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Non-Americans share completely normal things in their country that would 'shock' Americans

From rollercoaster streetcars to "prison festivals," the world certainly has a lot of thrilling variety to offer.

Julio Toro/Youtube

The planet—and the people in it—are endlessly fascinating.

Think the multiverse is just for Marvel movies? Travel the world and you’ll think differently. Each country is like its own little ecosystem, with characteristics and quirks that are completely foreign to those who’ve never been there.

Upworthy has covered many stories of uniquely American quirks that have caused visitors to do a double-take, but this time, were flipping the script, thanks to a Reddit user who asked:

“What’s something totally normal in your country that would shock most Americans?”

Take a tour around the globe with some of our favorites below:

“On Saturday nights, there is a rollercoaster cart that drives around town, drifting, doing donuts, going super fast while playing music. It’s the shape of a worm so they call it 'El Gusanito.’ It picks people up like every other block and it costs 25 cents to ride. There are no limits to how many people get on per cart. I even saw a stray dog catch a ride once. It’s so unsafe but super fun.” —Ecuador

  - YouTube  www.youtube.com  

“When people die, we put up little posters - printed obituaries - on the walls of buildings all around town and close to places the person liked to frequent. They have a little picture of the person, their date of birth and death, and a message of mourning from the family.”—Bulgaria

“It’s totally normal to sit naked in a sauna with your coworkers after work. Anywhere else that’s an HR panic button.” —Finland

 ask reddit, travel, non-americans, americans, culture, comparing cultures, japan, finland, germany, canada, spain Not just coworkers—family, friends, strangers, kids… media2.giphy.com  

“Having to pay for public restrooms.” —France 

 ask reddit, travel, non-americans, americans, culture, comparing cultures, japan, finland, germany, canada, spain Imagine having to go so badly but being out of euros.  parisjetaime.com  

“Walking around in public in bare feet. Very common to see supermarket shoppers and such with no shoes on, and no it’s not a class thing, all kinds of people do it. Not beating the hobbit allegations I guess.” -New Zealand

 ask reddit, travel, non-americans, americans, culture, comparing cultures, japan, finland, germany, canada, spain Anything hobbit-esque can't be wrong. Photo credit: Canva

“The whole bagged milk thing seems to really freak them out.” —Canada

  - YouTube  www.youtube.com  

“Our pharmacies only sell medicine, no snacks, makeup or random stuff. First time I visited the US I thought I was in the wrong store.” —Germany

 ask reddit, travel, non-americans, americans, culture, comparing cultures, japan, finland, germany, canada, spain But what if you need pain meds AND mascara?!Photo credit: Canva

“Taking your shoes off to go inside of schools.” —Japan

@lindokorchi

Here’s the rule for taking off your shoes in Japan. #lifeinjapan #japanlife #japantravel #japan🇯🇵 #livingabroad #japanesehouse

“Whole family lives together indefinitely. In a home the size that would fit a starter family in America, they have their grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. and they all take care of each other.” —Spain

 ask reddit, travel, non-americans, americans, culture, comparing cultures, japan, finland, germany, canada, spain Imagine how this would affect childcare.Photo credit: Canva

“A man walking along a street with a massive machete is no cause for alarm and wouldn't even get an eye raise.” —Jamaica

  - YouTube  www.youtube.com  

“Prisoners make food, furniture, and other goods that you can buy at ‘prison festivals’ they hold outside the prisons themselves. These festivals have a variety of attractions and are popular with families and children” —Japan

 
 @javadiscover Could this Japanese ‘prison festival’ really be an accurate representation of life behind bars? #documentary #documentaries #japan #japanese #prison #prisoner #prisonlife #prisoners #jail #incarceration #behindbars #japaneseculture #fyp #fypシ #fypシ゚viral #foryou #foryoupage #foryoupageofficiall ♬ original sound - Java Discover 
 
 

"Boyfriends and girlfriends (or partners) sleeping together at each other's houses from about age 14-15 yrs old. Parents would rather have this than kids sneaking around and getting into bad situations.” —Denmark

Nicole Iris GIFfrom Nicole GIFs
 

And last but not least…

“Anything without rice is just a snack no matter how big the portion is.” —Philippines

 ask reddit, travel, non-americans, americans, culture, comparing cultures, japan, finland, germany, canada, spain Honestly…where's the lie? media0.giphy.com  

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Music

Teacher jokingly tells 10-year-old going on a trip to England to 'find Duran Duran'—and so she kind of does.

And just like that, Simon LeBon appeared in the doorway.

