Things that baffle you about another country

[Soubriquet]

America:-

Why are the gaps in the toilet doors so wide? Do you really enjoy an audience?

Why can’t tax be included in the price? If I want to buy something for a dollar it should be a dollar! Not dollar plus tax!

Australia:-

Still weird that you have Christmas in summer.

Wonder if they have different Christmas songs there.

Can’t see walking in a winter land being a big hit.

More like hiding from a hot heatwave

@Famousinlove

America - why don't you have fences around your property?

Many of us do.

I took a photo of the sky in my back yard and there's a fence:

Plenty of back yard fences, but Americans don't tend to fence in the front garden.

@knitnerd90

Speaking of which--the UK has a big tendency to think that the only alternative to the NHS is the USA as if Canada, France, Germany don't exist! USA does this also but the only two possible alternatives are UK and Canada...

The things the USA made me love are window screens and school buses.

Doesn't the UK have school buses ?

Re the NHS alternatives, Australia has an excellent alternative in it's Medicare system.

America - why are there males named Randy? That means sexually aroused where I’m from.

America - also what is this thing about naming sons after their father so they are same name with “junior” tagged in the end? The current American president is a JUNIOR and he’s almost 80!

America (and other countries) - tipping. Just no. Just add whatever the tip is meant to be and make it the actual price. Tipping is so awkward and I tend to over tip ... I think ... or maybe I don’t and I cause offence without realising

Anyone in the northern hemisphere- your water spirals down the bowl of the sink in the wrong direction, so weird. Plus stars.

The U.K...

Why don’t we get decent coupon offers like America does?!

@VegemiteIsToasty

Anyone in the northern hemisphere- your water spirals down the bowl of the sink in the wrong direction, so weird. Plus stars.

Agree with previous poster re the two tiered UK wedding invite system - its so strange. Just invite the people you want to celebrate with & pay for the food and the drink (wtf cash bars??).

oops didnt mean to quote....

@Longdistance

They have the poo shelf on the Hungarian toilets. I’m 44 and my grandmothers toilet was like that since I could remember. My Aunts toilets were the same. Everywhere in Hungary really. I haven’t a clue why, but they are massive consumers of pork.

To avoid having to line the loo with a mile of toilet paper to avoid a splodge up your privates. I can't stand toilets in the UK.

UK - why do some of you think squirrels are pests? They are cute and adorable and have a fluffy tail.

@VegemiteIsToasty

UK - why do some of you think squirrels are pests? They are cute and adorable and have a fluffy tail.

Because we have red squirrels, which are native wildlife, and grey squirrels, which aren't, and the greys are driving out the reds (iirc they carry a disease which kills them). You only get reds now in a few remote places. So greys are a pest as they threaten an endangered species, even though they're pretty cute in themselves.

@knitnerd90

Plenty of back yard fences, but Americans don't tend to fence in the front garden.

Neither do modern developments in the UK. In my area at least, for about the past 30 years any housing developments built have had rules in the deeds that you're not allowed to fence off the front of the garden, or put anything up between you and next door.

NZ - what with the barefoot?Children walking to school. Entire families in the supermarket. I think its lovely and exudes a delightful freedom but where i live the pavements are either grit or VERY spiky concrete. I can barely get from beach to car without a flip flop (Jandal) yet children are hop skipping and jumping about on a 2k walk to school

NZ and Aus - why is the ground floor the 'First floor'. Very confusing

Also NZ - asking for the bill at your table in a restaurant is tantamount to asking the wait staff to wash your feet. Payment on your way out at the door only, which surely means more non bill payers and often causes ridiculous log jams at entrances as staff try to seat incomers and deal with payments.

Sweden - hotels with kingside beds and two single duvets?

Also NZ - hotels with a duvet but no duvet cover - instead sheet/duvet/sheet in a complicated envelope arrangement. Just use a duvet cover!

Also NZ- why is bed linen called 'Manchester'?

@LadyJaye

The UK - WHY do you not extend a reasonable level of trust to your citizens by allowing them to have sockets in bathrooms?

I'm Scottish, but lived in SE Asia for a long time, and coming home to bathrooms without plug points in them was a bizarre reverse culture shock.

This is to do with voltage. We have a higher voltage in the UK - which means faster boiling kettles, hotter straighteners etc - which just isn't safe to be near water.

@110APiccadilly ahhh, that makes sense now. That’s sad about the red squirrels though.

Also NZ - why no prawn cocktail crisps?

@Ginmaker

NZ - what with the barefoot?Children walking to school. Entire families in the supermarket. I think its lovely and exudes a delightful freedom but where i live the pavements are either grit or VERY spiky concrete. I can barely get from beach to car without a flip flop (Jandal) yet children are hop skipping and jumping about on a 2k walk to school

NZ and Aus - why is the ground floor the 'First floor'. Very confusing

Also NZ - asking for the bill at your table in a restaurant is tantamount to asking the wait staff to wash your feet. Payment on your way out at the door only, which surely means more non bill payers and often causes ridiculous log jams at entrances as staff try to seat incomers and deal with payments.

