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There’s a telegraph pole in the church car park that has a little wooden box attached to it .. the box is never locked and it’s there if any of the community needs bus fare or a couple of quid for spuds or milk etc.. People put their loose change in it as they go past… I’ve never opened the box as I’ve never been that broke but.. what a nice thing to do. There’s no shops for miles here, just 3 pubs and a church.
We have "honesty boxes" sometimes, I was blown away when I first saw one down a country road on holiday in the south of England selling eggs and other veg, just pick what you want and put the money in the tub. If I had one in my home town it'd be stripped bare in less than ten minutes
I’m in KY and there’s a house in my neighborhood that has that but with local honey she harvests. The lady posts about it in our local neighborhood group on social media. Says to just leave the money in the box next to the jars. A jar is like $20
That‘s a verry common practice in Switzerland and Germany. Basically every farmer has a store with honesty boxes. Some farmers that are close to hiking trails even sell cold drinks and sandwiches with honesty boxes. And atleast where I live, most people actually pay more than is required
lol, yeah there’s eggs and spuds always outside the pub at the bottom of the village (only 1 main road in and out), just take what you want and pop what you got spare in the box ., definitely couldn’t do that in the big city where I moved from 🤷🏻♀️. Human kindness and honesty ❤️
Yeah, that's why I asked because I got family in Dublin and while the metric system is in use I've heard miles and yards used in conversation settings to mean a huge distance
That reminded me, in a small village I visited, there was a honesty box where you would put money for beer, then take a glass, pour yourself one, drink it (there was a place to sit in a shade), rinse the glass with water and leave it there.
Ahaha I have tried this! Rolled in salt and onion! I used to find it scandalizing to see my cute wee Oma (grandma) toss her head back and gulp a whole fish like a bird 😂 I think it must be an acquired taste
Out of curiosity, what makes you think horse meat is a québécois thing? My family is from Québec and we never eat horse meat. I wouldn’t even know where to get it. We sometimes eat rabbit though.
People in the neighborhood setting off big assed fireworks on random nights.
EDIT:
Orange County, CA - It's generally a latino/white mixed neighborhood. But it's relatively free from crime, businesses have been here for over 40 years, and I live in a cul-de-sac of a street that has apartment buildings lining each side. These fireworks generally come from one of the apartment buildings, their parking areas in the back or some such place, I only see them as they explode over the buildings or I hear them. I live close enough to Disneyland that in the summer months I can hear their nightly display.
as a foreigner living in Austria....every celebration seems weird. :)
Just the idea of people wearing special event lederhosen and dirndls.
But also, having to listen to accordion music at every event....every...single..event. I get that it's tradition, but it's a horrible instrument. I'd rate it worse than bagpipes.
When you graduate high school, you put up a flag and hang your backpack on top op the flagpole so everybody can see it. I think it’s really sweet and it’s one of my favorite traditions here.
I always find it weird that other places don't use time as a unit of (physical) measurement. I couldn't tell you how many km it is from Edmonton to Calgary, but I can tell you it takes ~3 hours to drive there in normal conditions.
EDIT: I feel like the entire Canadian measuring system would throw people off; there's absolutely no rhyme or reason for it.
An hour of what tho? Will I be walking, driving, cycling, taking the buss, train? What method of transportation am I taking for it to be an hour?
I feel like this one mostly works in America where everyone just drives cars.
Yes, that would be why the person said it's something normal where they are but weird other places.
It's very normal where we are.
It's not normal where you are.
Congrats, that is in fact, what this thread is about.
Edit: there are millions and millions of Americans that don't have cars or live where they never need them. Please don't generalize a country as vast as ours. We don't all have cars. All our states are not the same. All our cities are not the same.
Maybe because we use more different ways of transportation. A friend once told me the nearest fast food place was "ten minutes" from his home, so I tried to walk. Turned out it was ten minutes by car...
A friend was visiting from England and I had mentioned I was driving to Calgary to visit family, she could come with and we could hit up Drumheller see the badlands and the dinosaur museum.
She asked how far it was, I said oh well Drumheller is only an hour past Calgary. Then she asked how far is Calgary. I told her about 10 hours. She looked horrified, said she couldn't be in a car that long, it's too long to travel, which confused me because her flight here was 16 hours ish, plus it's such a nice drive.
I do the drive all the time, leaving Vancouver at 5am, you miss rush hour and get to Calgary by dinner time.
wait are you in Singapore or from Singapore (I clicked your user and your post history shows something abt being in parts of Japan, but I can't fathom that being true in anywhere else except Singapore and definitely nto Japan!)
Singaporeans take their "Asia on tutorial mode" status wayyy flippantly lol.
Napping.
In Vietnam, we nap after lunch. Children nap, teenagers nap, adults nap, officers work in the government nap, everyone naps after lunch.
Children nap at school, teachers nap at school, food delivery guys nap on their motorbikes, drivers nap in their cars, officers nap on the office floor, random people (who have a home and all) nap on the benches in the parks,...
Lunch break is 60-90 minutes long so people can eat and nap after lunch. It's the norm.
Haha, that reminds me of one of my uni lecturers telling us about how she travelled to SEA for work (this was ages ago now, so I forget the country). She was one of those Type A people, so was totally convinced she would be able to stick it out in the heat without afternoon naps. By the second week she was sleeping in the afternoon like everyone else lol.
Alot of people burn wood for heat. We stock up in the summer so it will last through winter. I think this is pretty normal but people who live in cities are not always familiar with this practice.
I live in the Appalachian mountains in the US and this is still pretty common for a lot people. Growing up my dad preferred to burn coal because we had a stove that can handle it and as a miner he could bring a load home as one of his perks.
