16 People On Things They Couldn’t Believe About America Until They Moved Here
A lot of people around the world have ideas of what America is like, possibly thanks to Hollywood, or their local news channels, and maybe from what they've heard from families and friends. But then, they came here, to the grand old United States and their minds exploded.
By 
Michael Koh
5. Jamie Moreno
When my husband moved here (to Canada) he was a Chilean living in Spain. When he first arrived, he couldn’t believe how little we had to work for such money, and how we had the audacity to complain about being “overworked.” He was surprised that he could make enough to pay bills, buy groceries, pay rent, and still afford a social life and luxuries like our xbox while working as a pizza chef. Back home, he was working 12-16 hour days 6 days a week, with an extra 6 hour shift on Sundays, and he was making half as much. He had to work 8 months (while living with his mother) to afford the ~$4000 that constituted his plane tickets and first two months living expenses.
Now, he is lazy and entitled like the rest of us.
6. Joel Emmett
When I taught overseas for a couple years (South Pacific island nation), this is what my close friends expressed disbelief over:
- That I have never, ever, ever seen anyone firing a gun from a moving vehicle. They think this is happening constantly.
- I wasn’t from Chicago, New York, or Hollywood. Or Sacramento. That’s all there is in America, according to movies/I-dont-know-what. They also assumed that you could run into ultra famous people, like, in the open market or on the bus; that you wouldn’t was unimaginable. The real problem was a lack of understanding about the enormity of the country itself, and the vast numbers of people here. America. It’s big.
- That our bathrooms include the toilet *and* the sink.
- Clothes washing machines. That I’d never washed clothes by hand before going there was comical to them.
- That our showers are hot water. Always. Boggles the minds.
- Turkeys. They’re huge, and must be a chicken-y explosion of wonder. Actually, no.
- We think beef is better — a “higher” quality of food — than chicken.
- Wall-to-wall carpeting. The absolutely needless luxury is both profoundly wasteful and absurd. Not to mention hard to clean. I couldn’t agree more.
7. Anonymous
My Russian in-laws were shocked when they found out that we get packages left on our doorstep and no one steals them.
They were also shocked by buffets. My father-in-law told everyone back in Moscow, “No, really! You just pay to enter!”
