America - its an odd place!

[tas]

As many of you know i'm currently in the states, but nearly every day the culture and lifestyle differences amuse me..

Here's the oddities i've found so far..

1) Never ask for 20 cigs
At the store i asked for 20 Marlboro - The assistant vanished and came back with a box containing 200 malboro. I said.."No, i asked for 20", the response.."This is 20", i said..."What? no, thats 200".."No, this is 20". After about 10 mins of arguing we realised that i should ask for "1 pack of marlboro", they count per pack and not per ciggy.

2) Your not 21
Strange as this may seem, i got refused beer the other day for being under 21. Upon ordering a pack of bud the assistant said..."You have to be 21 to buy beer"... I looked at her with slight amusement.. and said.."But, I'm 33". She replied.."I'll get a second opinion". The manager came and said.."Sorry, but we can't serve you cos your not 21". The funny thing here is that i'm 33 and look older than that!

3) 20 mins to order a sandwich
Can i have a ham sandwhich please? Certainly, what type of ham (lists 20 different types. Finally gambles and picks one... Then "What type of bread?".. lists another 20. Totally confused orders a type of bread. What type of sauce?... Now, stop right there biatch!!!! i just want a bloody ham sandwhich!!!!!!

4) Here's the money for my pint
Gets served beer, goes to pay, the barmaid then walks off... I'm there waving a few dollar bills at her, she smiles and walks off. I finish my pint and orders another one, again she walks off. Does she not want my money? Turns out you never pay for anything in the USA upfront!

5) Jiffy Lube
Goes to a garage and a big sign says..."Jiffy Lube for sale". Turns out its some sort of car lubrication... In the UK.. "Jiffy" is a brand of condom

6) 1% milk
Goes to the shop and searches for a carton of milk, not knowing where it is in the HUUUGE shop i go to the shop assistant and ask "Excuse me, can you tell me where the milk is?"... The assitant replies.."1% or 2%?"... i stand there looking perplexed...and responds..."Milk? you know, that white stuff". Turns out that aswell as Skimmed, Semi Skimmed, and full fat they have 1% reduced fat and 2% reduced fat!

Cool things about the USA...

A PINT bottle of Budweiser = 80p (you'd love this place dan)
A packet of Cigs = 2.50 GBP

[Mayhem]

5) Jiffy Lube
Goes to a garage and a big sign says..."Jiffy Lube for sale". Turns out its some sort of car lubrication... In the UK.. "Jiffy" is a brand of condom

First time I saw that, caused me to laugh a bit as well

As for prices, it depends where you are. Alcohol and ciggies can be as expensive as back here, especially in major cities.

[Waz]

Strange as this may seem, i got refused beer the other day for being under 21.

Now that is funny. I couldn't believe you actually got refused! As I'm the same age (33) I'd probably get refused too. D'oh!

Just don't fall foul of each individual state's different laws while you're over there!

[Subzero]

20 mins to order a sandwich!!! I'd have died of starvation by then!!!

[1337]

Good thing this thread has started, I'll be moving to Arizona next year because I'm getting married. I've lived in the UK my whole life so far, so this will take a lot of getting used to.

Thing's I've learned from people from the US:

If I run out of cigarettes NEVER ask for a fag, people will think I'm on about a gay guy.

A toilet is a bathroom.

Car Parks are parking lots, there is no such thing as a car boot sale, and they drive on the other side of the road.

All measurements are in IMPERIAL! Damn, I've used metric my whole life and now I'll have to learn a new load of measurements.

There is more but I can't think about it when I'm too tired.

1337

[dan gillgrass]

A PINT bottle of Budweiser = 80p (you'd love this place dan)

/me gets cheap flight out and grabs his coat....

[Mayhem]

All measurements are in IMPERIAL! Damn, I've used metric my whole life and now I'll have to learn a new load of measurements.

So you've never asked for a pint in a bar, bought gallons of petrol (or gas in the US!) from a pump, given your height in feet and inches, or your weight in stones?

