ITT culture shock stories

ITT culture shock stories

I have two.

During the World Cup my local news station was interviewing foreigners who were staying in my town, asking them what they thought of the town and Brazil and such. And they came upon a guy from Switzerland in a diner who was freaking out because when he asked for a glass of orange juice the lady behind the counter actually grabbed a couple of oranges and squeezed the juice out of them to serve him, and he had never had real orange juice before, just artificial flavors.

During the Olympics my dad worked for a company driving tourists to and fro in Rio, taking them to games, their hotels, tourist spots, etc. and one day a group of Americans asked for him to stop at a place where they could grab a snack, so he stopped at a bakery and the Americans were fucking mesmerized at the existence of such an establishment. They were amazed at being able to eat fresh bread, pastries and cakes just out of the oven. They said that in the US such foods were only made in factories and sold in supermarkets, unless you made it yourself at home.

We have plenty of bakery's, Your dad probably had a hard time understanding the tourists with the duct tape on their mouths.

>We have plenty of bakery's
what? where do you live with all these Bakery's

I fucking died.

During the Olympics a Brazilian family came to Sydney and everytime a motorbike drove past them on the street they would all grab their bags and run from the road

Sounds reasonable, t.b.h.

Swefag on vacation in America, I spill some spaghetti since it's difficult to manage smalltalk and staff approaching you in shops etc.

They seem understanding about it though, got a clear accent so they know I'm a tourist

You're fascinating and mysterious to them. Embrace it. You could tell them you hate them in a foreign language and they would love it. You have fantastical powers here.

I'm sure you guys have dealt with tourists before, other than some woman saying Swedish sounds powerful there have not been all that many comments about it

Cool country you have here, by the way

Glad you're enjoying it. Lots of foreign languages, especially if you're in a meme coastal city, but it's a great ice breaker. I'm just telling you that you have a free pass to be a sperg here if you decide to use it. Where are you visiting?

Hiked through Grand Canyon yesterday, scenery blew my mind

Planning to leave Arizona in two days and spend the rest of the trip in LA. Don't mind sperging out for the rest of my stay here, having a good time doing it

Since this is a thread about cultural clashes I will say something I've observed about Americans though, you either get riled up by ease or you overdo your reactions. Maybe this is something of a desire on your part to show other people what you think on certain issues/events.

Might be why there's a lot of bumper stickers with a certain slogan/opinion on your cars for instance, because you want other people to know who you are and what you think, rather than keeping it to yourselves

Supermarket bakeries don't count

Social media is a fundamental aspect of our society. Every idiot here seems to think everyone else needs to be converted to their way of thinking. Sometimes keeping to yourself is a good thing. I never got the 'expression of opinion via sticker on your car' thing, but not a day goes by that I don't see one of those vehicles.
Arizona and Nevada are gorgeous, it's a little hot right now for my taste though. If you come in the winter it's a bit more comfortable. I'm not a huge fan of LA, it's a big city surrounded by crappy neighborhoods, surrounded by cramped suburbs. There's a lot to see and do there, though. I hope you have some fun! One thing I learned this year is that Disney parks sound like silly ridiculous things, but they are so fun. If you have a chance, I highly recommend seeing Disneyland, even though this is the most crowded time of the year.
Everything is right with this post.

>Social media is a fundamental aspect of our society

Got a few surprised looks when I told people I don't use facebook, instagram etc, to be fair they make it into a deal that I don't use fb in Sweden too

This place is about the most social media I use. I get some looks too.

if you play up the accent, you'll be swimming in puss at night

er, don't go to disneyland its just a waste of $100+ for entrance and like another $10-$20 for parking

go hit up the museums. Getty for scenary and some of world's most expensive paintings, LACMA for the young folks (they have music and movie nights there), Norton Simon if you like impressionist and old masters, MOCA for comp art, Huntington if you like british arts and gardens

and do a day or two trip to big bear or mammoth

and take the subway or lightrail to save time rather than stuck in traffic during rush hour

Personally, I'd do Palm Springs, Joshua Tree, and all the parks out there. Disneyland sounds faggy and stupid, and I would have agreed with you until I actually went there. It was pretty fun, even as an adult.

>squeezed the juice out of them to serve him, and he had never had real orange juice before, just artificial flavors.
Fucking kek. I will never believe you

palm springs during gay month :O joshua tree is good, but i'd rather mountain up and cool weather. its hitting mid 90s in LA in a few days, can't imagine how hot it would be in palm springs

did disneyland few years back when my cousins came to visit form /siouxfalls/.. only thing good was space mountain, otherwise would want to hang myself

oh, swedeanon should also do the JPL tour if he likes space stuff

Somewhere that isn't in the middle of nowhere even then bakeries still exist in small towns. So you just must not goo out too much.
This post is live action role playing. Americans have bakeries, I buy fresh bread from time to time ya dingus.

Oh, I forgot about JPL. I'm not in Southern California, just trying to think of the fun stuff there. If you master the art of the fastpass on Disney's app, there's no lines.

where art thou user?

Deep in the Heart of Texas. How about you?

LA... Pasadena area lol

Well you would know better than I! I like visiting your part of the world, though. Even Hollywood had it's good points.

I hate natural orange juice, the artificial ones are much better, concentrated and sweet.

are you near el paso? my cousin lives in el paso... eh, its ok. it gets boring if you lived in practically all your life me. things get overplayed really fast here so its a race to find the next fun spot before it gets crowded and/or shitty

this is a pasta. i read that shit already

I live in Austin, actually here for college. I'm originally from Arizona. It's really not that bad a place. It reminds me of California but 30 degrees hotter.

why not? they bake fresh bread there. from dough. what else do you need to call it a bakery?

