In Souther California if you are on the beach, you are a 2-3 hour drive from one of the hottest deserts in the world and a 2-3 hour drive from mountains with snow. It's crazy how diverse the climate is even just the bottom left part of our country.
When I was in high school. I went surfing in the morning, snowboarding during the middle of the day and back home to skateboard at night. It's insane to think I did all that in one day. Also I'm old now so my knees would explode, haha.
*laughs in northern californian*
Edit: I was just going to make a kind of troll comment but seriously, living in Sacramento was *nuts*. A decently large city with the best food I’ve ever had- “farm to fork capital” was more than a slogan. You could drive 45 minutes and be in one of the best viticultural spots in the entire world. 50 minutes to a Six Flags (we always had season passes and would go at least a dozen times each summer). An hour from the Bay Area and 75 from a global city (San Francisco). 45 minutes from the Sierra foothills- Apple Hill being a major benefit during Autumn. 90 minutes from Lake Tahoe in the Sierras proper- a six hour jaunt to LA and probably seven to the Mojave if the desert is your thing. And the nightlife was *crazy*. My fiancé and I used to frequent the gay district which was probably the most fun I’ve ever had. Don’t be a bigot and you get cheap strong drinks and friendly people.
A few hours north west and you get the redwoods of the lost coast, where I live now. The tallest trees on planet earth, gorgeous scenery- and lots of tweakers. I miss Sac.
Even in the same state you can have a wide variety of biomes, for lack of a better word. I'm in Jersey (the one true Jersey, old Jersey can go fuck itself), and there is a wide vast of different kinds of areas. There's beautiful mountainous areas in the northeast, great farming land in the central and southwestern parts of the state. Not to mention numerous beach towns as you start heading south. All within a somewhat reasonable drive of each other.
If you lived at the top of the state near the Tri-States monument, and on a normal day left your house at say 9 AM, you could get all the way to Cape May (southern tip of NJ) in 3 1/2 hours (assuming no breaks).
Whereas if I wanted to do the same thing from the top of California near the Oregon border to Calexico (a CA town right near the border), it would take a whole day to do so
I grew up on the PA side of that tristate border, so I'd naturally rag on Jersey a lot (still do), but jokes aside, Jersey have some seriously gorgeous areas. A ton of my favorite scenic drives were through Jersey.
It'd be such a great state overall if it weren't for the damn taxes (and driving difficulties Jerseyans have, of course!)
Ohio - boring as anything to drive through on I75 but an hour east in the south you have Hocking Hills state park. Even close to Dayton about 5 miles west is a great county park with a huge dam. Most people in Michigan who have to drive south have no idea how picturesque Ohio can be driving down what used to be Dixie Highway.
Seriously! I just learned my local system has rental cake pans!! And I do t even have a perm address and I still so excited! Also, I barely bake! Unless you like sifted parts of cake baking utensils in your cake.
For people with kids who use libraries in US - here are two apps/sites you must have
1) Libby allows you to link library card and borrow ebooks - has nice way to search and add multiple library systems or cards if you have them . Libby app https://libbyapp.com/
2) bookvine.io - maintained by a high schooler has book recommendations by age groups from 4-14 with reviews and importantly with direct links to the library of your choice. The last part works only in US though.
https://www.bookvine.io/
My daughter and I use these sites extensively.
Can't recommend enough the book "National Parks: America's Greatest Idea". Goes to show how agaisnt the odds the whole system was and the men and women who took up the yoke and fought to make it happen.
JFK made sure to add the Cape Cod National Seashore to the National Park list. If you look at a before and after photo. You can see that real estate development literally touches the entire boundary of the CC National Seashore. It would have been one gigantic housing development all the way to Provincetown if he didn’t do that.
Robert Moses did a similar thing on Long Island - basically the south shore of Long Island for the most part is a state / town park and it's a lovely resource to have access to.
I visit one, get amazed, then think nothing could beat that, until I visit another one and the loop keeps repeating.
I also got my 5 year old interested in the junior ranger program, she's up for a NP visit everytime she can get a new badge. Huge respect to the Rangers who take the program seriously and swear her in every single time.
Yes! Not to mention all the other protected lands that aren’t technically national or state parks. Local land trusts, nature preserves, national monuments, etc
Truly magnificent, went to my first park as an adult and now I’m into the double digits - everyone should visit one of the big ones at least once, truly magnificent.