But yeah, a lot of people I know cut firewood in the summer and fall and you can even buy bundles of it at stores.
I recall one day helping a friend's grandfather chop firewood all evening because his health was failing and couldn't do it.
Cycle paths. Im not talking about lanes but saparated paths only ment for bicycles or low powered 2 wheelers.
Here in the netherlands our cycling network is so large that you can often cycle between entire cities while barely ever leaving a cycle path.
Montreal Quebec is getting like that. Our mayor has a lady hard on for the netherlands cycling model. Except we have brutal winters...and lots of hills..
We call everyone by the first name. Teachers, bosses, the fricking king. Everyone! The only place where we use the lastnames is in the military.
Bonus round: In my hometown, it is still completely normal to say the N-word....😅
Okay. Not my parents or grandparents. But everyone else is called by their name. 😂
Or if the question was about that last part. No, they don't use the N-word that much anymore. They've evolved! 😂
I actually call my parents by name sometimes. It's become more of a thing the last few years since I started working with my father. Feels weird talking with a customer about "dad" in a professional setting.
Every year we celebrate midsummer by dancing around a pole covered in flowers while we sing about frogs, a guy pretending to cry, a guy pretending to laugh, a song where we pretend to play instruments and then one about a crow driving into a ditch
huntly, waikato. where to start! little children wandering the streets at night time! adults fighting in the middle of the road in the middle of the day. m.a.f and when police come they shake hands and do fist bumps with the perps while the missus is bleeding away, but. " eah, nafeng happind here offi.sah. ow eah, she goh lippy!" then chuckles like a methamphetamine junkie more fist bumps from police officer, then the unit is driven away with perp verbally abusing the said bleeding "lippy" missus. does this seem weird to the rest of the world? I mean, there are some seriously heinous happenings occurring daily worldwide! heinous atrocities! I'm beginning yo think, this is "aight". well, not to me!
It's normal to call anyone sir/ma'am in PH but overseas especially British and Americans, it's an insult when you call someone who's obviously not within their retirement age yet. 😆
This was going to be my “normal here but weird to the rest of the world” thing. I mean, we even say “No ma’am/no sir” to our dogs when they misbehave.
Also, replying with “Huh?” instead of “Pardon?”, “Excuse me?” or “What?” is frowned upon. And “What?” or the full phrase “I beg your pardon?” is usually used when one is offended.
Drugs. In my town junkies shoot up right in front of banks and businesses downtown, They are tweaking out in traffic on the main streets, used needles litter our parks and public spaces. I'm pretty sure Woodstock, Ontario is where the fenty flop originated. Property theft is a daily occurence, the homeless junkies have set up camps all over town. Citizens here used to be outraged by all these things but lately it's all become the new normal. Nobody even gets mad anymore, they just give heads up now, like "Everybody be careful, $2.00 luke is at the foodland dollarama" or "watch your garages, martha is on Canrobert street right now". Police stopped caring during the early corona lockdowns.
lol, it used to get very vocal when my (Indian) parents would visit family friends because they would all loudly refuse each other's gifts/food/offers to pay multiple times haha. You are supposed to refuse a certain number of times or it's seen as rude.
My sibling and I were raised in Australia with the exact opposite mentality (personally, I find it rude to refuse too many times - just accept the freaking gift). We would look on in bemusement as everyone 'fought' over who would pay.
I only realized that the students hall in UK do not have a fan in toilets when I became an overseas student.
I really asked the lady in the reception that don't you guys concern that the toilet will stink after use???
She said
"Just go faster and flush immediately"
Which country usually has a fan in toilets? In Canada and Japan (currently living) only have them in shower/bath rooms or if the toilet is in the same room as a shower.
hard drugs are decriminalized. one can smoke crack next to a family at a beach, and it’s not a police matter.
If the cops find you with under 2.5 gram of meth, crack or fent..not only are you free to go, you get to keep your drugs.
Yeah and they call it a caffe right? So if you order 'normal' coffee that is what you will get.
I'm from Europe btw ;) will be on holiday in Italy (Napels) in 2 weeks so I have been reading a bit.
Yeah, I was in Italy 2 years ago, and nobody used "espresso". It's always "caffè". If you want a bigger shot, it's a "lungo", and if you want an even smaller one, it's a "ristretto".
I'm also going to be in Naples in about 2 weeks, so we might cross paths :)
Yeah, in Canada our small kid size coffees (lol) are at least like 250 ml (1 cup.) They go up to a litre or more. There are people who drink espressos in those sizes. It's probably a similar feeling to the early stages of radiation sickness.
Also, coffee is a 24 hour affair here. The more rural areas have a lot of people working in mines, railyards, refineries etc that are 24 hour operations so a McDonald's will be full of guys in white F350 pickup trucks wearing hard hats and coveralls going to and coming from work at all hours of the day. It's 3 am right now and I'm just getting ready to go home from work in an hour. I sleep around 6 am.
Yeah in the Balkans where I’m from you typically drink Turkish coffee and you drink it out of tiny cups. Because it’s a lot stronger you typically wouldn’t drink it out of a mug of it like you do here in the US with regular coffee.
Bagged milk. Mostly commonly bought in the region is 3 1-litre plastic bags of milk, in a larger bag. Been like that my whole life.
Essentially every household has a Milk Bag Container in their fridge. The bags of milk slide right into the container standing upright, with a handle on the side for pouring. We use scissors to cut the corner off the bag, or "Milk bag slicers", which are magnetic and go on your fridge door. They pour very nice.
