved.
It all seemed unnecessarily OTT to me.
Guess I was more in tune with a simpler no frills life-style. We didn't lack anything the States had, we just didn't dress it up so much, and called things for what they were for, not for what they represented. Cars were just transport, rather than status symbols. Politicians were just people we elected to manage the joint, not demi-gods to get excited about, ya know?.. that kind of thing.
But that was well over 30 years ago and we've caught up to an alarming degree now.
I'm a pragmatist and couldn't really see the point of all the razzmatazz, whereas my Uncle thought the States was God's version of Disneyland and couldn't get enough of it. He just plain loved it all and spent a few months every year for over a decade there just looking around at it.
He probably saw more of the US than most members who live there.
We all see places differently, most visitors see OZ with very different eyes to how I and other locals see it. That uncle hated the outback and saw very little of his own country, he seems to have been born in the wrong place. So anyone's opinion alone can't represent a true picture of anywhere, and their 'surprise' at the differences rests entirely on expectations formed by their own cultures.
No offence but I can't say I'd swap that old Beetle model, they're dead boring and not much to look at, but they don't break down as often, or as spectacularly, and are simpler and far less complicated to fix when they do. They're cheaper to run, they use less gas, and they handle rough patches a lot better.
I guess if you're used to the basic model it doesn't come as a such a blow if you have to go back to it when the Caddy karks either.
Diwundrin
Well-known Member
- Location
- Nth Coast NSW Australia
They roll over on bends too but wasn't gonna mention that.
Old Hipster
Senior Member
- Location
- Undisclosed
Yes that's right and if Ted Kennedy would have been driving a VW, he most likely would have been our President at some point. Instead he had to settle for being a Senator for life.