Wikicommons and lakehighlandsadvocate IG

Duran Duran lead singer Simon LeBon poses with a young fan

Imagine this: you're a fourth grade language arts teacher in Dallas, and like many Gen X-ers, your obsession with Duran Duran never waned. So much so that you still have dolls of each member of the band in the classroom and, according to Austin Wood's article for the Lake Highlands Advocate, even an old telephone in case (lead singer) "Simon LeBon calls."

This describes Miriam Osborne, a fourth grade teacher at White Rock Elementary in the Lake Highlands district of Dallas, Texas. Wood shares in "White Rock E.S. student, inspired by teacher, meets Simon LeBon" that one of Osborne's students, 10-year-old Ava Meyers, was getting an early pickup for Christmas break, as her family was heading to the U.K. for a holiday wedding. As they were saying their goodbyes in the hallway, Osborne kiddingly said to Meyers, "Find Duran Duran."

gif of Duran Duran performingDuran Duran 80S GIFGiphy


Cut to: Ava and her family, including her mom Zahara, fly across the pond to find themselves in the Putney neighborhood of London. After a day of sightseeing, Zahara shares, "I was just Googling things to do in Putney, and the first thing that popped up was 'Simon Le Bon lives in Putney from Duran Duran.'”

Zahara did a little sleuthing and found Simon's house, thinking perhaps a Christmas stroll by the home would be exciting. But, according to the article, Ava felt they could do better. She and "an 83-year-old relative named Nick, who apparently has courage in droves, went to the door and tried a knock. Zahara was initially hesitant but assumed Le Bon would be away on vacation, so she figured it was harmless. Le Bon’s son-in-law answered, his wife came to the door next, and following a few moments of getting pitched the idea by Nick, agreed to get her husband 'because it was Christmas.'"

And just like that, Simon LeBon appeared in the doorway. He warmly greeted Ava and her family and even took pictures. "It was just crazy," Ava exclaimed.

But possibly more excited was Miriam Osborne, back in the States. She proudly shared the photo (which had been texted to her) with many of her friends and even encouraged Ava to recount the story to her classmates when they returned from the break. Wood shares, "Osborne’s connection to the band goes back to her childhood in El Paso in the ’80s. As the daughter of a Syrian immigrant, she says she had trouble fitting in and finding an identity. Some days, she and her brothers would travel across town to get records from a British record store."

Miriam explains she used her babysitting money to buy her first Duran Duran record. "And so I had been a fan, literally, for 43 years—my entire lifetime."

gif of Simon LeBonDuran Duran GIFGiphy

Osborne's love of Duran Duran, and many '80s bands in general, nostalgically connects her to a throughline for her life that she tries to impart onto the students as well. "Music is a connector, and it connected me to a world that I didn’t always fit in as a child. It helped me find people who I still love to this day, and it’s a big part of this classroom with me and the students I teach, because everybody has a story, and there’s something really incredible about hearing something and it taking you to a happy moment."

As for Ava? She's now taking guitar lessons. And perhaps one day, she can become so famous and inspirational, a teacher sends a student off to find her on a Christmas vacation in the future.

This article originally appeared in March.

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Until we meet again: How Hana Hou! became America’s final inflight magazine

“I could make that magazine last for almost my entire flight as I looked through every item and tried to picture the type of person that would buy that stuff.”

Photo credit: Canva

Sky-high publications are vanishing.

Glossy pages, local travel tips that get you psyched for your arrival, and sudoku puzzles that bear the wrong answers of past travelers—inflight magazines have been a staple of air travel practically since aviation’s invention. But in today’s increasingly digital world, these sky-high publications have nearly vanished in America, with one notable exception: Hawaiian Airlines’ Hana Hou! magazine, which is now the final printed airline magazine by a major U.S. carrier.

Before that was Hemispheres, the inflight magazine of United Airlines, which, after 32 years, published its final edition in September 2024. Ellen Carpenter, the former editor-in-chief of Hemispheres, told the Columbia Journalism Review that, although the magazine reached 12 to 15 million people per month, print was no longer feasible or a priority for the airline.


Airline, magazine, flying, skies, readershipWe will miss you, airline magazines. Giphy


“As the Internet grows and grows, it’s harder and harder to find curated content,” she explained. Hemispheres marked the latest casualty in what has become a mass extinction of in-flight magazines: once cherished travel companions and information-rich texts are now completely gone from the seatback pockets. Over the past decade, we’ve seen numerous airlines discontinue their print publications, including those from Delta, Alaska, Southwest, and American Airlines, which ended its American Way publication in 2021. This shift is larger than cost-cutting for airlines: it’s the end of a tradition that once united us, strangers, in the sky.

