I’m in Britain and I really hate the eyelashes, fillers and makeup here for young girls sometimes and the intense pressure I see everywhere to get them. Poor girlies.
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Shoes that are stored in the bedroom right next to the bed ( USA). I bought a tall shoe storage from IKEA and a lot of our guests who are Americans sometimes wondering what this thing is for. Apparently, in their homes, they just have a wired shoe rack that they keep in the foyer and bedrooms. Apparently, it’s not common for them to change into home clothes and wear slippers. Also, no towel dryers that are coming with your house/apartment by default. I’m my home country, we typically have something like that - hot water runs through the pipes and warms/dries the towels. When my American husband saw that he thought it was some kind of drunk plumbing.
I’d love this to keep my towels warm!
USA: the huge contradiction between the easy availability of guns and its role in school shootings, on the one hand, and the almost melodramatic “performance” of the duty of care and safety, on the other hand, in school zones - cf traffic speed enforcement and presence of cop cars, having to stop behind a schoolbus if its loading and offloading.
“School zone” tickets are more about income generation for the city than child safety.
You mean performance as in a theater play.
What’s up with British people/celebs sporting the bed head/messy, greasy hair look and calling it fashion?
It’s just the way we are.
Behavior of banks in Denmark and how it doesn’t make Danes mad. Maybe it does, not sure. In order to open a bank account you almost go through a job interview and on top of that they charge you account fee while they’re using your money for their benefits. Never seen this before as a long time expat.
I’m shocked. That really is terrible and it stinks of corruption. We would literally take to the streets in the USA if banks colluded and decided to institute an account fee.
I’m old enough to remember when all, or almost all, banks in the US did have banking fees on accounts. Currently it depends on the type of account and whether the bank calls it a fee or account charge.
As to overdraft fee’s, check and see if you can opt out of overdraft. You’ll need to keep a close eye on funds, but you can potentially save a fair bit of money in the long run.
It’s less common in the US now, but when I opened my first checking account post college, there was a small monthly fee. This was pre-2008 crash, so maybe that was outlawed around then?
Yet you accept huge overdraft fees per transaction done i such a way that the client pays as much as possible to the bank.
Automatic overdraft can be easily disabled by calling the bank or going online.
I am in the US. Citi bank and Chase both have monthly account fees. I am sure there are others as well these are just a few I have had experience with.
Yep good old days in US, they were begging me to get a credit card, bonuses, rewards etc. here there’s nothing and you have to pay :)
I was shocked when I moved to Canada and there were account fees, had to pay for cheque books.
The “Job interview” part is probably because of eu legislation. Banks are responsible for who has accounts with them and what they do with those accounts. So the result is a shopping list of ridiculous questions so they can tick the box of safety checked our new customer. Is it effective? Lol. No. Duh. Yes, I am planning to funnel money to a terrorist organisation from this account, said nobody ever.
Except that there are EU countries where you just fill in an online form.
I don’t think that is the case, it doesn’t happen as standard around the EU
Do Danes use credit cards? I just visited a friend recently in Aalborg and she had no idea what a credit card was or how it works…
Can’t you use online European banks like Starling, Monzo, etc?
I’ve been using Revolut for a long time but they also force you to automatic bill payments via Danish banks so at some point you have to have one I believe.
Same in NL although the basic fee is under 5€ at least per month.
This is the same in Germany
Yeah I wouldn’t surprise. At least we don’t have paper bureaucracy here :)
In Singapore: the ‘bomb shelters’ that double as bedrooms for domestic helpers.
Mexico: believing in alebrijes and la llorona but not in mental health
Australia’s utter lack of understanding that the houses / apartments need insulation and double glazing.
F these glorified tents we live in. I’ve never been SO cold indoors in winter or cooked alive in summer. Electricity and gas bills are sky high because of running AC all summer and heating all winter.
haha definitely true.
