UK and America are two countries separated by a common language, UK and US Q&A

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Continuation of the previous thread where posters from the UK ask questions like 'what the hell is going on with the gaps in US toilet doors'; and posters fro the US ask things like 'what is with wearing stripes'

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/a2149133-to-think-there-is-something-wrong-with-Americans?msgid=48969042#48969042

To be fair, hazing is much more associated with fraternities than sororities.

So far very relieved to see the friendly tone of this thread. I tend to open any thread dealing with the US very gingerly, as the anti-American sentiments some MNers express can be extremely unpleasant.

I think the "separated by a common language" thing is becoming less and less true, BTW. English as spoken in the UK has become rife with Americanisms over the past couple of decades.

At my school the sorority hazing was that they couldn't shower or wear makeup or use hair products for a week. Girls were crying over that one.

dreaming I'd cry too if I couldn't shower for a week.

Elk The first thread went to 1000 posts with no animosity at all. It was very friendly, as is this one.

We pay min $5 for a lb of butter here

Woah really? I pay about $2.50 in New England, or $3.50 for the good stuff made locally.

Unless they go driving, or something extremely dodgy happens at a party, teens aren't going to get in much trouble just for drinking itself

That's not true in my state. They crack down hard on teens who drink. But then America is so varied isn't it? I'm always a little bit bemused by people who visit Florida and watch a couple of US movies then base all their opinions on America on so little.

ElkTheory - I agree :-)

I bought provolone cheese in Tesco the other week. It was quite dull.

Hazing actually isn't allowed, and Panhellenic boards and universities come down hard on it. It used to be common and widely represented in the media, mostly with relation to fraternities, but things have changed a lot.

In the weeks before initiation ceremonies, sororities hold a number of social events to allow the potential new members to meet the current members. They also learn about the history and values of the sorority. All of this is to ensure they are happy to become a full member. Girls are not "blackballed".

In my sorority we did lots of social activities, sometimes with other Greek organisations, and we did lots of philanthropic activities. We did not dress the same several days of the week, nor did we think particularly highly of ourselves. Some members did not drink at all and no one cheated academically. For the most part, we were just a group of girls who happened to enjoy the camaraderie and development provided by the organisation.

How old are people when they leave high school in America? Too many teen movies mean I have a very odd idea in my head about this 25

herroyalnotness We lived in Texas a few years back and had a modest 2000 sq ft house - it was HUGE. We had friends in bigger houses that lived on the ground floor in the summer, as it cost a fortune to cool the house and they could only afford to have the a/c running downstairs.

Do you have a community association that sends you snotty letters if your front garden is untidy? Another friend ended up tearing up her front garden as she kept getting letters saying she had a weed in it, but she couldn't tell what was a weed and what wasn't. And we weren't allowed to pal anything on the drive, no boats or trailers or old cars up on blocks.

We also found food in supermarkets expensive - lamb was almost impossible to find, although we had a local curry house that did a good goat curry. I found Tetley tea bags in one of the cheaper supermarket (think it was HEB?), shopping in Randalls was bad enough,I never dared set foot in a Whole Foods Market.

Lonny, usually at 18, sometimes 17. Yes, the long-in-the-tooth actors playing high school students do give an odd impression!

But if you look for food like lamb in supermarkets it will be expensive because hardly any lamb is raised here and no one wants to buy it. Whereas you can get beef for $0.99 a pound pretty easily.

But I do agree about Wholefoods (or Wholepaycheck as we call it) :-)

How old are people when they leave high school in America?

We start kindergarten at age 5 or 6, depending on your birthday, and, provided you only took one year to do each grade, graduate when you're 17 or 18. Most people are 18.

I have been buying Kerry Irish Butter (doing Bulletproof Coffee), and it's about $5 a pound in my local Kroger, but it's imported. Kroger's store brand organic butter is about $4 a pound.

