A squirrel, a happy man, and some ranch dressing.
There are obvious things people from overseas expect to find when they come to America on vacation. They'll see big, yellow school buses. They'll go out to dinner, be blown away by the portion sizes, and get excited about taking leftovers home. Of course, they'll also enjoy most Americans' happy-go-lucky attitude.
However, there are also things many people don't expect to find in America when they arrive. Some can be fun and exciting, others downright perplexing. Visitors might enjoy the pleasant surprise of seeing a garbage disposal in action, or feel overwhelmed by the countless massive billboards lining America's highways and byways.
A Redditor asked non-Americans who have visited the United States to share some of the "weirdest" things they noticed that most Americans might not. The responses turned into a fun list of everyday experiences many Americans don't realize are uniquely tied to life in the States. Who knew that seeing squirrels everywhere is a particularly American experience, or that people in other countries don't have to deal with poison ivy on a regular basis?
An alert squirrel. via Canva/Photos
Here are 15 of the strangest things that non-Americans didn't expect when visiting the U.S.
1. The medical advertisements
"How your medical ads show an old guy living life well because of X-drug. He has the best time, the wife is having the best time and it's all because of the drug making things better. The end of the ad is full of warnings about how this happy drug can potentially kill you and your family, nuke your dog and make cats impotent."
"When you have ads for drugs and half of the ad is telling you how the drug will kill you while also showing puppies. It's weird."
2. Military acknowledgements
"I went to SeaWorld with my mum when I was in my mid-teens. Halfway through the show, the performer (Not the whale) asked everybody in the military to stand up, and the whole crowd gave them a round of applause. They sat back down and the show continued as if nothing had happened. Couldn't imagine anything similar happening back in Blighty."
"I love that you specified it wasn't the whale asking questions."
3. Poison ivy is real
"That poison ivy not only exists, but it's so ubiquitous."
"When I was a kid, I walked through the smoke of burning poison ivy. I was out of school for a week after that, I couldn't even get my eyes open."
Poison ivy growing on a tree.via Canva/Photos
4. Thanksgiving invites
"The weirdest thing is that Americans will ask what you are doing for Thanksgiving. Are you going to your family, etc.? When you say no. They invite you to their home. (I was a student, my family was thousands of miles away, and I'm happy that the local Cracker Barrel is open and looking forward to a meal there. My Professor did that. Invited me to his home. I had a good time, but it was strange. I'm meeting his uncles and aunts. And one little girl threw a tantrum, I had to take her to calm her down, etc.... It was weird. But also wonderful. In my country, things like this would never happen. You don't bring a stranger to a family event."
"You don't bring a stranger to a family event. You're only a stranger until you show up, then you're family."
5. The bathrooms
"On behalf of my wife, what's up with the gaps in the toilet stall doors and no bidet?'"
Using a public restroom in the U.S. can be uncomfortable for visitors because of the large gaps beneath the stall doors. Strange as it may seem, those gaps are intentional. They exist for three main reasons: increased visibility makes it easier to spot emergencies, the extra space allows janitors to clean floors more efficiently, and smaller doors are cheaper to manufacture and install.
@mattypstories And now you know!🚽#bathroom#facts#themoreyouknow
6. Wacky car dealership flags
"Car dealerships have huge flags. I don't get why you'd have a flag the size of ten RVs."
"Would you buy a truck from a guy whose American flag was smaller than a football field? If it's not at least one square mile in size, you're basically a communist, and we don't buy commie trucks."
"That's an advertising thing. In the US, a lot of cities ban signs being above a certain size or quantity, but flags, particularly US flags, are often exempt."
7. Prices on menus
"Why you guys don't put the actual full prices on food menus?"
"You guys don't add the taxes in beforehand."
"Maybe it's to discourage people from buying them with the slightly elevated price?"
8. Ranch is very confusing
"Ranch; it is somehow both delicious and revolting. And changes which with every mouthful."
"Buttermilk, mayo, dill, parsley, garlic."
"In the Netherlands, they don't really know what Ranch is... so we call it 'Cool American.'"
Chicken wings and ranch dressing. via Canva/Photos
9. Casinos in gas stations
"I'm talking about slot/poker machines and sometimes a poker table or two in regular gas stations. Not just truck stops, not on native land. Find a street corner with some gas stations on it in Missoula and odds are at least one of them has a mini casino inside."
"Illinois has slots EVERYWHERE now. Gas stations, hotels, regional airports. It's crazy."
10. Free refills
"Free refills. Went to a restaurant with my dad (both German) and all of a sudden the waiter took away my drink with another perfectly good sipp in it and I must have looked pretty shocked. It was only then when my dad explained to me that you guys have free refills."
"The reason we have free refills is that drinks come in large containers of syrup that get mixed with the water and carbonation in a fountain on site. At fast food restaurants, it costs the restaurant more to provide you with a cup than the liquid that they order in bulk. This makes unlimited refills feasible, vs the individual glass bottles everyone in Europe is serving."
11. Huge squirrel population
"That there are a lot of squirrels."
"Half Spanish, when my godmother visited America for the first time she spent an unreasonable amount of time filming squirrels."
The U.S. has the largest squirrel population in the world, with an estimated 40 million squirrels across the country. What's funny is that this abundance is no accident. In the 1900s, urban parks were considered beneficial to people's health, so when many were built, cities intentionally introduced squirrels to create a more bucolic atmosphere. The result was an explosion in America's squirrel population.
12. Grocery baggers
"Clearly the fact that there are people to put your groceries in a bag for you, I've never been so stressed and uncomfortable that while I was watching this young girl taking care of my groceries."
"Conversely, the first time I went to a European store I stood and watched the cashier not bag things."
A woman checking out at the supermarket.via Canva/Photos
13. Y'all is real
"My cousins, who had lived in Kuwait and Australia for many years, came to visit my family back in Texas and laughed at how we said y'all."
"Me, a Southerner at Coachella: I ain't heard that band before...
Californians around me: ...did you just say 'ain't??'
Me: y'all don't say ain't?? WAIT. Do y'all even say y'all??
Californians: hella hella NorCal is hella better than SoCal hella no we don't say y'all."
14. People are really social
"Canadian here, I was blown away by how weirdly social people are with strangers. Like some random guy I've never seen before just starts telling me his life story on the street. He is super normal and doesn't seem crazy; he just wants to talk to me for some reason. But then also, the dude at Wendy's is loudly threatening some 16-year-old cashier in front of like 45 people. I got the impression the Wendy's guy was uncool, but the other guy seemed normal, and where I live, I generally assume that a stranger talking to me for no reason is either crazy or high."
15. Lightning bugs
"I live in the south, and one time I was hanging out with a friend smoking by a lake in late spring / early summer. He was Egyptian and had just moved here over the winter. All of a sudden, he freaked out, saying he was seeing weird lights in the trees. I thought he was too high or something before I realized he meant the lightning bugs. He'd never seen them and didn't know what they were, so I started catching them and he was mind blown that they were just a normal seasonal thing."
"My ex was a native of Colorado and one summer night was completely awestruck by the lightening bugs, which I, as a native Nebraskan, just took for granted. Crazy how drastically different places in the US can be."