Ah, I thought this was just New Zealand
As an Aussie who moved to the US, I have gotten so soft over internal temperature. Having it 21C/71F year round. I can’t imagine going back to the wild swings of trying to sleep in Australia when it’s 10C or 30C indoors.
I feel you. Same in Japan on the main island
Definitely agree with you on this one . Came to Australia from the UK 13 years ago . Every place we have rented ( can’t afford to buy at the insane prices ) has been freezing cold in winter and like a sauna in summer. The first place didn’t have any form of heating at all and I remember desperately trying to keep the large open- plan living area warm with a couple of freestanding electric heaters . It was freezing and the ceiling to floor single paned windows all around the house let out any heat we managed to conserve and let in so much heat in the summer the place got like an oven. The houses since haven’t been much better although at least we do have A/C in the living area of our current place . It still gets like an oven / freezing in the ready of the house though… Australia is so far behind the times when it comes to insulation and double glazing yet the house prices are crazy expensive for poor quality. I’ve never been as cold / hot indoors as I have since moving here . Went to visit my son who lives in Norway in November one year and I could walk around his house in a t-shirt it was that well insulated and triple glazed .
Yesss as an Aussie in Europe ppl keep asking me if im warm enough at home in the winter and im like bruh it’s actually way worse in australia, this is fuckin toasty
Totally depends where in Europe tbh. I lived in Cyprus for a few years, and how bitterly cold it was in winter always shocks people. I’ve never been as cold in my life as I was mid January in Cyprus even at home - there’s zero central heating and everyone always said I must be exaggerating how cold it got but when it’s warmer outside the house than inside and there’s snow on the ground, it’s not a fun time at all.
And in the summer, running the AC left you with a €600 electric bill (before the current energy crisis) in a country where €1000 a month is a decent salary, so there’s only about 4 months a year it’s even close to comfortable at home. Going to work in a job I hated where homophobic abuse was common even from management as a gay woman was often a relief just because it was air conditioned in summer and heated in winter by electric heaters.
Bloody hell 😱 Cyprus eh? That’s rubbish. Sounds like you’ve escaped though? And moved to somewhere nicer?
We’re in the UK and about to emigrate to Mauritius. I did have Portugal on my list for a while. But I’ve decided that the whole of Europe is a bad idea and we’re going to stay out of it.
Portuguese houses have the same construction; total lack of insulation and central heating. Yet in the north it can get fairly chilly in winter! It even snows on higher ground … And it’s humid all year round so massive problems with mold. After looking at the sad state of house construction and the multitude of statues of notable ex-slavers/colonisers in the public squares 🙄, I decided against.
The homes are not insulated? I remember feeling cold during the winter/ rainy months and had a space heater… could never understand because it’s so much colder where I’m from.
Nope. Not ceiling, walls, floors and single pane windows.
It’s like this for me in Portland Oregon and it literally snows here every year. I have to bundle up indoors all winter
Yes I get this same feeling but I live in Louisiana US and I feel like the apartments here are the same as the garden shed I had in the Uk. It’s plastic windows and gaps around all the doors and windows. It’s crazy how bad the housing is in US. I had no idea before I moved here (moved here from Germany but I am British)
And every time hurricane comes they all are shocked that poorly constructed homes are ruined like a play card house and would take forever to hear from insurance company to move their arses to file the claim. My neighbors got half of their house destroyed by an oak tree during Sally and it took them 1.5 years to restore that side of the house and move back in. Big part of it was insurance company dragging their feet to proceed the claim ( they had to conduct few inspections to make sure it was indeed a hurricane that impacted that ). But God forbid to miss one payment, they will punish you immediately.
I see your Australian and give you Japan- where this is also true and our winter temp where I live is usually in the single digits if I’m lucky for the high. Summers aren’t nearly as hot- but humid as all get out. Do they have central air and heat there? In the winter I get to bust out the kerosene heaters and hope I don’t suffocate myself on accident
South Africa is like that as well. Coming from Europe I’ve never been that cold for that long in my life. In winter you are constantly cold wherever you go, except for shopping malls and some fancy offices.