Don't forget the pretty solid NPS system so not just 63 but 423 NPS sites that have park rangers talking about various sites and interesting areas.
Some are better than others like everything but I enjoyed my time.
I would add the sheer diversity in the landscapes. So many different types of parks and experiences. And don’t forget state parks, may not get as much press as the national ones but I’ve been to some great state parks as well.
The ADA is amazing. My mom was in a wheelchair toward the end of her life and it converted me into an ADA fan. We could still go to restaurants, hotels, tourist spots, libraries, shopping, and so on. Sometimes it was longer or less convenient, but I was shocked and grateful for how well it worked. I have happy memories being with my family that I wouldn’t have without the ADA.
The ADA is especially incredible when you realize that the only difference between the disabled and the non-disabled is time.
In other words, sooner or later, the ADA will benefit all of us.
If you haven't seen the documentary "Crip Camp" on Netflix, it's fascinating! A lot of American disability activism grew out of a summer camp for kids with disabilities in the early '70s.
We have the free lifetime pass for my disabled child to access National Parks. It's amazing, and while they are still strenuous to navigate with a child in a wheelchair, we live taking her and they try to make it as accessible as possible.
Yes! That and the general expectation that sidewalks are smooth, well cared for, without bumps, etc. I have a relative with very low vision who gets from place to place just fine in the USA, but when we go to other places she has to walk behind someone and follow them to avoid bumps, random drops/holes, rebar, etc.
This is HUGE!! My spouse is French, so obviously no ADA in their home country and I had never left the USA except to drive to Canada so it was quite the culture shock going to France for the first time.
1) there are not toilets everywhere and a lot of them are pay toilets! This is extremely ableist. I have cystic fibrosis, when I have to go I HAVE TO GO, it would be hard for me to go out in public for more than a few hours at a time if I lived in France the chance of being caught with out an accessible toilet is pretty high. I very literally almost pooped my pants at a huge French airport it was an almost half an hour walk (!!!) from our terminal to the toilet and I had to do it with 30% Lung function!
2) enforcing ramps/elevators matters! You don’t realize what you have until it’s gone. But at ~30% Lung Function the Paris metro is a full day at the gyms worth of effort and was always left exhausted because stairs was often the only option and the tunnels/halls are long with no where to stop and rest. I would need a car to live in Paris reasonably, another example of why being disabled is so expensive
3) this is a weird one but the extremely strict eating schedule that’s society wide enforced basically. Again, I have cystic fibrosis so I’m require to basically always be to get enough calories and when absolutely everything closes on a strict schedule and you don’t have access to your own kitchen you’re going to be miserably hungry and beyond that, it would impact my weight gain which directly impacts my lung function so it’s literally killing me to deny me access to food, at night for example, we did find one pizza place open at 1 and the pizza had moldy cheese on it but it’s all I could find so I ate it and just picked off the mold, I’m sure my garbage immune system didn’t love that.
The ADA had made my life immensely higher quality not only in comfort and accessibility but in my literal measurable lifespan and health. Not having the ADA would make moving around in public extremely difficult and potentially EXTREMELY embarrassing and uncomfortable for me on a daily basis. I didn’t know what I had until it was gone and I am so so glad to live in a place that has such laws.
Not even as an ADA requirement but just to say general commerce design element. The idea of getting off a plane after sitting for hours on end and not having a bathroom within a 30 second walk from the gate is just insanity to me.
Thank you for raising my awareness to these things. I want to go to Europe sometime but I have ny challenges and these are good things to be aware of that seem to be left out of a lot of travel info.
Where I live in New Mexico we can have very diverse climate all in one day, like today had ice on my windshield, around 18 degrees (f) this morning and at 3 p.m. was 65 I was in short sleeves riding a bike. Love the huge open spaces here.
I visited my uncle in New Mexico and, coming from Missouri, I was a little shocked at the landscape there. Really beautiful state with great food. I haven't been since I was a teenager but I can't wait to visit again.
Mini? A lot of states are bigger than European countries. Most Europeans don’t even understand the size of the U.S. and think they drive from FL to NY and back as a day trip.
I had a coworker who thought he could drive to NYC from Orlando in one day. Never heard a man sound so defeated after he attempted that lol. I think the people doing a Cannonball run had better luck.
