fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2501

[ SECRET POST #2501

⌈ 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

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.

*laughing because so not true here.

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

Edited 2013-11-08 00:54 (UTC)

I wrote the places they visited at the bottom of the comment. Maybe the "jungle" wasn't specifically between the cities, but my friends thought it was between them, because they didn't know where the cities end?

By the kids peeing in the public I mean outside, by the bushes or trees in the park. It's normal to do that in my country, because when a child has to pee, they have to pee NOW, and public bathrooms are rare and not free here, and well it's kids so their nudity is non-sexual. But when my friend's aunt let her little son pee in the park in the US, people were stopping and staring in shock.

I also found it hard to believe people don't drink at parties. Maybe it was just the guys my friend was hanging out with?

Yeah that (the peeing in public thing) literally never happens here, and you would get very weird looks.

otoh, though, the drinking at parties thing definitely DOES happen, even - perhaps especially - if you're underage.

I also found it hard to believe people don't drink at parties. Maybe it was just the guys my friend was hanging out with?

Your friend might have been around underage drinkers, but I'm guessing said drinkers might have either a) didn't advertise their age or b) if asked about it, lied.

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.

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.

Yeah, drinking culture in the US, especially underage is really weird.

The lack of pavements is very much a regional thing. I moved from Illinois to Tennessee ad was shocked ~~and appalled~~ that I couldn't conveniently walk where I was going.

As someone who lives in the Midwest, the things about ~~omg patriotism~~ and segregation are true but to a much lesser extent (especially the latter). Segregation exists, but it's blurred and I think it's decreasing. The patriotism thing varies wildly from person to person, but I think that's more spread out all over the US. There are also a lot of people who are all "well, I like my country but there are a lot of things we need to fix about it."

I'm from around the Kansas City area and we've had a whole BOOK written about how segregated our city was (and still is). It's..incredibly shocking once you're in the city and looking for signs of it. I grew up way out in the 'burbs and thus took no notice for the longest time.

(Not trying to argue or anything- just tossing in two cents!)

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

(Anonymous) - 2013-11-08 05:11 (UTC) - Expand

Re: To Non-Americans who have visited America

diet_poison - 2013-11-08 05:40 (UTC) - Expand

You were in Alabama and Florida.

True, but lbr, racial segregation and blind patriotism aren't just limited to the south, even if they're more prevalent there (and far more noticeable, I'd guess).

"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."

To be fair, in the UK, the excessive drinking just never stops, reaching legal age or otherwise. :P

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.

But everyone, and I mean everyone, shops at the local Walmart.

This is so true. There are some really ritzy people in ritzy neighborhoods who avoid Wal-Mart, but easily 95% of the population shops there regardless of income or any other demographic factor.

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.

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

I'm reading this, and I'm not originally from America but I've lived here on and off for more than a decade so....

- Completely accurate ime. I've never heard of a 'leave by' time being set, but its generally understood that you aren't to stay at a person's house longer than a few hours at the most. (Enough time to eat your dinner and chat for a while after.) Kids are a lot less formal about going over to peoples' houses to play, but its still rude for them to show up at meal time without an invite.
- Depends on what you mean by 'parties'. People below 21 don't drink at family/work/etc. parties except for maybe a glass of champagne at weddings. But at all-kid parties they sure as hell do!

And the thing that surprised me (still surprises me!) is...
-Just how different etiquette and culture is between regions. I lived in the western US for a few years. People were very polite and reserved, calling women "ma'am" is kind of rude, and so on. But then I moved to the South and it's a completely different set of rules. I was gobsmacked the first time I ate in a southern restaurant, as the hostess and waitress seemed so rude and nosy. I'm used to 'southern hospitality' now but it took a long time.

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

That's totally not true. I mean maybe in some tiny little hick towns it does but I don't think it's at all fair to act as if it's a common thing in the US.

Yeah, race relations are just awesome in Europe. Ask the Roma. Or Africans.

Edited 2013-11-08 02:59 (UTC)

Huh? I never said racism isn't a problem in Europe? In fact, most Poles believe that racism in Poland is much, much worse than in most countries in the world, considering that Poland is 99% white (real statistics, not a made up number) and in America everyone has a black best friend, because it's the most tolerant and mixed country in the world. My friend noticed that this wasn't really the case and it was a surprise for her.

Reading isn't your strong point.

For starters, talking about europe as a cohesive whole is invariably ridiculous, and especially in something like this.

They also clearly didn't say anything about race relations being better elsewhere, and were specifically talking about segregation. Which does seem to be an issue in the US it isn't elsewhere. I'd expand but Ariakas has covered the gist of it below. The only time I've seen anything even close to it is in Germany, where there was an informal rule at work that the turkish people sat at one table, and the germans/misc foreigners sat at another - even if you tried to reach out both sides would shut you down.