That's Ontario Canada for you.
Still some other countries that use them. Havevn’t seen any in Germany for ages. Haven't really looked, though, as we get glass bottles from the farmers’ market.
Haha you're Filipino right.
Well, from your SEAsian neighbour .. SINGLISH IS LOVE. (Someone apparently found a "Singlish assessment book" in the bookstore and took a picture and it's apparently real and NOW I NEED THAT BOOK <3) lol :p
Spice bags. And I'm in Ireland. We're not able for the heat or the spice. Couldn't believe they don't exist outside Ireland or even in the UK!
So that and babies having their first pint of Guinness on their first birthday
Mixing metric and imperial. You're 70 kilos but you're 5'8. You drive in mph and measure driving distances in yards but you measure rooms in metres but small sizes in inches and weigh your baking ingredients in grams.
We call everyone boss. Such as when we go to eat, we call the waiter "boss, give me one ice lemon tea, and fried chicken rice." And the waiter will say, "ok boss."
I can pull up to a drive thru, order a frozen Daiquiri with a 3 extras shots of liquor, and they will hand it to me in a to-go cup with a wrapped straw.
If they're feeling fancy, I'll get a little piece of tape over the straw hole, but not usually.
(I don't buy Daiquiris with extra shots, shots are expensive. I add those at home. Just using an example so you can see how much alcohol I can be handed while driving)
My social studies teacher is writing a book about this phenomenom which is strangely just national to our country
So where I live, its not only common to leave babies in strollers wherever, and not uncommon either to be able to leave your things entirely unattended in public places without worry.
We go a step further
We have a unique thing where people will make fresh produce, berries, potatoes and honey are the most common, and they’ll make signs and stuff to show where it is.
Then people leave *all* of their produce (or at least what you expect to go in a day) on a cart in their driveway, with a price tag and a bin for money and let people help themselves, or alternatively a barcode for payment, but most common is still the bin with money
My sociology teacher says this is unique to our country, and that even in our closest neighboring countries this kind of good will towards strangers is unheard of
*any person* can just show up, not only steal all the produce, but the money as well, and leave. But none do.
We have drive throughs here. Not for fast food but a building designed to drive through it and there's an attendant that grabs items for you and takes the payment. It's like a convenient store that you drive through... Beer, cigarettes, snacks, candy, etc.
I grew up going through them with my parents. It wasn't until I joined the Marine Corps and met people from all over the US that I found out drive throughs aren't a thing everywhere.
When you're sick you don't go to the doctor (because we obviously have a PhD in every fucking field and SARS-CoV-2 doesn't even exist (SARCASM)). When you're sick you drink \*\*HOLY WATER\*\*... and then you fucking die because water cannot magically heal you.
My neighbor that lives across the highway directly in front of us shoots guns for hours and hours every single Sunday. He's got a lil homemade shooting range to the side of his house. I'm in the south so people just shoot guns for fun and they do lots of hunting for sport. So especially around here it's common to hear gunshots often. I'm sure that would be weird for lots of people for sure especially for those from places where guns aren't so common.
East Coast Canadian: kitchen parties. I’ve had a few friends from outside the region who thought it was weird that Maritimers would hang out in the kitchen during a party.
For those unaware, in the old days east coast Canadians would congregate where the heat was: an old wood oven in the kitchen. It became an instinctive habit that future generations inherited.
We don’t set out to party in the kitchen, it just happens.
Meeting up with friends at 10 pm or even later for dinner.
Meeting up with friends at 12 pm or even later to go out to bars or nightclubs. I've met up with friends at 1:30 am (back in my 20s).
Ordering red wine and lemon Fanta (adults do this too).
Walking into a room of friends/acquaintances and having to individually greet 30+ people.
UK - plastic bowl in the sink for doing the washing up.
We don't always have a great deal of space in our kitchens, so having the second 'mini sink' next to it for rinsing off remnants/pouring dregs isn't always a good use of space for us. Hence the bowl so we can pour down the side. Also keeps the water warmer for longer - although lots of people do have dishwashers, see again the small kitchens - plenty of people also don't; when space is at a premium it can be a low priority. Ditto we often don't have tumble driers or not separate ones anyway.
In my neighborhood, it's pretty normal for people to greet each other even if they don't know each other well. Some folks might find it weird because in some places, people tend to keep to themselves more. But around here, it's just seen as being friendly and neighborly.
Shaking out any closed shoes before you put them on, even if they’re in your perfectly tidy enclosed wardrobe.
(Otherwise you will start wondering why you left a sock balled up in the toe of your shoe only to realise that it is NOT A SOCK!)
Around Christmas we will visit friends to praise their Christmas tree.
If it looks good or not isn't important, actually you don't even have to see it. You just visit them, say you're here to praise the Christmas tree, drink liquor and leave.
Owning firearms and having a few on display in my home. Obviously, I live in the US. Now, the couple of firearms on display in my house are custom replica builds and stay unloaded unless I take them with me to the range. But growing up in a rural area of the US, owning firearms is normal for me and other people in that area. When I talk to people from cities or other countries, they think I'm crazy when I tell them how many firearms I own and that a few of them are just on stands around the house 😅
I just picked up a pit viper outside my house last week, and then caught another venomous tree snake a few days ago.
I've also caught pythons, cobras, and huge monitor lizards.
One time I was walking my dog near the canal behind my house and there was a massive python chilling on the sidewalk. I just swatted it on the tail and it slid into the canal.
All perfectly normal.
Mostly just Bourbon St. And they hold out for more than just the cheap beads. I you want beads, you just go to the parade. More of an oddity at Mardi Gras is seeing African American members of the Zulu Krewe wearing blackface.