My house is 2000 sq ft, and our lot is about 1/4 of an acre; about average for where I live. We don't belong to a homeowner's association (I can't imagine ever having to deal with that), but I know lots of people who do, especially in newer neighborhoods.

lonny Well I need to work it out from the basics: most states you turn 6 when you are in Kindergarten. Public schooling runs K-grade 12 so you turn 19 in your senior year of high school. So you are 18 (if you have a summer birthday) or 19 when you finish. Does that make sense - I am still trying to figure it all out - been in the US 13 years and my oldest is going into 1st grade next month.

squirreled we went to whole foods the first week, was about $500 for the shop!! I shop at HEB here, I need to meal plan or something! We have Housing association but ours isn't as strict as some others. A colleague in cinco ranch used to get them if his grass was slightly too long. I know the neighbour of ours for a letter for parking their beatup pickup on the road instead of their drive. Don't know why he doesn't get rid of it actually. When we moved in and saw that and heard their boys names we thought they must be rednecks, lol. But they're just like us.

Some of the houses the expats rent are massive! 4-5000 sq ft. They get rent paid, but are annoyed as they can't do anything and the decor is, well, all sludgy and rustic. One landlord complained when an expat put a pool fence up and said they had to remove when they left, you'd think it would be considered an improvement and they'd be happy to have a several thousand dollar fence for free!

Ha ha yes that I just realized I got that wrong! You are 17 or 18 (can't do the maths)

My kids will graduate right around their 18th birthday (probably just before)...

Are red cups just a prop in movies and tv shows or does everyone really only drink out of red cups at parties?

maths

Oh and proms are they a once only thing when you finish school at 16 or 18?

Ah, I remember the beef. Combined with red wine it used to give DH horrible sweats and a night in the spare room. But as Texas is a leading lamb producer in the USA, it is strange that it was so hard to find?

We also called Neiman Marcus Needless Markup (not that I ever did anything other than browse in their, I am definitely a TK Maxx person).

Yes, 17/18 depending on birth month. There's no leaving voluntarily at any point, would simply be dropping out of school. The final year, 12th grade or Senior year, you finish up like any other year and get a high school diploma at the end. Then you can get a job, join the military, or get a college degree - either by going straight to a four year university you applied to and were accepted for in 11th grade/junior year, or by spending about two years in a junior/community college meeting your general education requirements and transferring to a four year school for your final two, specialized years.

If you drop out of high school, you're severely limiting yourself. Hard to get a job without a hs diploma, etc. You can get an equivalency in the form of a GED, it's a test to show you have the knowledge of someone with a traditional diploma - it fills requirements, but it's also looked down upon.

I'd like to know about the final years of secondary in the UK, I have no idea how any of it works.

Thank God nothing like that here. The village sends you a letter if your property is overrun with raccoons and the weeds are waist high in front. However, in order to figure out whose property is becoming a bit of an eyesore and attracting wildlife (and to be fair there is a high threshold or is that a low threshold...) there is a group of 'civic spirited volunteers' who walk around with clipboards taking notes . When you're trying to sell your house you thank them for their vigilance all the same.

I get my Tetley 'British Blend' tea in Walmart.
Butter here varies according to brand and prices go up and down regularly. Right now it is a bit expensive - $2.99 to $4.99 depending on how picky you are.

DD1 did her freshman year in a women's college and joined a sorority. It seemed to me the entire college was one huge sorority and that membership was a bit of a redundancy but she had fun. There were no matching outfits, but when I dropped DS off at his (state) university I saw plenty of sorority women all dressed in matching dresses and shoes. The concept is really weird to me still. DS warned the three youngest DDs never to join a sorority .

People do drink out of red cups at party, that one is pretty true. The brand is Solo and they're very prevalent, though sometimes they're blue. They're preferred because they're sturdier and bigger than most other plastic party cups, they also have measurement lines to help you pour drinks. Not that anyone actually cares or pays attention. It's easier than constantly washing your glassware because you have a lot of people at a party, or risking it being broken.

And can you keep being held back a year so you are about 23 by the time you finish school.

I think my problem with the age I thought people were in high schools was caused by Grease. I always wondered why 30 year olds were at school in the US.

herroyal my friend with the weed problem was in Cinco Ranch - they were a hard core neighbourhood association. We were in Sugarland, and it used to make me smile that whilst people had neat front gardens their backyards were often really overgrown, as that was exempt from the regs. We had a small subsidy towards our rent, but nothing massive (worked for a services company, not an oil company).