Sweden - hotels with kingside beds and two single duvets?

Also NZ - hotels with a duvet but no duvet cover - instead sheet/duvet/sheet in a complicated envelope arrangement. Just use a duvet cover!

Also NZ- why is bed linen called 'Manchester'?

Everything you said about NZ is true in Australia too.

No shoes in the supermarket???? I don’t get it. I really don’t. There could be all sorts of stuff spilled there.

The ground floor/first floor thing is the same in the US. Drives me nuts and I’m not sure how it originated.

The duvet thing - I’m not sure that this is an Aus/NZ thing. I think it is actually a hotel chain thing. Accor hotels do it. IHG don’t. Guess which I prefer!

Manchester - apparently in the very early days of the colonies being established, sheets and towels were sent from Manchester which was a big textile hub. Still hate the name though - why can’t they just say sheets & towels or call it linen?

Are the poo shelves under water or is your poo wafting disgusting smells round the room until you've finished and flushed?
Surely you must leave poo marks all the time?
If you're eating worm ridden meat you need to sort out your farming!!

@Ginmaker

NZ - what with the barefoot?Children walking to school. Entire families in the supermarket. I think its lovely and exudes a delightful freedom but where i live the pavements are either grit or VERY spiky concrete. I can barely get from beach to car without a flip flop (Jandal) yet children are hop skipping and jumping about on a 2k walk to school

NZ and Aus - why is the ground floor the 'First floor'. Very confusing

Also NZ - asking for the bill at your table in a restaurant is tantamount to asking the wait staff to wash your feet. Payment on your way out at the door only, which surely means more non bill payers and often causes ridiculous log jams at entrances as staff try to seat incomers and deal with payments.

Sweden - hotels with kingside beds and two single duvets?

Also NZ - hotels with a duvet but no duvet cover - instead sheet/duvet/sheet in a complicated envelope arrangement. Just use a duvet cover!

Also NZ- why is bed linen called 'Manchester'?

Re: Manchester, it's the same in Australia but most shops just call it bedding or towels now! I refer you to Wikipedia (Manchester City was a centre of the cotton industry in the late 18th and the 19th century, and into the 20th century, and so cotton goods (principally sheets and towels) were given the name 'Manchester goods', which later was simplified to 'manchester'.) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedding

Also the king bed with two duvets is often heralded (at least on Mumsnet) as being a very good thing, to avoid tug of war with the bedding (Manchester )and allows a different thickness of duvet for each person.

"Are the poo shelves under water or is your poo wafting disgusting smells round the room until you've finished and flushed?
Surely you must leave poo marks all the time?
If you're eating worm ridden meat you need to sort out your farming!!"

Your poop doesn't smell when you poop in a British toilet? Come onnnn.

I feel like flushes are stronger in Germany.

All meat has larva in it, which then grow into worms. Yes, British meat too.

I've been in the US for a decade and some things still annoy me. In my area, unless your house is relatively new, the laundry is in the basement. Americans seem to have a bias against having it in the kitchen.

Most houses don't have proper radiators--I miss being able to hang clothes on there to dry. (They have baseboards or forced air ducts.)

Banks here are behind in their payment systems. They still haven't invented a simple way to send person to person electronic payments and we all have to use something like Venmo. Cheques still exist.

I would kill for an M&S Food.

@PinkyParrot
No, we do not eat worm ridden meat (And by the way you do not mean worms you are all talking about trichinae)
Food regulations are very strict esp. bc. of possible trichinae in pigs.

Just because sth is amusingly disgusting does not make it true.

These toilets (RTFT) went our of fashion in the 1990, mainly bc. the other variety promised to be less smelly (not true by the way.) GPs regret this fashion and you do not change a functioning toilet bowl bc. there are newer ones available. That is wasteful.

Just moved back from the US to UK and so glad we have our kettle back, they take so long to boil over there its ridiculous!! 😂😂😂

@pensivepigeon

Washing up bowls stop the china plates/glasses getting chipped and sink if enamel, scratched if sink is stainless steel. It's also handy if your only sink you can run water down to the side without affecting the detergenty water. Water in the bowl is changed frequently.

This. You can't rinse the plates before or after washing if you do it in the sink. Use very hot water and change regularly. Rinse the bowl and the sink afterwards. Not everyone has a dishwasher and even if they do some things are better washed by hand..

Washing up in dirty water is disgusting but could happen even if you just use the sink.

One thing that we found annoying about the USA, was that there was no pavements. So if you walk out your house you are walking on the road. We were in Texas so not sure on other states but it was so weird. Not sure if its because its so bloody hot all the time so no one uses them anyway 😂 There is trails that run down the main roads but no pavements around the houses. and we didn't have a fence around our front garden it was just open to the road. Someone else mentioned that.

Oh and no one wears helmets for bikes, motorbikes or horse riding etc so weird/stupid!!