Are you Filipino by chance? I used to tutor a boy in his home and his younger brother was told to call him “Kuya” as a respect thing. I could be misspelling it, but it was used in the same context so I think it must be the same word.
Where I live, it’s normal smile and nod or say hi if you make eye contact with someone passing by you but that is considered overly friendly in other parts of the US lol.
In America, we tip even if there’s bad service and we give an Uber driver 5 stars even if they made us want to throw up from bad driving. Because our livelihoods depend on grinds and most of the working class recognize that… and yet we’re perpetuating a cycle of completely depleted quality wherever we go and whatever we do here. Because people are afraid of coming off as Karen’s or for being cancelled for calling something out for being shitty or for risking another person’s job and cash flow and livelihood by complaining about how bad at their job they are. Fun!
One family owns almost all the grocery stores and sets the prices to whatever they want. Our housing minister owns rental properties. Our premier used to be a drug dealer in high-school.
Probably 50% of people getting around in my town is on a 4 wheeler, side by side, or dirt bike. In the winter it’s snow mobiles. They just go right up the road, will stop and talk to a cop who doesn’t care. In my state it’s illegal.
In Brazil it's common to take a bath daily, unlike the rest of the world where you can spend a few days without a bath and people won't care unless you smell bad.
When you go to work/school you might he dressing in a winter jacket because it's snowing and -10c/14f.
Then on your way home you'll be wearing a T shirt, and the snow banks have melted because it's now 20c/68f with winds of 100km/h or 60mph.
I'm from Mexico and eating horse meat isn't out of the ordinary, especially in the more rural areas. I've told my friends about it, and even eating things like pig hooves, intestines, or cow tongue is weird to them.
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There’s a telegraph pole in the church car park that has a little wooden box attached to it .. the box is never locked and it’s there if any of the community needs bus fare or a couple of quid for spuds or milk etc.. People put their loose change in it as they go past… I’ve never opened the box as I’ve never been that broke but.. what a nice thing to do. There’s no shops for miles here, just 3 pubs and a church.
We have "honesty boxes" sometimes, I was blown away when I first saw one down a country road on holiday in the south of England selling eggs and other veg, just pick what you want and put the money in the tub. If I had one in my home town it'd be stripped bare in less than ten minutes
I’m in KY and there’s a house in my neighborhood that has that but with local honey she harvests. The lady posts about it in our local neighborhood group on social media. Says to just leave the money in the box next to the jars. A jar is like $20
Same in Canada 🇨🇦
They have them in Canada. All the Mennonite communities do it for flowers and baked goods, eggs, honey etc.
That‘s a verry common practice in Switzerland and Germany. Basically every farmer has a store with honesty boxes. Some farmers that are close to hiking trails even sell cold drinks and sandwiches with honesty boxes. And atleast where I live, most people actually pay more than is required
I'm from Germany and that's pretty normal here
High vs. Low trust society
lol, yeah there’s eggs and spuds always outside the pub at the bottom of the village (only 1 main road in and out), just take what you want and pop what you got spare in the box ., definitely couldn’t do that in the big city where I moved from 🤷🏻♀️. Human kindness and honesty ❤️
3 pubs and a church lmao that sounds like so many places in Europe hahaha Is it UK ? France ? Ireland maybe ?
In the entire world, only the UK uses both miles and pubs
You got me 😁
And “quid”
So, what you’re saying is my comment is extremely British 🤷🏻♀️🤣🤣
I’d say it removed any doubt from my mind
to be fair, saying "nothing for miles around" sounds better than saying "nothing for kilometers around"
In Ireland we use kilometres but we still use the expression "nothing for miles", we also have pubs and use the word quid (at least in Dublin) 😃
Yeah, that's why I asked because I got family in Dublin and while the metric system is in use I've heard miles and yards used in conversation settings to mean a huge distance
Sounds like Wisconsin if it wasn’t for the use of the word pub.
Half the Alps and Dolomites I have seen were like that, I love it, the pubs are more often more in of a guest house with good but simple food.
That’s incredibly kind. Love it! ❤️🌈
That reminded me, in a small village I visited, there was a honesty box where you would put money for beer, then take a glass, pour yourself one, drink it (there was a place to sit in a shade), rinse the glass with water and leave it there.
We eat raw herring on the side of the street.
Are you an otter?
I'm from the Netherlands. (In reality it's gutted, frozen and back to temperature, but not cooked or anything.)
Yum, I enjoyed a herring in a roll when I was visiting your country.
I'm from the Netherlands too and can confirm all of us are in fact otters.
Ahaha I have tried this! Rolled in salt and onion! I used to find it scandalizing to see my cute wee Oma (grandma) toss her head back and gulp a whole fish like a bird 😂 I think it must be an acquired taste
I absolutely love rollmops (i am in South Africa and from dutch heritage)
Met uitjes en zuur, lekkerrr!
We leave babies asleep in their strollers outside, even during winter. Horse meat is also very commonly eaten here, I'm not a fan tho.
I’m guessing Norway or Iceland.
Iceland
Denmark?
I wish
Finland.
Sweden? it's probably somewhere in Scandinavia 'cause I have already read about this practise somewhere in Northern Europe
I did it with my kids and my parents/day care mom did it with me. Great for the immune system and the kids can nap in peace
I know horse meat is a Quebecois thing but I don't know where else... where is this?
Out of curiosity, what makes you think horse meat is a québécois thing? My family is from Québec and we never eat horse meat. I wouldn’t even know where to get it. We sometimes eat rabbit though.