 

The history

 

The inflight magazine began, where else, but Pan American Airlines in the 1950s. Commonly known as Pan Am, the airline “epitomized the luxury and glamor of intercontinental travel,” a status reflected in its magazine, Clipper Travel. Although, the golden era of the inflight magazine was arguably in the 1980s, which approximately lines up with or directly after the golden era of journalism. At the most basic level, these free magazines offered small details about the fleeting and sumptuous advertisements for luxury goods. However, they could also be gold mines—bastions of local journalism with a trick up its sleeve. You see, airplane magazines enjoyed the attention of captive audiences with few other means of distraction. As airlines began to see the potential their magazines had to attract business travelers and advertisers, they began heavily investing in these publications, which included offering writers a unique type of freedom not found anywhere else.

 

American Way, the former in-flight magazine of American Airlines, reached more than 73 million people on planes alone in 1990, according to The Washington Post. Back then, inflight magazines were not merely promotional brochures; they were legitimate publications with the budgets and reach to create content that flyers actually wanted to read.

“It really was a golden age,” said Doug Crichton, editor of American Way from 1988 to 1993. “The airline just said, ‘Do whatever you want.’ …Our goal was to make it a New Yorker of the sky.”

Writers during this time could earn between $1 and $3 per word, with article features commanding a substantial $2,500 (when adjusted for inflation, that equals about $6,000 today). "The airline magazines were really still that bastion of great print journalism where they would say we’re going to send you to Spain, we’re going to send you to Mexico,” said Jenny Adams, a freelance journalist based in New Orleans who wrote for American Way, Hemispheres and other in-flight magazines.

However, as technology advanced, the inflight magazine found itself competing against movie screens, gaming consoles, personal entertainment systems, smartphones, and high-speed Wi-Fi for attention. They began to lose their allure. Then, in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic shocked the airline systems, it delivered a final blow as airlines temporarily removed magazines to ensure safety regarding surface transmissions.

Reading, inflight magazine, airlines, flying, covid19Airline magazines have lost their allure. Photo credit: Canva

On Reddit, many users lamented the loss of the inflight magazine, with one writing, “I miss the [American Airlines] magazine. They always did deep dives into interesting locations.”

Another commented, “There was a great interview with Bill Murray in one of the last issues I read. They were always a bit off-beat like that, and I remember thinking ‘I wonder what Bill Murray’s publicist thought when whoever called was like, you know, it’s for the magazines that go on airplanes.’”

Still others missed the SkyMall shopping magazine, writing, “I could make that magazine last for almost my entire flight as I looked through every item and tried to picture the type of person that would buy that stuff.”

 

Hana Hou!

 

However, there is one saving grace: Hana Hou! magazine. Published bi-monthly, the Honolulu magazine is still prized for its high-quality journalism and engaging storytelling centered around Hawaiian culture and the islands’ heritage. The magazine, which roughly translates to “Encore!”, has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and maintains an extensive archive dating back 20 years.

"Hana Hou! has not only served as an entertainment option but also as a cultural ambassador, connecting travelers to Hawaii," notes Beat of Hawaii. This travel website suggests that readers "might want to pick up a copy of Hana Hou! soon,” because it “might become a valuable collector's item one day."


Indeed, the future of Hana Hou! remains uncertain, with Hawaiian Airlines’ recent acquisition by Alaska Airlines (which previously discontinued its print magazine), so it’s possible that the publication’s days may be numbered. That outcome would be heartbreaking because we’re not just losing magazines, we’re losing a tangible artifact—something that any one of us could pick up while flying, that had the power to connect us, even just for a second. To make us feel human. Inflight travel writer, Jenny Adams, sums it up perfectly: "It's hard now when you're on your phone. You don't have that same connection. It's not tactile. You're not, like, excited to go fly somewhere. I'm just gutted that that's all gone.”

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We're Airbnb Superhosts and we think cleaning fees and check-out chores are bunk, too

There's no good reason for this.

Photo credit: Canva

People are right to complain about being charged a cleaning fee and being asked to do chores.

In 2016, My husband and I started renting out the basement apartment of our house as a short-term rental on Airbnb. We live in a college town and figured we'd get some guests during football game weekends and graduations. We didn't realize at the time how many people come to our town to visit their college kids or check out the school, so we were pleasantly surprised by how regularly we were booked.

In 2019, we moved into the house next door and now rent out both floors of the old house as separate units. We love being Airbnb hosts and have had a very successful run of it, with almost 1,000 5-star reviews, Superhost status, and lots of repeat guests.

airbnb, vrbo, short term rental, checkout chores, cleaning fees, airbnb hostBeing regular guests haas helped make us good Airbnb hosts.Photo credit: Canva

Part of the secret of our success? We don't charge a cleaning fee or make guests do check-out chores.