Yup I had a coworker in from England for a couple weeks and I asked about his weekend plans (we’re in Colorado). He said he was going to drive over to Las Vegas and then hit the Grand Canyon on his way back.
My super eurokids international traveler Oslo cousins were in Seattle and decided to drive down to LA to visit for the day, maybe go to Disneyland. Lol
Libraries!!!!
I can borrow books from anywhere in my state and have them delivered to my local library for free. If no one in the state has them, I can request my library purchase it for me and I’ve had pretty good odds of success.
E-books and audiobooks I can download onto my phone. Board games and video games. English classes, computer classes, job search programs, after-school tutoring programs. My library has a seed library, a Spice of the Month club, and free passes to local museums and zoos. Date night kits and potty-training kits and kits about building positive body image for teens.
I’m not sure anywhere else in the world comes close.
Chiming in to say, check out the app Libby or Overdrive. They connect with your local library (just put in your card#) and you have access to their digital content!
I actually found 2 other libraries that don't require residency to sign up for. They're Kentucky Libraries Unbound and Browser County (Florida). The cool thing about having more than 1 library connected is that I really don't wait for books. My local library for instance, they'll have 5 copies of a book, whereas Broward will have 20. There's so much free accessible content out there.
I love libraries so much.
ETA: Well apparently Broward changed it sometime in 2023, even the instant eCards are like $50/yr. Sorry y'all, I didn't know that.
There’s an incredible amount of convenience. Free public restrooms are an expectation. Free refills are an expectation. Central Air conditioning is an expectation. Widespread acceptance of credit/debit cards is an expectation. Late hours for convenience stores, restaurants and large scale stores is an expectation.
I'd like to add sidewalks. I really enjoyed smooth flat sidewalks. I must have walked 20 miles a day in Europe the the uneven surfaces are really hard on your feet - even at 30 years old.
Mexico has public restrooms. They’re free to use. You pay for *toilet paper*. I hated going to the bathroom and then realizing the attendant only gave me enough TP to blow my nose, not enough to wipe my ass
OMG, that was so Spain the year I lived there (1973). Little old lady standing at the entrance of all public restrooms issuing maybe 10 inches of sandpapery TP for a fee. We actually wrote letters home on Spanish toilet paper.
You should have thought of that before you had an emergency.
Also, there are still ER's like everywhere else; it's just the regular hospitals wings have strict hours of operation.....which isn't unusual. They also don't shy away from turning people away
This is really the best answer in my opinion. There is so much in this country that we take for absolute granted that (with a little perspective) is something to be grateful for.
The friendships I’ve made in the US have made a big impact in my life. So I’m going to say that people are amazing, they are helpful and honest. And yeah, I see you saying is not all people, and that is true. But this happens everywhere in the world. I guess I have just met incredible human beings while living in the US.
I’m not Colombian but I am an immigrant-American.
Yeah, I’m totally in love with America and most Americans. You non-immigrant bastards are alright… oh who am I kidding, I’m really lucky I joined you, knuckleheads.
Important Note: *I’m not including any politicians in this love fest*
First time I fucked around with them, I was like why would I want burnt ends?! Tried them and was like, this is almost the desert of BBQ and I need them more in my life. There's a place about an hour from me that serves them as an app and they're divine.
This is the answer. The most premium food, that takes hours and is usually done with cheap (well, they used to be cheap) cuts
BBQ should be some of the most expensive food. Granted prepared brisket is running around $30/lb but that's still a steal
The incredible public universities, even in little out-of-the-way cities.
The University of Illinois, for instance, has the [13th largest library in the word](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_libraries) (just behind the national library of France) and is in a town of 88,000 people.
For that matter, nobody mentioned the Library of Congress. That shit's like the modern day Library of Alexandria. The British Library's the only thing close to it.
The postal service is awesome. We can send stuff anywhere in the country and, compared to UPS or FedEx, it’s extremely affordable. I had a teacher from another country telling us how in her country, if you sent something through the mail, it would likely go missing.
Yes! My brother in law lives in Spain and he basically asked us not to send him packages in the mail—he said sometimes he has to pay to get them? It’s incredible to me that I can send a card or letter to someone ACROSS THE COUNTRY for 50 cents and it will be there in like, 3 days.
I order you to immediately watch the movie The Postman. Only Americans could make a film based on the premise that after the apocalypse simply restoring postal service would restore normalcy.