America is the same way. I think that’s just western culture in general.
In the US- people wear their pajamas out and sweatpants everywhere. I have friends who don’t get dressed if they aren’t going out. Not as many people care about what they wear or dressing up and being in sweatpants all day is something to be proud of??
American prize comfort over all things. If possible, it got even more prevalent during and post covid lockdowns. In my area of the Midwest, one really puts down dressing down so why bother?Honestly, I have not put on a pair of hard pants in years.
Upvote for “hard pants”
I’m always up for slagging off the yanks but… What’s so wrong with that exactly?
I mean it’s the most “culturally confusing” for me. Dressing up or even getting dressed at all is a lot to do with respect. How much self respect you have, how much you’d like it from others. How much you want to make a good impression. It’s nothing “wrong”in theory, like wear whatever makes you comfortable right? But when it comes to social situations a lot still don’t put in the effort to dress appropriately. I can’t ever imagine wearing sweatpants or a sweatshirt to a friend’s house, or to anyone who has put in the effort invite me over to their house and host me! But yet so many people I’ve hosted in my house have come over wearing sweatpants or which I find really disrespectful. Like a lady in my neighborhood (pretty affluent, houses are worth low 7figs) hosted a wine night and invited the ladies on our street to join and there were women there in their pajamas??? I honestly would be so mad if I was her! It’s a cultural thing I guess!
Yeah fair enough that was the question. I personally don’t really care what other people are wearing so long as it’s not extremely provocative.
Sweatpants (or trackies as we call them) are just a comfortable thing to wear on your legs if you ask me. I personally like wearing jeans for the more secure pockets, but each to their own you know.
Am I supposed to dress if I am staying home all day? Why?
Greeks are total germophobe from what I see. There are still bottles of hand sanitiser on ever restaurant table long after they disappeared from public life elsewhere in Europe. Also it’s quite common to see people using tissues to touch anything communal (traffic light buttons for example). Yet they don’t have any problem with smoking 30 cigarettes a day. The contradiction is quite amusing to me.
Otherwise I love my adopted country and can’t picture myself living anywhere else at this point.
I’ve only ever seen 40-50 year old women who have become this germophobe (the ones who use tissues in bus etc.), everyone else I know was more than glad to leave all that shit behind.
I have today discovered the Greeks are my people.
They’re not wrong though, people are filthy.
Spain is the same on smoking, sitting in the plaza with friends, cradling a baby with a fag on.
South Korea - recycling and separating trash is a huge deal here! You must do it properly or face fines, yet everything is packaged in tape and plastic. I mean every last tiny cookie is individually wrapped and yet they’re very concerned about recycling… make it make sense!
It was like that when I lived in northern Italy 20 years ago too. Back here in the US, my city has recycling, but if you follow the recycling trucks, they dump it in the same sorter as the garbage, so our cans are a sham. When we passed a law requiring businesses to charge for bags, they removed all of the bag recycling containers too. So if anything, it just became more expensive to shop and the plastic bags use more plastic but are not reused anymore than they were before the law…
s/Capitalism above all else baby!
Where I am in the US there in no charge for bags. Grocery stores bag your groceries in plastic bags unless you bring your own which I rarely see. Restaurants pack up your leftovers in plastic or styrofoam. My city is the same as yours in that we have a recycle bin and a garbage bin but the contents of each end up in the same place.
California passed a law a few years back that effectively bans single use plastic bags and requires retailers (except those that had a strong enough lobby) to sell paper or thicker plastic, but still mostly single use, bags for 10 cents.
Not sure the intent of the law was met since most people just buy the bags and now we have no way to recycle them. We at least could take them back to the store that gave them to us to be recycled before…
Oh yea. I remember I was shocked when I went out to see the opposite, where everything brutally fell into one bag.
Can confirm. My “trash “is literally the Kleenex I blow my nose in. Everything else is recycled.
