[ SECRET POST #2501

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2501 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


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02.
[American Horror Story]


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03.
[Beverly Hills, 90210]


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04.
[Homeland]


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05.
[Skins]


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06.
[Signs]


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07.
[Downton Abbey]


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08.
[Epic Rap Battles of History]


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09.
[Mass Effect]


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10.
[orange is the new black]


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11.
[The Swapper]


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12.
[Rune Factory 4]


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13.
[Skyrim]












Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 020 secrets from Secret Submission Post #357.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

To Non-Americans who have visited America

[(Anonymous)]

And yes, I mean the United States of America. :)

What kinds of things did you notice about the States, be it good, bad or weird? I'm American but I've been living abroad for the past couple years, and visiting home I notice some things - but I wonder what it's like for people from other countries? Particularly if you lived or spent a significant amount of time here.

If you answer, could you be sure to mention what country you're from? And where in particular in the US you visited? Thanks!

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[seventh_seal]

Yeah, so I had a paragraph typed up but I kept only coming up with negative stuff, which I think would distort the overall great year I spent in the US.

Generalizing is bad, you know, and many of the differences have more to do with living in the city/in the country and other dichotomies like that rather than in the US/Europe.

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[(Anonymous)]

Bad stuff is okay to put! But I appreciate the sentiment that generalizing is bad. Though I think there are stuff that are safe to say are "generally American", the US - like any country, really - has a lot of regions that do things differently.

I was actually shocked when non-American told me her disdain that Americans don't take shoes off while in the house. I told her at the time she was misunderstanding, that isn't true, normal people take off their shoes unless they maybe have to run and grab something for five seconds. But apparently in some parts of the States this is more normal? I don't know. So yeah, lots of stuff is regional. Not everything, though.

Seriously, though, I'll trust that posters are being as fair as possible and understand that experiences don't reflect everyone's. :)

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[siofrabunnies]

I and American living in the US, but I had a lot of contact with non-US students in school.

I can't tell you how many people pointing out they were grossed out by peanut butter. Apparently, it's like the American equivalent of Vegemite.

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[(Anonymous)]

I don't get being grossed out by peanut butter. With Vegemite I get that it's way too salty if you take a gob of it. But peanut butter is so smooth and tastes like peanuts. Many cultures outside the US eat peanuts. Why are they so grossed out?

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[(Anonymous)]

I personally never got to vsit America, but I have friends who did and they all say the same things:

- It all looks just like in the movies. There are huge cities with giant glass buildings and there's something like a jungle between them.
- Americans are absolutely crazy about patriotism.
- White and non-white people in America don't mix. They even shop in separate shops. There are whole neighbourhoods of just black people.
- Most Americans have never actually visited all of the biggest tourist spots in America. They're more likely to travel to Europe than to the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone Park.

One of my friends, who regularly spends vacations in America also noted this:

- Visiting people's homes is a big deal. People don't just invite someone over and let them stay as long as they wish. Visitors are told the exact time they have to come and leave, especially if they're kids having playdates. If someone is invited to dinner, they are invited specifically to dinner.
- People below 21 never drink at parties. It's not just a rule in the law that nobody respects, young people really don't drink. But they do smoke weed.
- People in America don't let little children pee out in the public, no matter how badly they need it.
- HUMMINGBIRDS! Hummingbirds drinking water with sugar from little bottles. Tiny battles between hummingbirds and bees over the sugary water. Cuteness overload.

We're from Poland and the cities my friends visited were Washington, New York, Chicago and Maryland.

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[(Anonymous)]

Laughing at people below 21 never drink at parties. And the big cities thing. But it's a regional thing. The white and non-white not mixing is def not true in my city.

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[diet_poison]

I'd be really interested in what parts of the US they were in. Some of those I'm nodding along to, but others seem kind of weird to me. (Like at least where I'm from, and the places I've spent almost all my time, there isn't a "jungle" between cities. There are endless, endless farms. And some other differences.)

When you say people don't let kids pee in public, do you mean not in public bathrooms, or not like, out in front of everyone?? Sorry if that is a weird question but ime kids pee in public bathrooms all the time

ETA: oh, and like the other anon said. where did they go that nobody under 21 drank at parties????? lol. I thought that was basically the whole point of *having* parties

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[(Anonymous)]

Visiting really depends on the person and how well you know them and how many people are there, I think. Usually if you know someone it's more casual and some people just like schedules.

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[ill_omened]

Having spent time in Alabama and Florida

"- Americans are absolutely crazy about patriotism.
- White and non-white people in America don't mix. They even shop in separate shops. There are whole neighbourhoods of just black people."

Are both true, and unsettling as fuck in a way that's hard to describe. The buildings weren't really like the films, but what does jump out there is the size of the roads, and lack of pavements everywhere. For someone who's almost always lived in cities where you can wak everywhere it was a real suprise.

The drinking happens, but from what I saw so much more was made about the whole 'omg I'm drinking alcohol~@' that most teenagers from the UK are over at like fifteen.

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[sachiko_san]

Well, to refute some points:

People of different races do mix, but this may happen more in poorer areas because there are more minorities there, though in Southern California, white people and Hispanic people are more likely to mix. But everyone, and I mean everyone, shops at the local Walmart.

