To be surprised at how advanced the US were to us?

[Hownoobrooncoo]

was watching an old movie earlier set in The 50's and a character mentioned her glass of champagne her 85 calories - would anyone in the UK even have known what a calorie was back then?

The first microwave ovens appeared in the home in the 50's in the US as well, same as TV remote controls - Jesus, we were lagging behind.

speckle I was born in 70 and lots of people I knew still had twin tubs.

I agree with Elaine.
I have been living in the US for nearly a year and am shocked at how backwards things are here compared to the UK.
Banking is a nightmare; it is virtually impossible to set up a direct debit, they've never heard of chip and pin with most people still using cheques to pay for things.
Overhead electricity lines mean frequent power cuts in bad weather
The bureaucracy is unbelievable. When I applied for a driving licence I had to go some antiquated office and wait in 4 separate queues so that 4 different people could check my documentation, with each having a different kind of stamp. It took 4 hours to do something that could have easily taken one person 10 minutes. Applying for a social security number, work permit and green card is also a bureaucratic nightmare.
The fashion is like something out of the 1980s. I can't wait to get back to the UK to buy some decent clothes.
I also find that there is a big racial divide which makes me feel quite uncomfortable.
Yes, I hate love living here

Chip and pin in California has been going for at least 12 years

I agree about the fashion

Lucky you valium - I need to move to the West coast :)
Also I have to pay a charge to use the ATM at any bank other than my own. PITA as the nearest branch is miles away.

The UK is smaller than Oregon???

Thanks for additional pasta input! Nice to see that it was a late arrival for some people and so my friends weren't just taking the P with me

And interesting to see that some people find the US behind the UK. I guess it's what you look at! Am trying to think of the things I found a tiny bit backward when I moved to the UK...

No power outlets in bathrooms
Nobody has tumble dryers, you have to wait a day for dry laundry
At the shop, an endless aisle of cheddar and a tiny corner for every other kind of cheese
As a woman, not having direct access to a gynecologist
My university's bureaucracy. Oh.My.Word.
The state of the housing stock in London
The royals
The Daily Mail

But there were also loads of marvelous things, SIM cards, Oyster PAYG, online banking, Easyjet, kettles!!!, bangers and mash, bonfire night, proper unions, Brixton market, football down the pub...

If only we could have the best of both worlds...

Madderhat seriously?? that's fascinating!

OP here - Maybe it is my background. My family were poor, slum clearance, small council houses for big families etc. Microwave ovens, tumble dryers etc perhaps came at an earlier date to the more affluent, more central based UK elite but I was very surprised to see when many of these things were common place in the states.

when i took my test in the states i did the theory, practical, photo taken and licence issued in under 50 minutes. Very efficient. Much better than dealing with the dvla. But even 4 hours is much better than them

If you want to talk advanced what about the French minitel system where you had a small computer in your house in the early 80's that you could even book train tickets on and get all the phone numbers and send email. Or

No Like a few posters the US is well behind and I didn't live in a back water, left a year ago, banks a nightmare, no direct debt, just checks some utilities could do a blank check thing, but the minute you changed your card/address it had to be set up again.
almost every thing had to be paid in person, I remember my parents doing that in the 70's early 80's in the UK
Driving license OH MY GOD! 8 times I went every time the rules changed on my 6th attempt, I phoned I had cracked it I thought, get all my stuff in order, asked what I needed check, check, check and check again...arrived to find as of that DAY! all over 18's had to do 8 hours driver ed, asked why I hadn't been informed of this when I phoned the day before when I informed them it was the next day I hadn't been told, the straight faced answer was because you didn't need it yesterday!!!!
and I can't tell you about the lack of card security, but put it this way, i ave lost too many cards since our move back to the uk, because I am not used to leaving them in a machine to check who I am, I just walk out and leave them in the machine, if I had to swipe I did it before every thing had gone through the checkout no chip and pin or signature...but the hell of buying booze at 38+ without ID because I didn't have a Drivers lic...ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! and they did recognize a passport and visa which got me into the country!
sorry I have gone into rant mode I will stop but I could go on, for ref, I lived exactly 91 miles from New York and Boston according to my sat nav and well within commuter belt for both.