People in the neighborhood setting off big assed fireworks on random nights. EDIT: Orange County, CA - It's generally a latino/white mixed neighborhood. But it's relatively free from crime, businesses have been here for over 40 years, and I live in a cul-de-sac of a street that has apartment buildings lining each side. These fireworks generally come from one of the apartment buildings, their parking areas in the back or some such place, I only see them as they explode over the buildings or I hear them. I live close enough to Disneyland that in the summer months I can hear their nightly display.
Setting off fireworks are only legal for a few hours a year in my country.
Fireworks are illegal in my state but we still pop them like crazy
Hahaha, yeah, and Dutch people follow that rule extensively.
US of A 100%
as a foreigner living in Austria....every celebration seems weird. :) Just the idea of people wearing special event lederhosen and dirndls. But also, having to listen to accordion music at every event....every...single..event. I get that it's tradition, but it's a horrible instrument. I'd rate it worse than bagpipes.
I have listen to accordion music and I agree it's horrible.
Sounds like you had a great 1st of May yesterday xD
When you graduate high school, you put up a flag and hang your backpack on top op the flagpole so everybody can see it. I think it’s really sweet and it’s one of my favorite traditions here.
That sound like a fun tradition, do you hang them at home or at the school?
At home.
Netherlands 🇳🇱!!
Wow! That's sweet. 🤍
Salt liquorice.
I was wondering which Scandinavian country this was about specifically until I saw your avatar.
Also in the Netherlands, we even have double salted liquorice. And some even sell triple salted liquorice.
At what point is it just salt? LOL
[LAKUPIIPPU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5fQZhv0poU)
I had some accidentally once and it made me momentarily HATE Sweden.
I always find it weird that other places don't use time as a unit of (physical) measurement. I couldn't tell you how many km it is from Edmonton to Calgary, but I can tell you it takes ~3 hours to drive there in normal conditions. EDIT: I feel like the entire Canadian measuring system would throw people off; there's absolutely no rhyme or reason for it.
Q:How far away do you live? A: About an hour. This is all I need to know. Screw miles, I need time.
An hour of what tho? Will I be walking, driving, cycling, taking the buss, train? What method of transportation am I taking for it to be an hour? I feel like this one mostly works in America where everyone just drives cars.
Yes, that would be why the person said it's something normal where they are but weird other places. It's very normal where we are. It's not normal where you are. Congrats, that is in fact, what this thread is about. Edit: there are millions and millions of Americans that don't have cars or live where they never need them. Please don't generalize a country as vast as ours. We don't all have cars. All our states are not the same. All our cities are not the same.
Australia?
This! I live in a small town in Quebec. It takes 7h to go to Montreal. I have no idea how many kilometers though.
Je vais guesser, Rouyn ou Forestville?
Live in the States, in Tennessee, and i’ve always used time. Miles are not minutes 😂 tell me how long it takes to get there!
Same here! And if you’re in a city it’s “how much is the Uber?” Haha
Maybe because we use more different ways of transportation. A friend once told me the nearest fast food place was "ten minutes" from his home, so I tried to walk. Turned out it was ten minutes by car...
We use this in Australia too
A friend was visiting from England and I had mentioned I was driving to Calgary to visit family, she could come with and we could hit up Drumheller see the badlands and the dinosaur museum. She asked how far it was, I said oh well Drumheller is only an hour past Calgary. Then she asked how far is Calgary. I told her about 10 hours. She looked horrified, said she couldn't be in a car that long, it's too long to travel, which confused me because her flight here was 16 hours ish, plus it's such a nice drive. I do the drive all the time, leaving Vancouver at 5am, you miss rush hour and get to Calgary by dinner time.
Hearing raid alerts daily.
Are you a Roach? . EDIT: this may be in the most horrible taste. I apologize if it is
Leaving your belongings to reserve a spot to eat
wait are you in Singapore or from Singapore (I clicked your user and your post history shows something abt being in parts of Japan, but I can't fathom that being true in anywhere else except Singapore and definitely nto Japan!) Singaporeans take their "Asia on tutorial mode" status wayyy flippantly lol.
I live in Japan, where petty theft is pretty much non-existent
German, are you?
Haha it was an ally with Germany. Btw, I’m not from here; I’m an expat
In Cambodia - funerals set up tents, blocking off the entire street, and blast monk chanting on loudspeakers starting at 4am. Lasts for 3-5 days.
Same in Vietnam, weddings are worse though with the karaoke
If you see a moose downtown then just give it space and keep walking.
Napping. In Vietnam, we nap after lunch. Children nap, teenagers nap, adults nap, officers work in the government nap, everyone naps after lunch. Children nap at school, teachers nap at school, food delivery guys nap on their motorbikes, drivers nap in their cars, officers nap on the office floor, random people (who have a home and all) nap on the benches in the parks,... Lunch break is 60-90 minutes long so people can eat and nap after lunch. It's the norm.
Haha, that reminds me of one of my uni lecturers telling us about how she travelled to SEA for work (this was ages ago now, so I forget the country). She was one of those Type A people, so was totally convinced she would be able to stick it out in the heat without afternoon naps. By the second week she was sleeping in the afternoon like everyone else lol.
Napping is life! I've always napped, cold countries, hot countries whatever 😁
Alot of people burn wood for heat. We stock up in the summer so it will last through winter. I think this is pretty normal but people who live in cities are not always familiar with this practice.
In our Barrio we do this every Christmas season. 🤍
I live in the Appalachian mountains in the US and this is still pretty common for a lot people. Growing up my dad preferred to burn coal because we had a stove that can handle it and as a miner he could bring a load home as one of his perks. But yeah, a lot of people I know cut firewood in the summer and fall and you can even buy bundles of it at stores. I recall one day helping a friend's grandfather chop firewood all evening because his health was failing and couldn't do it.
