Things I adore about the USA and Americans

[PermanentTemporary]

No special reason... and it doesn't have to be things other people all agree with.

We're planning a holiday there in a couple of years to see some family so the wonderfulness of the USA is particularly on my mind. But am just thinking about how much I love it.

I'll bring up Senator George Mitchell, who gave years of his life to somehow bring the best out of every politician in Northern Ireland and made it possible for the Good Friday Agreement to be made.

I'll bring up American health care. Because although I don't want to change our system to theirs, the fact is that if you either have good insurance or nothing at all, you can have the best care in the world.

And the Grand Canyon. Not sure I've ever been speechless the way I was the first time I saw it.

I'm wondering if we can drop in to see some distant cousins of my partner's who live in Ohio. We've met once at a wedding. Of all the countries in the world, we can be pretty sure that they will be welcoming and happy to see us. ❤️

I've got a friend who calls me Ma'am even after 20 years. I love it! When someone pisses her off, she says "Sir, you sound a little upset." It's brilliant!

Can I also mention the sweet tea?! It's delicious.

Things I appreciate are:

1. The people. I was blown away by how friendly and chatty and well, interested people were in us as Brits in the US. Not experienced such friendliness anywhere else abroad.
2. Positivity. I like that it’s ok to have healthy self esteem there and that you don’t have to go around constantly apologising, not accepting compliments or minimising the things you are good at out of fear of seeming immodest. I hate that our media is always trying to drag people down a peg or two as some kind of punishment for achieving any kind of success
3. The vastness and beauty of the country and the fact that there is almost an entire world within one country.

The friendliness, the welcome. Small portions in the eating places, sharing plates, doggy bags etc. Actually, a bit of this is rubbing off on the UK now. Catering places aren't as stuffy and rigid as they used to be.

One day when I was young there was a war film on TV - the sort where John Wayne or Robert Ryan or Richard Widmark get promoted about four times in the film. I liked those films but I cynically said, "Oh the Americans are winning the war again.", implying that anyone would think we weren't even there. I was told off. "Well, the Americans did win the war. We were so damned pleased when they came to join us. They had equipment." That was from someone who'd been in Africa and Italy, and that was me taught a lesson. Of course your men were over here, overpaid and over-sexed, but we liked you really. Well, I wasn't born then, but I think that's how it was.

Big red chewing gum. The variety of coke flavours you get in a McDonald's. The crazy variety of landscapes and climates. Their movies and music. Massive sprawling cities with the tallest buildings I've ever seen. Lots of great things about the USA.

Oh say can you see
By the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed
At the twilight's last gleaming?...

Oh say does that star-spangled banner still wave
O'er the home of the free
And the land of the brave?

Makes me well up even though it's not mine!

I saw it the last time I was in the US. The actual star-spangled banner. I had no idea you could visit it. My mouth literally fell open. It ws a bit like going to the Duke of Wellington's house on London - something very specific to the place about it.

LA
Really friendly, welcoming people
Their accents
The weather
Venice Beach
Santa Monica
Pasadena
Palm trees
Air con
The music history

Graceland
Elvis

The southern accent, and the phrases it means you can get away with saying.

Like ‘oh sweet summer child,’ ‘oh honey, no.’

You just can’t get the same impact saying similar in say, a northern accent.

Oh ‘fanfare for the common man,’ is a spectacular piece of music!

The joy of being able to speak to people who speak the same language.

In Europe , barely any country speak English.

The USA is a huge country full of people speaking English. I find that a joy.

The nature. It's unlike nature anywhere else.

I am in the States right now, people don't appear to be glued to their phones and haven't seen any vaping or smoking yet. This is in Vermont.

What a lovely thread. Thanks y'all.

We love America, we've done several road trips and do a mix of tourist and off the beaten track and people are so nice, sure we've been in some sketchy areas but on a whole people are lovely.

Sonic burgers, chicken fried chicken, the only thing (and it's not a negative it just makes me laugh) is once you're finished eating boooomph there's your bill, no after dinner drinks and chats like here.

Hope to go back next year.

In a diner in Texas a sweet old lady asked DH to try on a jacket to see if it would fit her son and nobody batted an eyelid like it was absolutely normal.

I'm American, growing older in the UK. And this thread really, really, really warms my heart because I very much miss that American kindness.
As corny as it sounds, I often listen to Aaron Copeland and Gershwin on my dog walks, just to lean into my being American, especially as my dad came over as a refugee from Eastern Europe and my mom came to Brooklyn from her native Ireland... a real American Immigrant story. Aaron Copeland's music really touches us Americans because for all of us, being American starts with leaving something behind and starting again. His music really captures hope.
I suppose, in some ways, he captures the American spirit in the way Ralph Vaughan Williams, to me, captures the English spirit.