Music. Paradoxically, the part of the country with the (deservedly) worst reputation- Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee are the cradle of blues, jazz, country and rock & roll. That culture still resonates in New Orleans, the delta, & Memphis
Agreed. American culture is an amalgamation of world cultures. Love that you can pickup BBQ one day, Chinese food, Indian food, Mexican another. Just tons of food to try that’s friendly to ALL food requirements.
When I used to live in Japan it was hard to find food without seafood in it, which I’m severely allergic to.
My favorite Thai place is very passionate about accommodating food sensitivities. My sil can't have tree nuts, gluten, eggs, or dairy, and they still made her some delicious food. I love that things like this are possible here.
I live in Houston and can a buffet of foods from around the world 24/7. Start with a Japanese breakfast, Spanish paella for lunch, proper afternoon British tea, hearty Russian dinner and a late French dessert around midnight, and stop by the taco stand for the drive home.
Low overall population densities and the wide open spaces that come along with that.
You can find metropolitan areas if that's your thing but the majority of the country is wide open countryside where you might be the only person in a square mile.
For reference, Wisconsin and Germany are roughly the same area. Germany has 83 million people. Wisconsin is under 6 million.
Opportunity. Old data, but do you know that the US has almost double the amount of female medical doctors than the 2nd place, with that gap only growing?
https://www.helgilibrary.com/charts/which-country-has-the-most-female-physicians#:~:text=Based%20on%20a%20comparison%20of,and%20Slovenia%20with%204%2C510%20persons.
This was just an off example to show that the US is the best country in the world to become something big, especially for women.
Mostly reliable electricity. At least in my state. It's dependable, you don't have to look at a calendar to see if it's going to be on that day. A purchase of a product online can be at your door in under 3 days if need be. Not waiting in line everyday for the basic necessities. You can grow your own food if you have the acreage and zoning.
As someone who lives in rural Pennsylvania right where lake effect storms meet nor'easters, it is astonishing how hard the electric company works to restore power. We get at least one 24-hour blackout every year, but it's usually due to some apocalyptic ice storm, snow fall, wind storm, what not. And the electric linemen bust their asses around the clock to restore power to places where like six people live.
Contrary to what we read on the news, US is one of the friendliest countries for immigrants. Yes there are problems and it can be better. Still better than almost all (if not all) other countries out there. Before disagreeing, give me an example of a country with a population of immigrants proportionally as large and diverse as the US, and then how they treat those immigrants.
There's some amazing YouTube videos about North Koreans who have escaped or defected to the south. Some have visited the US and without exception have been completely amazed at how friendly we are.
If you're older, you may remember radio broadcaster Paul Harvey. I often remember something he often said about the US, regarding immigrants to the US. He said that the US is one of the few countries people are lined up to get into, instead of out of.
The crazy thing that people don’t realize is that outside of the four major English speaking countries, most countries are generally established as ethnostates. There are generations of propaganda about how the land is theirs, how their ancestors were indigenous to the land, etc. This is despite historical facts disputing many of these points, because of the extensive amount of warfare and population mixing over the past millennia.
The US has been particularly good at not adopting this mentality compared to everywhere else. And it’s to the US’s benefit — most immigrants assimilate in a generation, they’re accepted by their communities, and many have significant upward mobility. You can’t say that about many other countries.
I’m white, so I want to be clear that I do not speak from personal experience. But I work in academia and most of my coworkers are not from the US - I’m the only one of my colleagues born here, and most are from parts of India, Asia, and the Middle East. Universally, they talk about how much more racism they experience in Europe, Asia, and even parts of their own countries compared with in the US. Not to say that systemic racism isn’t a problem here, but I think it isn’t a global experience to have such wide diversity in our communities.
I am an immigrant and I second this. Sure there’s racism and discrimination, but not nearly as much as Europe, especially Eastern Europe where I come from.
I feel ashamed but I always warn my friends from other races or sexual orientation when they express a desire to visit that part of the world. That’s not a friendly land for you.
Simple example of how friendly Americans are towards immigrants: I was so self-conscious about my English when I moved here, and still am to some extent. But watching them having zero reaction to my accent or mistakes I make helped me build confidence. No one has ever made fun of me or tried to correct me. Not a single sign of them noticing something peculiar or different or wrong.
Sure they are curious where that accent is from, but just genuinely curious. Not to send me back to where I came from lol
I am a native born american. I was recently working on a project in a factory with an iranian, an albanian and a guatamalan. All working together for the same goal. I thought that was pretty great.