When visiting people, it depends on well you know them. If they're family or close friends, there are no set times.

People below 21 do drink at parties, but it depends on the party. A house party, there will be drinking and as well as at family functions (this may be a regional or ethnicity thing though, but it's okay within my family and my brother drank plenty when he went to parties in high school).

People let their kids pee outside if they need too, but it may be out of laziness that parents don't, since it usually involves pulling over to the side of the road.

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[shortysc22]

Definitely laughing at the people under 21 never drinking. Everyone I know who drinks now started drinking between 16-19, depending on what they could get away with. If your friends visited people who were also with their parents, that's a different story. Most people are not comfortable drinking around their parents.

As far as the visiting goes, you generally don't randomly stop over at someone's house, you usually visit for a reason because you never know if they will be home or not.

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[insanenoodlyguy]

The racial devide thing varies wildly from city to city and sometimes even street to street.

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[(Anonymous)]

I have Dutch family that when they come over are always amazed to have free glasses of water at a restaurant. They always drink about 3 glasses each. And they order huge steaks because they can't get them like that at home. They gain like 10 pounds every visit and complain. But we tease each other about it because we're family, so it's cool.

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[(Anonymous)]

I'm from the UK, and have visited America three times (Florida, Virginia and Washington). A few things that stood out to me...

- There's so much SPACE in between things. Public transport feels sparser, and if I had to rely on that, I'd probably struggle to get around compared to here.
- American chocolate is not good, but those cinnabon things make up for it.
- A lot of the houses I saw/visited felt...more flimsy, somehow? Less solid-looking walls, less likely to have a second floor or private, walled yard space. And I remember in Florida there was a 'historical' neighbourhood tour for houses over fifty years old, which was weird since I live in a Victorian terrace.
- Winter in Florida feels like summer over here. Winter in DC feels like winter.
- There are some great free-to-visit things in DC, like the botanical gardens and zoo. All the big UK zoos I've visited, like London and Chester, had high entry fees.

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[(Anonymous)]

Everything's so much bigger. Buildings, streets, cars, sidewalks. If you try to cross at a red light, your life expectancy decreases by 200%. Everything is open all the time, many people are very nice. People eat anything at all hours. People sell anything everywhere. Squirrels are the new pigeons. There's a distinct lack of good bread and you think something's cheap until you remember the price doesn't include taxes.

And flags. So. many. flags. Everywhere.

From France, and I visited NYC. I liked it.

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[nightscale]

Mostly just how much bigger everything was.

I visited Milwaukee in Wisconsin a couple of times many years ago(I'm from the UK myself) and easily the main thing I noticed was how big the streets and cars were, like your roads are easily twice the size of pretty much all English roads. How US blocks are laid out as well was kind of odd since it's one huge grid, whereas over here it's much more of a higgldy piggldy windy mess. Plus no round-abouts.

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[(Anonymous)]

I'm from the US, but a few people from Europe I've talked to have been surprised how uppity we are about swear words like hell and damn.

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[(Anonymous)]

I'm Canadian and I've only been along the west coast of the US. Places like Vancouver and Seattle are very similar, but I spent most of my time in California. The portions at restaurants seem to be way bigger. My stepdad took me to a place with the hugest calzone that neither my mom or I could finish even when we were sharing one. The drink sizes at places like McDonald's are ridiculously large, too. My stepdad complains that our drink sizes in Canada are too small. XD

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[(Anonymous)]

I'm in Canada and I generally visit the west coast of the US (Washington, Oregon, California, plus I've been to Nevada and Arizona) - there aren't TOO many differences compared to, well, anyone outside North America. I'll second the patriotic thing, and also an insane amount of billboards. Not that we don't have any, but they seem gigantic, LED and everywhere especially if I'm near LA.

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[tei]

I'm from Canada. The only thing that strikes me as different, besides that you can get sweet tea at MacDonald's in Indiana and that's amazing, is that the geographic layout of cities is very different. If you're driving through Canada, you get a big city, a few smaller cities surrounding it, and then 600 kilometres of cows until the next big city. In the equivalent space in the States, there are hundreds of mid-sized cities and a few small ones and agricultural areas.

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[drakontion]

I'm from Australia. I've visited the US twice - once for 2 weeks to go to Mardi Gras and once for 3 months where I travelled the majority of the east coast. What I noticed was:

Things were dirty. There was rubbish everywhere. It was kind of disgusting.

The people were so friendly it was amazing! (granted they all loved my accent, but still...)

Food. OMG the food. SOOOOO CHEAP. SOOOO MUCH OF IT. RESTAURANTS AND TAKE AWAYS EVERYWHERE!!!111!!!1ONEONE!!! *flails*

There was no space between one town and the next. You drive out of one, there's like a field, and then you're in the next one. Coming from a state where you can drive for 5 hours without seeing a house, that was amazing.

One gallon magaritas for ridiculously cheap prices. Nuff said.

Some places had no footpaths. And public transport was confusing. Very driver oriented culture.

There were places where I walked where I absolutely did not feel safe. That's never happened to me at home.

