I know not everyone on this sub is from the US but what are things you have been surprised to learn are not a “standard” in other parts of the world (compared to where you grew up)?
I’ll add a few of mine
- Ice is not standard outside the US
- We went to Ireland and I had recently broken a part of my ankle, finding any ice was a wild endeavor
- US food portions are actually substantial
- this one is super easy mode but still, it shocked me seeing how and what we eat against other countries
- Major cities/countries can have power grid issues (looking at you South Africa)
- I had no idea that the grid was that unstable in SA until this most recent season of Other Way
The standard of throwing poopy toilet paper away in a garbage can in Mexico is always unsettling.
The squat toilet on the moving train in S. Korea was 😳. You can see the tracks through the hole.
The hotel room in Poryong (S.Korea) that was completely unheated and freezing. There was a sleeping mat in a concrete floor and that was it. Super weird. It was $125/night and that was in 2001. There’s no way it would even be legal to offer that sort of accommodation in the US.
For sure. All of that. I didn’t like throwing the paper away when I was in China, Peru and Bolivia. I think though, that a great many countries in the world do this.
When I lived in Japan, I had a VERY hard time getting used to no heating outside of a space heater / air conditioner heater. I hated every single day I was cold.
Edit: PS, Happy cake day!
Every night in Japan, a reminder would come on over a loud speaker in the area to remind everyone to shut off their heaters lest they burn to death in their sleep. That was a super unnerving thought.
Omg you know what? I was staying in flimsy teacher housing with tatami rooms. I would drag my kerosene heater into my room and close the door because fucking… at that point, I didn’t care. At All. As you can see, luckily I survived.