And I would be highly surprised if you'd never told anyone how far some place is away in miles heh.

Btw the Americans don't know what stones are, they only use pounds.

Least their pound is the same as ours. Their gallon is different (3.6 litres as opposed to our 4.5) and so is their ton. All bottled drinks are listed by fluid ounces, not millilitres or litres. And even then they have a different number of fluid ounces to the pound compared to us!

All temperatures will be in Fahrenheit, so get used to working it out in your head if you want realise the Centigrade equivalent.

Trust me, even as someone who was brought using BOTH sets of measurements (I can easily swap between either like it was a second language) it can get confusing.

[Marcel Donné]

Wait 'til I tell ye that I just arrived in Provo, Utah. This state probably has the strangest rules when it comes to drinking and smoking.

Alltough I've never been asked for my ID while ordering fags or booze, a collegue of mine has had that happpen to him a number of times.

If you want a bevvy, you need to become a "member" of the bar which usually costs about $ 5.00. With this membership you also sign a waiver that the bar, or the owner of the bar is in no way responsible for any silly things the member may do after becoming intoxicated. Oh, happy fucking days

Strange world indeed. Can't wait to get the hell out of here again next Saturday....

[1337]

We have pints and miles, but seriously, we don;t tend to use anything else these days. Besides, what is 750g of cheddar in pounds? I will have to learn the new (old) system.

1337

[Chris Abbott]

Wait 'til I tell ye that I just arrived in Provo, Utah. This state probably has the strangest rules when it comes to drinking and smoking.

Alltough I've never been asked for my ID while ordering fags or booze, a collegue of mine has had that happpen to him a number of times.

If you want a bevvy, you need to become a "member" of the bar which usually costs about $ 5.00. With this membership you also sign a waiver that the bar, or the owner of the bar is in no way responsible for any silly things the member may do after becoming intoxicated. Oh, happy fucking days

Strange world indeed. Can't wait to get the hell out of here again next Saturday....

So that's why Mormons started committing suicide: Marcel's in town

Chris

[Marcel Donné]

And I've already managed to get the bloke who runs the hotel bar downstairs to get an extra stock of Guinness, Murphy's and Bombay Sapphire gin by Monday.

Dunno if he can get me everything but he'll get top marks for service, or attempting to deliver the service, from me

Just one more thing, or maybe two things.

Is it just me that finds the personel in restaurant overly ethousiastic?

"Hi!, how are ya, and how may I help you today?, "You still allright over here?", especially that last phrase, spoken in a toe-curling, nasal, over the top enthousiastic sort of English, which seems to be repeated every 8 minutes or so, once more interrupting the conversation that's going on over dinner, so much so, that I'm about to explode.....

*sighs* I'll stop now.......

It's 04:45 in the morning here and I just can't sleep *starts playing Faithless's Insomnia at this point*

[1337]

OMG, I know the kind of posh people you're on about. I would hate that too. When I go out to eat, I'm not bothered so much about how the staff are, I'm more than happy as long as the food is good. Too much manners are really false and I'd get this urge to ask the staff to talk like normal people. I hate falseness.

1337

[tony.rc]

I remember almost getting to the point of yelling (with an American) when I was told that my chocolate biscuit (an Arnotts' Tim-Tam) was a cookie. I then found myself debating the difference between a cookie and a biscuit.

[LMan]

So tell me. How do they call a Hamburger Royal over there?

[tas]

There's been a few suprises over here too..

Burgers is not their staple diet
Actually give credit to the USA here, cos the wide variety of different types of foods are amasing. There's like 20 different flavours of baked beans, 40 different types of olive, 100's of flavoured coffee's.

People are polite
I've never ever known such politeness..people here are talkative, friendly and get this... genuine.

90% of houses are wood
Barely suprising those tornado's make such a mess. btw, there was over 200 tornadoes in the USA this month alone.