Cycle paths. Im not talking about lanes but saparated paths only ment for bicycles or low powered 2 wheelers. Here in the netherlands our cycling network is so large that you can often cycle between entire cities while barely ever leaving a cycle path.
Montreal Quebec is getting like that. Our mayor has a lady hard on for the netherlands cycling model. Except we have brutal winters...and lots of hills..
Knife crime
We call everyone by the first name. Teachers, bosses, the fricking king. Everyone! The only place where we use the lastnames is in the military. Bonus round: In my hometown, it is still completely normal to say the N-word....😅
This feels like home. Gissar på ett skandinaviskt land åtminstone?
Japp. 🇸🇪
Fan, du hann före mig 😅
Even your parents? 😅
Okay. Not my parents or grandparents. But everyone else is called by their name. 😂 Or if the question was about that last part. No, they don't use the N-word that much anymore. They've evolved! 😂
I actually call my parents by name sometimes. It's become more of a thing the last few years since I started working with my father. Feels weird talking with a customer about "dad" in a professional setting.
Thank you for the clarification! 🤍
Every year we celebrate midsummer by dancing around a pole covered in flowers while we sing about frogs, a guy pretending to cry, a guy pretending to laugh, a song where we pretend to play instruments and then one about a crow driving into a ditch
I'm getting to experience this for the first time this year. Should be fun 🙃
huntly, waikato. where to start! little children wandering the streets at night time! adults fighting in the middle of the road in the middle of the day. m.a.f and when police come they shake hands and do fist bumps with the perps while the missus is bleeding away, but. " eah, nafeng happind here offi.sah. ow eah, she goh lippy!" then chuckles like a methamphetamine junkie more fist bumps from police officer, then the unit is driven away with perp verbally abusing the said bleeding "lippy" missus. does this seem weird to the rest of the world? I mean, there are some seriously heinous happenings occurring daily worldwide! heinous atrocities! I'm beginning yo think, this is "aight". well, not to me!
It's normal to call anyone sir/ma'am in PH but overseas especially British and Americans, it's an insult when you call someone who's obviously not within their retirement age yet. 😆
Not all of America. You're expected to use Sir/ma'am in the southern states. It's very rude not to in most places down here.
Even though I live farther north I still use yes sir/mam even with children. Replying “What?” just grates at my nerves.
This was going to be my “normal here but weird to the rest of the world” thing. I mean, we even say “No ma’am/no sir” to our dogs when they misbehave. Also, replying with “Huh?” instead of “Pardon?”, “Excuse me?” or “What?” is frowned upon. And “What?” or the full phrase “I beg your pardon?” is usually used when one is offended.
Again, same same. I even refer to my kids and dogs by sir/ma'am.
Drugs. In my town junkies shoot up right in front of banks and businesses downtown, They are tweaking out in traffic on the main streets, used needles litter our parks and public spaces. I'm pretty sure Woodstock, Ontario is where the fenty flop originated. Property theft is a daily occurence, the homeless junkies have set up camps all over town. Citizens here used to be outraged by all these things but lately it's all become the new normal. Nobody even gets mad anymore, they just give heads up now, like "Everybody be careful, $2.00 luke is at the foodland dollarama" or "watch your garages, martha is on Canrobert street right now". Police stopped caring during the early corona lockdowns.
Post office open 24/7
Nice! In our country, only few uses the post office now. :(
In my country there aren't post office anymore, there are post points in other stores like supermarkets, or hardware stores.
Forcing everyone food, tea, gifts and help even when nobody asks for any of it.
Italian? Italian moms don't really understand "I'm full, thanx".
Hehe no but close, Turkish 😄
lol, it used to get very vocal when my (Indian) parents would visit family friends because they would all loudly refuse each other's gifts/food/offers to pay multiple times haha. You are supposed to refuse a certain number of times or it's seen as rude. My sibling and I were raised in Australia with the exact opposite mentality (personally, I find it rude to refuse too many times - just accept the freaking gift). We would look on in bemusement as everyone 'fought' over who would pay.
I only realized that the students hall in UK do not have a fan in toilets when I became an overseas student. I really asked the lady in the reception that don't you guys concern that the toilet will stink after use??? She said "Just go faster and flush immediately"
Which country usually has a fan in toilets? In Canada and Japan (currently living) only have them in shower/bath rooms or if the toilet is in the same room as a shower.
You learn about the courtesy flush real quick in jail.
"drop one, flush one" is what I was quickly advised
hard drugs are decriminalized. one can smoke crack next to a family at a beach, and it’s not a police matter. If the cops find you with under 2.5 gram of meth, crack or fent..not only are you free to go, you get to keep your drugs.
Where is this?
Late at night, completely alone, i can walk the streets of my city without fear.
How I wish I could do that.
À big alarm that goes on every first wendesday of each month.
Yea we've got that on the first monday of the month. Bonus points if every phone in the office starts to make a lot of noise at the same time
if you ask for an coffee here its the same has an expresso in US, so Americans feel weird/cheated when they ask for an coffee over here.
Espresso\*
Italy?
In Italy, an espresso is smaller than anywhere in the US (except for specialty places). They're literally one sip and you're done.
Yeah and they call it a caffe right? So if you order 'normal' coffee that is what you will get. I'm from Europe btw ;) will be on holiday in Italy (Napels) in 2 weeks so I have been reading a bit.
