Expats, tell me what aspect or social norm of your new country was strange to you?

And even then some matches will try to carry

I was being a bit sarky Seneca because Davros called footballers prima donnas (tired cliche anyone?). I think the difference is whether the surface is vastly affected by the dampness.

The court at Wimbledon would be unplayable if it got wet. As would a cricket wicket. While rain of course affects how the pitch plays in football or rugby, it's not totally unplayable until it gets waterlogged so the ball won't move on it

Interesting about the rain. In the US baseball games will be postponed because of rain (hence the expression "rain check") but football (American) will continue to be played in the rain, unless it gets really bad.

Yeah, those cricket and tennis prima donnas are off at the first drop of rain

Ohh I'd forgotten bags of milk! You had to buy a special jug they fit into you'd snip a corner off for pouring the milk out. Seemed weird at first but really cuts down on the space taken up by milk cartons in the bin.

ink I love those bags of milk. So much less waste. Def get the special jug. Sadly the bags of milk are all up in Canada. Here in the Us it's gallon jugs of milk which are bloody heavy.

That's what I thought BOOP, it's not like it happens often. Good to see the Prima Donnas suffer a bit for their £££!
I remember standing on the terrace at Nottingham Forest with snow round my feet, I've never been so cold.

Davros a football match would only be cancelled "for rain" if the pitch was waterlogged. It happened a couple of weeks ago (because snow had made the pitch sodden) but it's pretty rare. A match wouldn't be called off for rain falling no. They'd play in snow or rain. A premiership match was played on snow last week (or was it an fa cup quarter final? I was in holiday and lost track a bit) and I myself watched a match in heavy snow a couple of years back at the molineux on a Tuesday night.

Milk coming in plastic bags that you then have to decant into a jug

@TheLastNigel you're not meant to decant the milk. You can get special jugs for milk bags. Put the bag in the jug, snip the corner and pour.

2000!! Wow.

Whoever said about school donations actually being fees in NZ, this is a common misunderstanding even amongst NZrs.

Schools have fees and donations. The fees are compulsory, the donations are optional. The fees cover things like photocopying, digital licences and trips, while the donations go towards general school spending as determined by the board of trustees. Up to one third of the donation can be reimbursed by the IRD.

It is becoming more common for low decile schools to charge no fee and to make no request for donations, but in other state schools, donations can be as high as $2000.

sorry for typos, very little light where I am now

there was an advert for a travel agency on the back of the local buses “Bugger off for bugger all”

just priceless!

AnElderlyLady making a foreign accent 'the main thing about you' is also VERY usual in the UK. Though I must say, much less from young people (up to 35 ish). Very common for middle aged and older peple to describe a friend or anyone else as 'that French girl', 'my dogwaler is good, the Italian guy' etc - I find it extremely frustrating! People especially those who moved t the UK when young and are now a Brit national even, still decsribed by the prevous nationality as if it's a defining factor.
With exception of some highly educated, ususallly left-wing Brits, maybe (and as I said, the youmg generation).

I don't think I've ever heard of a football match being cancelled for rain in the UK. Could be wrong?

People actually shop at different towns just so they can avoid it.

I definitely sympathize with them. I am in a resort area. With the influx of tourists on the weekends, most of whom have obviously never been to roundabout school, I sometimes take a much longer route to avoid it.

Tribalism, like Scot Catholics loathing Scot Protestants. Just Wow.

I’ve lived in the west of Scotland my whole life and this still baffles me :/

I'd also be interested in seeing what people thought had changed when they went back to/visited their country of origin.

Germany...wtf is it with blowing your nose at the table?? We avoid eating out in cold season, it makes me want to puke.

Also, men pulling onto the hard shoulder to piss and not turn their back to traffic.

We were stuck in, yet another, traffic jam next to a rest area. I looked over and there was a lorry driver sitting in his cab, door open, grinning like an idiot. Why? He had his meat and two veg out. I had no idea human testicles got that big....

Although I think there's only one roundabout in our state so it doesn't crop up so often. People actually shop at different towns just so they can avoid it.

They're called 'traffic circles' or 'rotaries' here. When I say roundabout people think merry-go-round. Although they don't know what that means either as they say 'carousel'.

One of the things that I like about the advent of roundabouts in the US is that it means that we have imported a British word, when word importation usually seems to go the other way across the pond. In spite of some communities trying to call them "traffic circles", roundabout has become nearly universal, at least where I live.

shes as I said, its based on my experience - yours is obviously different, it doesn't make either one 100% right

seneca oh that's excellent!

We need roundabout school here in Portugal.
Ever since new regulations came out for double lane roundabouts, drivers seem very confused.
Unless there's a police patrol watching it. In which case, every single driver seems very clear about what the rule is.

Roundabout school? 😂😂😂

I think the courtesy around four way stops must depend on what region of the country you're in. I'm in the southern US; you can grow old waiting for someone to make the first move while the other people at the stop are waving at people to go first. Similar problems when we got our first roundabout. The local powers-that-be finally decided to have "roundabout school" to teach people how to use it because everyone was holding back for others to enter the roundabout first.