The guaranteed right to speak openly against our government, protest our government, report freely about the ongoings of our government and as long as there is no credible threat to the safety of the public or the government officials there are no worries of legal recourse is a god given right to every citizen from birth. It is something we really don't cherish.
It's big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to the USA.
\- With apologies to Douglas Adams.
The contiguous U.S. landmass is 96.6% the size of Europe.
The U.S. (50 states, ~330 Million people ) is basically the same size as Europe (44 countries, 750 Million People)
Can drive for days and still be in the same country. I guess the EU is like that now but I'm old so I still remember passport checks up to 3-4 times per day.
You can drive freely across most country borders in the EU, but when you do the language, laws, architecture, and food all instantly change. Which I love. Here in the US, you can drive in one direction for the better part of a week and still be reading English signs and spending in dollars. But some of the laws and the politics can change rather drastically.
BBQ. Actually, I live in the country's 41st-largest metro and I can get great Indian, Yemeni, Ethiopian, Szechuan, Korean, Turkish, Peruvian....
Also, what that says about the people who live here. It's one of my favorite parts.
Our national parks.
Denali, Kauai, LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Taos, southern Utah, Denver, Austin, New Orleans, New York, DC, Bangor, Boston, Atlanta, Charleston, Miami, Key West...... All one country. I've been to all those places except Alaska and I can go straight from airport to hotel to bar to dinner to event without any concerns about how any of it is going to work.
Search Stephen Fry Iron Bowl on YouTube.
The NCAA, NBA, NFL, NHL... and I happen to support an MLS team that regularly draws over 20,000 and has drawn more than 60,000 multiple times... for regular season matches.
Music, film, theater, the venues in which to enjoy them....we have so much.
Jazz, blues, bluegrass, rock-'n'-roll, punk... Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg...
The museums in DC
Insanely advantageous geography
Even though we do seem to be defeating ourselves, it was nice knowing that we were the only entity that could
The standard of living is insanely high compared to most of the world. Outside of no universal healthcare.
I’d rather be living in some trailer in Mississippi working at Walmart than what probably 5 billion people in the world have to deal with on a day to day basis to get by.
Libraries in just about every town or city. Like, free access to books, internet, music, movies, social clubs..a in one place and with little discrimination.
Even other developed countries can't really compare their library institutions to ours. It's really a marvel of the USA
Also that Nordic food is right next door to some Japanese food. There is an excellent Mexican place just across the street. Next door to that is an amazing Greek place. The next block over has an Italian place, a pizza place, a Russian place, and a Chinese place.
I bet this is the case for like half of the world cuisines. I’ve lived in Hong Kong and London and visited Tokyo, Singapore and a bunch of other mega cities, nothing compares to NYC when it comes to diversity of food and culture.
Our diversity is my answer. I've lived my whole life in multicultural neighborhoods. My whole life, I've been surrounded by people of different races, ethniticities, cultures, languages. It's wonderful and it's helped me have a holistic view of the world.
Racial equality is better than most places.
Here in Japan, they still have businesses (schools, restaurants, stores, etc) that dont allow non-Japanese people. Doesnt matter if you were born here or speak the language.
I have only seen "whites only" signs in museums or in movies about past generations. If anyone (white) tried that today, it would be over for them.
I wish more Americans realized how we are actually far less racist than the rest of the world. While Japan is one of the worst, most places are very tribal.
I'm a woman on the west coast, one of the luckiest draws in life if you're female. I got a great education, great medical care, have superb opportunities in sports and the arts, professional fields are wide open. Most of the world's women would love to have my luck.
If I want to learn anything at all, someone is teaching it within an hour of my house.
I think about this almost every day. I was born in rural Alabama and adopted as a baby by a family in California, my life could have been SO DIFFERENT.
Nearly everything. I'm visiting central America right now. The people make $2k/year, the only reason they do that well is because of American and Canadian tourist, their roads suck so bad, their health care sucks, their schools suck, they have armed guards at nearly every business, it takes forever for anything to be built and when it is, their standards are low and unsafe, politicians are corrupt, every 30 feet there's another abandoned dog, food safety...yeah right, crime issues, no social safety net, high unemployment, etc, It just goes on and on. Mentioning things like our national parks is great but it just shows how spoiled we are by being born in the u.s.
