A German in America

[Dannyalcatraz]

IME, the biggest misperceptions Europeans have about the USA is they underestimate its sheer size. I've encountered a few who wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, the Grand Canyon, and the Golden Gate Bridge on a 1 week road trip.

OTOH, we Americans tend not to understand the sheer depth of European history. It can be mind boggling to realize that some small dorf has a "new" city hall that is older than our country.

 

[kenobi65]

OTOH, we Americans tend not to understand the sheer depth of European history. It can be mind boggling to realize that some small dorf has a "new" city hall that is older than our country.

Very true. I remember eating in a cafe in Salzburg, Austria, that had been continuously operated since, IIRC, the 9th century.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

IME, the biggest misperceptions Europeans have about the USA is they underestimate its sheer size. I've encountered a few who wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, the Grand Canyon, and the Golden Gate Bridge on a 1 week road trip.

Yeah, I know where that idea comes from. I mean, I am currently contemplating a weekend trip to Harbor Springs, Michigan, which is "only" the next state over - but it will still take a very long time to get there (especially without a car of my own)...

OTOH, we Americans tend not to understand the sheer depth of European history. It can be mind boggling to realize that some small dorf has a "new" city hall that is older than our country.

From a recent conversation:

Flatmate: "So, is the RWTH Aachen an old university?"
Me: "No, it's one of the younger ones... which is to say, it was founded in the late 19th century."

Oh, and Aachen itself was founded 1900 years ago by the Romans when they discovered the hot springs in the area...

 

[drothgery]

Yeah, I know where that idea comes from. I mean, I am currently contemplating a weekend trip to Harbor Springs, Michigan, which is "only" the next state over - but it will still take a very long time to get there (especially without a car of my own)...

(looks this up on mapquest)
Well, you're heading somewhere just across the lake from Canada. And it's not like there's a major airport anywhere nearby you could fly to and save time on the deal. You'll be in Michigan most of your travel time; it'll only take you two hours (according to Mapquest) to get to Toledo and the Ohio-Michigan border.

(doing a little poking around on Google Maps)
If Google Maps does its math in a comprable way to Mapquest, its a similar-length drive from Aachen to Prague (I tried Paris, Zurich, and Berlin first, but they were too close).

 

[nerfherder]

IME, the biggest misperceptions Europeans have about the USA is they underestimate its sheer size. I've encountered a few who wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, the Grand Canyon, and the Golden Gate Bridge on a 1 week road trip.

The two biggest surprises I had when I first visited the US were:
1) how important and different "States" are - the different laws and taxes, etc.
2) how nice everyone was (ok, I'm discounting NYC, as that seems to be an aberration!). Seriously, you guys are all so friendly to visiting Brits.

 

[kenobi65]

1) how important and different "States" are - the different laws and taxes, etc.

It's an interesting point, and a reminder that the full name is the United States of America. Yes, there's a federal government, and we're one country, but the concept of "states rights", and state self-governance, is an important one. If you trace our history back to Colonial times, remember that we were a bunch of different colonies, with different heritages, different governing structures, etc.

In addition, the country is big enough that there are definitely different regional cultures, so much so that it can feel like a different country when you go to a different part of the U.S. (heck, that used to be Texas's tourism slogan -- "A Whole Other Country" -- then again, they used to *be* a whole other country, and it still shows.)

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

2) how nice everyone was (ok, I'm discounting NYC, as that seems to be an aberration!). Seriously, you guys are all so friendly to visiting Brits.

On the subject of friendliness, I had a similar experience with my time in Europe.

Of all the places I've been (years in Germany & trips all over Europe), the only rude people I've encountered were a solitary waitress in Austria and a lot of Parisians.

I suspect that the Austrian may have been a sympathizer with "an upended regime in a neighboring country"- she was old enough, and I've talked to other Americans who were in the area at the time. Some actually had badges flashed at them while trekking on back roads.