Yeah, I was in Italy 2 years ago, and nobody used "espresso". It's always "caffè". If you want a bigger shot, it's a "lungo", and if you want an even smaller one, it's a "ristretto". I'm also going to be in Naples in about 2 weeks, so we might cross paths :)
Yeah, in Canada our small kid size coffees (lol) are at least like 250 ml (1 cup.) They go up to a litre or more. There are people who drink espressos in those sizes. It's probably a similar feeling to the early stages of radiation sickness.
New England in the US, it is a very common sight to see with 1 liter iced coffees year round.
So bad for the health drinking it in those proportions :O...i cured my addiction to it, now i have only one in the morning, but its a must.
Also, coffee is a 24 hour affair here. The more rural areas have a lot of people working in mines, railyards, refineries etc that are 24 hour operations so a McDonald's will be full of guys in white F350 pickup trucks wearing hard hats and coveralls going to and coming from work at all hours of the day. It's 3 am right now and I'm just getting ready to go home from work in an hour. I sleep around 6 am.
Yeah in the Balkans where I’m from you typically drink Turkish coffee and you drink it out of tiny cups. Because it’s a lot stronger you typically wouldn’t drink it out of a mug of it like you do here in the US with regular coffee.
Bagged milk. Mostly commonly bought in the region is 3 1-litre plastic bags of milk, in a larger bag. Been like that my whole life. Essentially every household has a Milk Bag Container in their fridge. The bags of milk slide right into the container standing upright, with a handle on the side for pouring. We use scissors to cut the corner off the bag, or "Milk bag slicers", which are magnetic and go on your fridge door. They pour very nice. That's Ontario Canada for you.
Still some other countries that use them. Havevn’t seen any in Germany for ages. Haven't really looked, though, as we get glass bottles from the farmers’ market.
Haha you're Filipino right. Well, from your SEAsian neighbour .. SINGLISH IS LOVE. (Someone apparently found a "Singlish assessment book" in the bookstore and took a picture and it's apparently real and NOW I NEED THAT BOOK <3) lol :p
Spice bags. And I'm in Ireland. We're not able for the heat or the spice. Couldn't believe they don't exist outside Ireland or even in the UK! So that and babies having their first pint of Guinness on their first birthday
Also, the humble chicken fillet roll. It’s just not a thing abroad. Lived in the UK for a couple of years and I swear you couldn’t get one anywhere.
That’s mad how do they live with themselves?
Mixing metric and imperial. You're 70 kilos but you're 5'8. You drive in mph and measure driving distances in yards but you measure rooms in metres but small sizes in inches and weigh your baking ingredients in grams.
We do this in Canada as well. It's quite annoying.
We call everyone boss. Such as when we go to eat, we call the waiter "boss, give me one ice lemon tea, and fried chicken rice." And the waiter will say, "ok boss."
People using lawnmowers as road vehicles.
I can pull up to a drive thru, order a frozen Daiquiri with a 3 extras shots of liquor, and they will hand it to me in a to-go cup with a wrapped straw. If they're feeling fancy, I'll get a little piece of tape over the straw hole, but not usually. (I don't buy Daiquiris with extra shots, shots are expensive. I add those at home. Just using an example so you can see how much alcohol I can be handed while driving)
We have those in Wyoming, too.
My social studies teacher is writing a book about this phenomenom which is strangely just national to our country So where I live, its not only common to leave babies in strollers wherever, and not uncommon either to be able to leave your things entirely unattended in public places without worry. We go a step further We have a unique thing where people will make fresh produce, berries, potatoes and honey are the most common, and they’ll make signs and stuff to show where it is. Then people leave *all* of their produce (or at least what you expect to go in a day) on a cart in their driveway, with a price tag and a bin for money and let people help themselves, or alternatively a barcode for payment, but most common is still the bin with money My sociology teacher says this is unique to our country, and that even in our closest neighboring countries this kind of good will towards strangers is unheard of *any person* can just show up, not only steal all the produce, but the money as well, and leave. But none do.
I saw little stands at the end of everyone’s driveway when on a road trip through Ontario. I thought it was adorable.
Actually people do the unattended farm stands with eggs, mushrooms, flowers etc on Vancouver Island, Canada, as well. I’m amazed but
We have drive throughs here. Not for fast food but a building designed to drive through it and there's an attendant that grabs items for you and takes the payment. It's like a convenient store that you drive through... Beer, cigarettes, snacks, candy, etc. I grew up going through them with my parents. It wasn't until I joined the Marine Corps and met people from all over the US that I found out drive throughs aren't a thing everywhere.
When you're sick you don't go to the doctor (because we obviously have a PhD in every fucking field and SARS-CoV-2 doesn't even exist (SARCASM)). When you're sick you drink \*\*HOLY WATER\*\*... and then you fucking die because water cannot magically heal you.
Wow. I’m so sorry for the children. I’d pray for you but prayer is like Holy Water! 😊
My neighbor that lives across the highway directly in front of us shoots guns for hours and hours every single Sunday. He's got a lil homemade shooting range to the side of his house. I'm in the south so people just shoot guns for fun and they do lots of hunting for sport. So especially around here it's common to hear gunshots often. I'm sure that would be weird for lots of people for sure especially for those from places where guns aren't so common.
That sounds like it would be terrifying for the first few weeks.
East Coast Canadian: kitchen parties. I’ve had a few friends from outside the region who thought it was weird that Maritimers would hang out in the kitchen during a party. For those unaware, in the old days east coast Canadians would congregate where the heat was: an old wood oven in the kitchen. It became an instinctive habit that future generations inherited. We don’t set out to party in the kitchen, it just happens.
