Mar
13

8 things about America you’d only learn by leaving it

By

1. Our grocery stores are ginormous. Bigger than big. An American cereal aisle is something to be beholden to. Cereal sits on both sides, top to bottom, going the entire length of the 20-meter aisle. By contrast, even the largest Irish grocery store will have two, maybe three racks of cereal. And good luck if you want to find plain, unflavored tortilla chips.

2. We’re not as diverse as we think we are. Racially, we’ve got the trump card when it comes to diversity. But American readers, how many people do you work with who were actually born in a foreign country? Currently, I work with two Poles, two Lithuanians, and a Belarusian, I live with a Swede, one of my best friends is a German and tonight I’m going to a party for a French girl.

3. We love our Mexican food. Just try finding a tortilla over here. Slim pickin’s.

4. When cooking, we measure our food in volume. Over here it’s much more common to measure food in weight. Reading my first Irish recipe made me realize why we were selling so many food scales at the retail store where I work.

5. We don’t care about sports as much as we think we do. Sure, we have an odd fascination with not one but two sports that nobody but us seems to understand (American Football and Baseball). But even after devastating losses or euphoric victories, we’re pretty much done talking about a game by midweek. But over here, I’m STILL hearing about the Hand of Henry, and that happened the first week I got here!

6. We are institutionally orderly. You’re meandering down a wide sidewalk on a busy day, where do you walk? If you said the very right side, you’re probably an American. I never realized how bound by the rules we are until I came here. Extending my example, when walking down the pedestrian shopping mall in Galway it’s basically a free-for-all, weaving back and forth throughout the crowd. It’s not just walking patterns. It’s our banks with their drive-thru windows, our parking lots with one-way lanes and reserved spots for pregnant women and families, our self-checkout counters at Wal-Mart — they all are grounded on the presumption or order, a presumption that doesn’t exist in Ireland…just look at the dog crap on the sidewalks.

7. We are diligent about picking up after our dogs. The Irish? Let’s just say you’d best be watching your step on the sidewalk.

8. We care a lot about the Olympics. Irish folks just didn’t care about the Winter Olympics. An Irish friend of mine always corrected me when I talked about watching “The Olympics.” “The Winter Olymipcs,” he would qualify. Not the actual Olympics. Nobody over here watched the Olympics (which only played on one channel). It makes sense. Ireland had only 6 competitors in this year’s Olympics. The highest anyone placed was 17th.

Categories : Blog Posts
  • cinhorrell

    You are so right about the cereal aisle. I had an Australian friend who took out her camera and shot photos of the cereals, soap powders and 42 brands of peanut butter at our local grocery! Sometimes, less choice is better!

  • Sasha

    John! Most of those are similar things I noticed in Scotland. The parts about Mexican food, grocery stores, and walking down the sidewalk (or grocery aisle, for that matter) made me laugh!

  • http://highlightsandroots.blogspot.com/ Lauri

    I could not agree more- this is very well done. I was so relieved to discover a large Dunne's Grocery store that made me feel like there was some hope of finding things that were more familiar. Pretzels are tough to find, and there are no candy canes at Christmas! Don't get me started on the dog poo. Last time we went back to New York, I had Mexican food about 6 times!

  • Steph

    Oh John, you know that Minneapolis does not represent all of America, and Ireland does not represent everywhere that is not America?

    I'm not even going to bother with this post… for now.

  • Cheri

    #2 made me laugh. I'm pretty sure about 50% of the student employees I supervise were born in a foreign country. But that's probably just because SJU Dining Service attracks (and hires) them like mad!

  • sarahschull

    wow- I guess we really are close minded and big bellied!nice post John!

  • http://www.johnfosullivan.com John F. O'Sullivan

    Oh, not what I was implying at all. It's just that traveling abroad makes you especially aware of things that make you uniquely American. The lack of order over here drives me nuts!

  • http://www.johnfosullivan.com John F. O'Sullivan

    Oh, not what I was implying at all. It's just that traveling abroad makes you especially aware of things that make you uniquely American. The lack of order over here drives me nuts!

  • http://www.johnfosullivan.com John F. O'Sullivan

    Oh, not what I was implying at all. It's just that traveling abroad makes you especially aware of things that make you uniquely American. The lack of order over here drives me nuts!

  • http://www.johnfosullivan.com John F. O'Sullivan

    Oh, not what I was implying at all. It's just that traveling abroad makes you especially aware of things that make you uniquely American. The lack of order over here drives me nuts!

  • http://www.johnfosullivan.com John F. O'Sullivan

    Aw c'mon, cut me some slack, Steph. I'm not making a definitive list, it's just a fun and less didactic way of organizing my thoughts. But yes, you're right, this list only represents my experience coming from Minnesota to Ireland. (Which is sort of, you know, in the masthead of the site.)

