Um, That's Gross, America

I realize I spend a lot of time pointing out all the oddities and surprises that come along with living abroad. Often I can be found (usually jokingly) complaining that a certain system or method or approach to any number of things here is just different, in a bewildering or senseless way.  However, lately I’ve been trying to note all the little surprise that I really like about living here.

It’s just a start, but here we go …

This is on the dessert menu where I live.

• Being able to drink water out of the tap that doesn’t taste like microwaved water from your dog’s bowl

• Living in a country that embraces cheese as a dessert

• Living in a place where saying “I don’t have a driving license” doesn’t immediately mean you’ve got a DUI on your record

• Free birth control (take that, Rush Limbaugh!)

• Picture houses instead of movie theatres. Enjoying a pint while watching a movie (Which sounds awesome, but is actually ill advised since the spaces are tiny and getting up to pee more often because you’ve had three beers in the past hour just pisses everyone off).

• Taking a train to another country

• Having no reference for how much a “stone” is, so therefore having absolutely no idea what my actual weight is

• Going to Oktoberfest parties where there are actual Germans in attendance; going to the pub for St Patrick’s Day where actual Irish people are celebrating their … well, their drunkenness, I suppose

• Taking an item to the register and paying exactly what it says on the price tag

• Living in a country so entrenched in American media and culture that forgetting to spell “realize” with an “s” or “favorite” with a “u” doesn’t even really get noticed

• Not being carded – ever



That's gross, America.

• Being forced to reconsider what is an appropriate food portion (I once begrudgingly ordered an extra large pizza for pick up because they were running a special so it was actually cheaper than any smaller size. Thinking we would be eating leftover pizza for two weeks, I arrived to find out an English extra large is basically an American medium. Um, America, that's gross.)