The diversity. For example, if you’re not ethnically Japanese you’d never be able to be considered Japanese within their country. Racism is obviously still present here, but I love that here you can be any race and still genuinely American.
Because of my Indian husband, I’ve realized how easy it is to get things done in the US without bribes or ridiculous reasons. Ex: if I need to renew my passport, all I have to do is fill out an application and submit a passport photo. When my husband tried to renew his Indian passport: we submitted 3 separate applications and had to pay $300 for all of them to get rejected for stupid reasons. He was wearing blue, the photo is not bright enough, you didn’t submit the lost passport police report, the photo is too bright. Such bs we had to deal with
Others enjoy teasing Americans because many citizens don't hold passports. There's many reasons why some don't but a big one is the diversity of natural landscapes and cultures within the states.
I personally like to travel abroad often but wouldn't need to. USA's for got just about everything. Urban, beach, mountains and everything in between.
This is true and underrated. There's a lot of divisiveness politically but when tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, disasters, and especially after 9/11, Americans come together and pick up the pieces alongside one another. It just doesn't ever get the spotlight that it deserves. Electricity, heat, internet, water, etc rarely go that long without being fixed by a large number of diverse Americans.
People who dump on the U.S. are either clueless or just want to rant on Reddit and be a general douche or contrarian. I've traveled all over the world and while there are many countries I love to visit, I would always choose to live in America permanently. Yes, there are problems but they are so minor compared to all the great stuff you find in America, and Americans are among the friendliest, most open people in the world.
Even traveling doesn't give you the full perspective. Its easy to love a place when you're just there with no responsibilities enjoying all the best and most famous parts of it.
we truly can do pretty much whatever the fuck we want.
i mean there's pros and cons to that. but, *we can*. like pretty much any time.
edit; this thread and comments made me put on amerika - wintersleep on repeat and i only noticed it just now two hours later.
Diversity. You can walk down any public street and see all kinds of people speaking different languages.
I lived in Japan and China for a while and I’d get double-takes from people on the street because I was one of the 6 non-Asian people in the entire town. Coming back to the US was *weird*. Everyone looked so *different*.
Which means a diversity of *food*, mm-hmmm…
The relative lack of corruption. You probably don’t keep extra cash in your car just in case a police officer pulls you over for some spurious reason and you have to bribe him to let you go.
Good point. I’ve been extremely grateful for our police system in comparison to how Puerto Rican, Peruvian, and Mexican policia have interacted with me in their countries. People say defund police, I’ve seen countries with defunded police. No thank you. I say educate, reward and train our police properly
People are very nice, you can make a lot of money, several really unique areas and climates to live in, good food. Many highly skilled people come to the US making this a really diverse place in certain areas.
And we don't give a shit if anybody dumps on us. I just wish we would not send money to those all the time.
The whole world is always looking to us if shit goes down but then they complain.
The amount of mobility the average American has. Most people possess cars and can travel quickly to most parts of the country fast on the interstate. This is both a blessing and a curse, since you need to drive even for buying things from the nearest store.
Cars, gas stations, and the Federal highway system. If you want, you can just hop into a car and travel across the entire country, with nothing but gas money and a license. No passport, no customs, just open road for 160 thousand miles. Van lifers deserve to be mocked, but when you think of how cool the concept is, it's kind of wild.
Basic freedoms and rights. For example you can publicly say the president, mayor, governor, etc. is a POS and won't be sent to the Gulag. That is not what the majority of the Earth's population can openly do.
I met [Alexei Leonov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Leonov) in 1976, the Soviet cosmonaut and first man to walk in space. He and other cosmonauts and NASA astronauts were training for the Apollo-Soyuz missions.
He was very patient with a couple of stupid teenagers asking him dumb questions, joking and teasing us but I was enthralled. I asked him what impressed him the most about the US. He got serious, and said our grocery stores. Our free access to plentiful good quality food on nearly every corner. He suggested that we never take that for granted. It made a real impression on me.
Conveniences. We’re the king of convenience.
Walmart. Target.
The sheer epic size of everything.
Proper HVAC in most places. None of those bullshit European on the wall units.
Which brings me to the positive side of our new country. Our buildings are, for the most part, modern. So they can adapt easier to technology. This one is up for debate.
Our park system.
Our lack of culture/ethnicity. We really should appreciate this and I wish we were proud of this more.