  • http://www.johnfosullivan.com John F. O'Sullivan

    Aw c'mon, cut me some slack, Steph. I'm not making a definitive list, it's just a fun and less didactic way of organizing my thoughts. But yes, you're right, this list only represents my experience coming from Minnesota to Ireland. (Which is sort of, you know, in the masthead of the site.)

  • http://www.johnfosullivan.com John F. O'Sullivan

    Aw c'mon, cut me some slack, Steph. I'm not making a definitive list, it's just a fun and less didactic way of organizing my thoughts. But yes, you're right, this list only represents my experience coming from Minnesota to Ireland. (Which is sort of, you know, in the masthead of the site.)

  • http://www.johnfosullivan.com John F. O'Sullivan

    Aw c'mon, cut me some slack, Steph. I'm not making a definitive list, it's just a fun and less didactic way of organizing my thoughts. But yes, you're right, this list only represents my experience coming from Minnesota to Ireland. (Which is sort of, you know, in the masthead of the site.)

  • http://www.johnfosullivan.com John F. O'Sullivan

    Yeah, pretzels are hard to find, but if you ever make it to southern Germany try out their butterpretzels (a soft pretzel cut in half with butter in between, like a sandwich). Waaaay better than anything you'll find in America.

  • http://www.johnfosullivan.com John F. O'Sullivan

    Yeah, pretzels are hard to find, but if you ever make it to southern Germany try out their butterpretzels (a soft pretzel cut in half with butter in between, like a sandwich). Waaaay better than anything you'll find in America.

  • http://www.johnfosullivan.com John F. O'Sullivan

    Yeah, pretzels are hard to find, but if you ever make it to southern Germany try out their butterpretzels (a soft pretzel cut in half with butter in between, like a sandwich). Waaaay better than anything you'll find in America.

  • http://www.johnfosullivan.com John F. O'Sullivan

    Yeah, pretzels are hard to find, but if you ever make it to southern Germany try out their butterpretzels (a soft pretzel cut in half with butter in between, like a sandwich). Waaaay better than anything you'll find in America.

  • http://www.johnfosullivan.com John F. O'Sullivan

    Oh how I miss the 42 brands of peanut butter. We only have to kinds here: crunch and smooth, and they're both the same brand. *sigh* On the plus side, we have rashers, Irish bacon, which are amazing.

  • http://www.johnfosullivan.com John F. O'Sullivan

    Oh how I miss the 42 brands of peanut butter. We only have to kinds here: crunch and smooth, and they're both the same brand. *sigh* On the plus side, we have rashers, Irish bacon, which are amazing.

  • http://www.johnfosullivan.com John F. O'Sullivan

    Oh how I miss the 42 brands of peanut butter. We only have to kinds here: crunch and smooth, and they're both the same brand. *sigh* On the plus side, we have rashers, Irish bacon, which are amazing.

  • http://www.johnfosullivan.com John F. O'Sullivan

    Oh how I miss the 42 brands of peanut butter. We only have to kinds here: crunch and smooth, and they're both the same brand. *sigh* On the plus side, we have rashers, Irish bacon, which are amazing.

  • sarahschull

    Oh yes I love the order- it is us feeling as if we are so diverse that makes me laugh a bit- just like the good ol boys in kato who think they're gangsta- it's like that here in oregon too. haha- and speaking of cereal- I just got an amazing deal on kellogs cereal- haha!

  • Elizabeth

    Rashers are incredible. Have you tried the Mueller Fruit in Corner yogurts? Nothing here even comes close.

    Does the South have baps?

  • Mary

    Another thing is just how informed we think we are. Americans tend to believe that they have the whole picture, when really they only have 20%.

    #6 was especially true in Taiwan. People would bike, walk, drive, scooter anywhere. Sidewalks, through parking spaces, down the wrong lane the wrong way. It was ridiculous. I didn't meet a single Taiwanese person who had never been in a scooter accident. In America, people wait at red lights at 5am when there's no one around.

  • Mary

    Another thing is just how informed we think we are. Americans tend to believe that they have the whole picture, when really they only have 20%.

    #6 was especially true in Taiwan. People would bike, walk, drive, scooter anywhere. Sidewalks, through parking spaces, down the wrong lane the wrong way. It was ridiculous. I didn't meet a single Taiwanese person who had never been in a scooter accident. In America, people wait at red lights at 5am when there's no one around.

G’Day!

Current city: Melbourne, Australia

After acquiring dual citizenship with Ireland in 2009, I uprooted from my native Minnesota and moved abroad. Two years and a dozen countries later, I'm figuring out what it means to be an expatriate and blogging along the way.

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