Culture shocks:
Billboards on the Highway - Billboards were everywhere; we don’t have billboards on the Highway here. A lot of them were to do with Cancer; Cancer survival, cancer research and donation, cancer rehabilitation. Plenty of legal offices and Insurance companies Advertising.
The ones that surprised me the most were the religious ones. They reminded me of the watch tower magazines in a hell and damnation kind of way. Or they were like “thinking about the life after death call 1800-Godcares”
Commercials-
Medical advertising - all kinds of medicines were advertised on TV - Then here comes the motherfukking side effects
. I knew of it before from watching American TV growing up but watching it as an adult threw me for a loop.
Medicine purchasing - I bought a couple packs of sleep gummies, and a box of Tylenol and there was no age verification in the store. In the UK any controlled drug even cold and flu has to be age verified by a store clerk especially when purchasing on self check out.
Alcohol purchasing - They were strict on alcohol purchasing. No ID no alcohol. I know your legal age of purchasing alcohol is 21 but I thought the bartender would be able to serve me as I was obviously over 21. But then I saw a sign that said you have to look visibly over 40, before they can make that assumption, in the UK it’s over 25.
Size - The amount of physical space here. All the houses in the south that I saw were on vast amounts of land with huge straight trees. I think a lot of the wood is harvested for lumber, and maybe they plant a specific kind for that purpose, but because the trees were so huge it made the houses look small. Most of the house I saw were one storey houses but they were like 4 bedrooms and very big on the inside. I guess because you have the space to expand outwards rather than upwards, rooms can be stacked behind each other making the houses appear smaller from the front, coupled with the land space and tree size it was always a surprise.
Land Usage - The land on the median on the highway was just kind of wild, I don’t know if it was also used for lumber as the trees were all uneven sizing but in the UK a lot of that land space is for crop farming or solar farming, we have to use all the space we have available here. I also didn’t see any fruit trees anywhere.
Guns - I went to a Bass pro sports and the gun section was a lot to take in. I thought all guns were black or metal
but they were all colours and way cheaper than I thought. Also outdoor camping is massive there and easy to get everything you need all in one shop the amount of camping equipment was unlimited.
Cars - I’m surprised at the amount of old cars that were on the roads. But the black ppl that had old cars like a Chevy they were very colourful and well taken care of. When a white person had an old car it was a Jalopy like a rusty old beat up car or truck.
The cars were obviously bigger than I was used to.
The people there were way friendlier and more outgoing, much easier to talk to than in the UK.
One thing I wish America would adopt would be the UK plug outlet design. The plugs in the US were loose. The UK has a 3 prong plug format which weighed down my adapter. There were also sockets in the bathroom which were handy but the plugs didn’t have an on off switch for safety.