And I find it interesting that America has this ban on plastic bags. But you go to Korea, and like stated above, everything is packaged in plastic and given to you in a plastic bag. ㅋㅋㅋ
Yup, in the US, I’m always stuffing things in my pocketbook if I buy them when I’m out on a walk and forgot to bring a cloth bag.
America has no such ban, at least the USA does not. In most of the USA, most grocery stores provide unlimited free plastic bags to customers.
The only place in the US I know of that does this is NYC. You have to sort everything & can be fined if you don’t.
“Saving face” to a nonsensical degree. Nonsensical to my westernized brain of course. I known it’s all relative. But I’d rather the person tell me they can’t do something than nod and smile and pretend they can. I’d rather be told the truth and get on with my day, no hard feelings.
Where?
Every time someone talks about how great AI is for summarizing work meetings, I think of my job at a very Japanese company a few years ago. How will your CoPilot handle someone saying one thing and meaning “No, I’m not going to do that.”
I can totally imagine actual people fine tuning the IA to adjust it to different cultures. As in:
Allow for % possibility of their yes meaning “no” as a default. % increases by x% in the following events (insert societal norms). Add X% based on how many seconds pass between the request and the theoretical agreement. Other things to consider: rank of those asking/receiving orders, witness yes/no, etc. Once you get an estimated percentage of possible “deniability” on a supposedly agreed task, correlate the percentage to this particular frequency of reminders.
Lol
This wouldn’t work, but I can imagine something that would.
For example: “Tori-San expressed his understanding of the request at :10 in and indicated he would not be agree to the change. The meeting continued on for 50 more minutes and ended with the Americans understanding that they could investigate making the change. However, given Tori-San’s rank and that of the other participants there are no actions needed, the request will not be agreed on.”
This is why I like the Germans. They tell you straight up and don’t mince words.
which is also incredibly annoying and indiscreet at times. Japanese/German business meetings must be fun.
Croatia - it is ridiculously safe to walk around as a woman - even at night.
This is not a bad thing at all - but moving from the UK - it took me a while to adjust to not being in ‘hypervigilance’ mode when out and about by myself.
It perplexed me at first as to how this is a thing, but after being here a while I think it comes down to two major factors… the way masculinity is understood in the Balkans, and the way communities work.
On the masculinity front - sure the Balkans have their own particular brand of toxic masculinity - but boys are taught from an early age that it’s pathetic to harass/insult women, it just isn’t cool to make sexual comments or to push yourself on a woman if she turns you down in a bar or something. You just look ‘weak’ and lose status as a ‘man’ if you do. Especially if you lose your cool.
As for communities. There is very little ‘bystander’ effect when it comes to anyone acting like an asshole in public - whereas in the UK they teach you to shout ‘fire’ if you’re being attacked outside as that’s more likely to draw people towards you than if you call for help, in Croatia you can expect that if someone sees anyone looking remotely in distress, or hears a sound like there’s someone in distress nearby - they’re going to intervene. Coupled with the aforementioned view of harassing women as a sign of being pathetic - to the point where most Croats (and to be fair most Serbs & Bosnians too) would be so disgusted by such behaviour they’re likely to beat the shit out of a dude that attempts to do so - it’s a pretty effective deterrent. Plus if the perpetrator is known to the community then that’s like a fast-track route to being socially excluded - and it’s incredibly hard to live your life in this country without a solid community around you. This isn’t just regarding women though - in general anti-social behaviour of any kind isn’t tolerated - across all age groups.
Domestic violence rates are comparable to the rest of Europe, and men will still comment on women’s bodies in public - just not to the woman’s face, and they don’t generally ‘ogle’ women they find attractive the way men freely do in the UK - but yeah, like I say, it was weird to get used to being more relaxed in public/seeing other women so relaxed in public - walking home by themselves late at night and stuff.
I should also add that Balkan women are generally pretty badass and that’s a factor too - they don’t tend to take much shit. It’s not like it’s just men policing this - women will intervene as well and if you try to harass a Croatian woman you can expect to be chewed out pretty viciously on the spot.
