16 Observations From Visitors to America That Surprised Me

I found this article - 16 People On Things They Couldn’t Believe About America Until They Moved Here - very interesting. It is worth a read. Here are the 16 things that surprised me, because I figured the world knew all about it, or I had no idea that it was different elsewhere:

1. That, American foreign policy is a very inaccurate reflector of public consensus.
2. The extremely bad coverage that AT&T provided. I’m used to better coverage in India.
3. Cashiers talking to you.
4. Quality of chocolate – It’s just not as good. (I now want to import chocolate from India)
5. Dog food. (Assuming that all dogs got table scraps and mostly were outside)
6. The US has really high speed limits (still not high enough in my opinion)
7. McDonald’s - The burger doesn’t resemble its pictures at all.
8. People in real life actually ate dessert.
9. The fact that Americans don’t stay with relatives when visiting them.
10. Free refills.
11. That you hardly ever see anyone firing a gun from a moving vehicle.
12. Wooden houses, even for people who are not poor or environmentist.
13. Buffets
14. That checks are still used and mailed in envelopes.
15. The U.S. preserves its nature and has great natural scenery. "the US could get a lot more revenue from tourism."
16. That we like Root Beer.

Everyone's surprised.

Here are 16 things that I figured to find on the list:

1. Fruits and vegetables are way more expensive than meat and poultry.
2. People don’t really care about the FIFA World Cup even though USA qualifies.
3. People don’t walk places. They go everywhere by a car.
4. Majority of things in the US aren’t controlled or regulated by the government.
5. How well elderly live, even those on SSI and Medicaid. How many services are available to them.
6. How big the U.S. is.
7. That we get packages left on our doorstep and no one steals them.\
8. Some people are so obese that they require a special electric scooter to carry them around.
9. Under-dressing in cold weather.
10. Large car engines.
11. Bottles of water.
12. The size of houses.
13. Extreme sensitiveness towards race and religion.
14. That creationism is believed by more than a handful of people.
15. That people are afraid of socialism.
16. The number of franchises.

No surprises there.