The politeness of the kids in the southern states. Addressing adults as Miss and Mr. Like friends parents perhaps, “Miss Laura and Mr David” for example. It’s so sweet.

Bath & Body Works, Cheesecake Factory, IHOP, Chick Fil A, Target, Walmart, Buc’ees, great diners.

I'm from the west of America, but have lived in the Midwest and east coast too. For me it's the stunning beauty, variation and vastness of the land.

Where I grew up, I could go to the beach, world class wineries, beautiful cities, the desert, the mountains/ skiing, and the most beautiful national parks without leaving my state. Ok, obviously it was California! There is nothing on earth more beautiful than redwood forest in northern California, and I've traveled significantly.

My childhood friends came from so many different backgrounds and ethnicities, most spoke a second or third language as well. There is so much culture and beauty in America.

Halloween and Thanksgiving help keep Christmas at bay.

I'm in the Deep South so we don't have fall in the same way that they do in other parts of the US, especially New England, but the slightly cooler weather and the activities around Halloween and Thanksgiving do make fall a distinct season for us. It's my favorite time of the year, even though some people like to call it "summer with pumpkins."

I live in the USA. I can tell you something I really don't like - guns.
My DS was 6 yrs old and in a lock-down at his school when a shooter was loose in the town. He hid behind a sink for 4 hours in the dark and when I finally got to take him home, he pulled his jumper over his face for the whole way. What do you say to a child about that? I honestly had no words. And since then, every year we have "lock down" drills, for if an assailant enters the school. Its horrible.

That's the only reason I haven't returned home. I have two children still in school and every time I mention wanting to return home to live in the States, my DD (14) just says 'guns'. My youngest is autistic and he just wouldn't cope well with the drills and lockdowns, having grown up in the UK (where, of course, there's other stuff! Tonight, he saw a gang on bikes steal a woman's phone out of her hands and he spent the rest of the evening in a circular anxiety). But yeah, the gun culture is such a bummer. I grew up in California in the '70s and '80s, left the States in the '90s to live over here. We just didn't have the level of school/mass shootings back then as we do now, especially the 'mass' aspect of the school shootings. I mean, they happened but since the '90s, they've evolved into something unimaginable and more pervasive in our culture.

I am so, so sorry you and your DS had to experience that. It must be absolutely terrifying.

I think a lot of people in the US are anti gun. I know and work with lots of Americans and they're all so afraid of the pro gun laws. I always find it unfair when everyone in the US is tarred with the brush of being pro gun. Obviously lots of people are and they're probably lovely people, it's just part of that culture I suppose? But it must be very scary.

I've been in the US for 14 years now and we actually really like it. I hate having to point out every time -- whenever Americans pass gun laws the Supreme Court has been overturning them, so really, it's not at all simple.

But anyway the things I like: the absolute variety of everything, Americans don't feel the need to apologise for everything all the time (there's an annoying thing amongst liberals/leftists to idealise Europe though as a reaction to conservative jingoism and I can't help myself arguing with them!) and there's less of the "Oh I was only teasing" and pretending it's normal and friendly when someone is being an arsehole but trying to pretend they're not. It's less tolerated at work here particularly, which is very nice after having been in a workplace with one of those awful sexist men who always used that excuse. Not perfect here but better; people like to moan about political correctness but I've noticed the biggest complainers are the ones who used to get away with things.

You do need to be careful with midwest/southern passive aggressive (I like living in the Northeast for that reason). I find New Yorkers easy enough to handle. If you need something they'll be helpful as anything, but if you don't know how you want your breakfast roll or coffee when you get to the front of the queue you are risking your life. (FYI, in a New York deli or bodega, a "regular coffee" is milk and two sugars.) The trick in NYC is simply to keep up!

I was in New England this time last year. We went from the White Mountains in New Hampshire down to the beaches of Cape Cod and finally to the beautiful and historic city of Boston. I’ve been looking at my photos this week and wishing I was back there. And yes, everyone we met was so friendly and helpful.

This! And bagels. How anyone eats a British bagel is beyond me. And the lack of moaning. I've said this before on here but I won't fly BA anymore as the amount of Brits at JFK or EWR moaning about tiny little inconveniences on their trip depresses me before I've even taken off. British people can, quite literally, moan for England!

We are British family living in the US and we love lots about it - all mentioned here but the healthcare comment in the OP is so so wrong

I'll bring up American health care. Because although I don't want to change our system to theirs, the fact is that if you either have good insurance or nothing at all, you can have the best care in the world.

We have great health insurance but if you have even a minor op it's is so expensive - like clears out a lot of saving a insurance- we've been lucky so far that only a few things have happened but it's eye watering expensive after insurance pays out - and the ER near us is worse that any trip to A&E at home for waiting time and then they charge you so much! But actually we take this one part that we hate with all the good stuff and are happy to live here