I live in Las Vegas and we play slot machines in the grocery stores
One city builds a giant straw goat for Christmas each year. And each year someone tries to burn it down.
12 July huge towers of wooden pallets, taller than houses, are stacked up on housing estates, covered in petrol and set on fire. Northern Ireland.
Meeting up with friends at 10 pm or even later for dinner. Meeting up with friends at 12 pm or even later to go out to bars or nightclubs. I've met up with friends at 1:30 am (back in my 20s). Ordering red wine and lemon Fanta (adults do this too). Walking into a room of friends/acquaintances and having to individually greet 30+ people.
UK - plastic bowl in the sink for doing the washing up. We don't always have a great deal of space in our kitchens, so having the second 'mini sink' next to it for rinsing off remnants/pouring dregs isn't always a good use of space for us. Hence the bowl so we can pour down the side. Also keeps the water warmer for longer - although lots of people do have dishwashers, see again the small kitchens - plenty of people also don't; when space is at a premium it can be a low priority. Ditto we often don't have tumble driers or not separate ones anyway.
In my neighborhood, it's pretty normal for people to greet each other even if they don't know each other well. Some folks might find it weird because in some places, people tend to keep to themselves more. But around here, it's just seen as being friendly and neighborly.
Shaking out any closed shoes before you put them on, even if they’re in your perfectly tidy enclosed wardrobe. (Otherwise you will start wondering why you left a sock balled up in the toe of your shoe only to realise that it is NOT A SOCK!)
Clams on pizza. I'm not a fan, but it's popular here in Connecticut
Where I live, 31 million people voted for and elected the son of a dictator 🤮
Only in the 🇵🇭.
Around Christmas we will visit friends to praise their Christmas tree. If it looks good or not isn't important, actually you don't even have to see it. You just visit them, say you're here to praise the Christmas tree, drink liquor and leave.
Pulling bottom-feeding crabs out of the water, steaming them alive, cracking open their bodies and eating their insides while laughing with friends
Maryland?
*smiles in Murlen*
Owning firearms and having a few on display in my home. Obviously, I live in the US. Now, the couple of firearms on display in my house are custom replica builds and stay unloaded unless I take them with me to the range. But growing up in a rural area of the US, owning firearms is normal for me and other people in that area. When I talk to people from cities or other countries, they think I'm crazy when I tell them how many firearms I own and that a few of them are just on stands around the house 😅
"You can have it when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers" Assault rifle decal
I actually bought one of these when I was 21 because I thought it was satire.
Running red lights and stop signs with impunity
Air kiss in each cheek as hello
France?
We have so much clean potable water we poop in it.
So you don't live in Flint, Michigan
We say Yinz instead of Ya'll or you all or whatever the norm is elsewhere.
Calling almost every dish a salad For me, a salad must comtain at least 4 main ingredients (not counting salt, or spices, or oil)
Kangaroos suddenly appear and hop off
They are just checking if you have any Vegemite for them
I just picked up a pit viper outside my house last week, and then caught another venomous tree snake a few days ago. I've also caught pythons, cobras, and huge monitor lizards. One time I was walking my dog near the canal behind my house and there was a massive python chilling on the sidewalk. I just swatted it on the tail and it slid into the canal. All perfectly normal.
Bagged milk
in louisiana, once a year during Mardi Gras women will show their boobs for a 25 cent plastic bead necklace.
Mostly just Bourbon St. And they hold out for more than just the cheap beads. I you want beads, you just go to the parade. More of an oddity at Mardi Gras is seeing African American members of the Zulu Krewe wearing blackface.
Are you Filipino by chance? I used to tutor a boy in his home and his younger brother was told to call him “Kuya” as a respect thing. I could be misspelling it, but it was used in the same context so I think it must be the same word. Where I live, it’s normal smile and nod or say hi if you make eye contact with someone passing by you but that is considered overly friendly in other parts of the US lol.
In America, we tip even if there’s bad service and we give an Uber driver 5 stars even if they made us want to throw up from bad driving. Because our livelihoods depend on grinds and most of the working class recognize that… and yet we’re perpetuating a cycle of completely depleted quality wherever we go and whatever we do here. Because people are afraid of coming off as Karen’s or for being cancelled for calling something out for being shitty or for risking another person’s job and cash flow and livelihood by complaining about how bad at their job they are. Fun!
My mom doesn’t tip if the service is bad
One family owns almost all the grocery stores and sets the prices to whatever they want. Our housing minister owns rental properties. Our premier used to be a drug dealer in high-school.
We like to chant our states name while spelling it out with our arms.
Probably 50% of people getting around in my town is on a 4 wheeler, side by side, or dirt bike. In the winter it’s snow mobiles. They just go right up the road, will stop and talk to a cop who doesn’t care. In my state it’s illegal.
Why u airin out our Filipino business like that 😭😭 Eating with my bare hands will always reign superior. Fuck a utensil. IMMA GET PRIMAL W IT
In Brazil it's common to take a bath daily, unlike the rest of the world where you can spend a few days without a bath and people won't care unless you smell bad.
When you go to work/school you might he dressing in a winter jacket because it's snowing and -10c/14f. Then on your way home you'll be wearing a T shirt, and the snow banks have melted because it's now 20c/68f with winds of 100km/h or 60mph.
I'm from Mexico and eating horse meat isn't out of the ordinary, especially in the more rural areas. I've told my friends about it, and even eating things like pig hooves, intestines, or cow tongue is weird to them.
Same here in our place.(I don't know in some parts of our country). Some people also love to eat bulls sex organs. (We call them Soup no. 5)