Pollution. Lots of it. I couldn't enjoy New York because my eyes were scratchy and horrible and I was hacking a lung up the whole time.

Never joke with the guys who interrogate you in the airport when you arrive :/

Lots of beauty, lots of poverty, often only a street or two apart. Soooo many homeless people. Amazing.

I still loved it though. I'd love to go back again.

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[ariakas]

I'm Canadian but I've travelled to/visited friends in the US more times than I can count. One of the awesome things about the US used to be the low gas prices, but now they're about the same as ours really. Still awesome: people tend to be friendly, and they're welcoming to tourists (at least white, English-speaking tourists).

Hilarious: The flags everywhere. I understand that in Eastern Canada you see a little bit more of this, but there was one house in my entire city growing up that had a big Canadian flag out front, and the people in it were considered absolute kooks for having it up. But you go to the US and it's FLAGS FLAGS EVERYWHERE.

Creepy: the racial segregation. Canada has its own racial problems (see: our reservations and horrendous treatment of the Native population) but this is the only thing about the US that makes my skin crawl sometimes. Going into a MacDonalds in Chicago to ask for directions and realizing that you're literally the only white patron in it (everyone else is black) out of about 60 people... then realizing that you're the only white person in this entire neighbourhood... But aside from that, even going through, say, SEATAC and realizing that all of the people doing menial/till jobs are black or hispanic, while all of the managers/administrators are white, at every. single. shop. just ...eeeeeeuuuuggghhhhh... (Back home there'd be students of every race, bored retirees, etc.) Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. How is it still like this??????

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[ryttu3k]

Sure thing! I'm Australian, and I did a semester abroad in Arizona (but traveling a fair bit San Francisco,, New York, and Pennsylvania). Some of the things I noticed -

- TIPPING. It's, uh, hard not to notice the tipping.

- Related, how cheap the food is. Uh, I realise this works out to not-nice stuff for people who work in food retail.

- The advertising seems different? More... HEY BUY THIS. Also, more voiceovers, and I noticed more infomercials.

- Food. Unrelated to the price. First, stuff is sweeter, and there's this... really weird flavour to the bread which I'd say is due to the HFCS, but I found it in non-HFCS stuff so that can't be it... Having to look specifically for stuff without HFCS. The weeeeird dichotomy of the cheap stuff you get in some stores and the nicer stuff you get at other places, like Trader Joe's - the high-quality stuff was REALLY good, and I miss it. The sheer variety of things! Oh my god you guys have so much vegan food it's amazing and I love it.

- Also, coupons for grocery stores. We don't have those.

- I was renting a room from this woman and she had a friend who would come over some time and just keep his gun in a holster and oh my fucking god no why.

- The fresh corn on the cob is DELICIOUS.

- FLAGS, FLAGS EVERYWHERE.

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

[blunderbuss]

I lived in the US for two years when I was about 7-8, so my memories are a little fuzzy and second-hand, but here we go.

1. Your candy. Goddammit America. Some of your candy is fantastic, but even good things can be taken too far! I can remember my little 7-year-old self looking at the insanely sugery cereals with marshmellows and frosting and just going NOPE. The sheer overwhelming amount of your junk food and what was in it blew my mind.

2. Your cheese is orange. WHY. Actually, I could be here all day about your food, like how gigantic your portions were and how having a salad as a main meal was unheard of in the town we lived in. And why your pies only had fruit, not meat. And why you called scones 'biscuits' and had them with gravy.

3. I was a little bit biased, considering that I had grown up in small mining towns, but what blew me away was how BIG everything was. Your shopping centres, your stadiums, your cities, your theme parks, everything. was. HUGE. I'd say Australia is only recently starting to catch up.

4. The US flag was everywhere. In front of homes and businesses and schools, on bumper stickers, on merchandise, on posters, to the point that my sister and I would make counting games on road trips. In comparison, I can't remember the last time I've seen an Australian flag that wasn't in front of a memorial or government building. Heck, I don't think the school down the street has one.

5. How religion was such a big deal and apparently everyone's business. In Australia, someone's religion is a personal thing that you only ask about if you know them well, and it's considered rude and nosey to just straight-up ask someone. So my parents were very weirded out when people would casually ask what church they went to.

6. And related to that, church-going. Going to church every Sunday was a big thing to the point that saying that us saying that we DON'T go to church was considered weird (and worse, considering that some people stopped talking to us). In Australia only the super-religious go to church every week; most people only go on Christmas and Easter.

7. The sheer amount of homeless people. We have homeless people in Australia, sure, but when we visited big US cities there were just endless streets of them. I remember being so upset that I started crying because I'd already given away all my change but there were still so many.

8. GUNS. My god. Guns and hunting. Here in Australia, only people like farmers and policemen have guns, and hunting is only doing things like culling over-populated kangaroos and feral animals. In the US there was this massive culture of shooting for sport and recreation, to the point that taking your kids off shooting in the mountains was a perfectly normal family outing. People would even have their guns mounted on the walls. To say that we found this a little intimidating was an understatement. (Not to mention the states we visited that had concealed carry laws. To think that any person around you could have a gun ... eeesh.)