Just had a chewy croissant from Kroger. Certainly different from an actual bakery.

why

I don't know what kind of weird tourists you drag in. Just down the street from where I live is this awesome Cuban bakery. They make all sorts of Cuban food, fresh break/pastries/cakes, and they sell orange juice that is squeezed right in front of you.

Because I'm hungry and there was a box of them in the kitchen. Disgusting though.

longhorn? ughh, i hate heat, how can you survive there :o

I grew up in Florida, place is so new (most towns there only developes around the 70s) and the large amount of money makes everything commercialized, so yeah mom-and-pop shops were damn near non-existent. Then I moved to Ohio, this place has enough heritage and people value mom-and-pop stuff more so I have two bakeries within easy reach.
With the huge amount of discount stores and other huge chains that have gone under in the past few decades I'm really hoping things shift away from the factory bullshit and back to more local stuff.

It's agony, but I get to go home to Arizona soon? I actually hate the humidity, but I really enjoy the winter when I'm in shorts and the rest of the country has to deal with snow. The best part about the Hill Country is that we'll get flurries or a dusting every other year or so. The best of both worlds.

some dude from Sweden came over to a friend of mine he knew from WoW.
We wanted to watch a movie that night and started downloading it from pirate bay.
The swedefag lost his shit saying he'll get caught for it and even went as far as leaving the crib once the movie finished downloading. We luld hard
Greeks can't say CH.
> you can sit at the bents over there

mfw /might/ be moving to snow country.. dust bowl hahaha i cant survive texas in many ways :(

It's a harsh place, climate-wise and in other ways. Austin is a bit different, though.

LA user here. People have already given you some cool places to check out, but here's my two cents.

The thing you need to know about LA is traffic is fucking awful. Distance means nothing. If you use google maps online, you can use the feature to check route distance with a "leave at" or "arrive by" function. This is usually on point for predicting LA traffic. Don't get in a situation where you think "oh it's just five miles away" and you end up in traffic for 50 minutes. That's not an exaggeration.

Parking is also shit. A lot of times taking an Uber is the best way around.

Anyway, there's a lot to see in LA. Plan your days around whatever region of the city you want to be in. Avoid planning a day that involves going from one side of LA to the other, that's just painful.

I have a story like that too

I was visiting my brother in prison and on the way there i was stopped by a group of brazilian tourists who asked me if this was the right way to the zoo.

I think you need to expand on this.

> brother in prison
what did he do to get in there

austin the liberal hotspot of texas

he can also just take the subway or light rail. save a lot time and money. my go to recommendations for tourists

>LA public transportation

Good one

Your point? Live music capital of the world.

>you
have you even taken the subway or light rail before? DTLA to hollywood and highland in 20-25 mins.. pasadena to little tokyo in 25ish mins... good luck with that driving up the 101 or down the 110

i mean what can be wrong with those kroger bakeries that you find them disgusting?

A lot of shit, but if you're hungry you're hungry. If only I lived in Brazil and had good baked goods in my kitchen bought by someone else.

nothing. i fine with austin and actually want to go to ACL :(

>Americans asked for him to stop at a place where they could grab a snack, so he stopped at a bakery and the Americans were fucking mesmerized at the existence of such an establishment. They were amazed at being able to eat fresh bread, pastries and cakes just out of the oven. They said that in the US such foods were only made in factories and sold in supermarkets, unless you made it yourself at home.
They must have been from some backwoods area. Major cities and even smaller towns in populated areas have bakeries (bread, pastries and cakes).

I haven't had the chance yet. Dragged around 6th during SXSW, that was pretty fun.

>Move to UK
>wages about a third less than what they are in the US
>cost of living much higher
>even well off families living in homes the size of my garage back in the US
>everywhere crowded as fuck
>everything depressing, grey, and damp
>everyone always miserable and petty
>pretty much all everyone does is drink
>weird food combinations, which mostly taste awful
>actually have difficulty understanding quite a few people

The Brits are a miserable lot

Sounds like bullshit

>he fell for the british maymay
kek
make sure to tell everyone back home how much yurop sucks m80 :D

Well, OP was specifically talking about bakeries as their own businesses, so the ones inside supermarkets wouldn't count. I've tasted bread from those supermarket bakeries, both here and in the US, and they are not as good as independent bakeries.
>Moves to a country like 30 time smaller with a population only times smaller.
>Surprised thata evrything seems crowded

the UK is honestly the most awful country I've been to

This was like 5 years ago. Went to Germany in 12th grade with my classmates. Each one of us stayed at a different foster family for a couple of weeks. Do general introduction, hand some presents from Bulgaria, talk for a while. The father was a carpenter, the mother a lawyer, and the son had his hair to his shoulders and wore a black metal t-shirt. We decided to go to son's room and play on the computer. The internet was disgustingly slow. There was a hair straightening kit on a small table. Pretty cool stuff. Guess he is an emo. Next day. Meet up with classmates and their germans, but soon we split into separate groups of only Bulgarians and only Germans. Turns out all 3 of the german boys had a fucking hair straightener. Go to german school - 80% of boys have long hair. ?????
Older men looked for the most part normal, every man below 30 had the nu-male look.
mfw a couple years later the syria crisis happened. Was not surprised.

Fucked one of the german girls too. A little chubby, 60 kg at most, about 5'6. I can greentext it if there is interest? It wasn't anything special,but anyway.