Unexpected Things in Other Countries

[Fulanito de Tal]

What's an unexpected thing that stuck out to you when you went to another country for the first time?

I was born and raised in the US. First time I went to Cuba, I was amazed that there were no commercials on TV. And, what could have been considered a commercial was a public service announcement like "Make sure you do your homework and obey your parents."

Also, people didn't go shopping, to the mall, or spend money for fun. That was considered a pain to do. People would go to each other's homes, the park, or walk around instead. Fun was free. If they did spend money, it was like 40 centavos to watch a baseball game.

[Comrade J]

Strangest culture-shock to me in Cuba (wouldn't say it was a surprise as such) was the lack of billboards advertising shit everywhere. Along the highways it is just revolutionary slogans, as opposed to new cars everywhere etc.

[Fulanito de Tal]

B U M P!

Contribute, international travelers! :cursing:

[Magón]

That Spaniards (in actual Spain), were as pushy as I'd been told by another friend who'd gone a couple years before. Yet they were all very nice at the same time since we all spoke Spanish, and basically knew what the other was saying, even with some of the slang missing each other.

Also, going to Canada for the first time ever was strange.

Cuba's always a nice place.

[gorillafuck]

I haven't been out of the US but I am going to Russia as an exchange student in about 2 weeks.

[Comrade J]

Cool, where in Russia are you going?

[Robespierre Richard]

I haven't been out of the US but I am going to Russia as an exchange student in about 2 weeks.

Don't eat the schawarma and don't drink the water.

One has a high cat/dog concentration and the other is basically 10% rust.

Oh once I was on some Caribbean island and I bought a hamburger from a street vendor. I was weirded out because he stared at me as I ate it. A few hours later I had the worst stomach ache ever.

[Comrade J]

The guy stared at you eating a hamburger but you still ate it...?

[Os Cangaceiros]

I've only travelled on the continent of N. America (i.e. the USA, Canada and Mexico) so I don't have much to offer. Neither Canada or Mexico was that much of a culture shock for me.

[The Man]

I have been in the catacombs in Paris..

[Q]

When I was in London for the first time with my laptop, I was like "osnap!" when I realised my plug didn't fit.

Standards are great, there is one for everyone :rolleyes:

[black magick hustla]

how much people care about fucking animals here

[Rusty Shackleford]

when i first entered canada at the port of prince rupert, i was greeted by a man in a red suit and fancy pants and a hat.

it struck me as unsusual. i asked him if he was a bolshevik.


i saw some more later on and thought there was a revolutionary militia in prince rupert.

[manic expression]

Unexpected things? Hmm...minarets in Europe (Sarajevo, Mostar, Eger; even when it's in a Muslim country it makes my cultural compass spin), how every shop has a shotgun-wielding guard in San Salvador (even ice cream parlors), government posted (I think) signs warning parents against spoiling their children in Poland, how green and sunny Stockholm is when summer finally comes around (and how unprepared Stockholmers are for snow), how much Belarusians know about the US, the ease at which one gets lost in a Moroccan medina (the one in Fes is a nightmare), how breathtaking it was to set eyes on Africa for the very first time.......there's lots. If you ask me, the amazing people you meet are probably the most unexpected and most welcome part of traveling.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Unexpected things? Hmm...minarets in Europe (Sarajevo, Mostar, Eger; even when it's in a Muslim country it makes my cultural compass spin), how every shop has a shotgun-wielding guard in San Salvador (even ice cream parlors), government posted (I think) signs warning parents against spoiling their children in Poland, how green and sunny Stockholm is when summer finally comes around (and how unprepared Stockholmers are for snow), how much Belarusians know about the US, the ease at which one gets lost in a Moroccan medina (the one in Fes is a nightmare), how breathtaking it was to set eyes on Africa for the very first time.......there's lots. If you ask me, the amazing people you meet are probably the most unexpected and most welcome part of traveling.
i envy your travels. :crying:

[Obs]

Unexpected things? Hmm...minarets in Europe (Sarajevo, Mostar, Eger; even when it's in a Muslim country it makes my cultural compass spin), how every shop has a shotgun-wielding guard in San Salvador (even ice cream parlors), government posted (I think) signs warning parents against spoiling their children in Poland, how green and sunny Stockholm is when summer finally comes around (and how unprepared Stockholmers are for snow), how much Belarusians know about the US, the ease at which one gets lost in a Moroccan medina (the one in Fes is a nightmare), how breathtaking it was to set eyes on Africa for the very first time.......there's lots. If you ask me, the amazing people you meet are probably the most unexpected and most welcome part of traveling.
Minarets are awesome. I remember softly waking up in Egypt every day I was there to the distant sound of the call to prayer. Had I been older, I'd have complied... sort of. Does a wake'n'bake count as worship?