The USA has always been more materialistic. They even have bigger cars because there's more room. Their country is bigger.

sorry didn't recognise the passport

Lol at Bohemian thinking a lack of power outlets in bathrooms is "backwards". Sensible more like!

My best mate moved to California 14 years ago after spending most of his life in the UK. I remember him telling me about the driving test. It is basically being able to start the car and set off, and he says it is no wonder the majority of them are such crap drivers.

I dont think the fashions are too bad, unless you go into the big deparment stores, which are definately about two decades behind us.

Public transport on the roads is not great there, certainly not in California, but internal flights are dirt cheap.

However one of the main things that we noticed as tourists when we visit are the prices are so much cheaper for everything.

The tour to Alcatraz Island, which included the boat trip, the guided tour around the prison, and takes about 3 hours was something like £10 per person. Entrance to the theme parks was a lot cheaper too, and car hire/fuel was unbelievably cheap. Hotels are also far superior in quality to the UK and again a fraction of the price.

The service industry is also much more customer friendly.

Public transport on the roads is not great there

I was told a long time ago - not sure whether urban myth - that the big car companies stopped any type of public transport systems if they could as it would have a knock on their business.

The service industry is also much more customer friendly

They don't pay the staff though, they have to be friendly as they live on tips - or is that not really the case?

Waiting staff are on low basic wages, and rely on tips, but tipping is almost mandatory. A bar tender usually gets a dollar each time they serve someone, so they can earn a decent wage.

I'm a regular on another forum that has a lot of Americans and out of all the differences between our nations, I still can't get my head around the fact they don't really use debit cards and write cheques/checks for almost everything! So odd in this day and age!

Not the US, but lived in a country where you have a device in your windscreen in which you slot a card you have loaded up to whatever amount of money. You then just drive into most car parks and when you leave the fee is automatically deducted from the card. It's fucking epic and wish they would Implement it here.

Another great thing in America is getting fuel. You go and pay first, then they dispense that amount into your tank.. or at the smaller stations, they fill it up for you and take your money without you needing to get out of the car.

Stuntgirl

It is backwards!! At least, when you have been drying your hair in the bathroom your whole life. The UK is the only country I've been to that doesn't have outlets in the bathroom, surely if you can't manage using electricity in an entire room of your house that's a leeeeetle bit backwards

Also lol at the idea that Americans don't use debit cards... wayyy back in the late 1990s I was already used to never carrying cash on me...

I have Kettle, Breville and cordless and very fast When I came here there weren't many available but standard for a good while now. I never use cheques always debit card, I see very very few people writing cheques. Online banking, don't pay anything in person. I have an iPhone as do most of the people I know. The driving test was, first written which you have to pass before you can actually drive the car and they took me on the freeway during the test Fashions are pretty similar. i think it depends on where you live.

dreaming

I think that UK bathrooms CAN be electrically wired - I'm sure the British electricians are more than competent to do it - but the regulations don't allow it for safety reasons.

It's just like with the public toilets here. Americans are more than capable, I'm sure, of fitting the partitions of the cubicles so that they don't have gaps yet they chose not to - possibly because there is some benefit in people being able to see in to your cubicle? It's a question of choice!

London housing stock can be pretty bad but New York housing stock??? OMG! Although do love the American habit of building closets into the walls. Very clever!

The other thing that I remember the US leading on is recycling. I remember in the 80s and early 90s, people used to speak of the recycling in California. There is some recycling (here in NYC it consists mainly of homeless people rifling through the trash to find the cans and bottles with deposits!!!) but the UK has totally overtaken the US.

I had a Colombian person tell me that we were "infantile" for not having sockets in bathrooms.

Thinking about it, most countries do have sockets in the bathroom, am I right?