I’m also from the UK moving to Croatia in February, thank you for sharing some of your views, it’s really interesting to hear from a similar point of view :)
I’ve always wanted to go to Croatia but you’ve really sold it with this. I just want to wander around in peace. Any other similar countries?
You could add Georgia to the list. I’ve had the same experience there, felt safe walking around after sunset (as a woman).
Austria and Slovenia for sure. Probably most others in the region.
Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Slovenia - I haven’t been to Montenegro myself, but I’d be surprised if the situation was radically different from the rest of former Yugoslavia there. Austria has borders with Slovenia & Croatia too and they’re pretty chill as well if you’re in the area for a while.
This is very interesting!
I noticed this in Croatia - men check you out snd will come up to you but are also v respectful
They seem pretty masculine in a good way and v tall and handsome
Me likey
I understand what you are saying. When I lived in Belgrade with my daughters, we all felt very safe being out alone at night. No one ever bothered any of us, and, I found a respect towards women that frankly surprised me, as I knew the Balkans had a reputation for macho men. I think you are right when you say that it is not seen as cool to bother women. This also extended itself towards treating the elderly with consideration, and I think this comes from the strong family ties found there. I was also surprised, by the number of young people ( sometimes glamorous young girls, sometimes young boys who looked a bit rough), who could be found popping into a nearby church to pray and light a candle). I experienced genuine warmth in Serbia, and always felt that people would intervene to help.
Yea - it was the macho thing that surprised me too. I think in more ‘western’ cultures there’s like a conflation of ‘machoness’ with being sexually aggressive, but that idea is absent in Croatian/Serbian/Bosnian notions of masculinity.
If you think about it - its actually fairly logical - its less ‘masculine’ to be so desperate that you have to chase/beg/harrass women for attention, and using force against someone who is just physically smaller than you is quite pathetic.
I had the same culture shock moving from outside DC to Amsterdam… Both cities are huge with lots of people and tourists. But in Amsterdam, it is so different. In DC, it always seemed like people were looking to start an argument. Here in Ams, you are lucky if the person walking past you looks up and makes eye contact 😂😅 Now they think I am the weird one because I greet folks as I pass (but its pretty international in the city so it really doesn’t shock anyone either)
That is a big city/small city thing in the Netherlands, I’m from Almelo where people greet each other on the street but here in The Hague they don’t.
In A’dam, I got winked and smiled at, by a local chic lady in her second youth. Can’t complain…
Almelo, the most famous traffic lights in the Netherlands.
As someone considering solo traveling for a bit, this was awesome to read! Thanks for sharing! My biggest fear of booking is the whole walking alone portion - I’m in the US and I have to be all eyes everywhere even when leaving a grocery store.
I strongly confirm it’s the case for the rest of the Balkans too.
And in France there is like in UK or worse.
even albania?
One of the safest.
Not a deep or philosophical answer, but here in Ontario every single person I know has a milk container in their kitchen that holds their bagged milk up so you can cut and pour it.
I’ve never seen one anywhere else.
Bagged milk? Is it powdered and you have to mix it up?
Fresh milk. Was a common appearance, in Romania, until the early 2000’s, too
If you buy a refrigerator in Canada, does it come with a milk container as an accessory? Or do you buy one at some other store?
It does not, no.
They sell the little containers at grocery stores and general stores, like Walmart, Loblaws, or I guess dollar stores.
Common in Brazil as well.
This is common in Wisconsin in the US as well! Seeing a box full of milk bags in the grocery store under the cartons and jugs was very weird when I first noticed it. I didn’t realize you had to get the container that folds the open corner; I thought these people were just drinking a lot of milk all in one sitting!
That’s a really good idea for reducing plastic waste!
Keurig… not sure if other countries are also obsessed with these but I’m still shocked by them for some reason
Yes and Nespresso pods. So wasteful.
The new Nespresso pods are recyclable and they send you bags to fill and ship back to them for free. Better than them ending up in the trash.