30 Non-Americans On The American Norms They Find Weird

18. bankergoesrawrr

There’s a special occasion that can be commercialized almost every month. My room-mate’s mom is awesome and she’ll send us care packages every month. I was amazed there’s a special occasion every month and there’s always cookies, knick knacks, candy, accessories, clothes, etc. that’s made just for it.
Jan: New Year/welcome back from your break!
Feb: Valentine’s day
Mar: St Patty’s day
Apr: Easter
She didn’t send any for summer since we’re usually studying abroad/traveling, so no idea.
Sep: Back to school
Oct: Halloween
Nov: Thanksgiving
Dec: Christmas
I’m not complaining but damn there’s a lot to get excited about!

19. Dforssi

For me the weirdest thing was landing at JFK in 2007. First time visiting the US and starting from the border control it was pretty fucked up in my opinion. We spent hours waiting in line with fully armed national guard members watching over us, overly suspicious passport control and those “Are you/are your family involved in slave trading with the kingdom of Babylon by orders of Ramesses II?” waivers. It was all overly suspicious and did not really feel welcome to the country after being watched by soldiers and questioned by customs officers like I’d be traveling to a war torn third world country.
On the other hand, the flags and general patriotism was really weird.

20. jamesnufc

I’m a non-American living in the US, here are a few things I have noticed:
-Eating salad before the main course…wtf
-Called the main course an ‘entree’
-Having a ridiculous amount of flags
-The number of shitty commercials on major cable channels, not to mention the number of shitty TV shows that somehow get constant airtime
-Tax not included in price in shops
-In some cities (not all) people give you strange looks if you walk around the city and don’t drive (saw this in Houston a lot)
-How poverty is so rife in nearly every major city

21. Flapjack_Ace

American chocolate sucks.

CLICK TO THE NEXT PAGE…


About the author

Timmy Parker

More From Thought Catalog