As for Paris- what can I say? Its almost as if rudeness was the city's favorite local competitive sport. Among other incidents in the City of Lights, I watched another European (a multilingual teacher of languages- including French) trying to order a meal and the waitperson acted as if his French was unintelligible. He had to have a Frenchman put in his order for him.

Aberrations, I realize, but shocking nonetheless.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

the only rude people I've encountered were a solitary waitress in Austria and a lot of Parisians....As for Paris- what can I say? Its almost as if rudeness was the city's favorite local competitive sport. Among other incidents in the City of Lights, I watched another European (a multilingual teacher of languages- including French) trying to order a meal and the waitperson acted as if his French was unintelligible. He had to have a Frenchman put in his order for him.

From what I've been told by a few French who were from the rural parts of the country they didn't like Parisians either. Lots of gripes I didn't really get but from (very) limited experience and their secondhand accounts I figure Paris just has a high %$#@ole population compared to the rest of France. It seems like Paris is the only place you get the "Your French is not Good Enough" routine on a regular basis. Mostly other places seem to be able to deal even if you're not so hot with the language but are trying.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

@ HeavenShallBurn: LOL. Sounds like my experiences in NYC.

Jurgen -- Enjoying the blog. It's interesting to get a freswh perspective on things we're already familiar with. By all means try to check out different regions if you can, as the culture and feel of different states in different parts of the country are still distinct, despite the homogenizing brought about by mass franchising.

As to your vacation ... as someone who has lived/lives close to both NYC and DC (currently I'm about an hour's drive west of NYC), they are both an experience and quite different. I prefer DC myself -- more open, more friendly, more historical, and cheaper, plus there are lots of nearby opportunities in Virginia and Maryland. The Smithsonian Air & Space Museum is my favorite site in the city. But you can't go wrong either way, as both have a wide variety of entertainment, cultural, and historical sites as well as decent public transportation (decent by US standards, that is). If you really wanted to you could do both as DC is only about a 3-hour train ride from NYC, so a visit to the major government sites on the Mall is within a day trip. But with a week to spend you're probably best off staying in one spot.

 

[kirinke]

Regarding ATMs (advice from a fellow European who has been to the US a couple of times):
I don't know if German banks have the same rules as Danish ones, but just in case they do... don't use an ATM unless it's an emergency!
Use your VISA card instead (most places take them and you really should get one if you don't have one)!
I found out that if I wanted to withdraw cash from an ATM I had to pay and extra 3% of the amount withdrawn to my bank back home in Denmark. Whereas if I used my VISA card I didn't pay anything extra (same as with buying things over the internet). Although 3% doesn't seem like much it quickly adds up.
Now, since our VISAs are debit cards, we can't get cash back from stores, so to obtain cash I would just pay stuff (like groceries) for some of my US friends with my card and they'd give me the cash instead. That way I'd always have reasonable amounts of cash on me without paying the extra ATM fee.

Cars
Americans really love their cars... just be glad that you're in a large city. My first visit was to a town a bit further south from where you are, Huntington, WV, and boy oh boy did they love them some pick-up trucks!
Another thing about about cars (and weather) that you're not going to experience, but I'll mention it anyway since it fits in with your observations about the US... people in LA seem to be mystified (and terrified!) of this thing called precipitation... more specifically, rain.
I watched in disbelief as a drizzle caused the entire freeway system through LA to slow down to a snail like pace. A trip that on any other day would take 20 minutes on the freeway, now tooks us 3 HOURS (I'm not kidding, the trip really took 3 hours and 10 minutes from "home" to where we were going - Santa Monica to Inglewood)!
They just seemed so unused to this strange phenomenon that most of them didn't know how to drive on a slightly wet freeway.

Drat it. I thought it was a uniquely Austin thing. That phenomena happens here too. The minute traffic even senses a raindrop falling from the sky, there seems to be a mass braking.

I call it the "Oh no! The Sky Is Falling!" syndrome. Drives me bats.