In fact, we find both things rather loathsome.

What makes us good hosts is that we've been Airbnb guests for years. As a family of five that travels a lot, we've found far more value in short-term rentals than in hotels over the years. We love having a kitchen, living room, and bedrooms and feeling like we have a "home" while traveling. We even spent a nomadic year staying at short-term rentals for a month at a time.

When you've experienced dozens of Airbnbs as a guest, you learn what guests appreciate and what they don't. You see what's annoying and unnecessary and what's to be expected in comparison to a hotel. We started taking mental notes long before we started our own rental about what we would want to do and not do if we ever had one and have implemented those things now that we do.

Chasing Tom And Jerry GIF by MaxGiphy

As guests, we know the pain of the cleaning fee, so we don't charge one.

It helps that my husband has a flexible schedule and grew up helping with his parents' janitorial service, so most of the time he cleans the apartments himself. We could charge a cleaning fee for his time and labor, but even if we were paying for outside cleaners, we still wouldn't put a separate fee onto guest bookings. It makes far more sense to us to just wrap the cleaning fee into the price.

From a host's perspective, the one-night stay is where the cleaning fee question hits the hardest. Whether someone stays one night or 10 nights, the cleaning cost is the same. But spreading the cost over 10 nights is a very different beast than adding it to one night, especially from a guest's perspective. On the host side, if we had to pay cleaners without passing that fee onto guests, we've barely make anything on one-night stays. But on the guest side, a $100 a night stay suddenly jumping to $150 or more because a cleaning fee was added is painful, and often a dealbreaker. You can see the conundrum.

The way we see it, and as other Airbnb hosts have found, wrapping cleaning costs into the base price comes out in the wash over time, as long as you have some longer-term stays mixed in with the one-nighters. And it's a much better experience for the guest not to get hit with sticker shock on the "final cost" screen, which is already eye-popping when the platform's service fees and local taxes are added on.

(I will say, this may only ring true for smaller units. If you're renting a huge home, cleaning costs are going to be higher just because it takes longer to clean. But I still don't think the full cost should be passed onto guests as a separate fee.)

airbnb, vrbo, short term rental, checkout chores, cleaning feeAsking guests to stip the sheets saves almost no time and costs a lot in goodwill.Photo credit: Canva

There's no reason at all to ask guests to do check-out chores

As for check-out chores—asking guests to do things like start laundry, sweep the floor, take out the trash, etc.—those have never made sense to us. Hosts should have enough switch-out linens that laundry doesn't have to be started prior to checking out, and none of those chores save enough time for the cleaning people to make it worth asking guests to do it. I can see taking out trash if there wasn't going to be another guest for a while, but usually you'd want to clean right away after a stay anyway just in case it does get booked last minute.

The only thing we ask guests to do is to start the dishwasher if they have dirty dishes (as a guest, that seems like a logical and reasonable request), lock the door, and have a safe trip home. Don't need to pull the sheets. Don't need to take out any garbage or recycling. Those things don't take that long, but that's just as much a reason not to ask guests to do it. Annoying your guests by asking them to do something extra—especially if they're already paying a cleaning fee—isn't worth the tiny bit of time it might save the cleaning people.

airbnb, vrbo, short term rental, checkout chores, cleaning feeMost guests are try to leave the place as they found it, standard cleaning routine aside. Photo credit: Canva

This approach works very well, because 95% of guests leave the space neat and tidy anyway.

In almost 10 years, I can count on one hand how many problems we've had with guests leaving a significant mess. That's been a pleasant surprise, but I think part of the reason is that guests are simply reciprocating the respect and consideration we show them by not making them pay extra fees or do chores on their way out. We're going to have to clean it anyway, so putting work on them is unnecessarily burdensome, even if it's something that doesn't take long. People recognize that.

To be fair, it probably helps that we aren't some big real estate tycoon buying up a bunch of apartments and turning them into short-term rentals run by impersonal management companies. People's complaints about how short-term rentals impact local housing economies are legitimate. Our situation is more aligned with the original "sharing economy" model, renting out our home to guests who come through town. And in a small college town with a large university, there often aren't enough hotel rooms during busy weekends anyway, so it's been a bit of a win-win all around.

I think us being in close proximity, having personal communication with our guests (but also leaving them their privacy), and not charging or asking anything extra of them makes them want to be respectful guests. From our perspective, both as guests and hosts, cleaning fees and check-out chores simply aren't worth their cost.

This article originally appeared last year.

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