Things I think are true about America based on Tv and Film

[PennyHasNoSurname]

People sort of pick at their food with just a fork - putting it on, scraping it off, moving it round the plate before putting it back on again and eating half of whats on the fork. Food must be stone cold by the end.

Nobody says goodbye on the phone. Now I know us Brits are painfully polite to a fault but "see you later" or "bye" is basic?

Everyone eats out of packets / dried goods. Of which they have 3000 of in their basement

School finishes at about 11am. University is called School (isnt that confusing?!)

OP - having worked for an American bank before (in the uk) I can confirm that hanging up without a goodbye is a thing! It took me a very long time to get over that. If they are leaving a message with you, it's very common. There are other phrases they end with like a quick thanks at the end of a sentence or a customer service / concierge will end with a version of have a nice day. Of course this is a generalisation but very common in my experience X

Or something like speak later. What I found unsettling that the people I spoke to in the us on the phone would hang up at the end of their sentence rather than pause for you.

They never have a 'it's nearly pay day fridge' ie empty apart from a few manky and forlorn mushrooms.

Their fridges are always full to the brim of beer, huge bowls of prepared salad (complete with servers), whole cheesecakes and all sorts of other yummy things and fruit that you never, ever see anyone eat.

Every alley contains a dumpster (a skip)
All dumpsters contain either an old mattress or a pile of empty cardboard boxes.
Jumping out a window into one of these dumpsters is perfectly safe, and you will never land on concrete blocks, broken glass or used nappies

Detectives, intelligence agents, corporate lawyers and other similar professionals usually don't have partners or kids.

The ones who do have kids only spend a few minutes with them once a week or so, even then it's only when they bump into them by chance, because they're too busy working from 7am - 2am. (Although there's always plenty of time for long lunches with colleagues or love interests)

When you get home from your 19 hour workday, you have some leftover Chinese takeaway at 2.30am then you get about 3 hours of sleep before continuing to work on the case.

People with stalls selling stuff in the street, like fruit and veg - their sole role in life is to get everything knocked over as the baddies' car/ motorbike screams past, and wave their fists at them. They will just be picking everything up again and getting it straight when the cops' pursuit vehicle zooms past, upsetting the produce once again. At this point, the stallholder must stand in the street and do "ahhh, mamma mia" style frustrated gestures, like shrugging and stamping and open-handed "gimme a break" gestures as he stares angrily after the car.

You must have blood tests before you can get married.
Everything taken to the pawn shop is still there whenever you want it back (Glenn Miller's trombone, the typewriter in The Lost Weekend).
Someone explain to me - do the kids go to summer camp while the parents are at work or do the parents send them while they, the parents, are on holiday?