[the last donut of the night]

how much people care about fucking animals here

lol so true. damn gringos

[black magick hustla]

snipers on the roof of my uncle

people covered from the top to down in egypt and algeria

checkpoints and a civil war

[Red Commissar]

http://www.banterist.com/archivefiles/images/squat-toilet.jpg

Yeah, it blew my mind when I was younger (like 6), thinking all toilets looked like the ones I'm used to here.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

[snip image]

Yeah, it blew my mind when I was younger (like 6), thinking all toilets looked like the ones I'm used to here.

Is one expected to shit in those things? How on Earth are old or infirm people expected to use them? Is it flushed or rinsed in any way after use? Bidets (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidet) I could get used to, and for a number of years I even lived in a house lacking an indoor toilet, but that is a whole different way of expelling waste that seems to be only a marginal improvement compared to squatting over a freshly-dug hole in the ground.

Of course, this is coming from someone who's never left northwest Europe in their entire life. There's probably quite a few things that people do differently around the world that would appear baffling and nonsensical to me.

[Tablo]

I have been in the catacombs in Paris..
Also been in the catacombs. Was cool shit.

Can't really think of any big culture shocks. I always research places a lot before I visit them.

[Triple A]

Different things?

Drinking age is 16 and drug laws are the most liberal in europe.
That is different.

[Omsk]

I visited the Alexander Platz TV tower.
Really nice,and there i also bought a DDR steel-helmet for only 5$ !
Also,Bosnia is full of Minarets.(the Muslim part,that is)
Another shocker - I saw and entered a T-72 in Leningrad.:cool:
I also ate Varenki.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/86/Plates_of_pierogi_with_sour_cream_and_onion.jpg/220px-Plates_of_pierogi_with_sour_cream_and_onion.jpg

[Il Medico]

I've never been outside the US. But when I was in New York I was shocked by how unfamiliar people acted. Even if they were friendly enough. Not once did someone call me 'hun' or 'honey' or 'sweetheart', not even waitresses. I even mentioned this to one of the ICCers who was there from Mexico. When I got back to Fl, I wasn't off the plane for five minutes before a woman said 'Do you need any help honey?" I assume that this is a fairly southern thing and having spent all my life, with the exception of two days in NYC, in the south, I found it strange to not hear it when I was there.

[the last donut of the night]

it surprises me how teachers and kids talk here about drinking like its nothing. i was doing this class presentation about my old school in the states and one girl just asked if kids drank there. i would have expected people to take it as a joke comment, but everyone was dead serious

[Tifosi]

Seeing the murals and flags flying on lamp posts in Belfast was weird. How little people in Flordia walk from place to place, do they ever get out of their cars?

[Il Medico]

Seeing the murals and flags flying on lamp posts in Belfast was weird. How little people in Flordia walk from place to place, do they ever get out of their cars?
Dude, do you understand the climate we live in? Its not even April and already it is far to hot to walk even a mile after about 11 in the morning. Those of us wishing to do even a meager amount of exercise outside are forced to do so early in the morning or at night.

[synthesis]

I was surprised by how casually people react to violence in South Africa. A dog eats a baby, the vice-president (now president) rapes his niece, fifty people rob a plane, "ah, well, it's hectic here, man."

[NoOneIsIllegal]

it surprises me how teachers and kids talk here about drinking like its nothing. i was doing this class presentation about my old school in the states and one girl just asked if kids drank there. i would have expected people to take it as a joke comment, but everyone was dead serious
By the time I was in my junior year, a lot of my teachers would listen to (or even share) drinking stories. I think a lot of my teachers could accept the fact underage kids can get their hands on alcohol. Because these teachers were doing it 10, 20, 30 years ago too.

No culture shock stories except Chicago sports fan are just the worst. I'm use to obnoxious-ness (Husker football all my life), but Chicago fans (Bears, Sox, Cubs, Bulls... specially Bears fan) are fucking stupid and ruin life.

Living in a humid city all my life, then realizing other people live rather comfortably. Somedays, I don't even feel humidity and people will say "boy, it's humid out!" and I'm just confused as fuck.

[eyedrop]

Weapons, cops with weapons and guards with weapons.

[NoOneIsIllegal]

Weapons, cops with weapons and guards with weapons.
I was told a lot of people in Norway have guns (only for hunting though).

[eyedrop]

I was told a lot of people in Norway have guns (only for hunting though).

Those hunting rifles are locked in weapons closets, having an AK or whatever is not unusual as well since quite a lot of people belong to the national militia.
Carrying a rifle when in hunters garb is hardly the same as guards and cops with rifles and guns in their belt. Carrying weapons in a town setting was completely weird for me.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

I was surprised by the amount of wild cats there were on the street in Greece. I went to Athens and some tiny little port village and there were these scabby looking cats everywhere, they just stared at you. It felt very weird to me.