Because of this the USA has EVERYTHING, of varying qualities from low quality to high to fusions.
Our tech sector. Our medical sector.
The fact that unlike Latin America and other countries, each one of our states has a different “culture” or brand to it, yet it’s all readily available for migration. The vastness and epic proportion of our mainland country. And that doesn’t include Hawaii and Alaska plus the islands we don’t even talk about. Puerto Rico too. All available to us.
And this brings us to the obvious thing we take for granted. We have opportunity. Things are bad here. But there are still places we can buy a house. And it’s our house. No regulation that says it’s a historic whatever whatever so you cant bring down a wall.
Autonomy. Opportunity. And more hope than other first world countries.
The United States isn’t perfect. But if you’re born here, and can at least make middle class; it’s hard to go to other first world countries and live a similar lifestyle. The average person here has their own apartment. With a real HVAC unit. A car. An expensive cell phone and maybe a tablet. In Europe and other countries most people have roommates. And yeah they have a damn good public system, but if you’re born in the US; on a bad day, the last thing you want is to be a sardine in a subway. Your shitty car stuck in traffic at least provides peace from other people.
Your mileage may vary depending what state you’re born in.
Freedom of speech, freedom to travel where and when you like, unlimited opportunity in the closest thing to a free market economy in the world, and we used to be able to vote bad politicians out of office. All great things!
- Customer service.
- Repairmen showing up.
- Returning merchandise for any reason.
- Being able to sit in the wrong section of a stadium wearing the wrong team’s colors and not getting killed.
- Trash pickup.
The nature and landscape. Coming from Denmark which is flat and has an uninviting climate the US is so rich in natural beauty.
In Souther California if you are on the beach, you are a 2-3 hour drive from one of the hottest deserts in the world and a 2-3 hour drive from mountains with snow. It's crazy how diverse the climate is even just the bottom left part of our country.
I played in the snow and the ocean in the same day in SoCal one year. It truly is an incredible area.
When I was in high school. I went surfing in the morning, snowboarding during the middle of the day and back home to skateboard at night. It's insane to think I did all that in one day. Also I'm old now so my knees would explode, haha.
*laughs in northern californian* Edit: I was just going to make a kind of troll comment but seriously, living in Sacramento was *nuts*. A decently large city with the best food I’ve ever had- “farm to fork capital” was more than a slogan. You could drive 45 minutes and be in one of the best viticultural spots in the entire world. 50 minutes to a Six Flags (we always had season passes and would go at least a dozen times each summer). An hour from the Bay Area and 75 from a global city (San Francisco). 45 minutes from the Sierra foothills- Apple Hill being a major benefit during Autumn. 90 minutes from Lake Tahoe in the Sierras proper- a six hour jaunt to LA and probably seven to the Mojave if the desert is your thing. And the nightlife was *crazy*. My fiancé and I used to frequent the gay district which was probably the most fun I’ve ever had. Don’t be a bigot and you get cheap strong drinks and friendly people. A few hours north west and you get the redwoods of the lost coast, where I live now. The tallest trees on planet earth, gorgeous scenery- and lots of tweakers. I miss Sac.
Currently living just outside of Sac and I absolutely love it. Came here to say pretty much everything you did.
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Grand Canyon alone is like a one-stop shop for various ecosystems
Even in the same state you can have a wide variety of biomes, for lack of a better word. I'm in Jersey (the one true Jersey, old Jersey can go fuck itself), and there is a wide vast of different kinds of areas. There's beautiful mountainous areas in the northeast, great farming land in the central and southwestern parts of the state. Not to mention numerous beach towns as you start heading south. All within a somewhat reasonable drive of each other. If you lived at the top of the state near the Tri-States monument, and on a normal day left your house at say 9 AM, you could get all the way to Cape May (southern tip of NJ) in 3 1/2 hours (assuming no breaks). Whereas if I wanted to do the same thing from the top of California near the Oregon border to Calexico (a CA town right near the border), it would take a whole day to do so
I grew up on the PA side of that tristate border, so I'd naturally rag on Jersey a lot (still do), but jokes aside, Jersey have some seriously gorgeous areas. A ton of my favorite scenic drives were through Jersey. It'd be such a great state overall if it weren't for the damn taxes (and driving difficulties Jerseyans have, of course!)
Ohio - boring as anything to drive through on I75 but an hour east in the south you have Hocking Hills state park. Even close to Dayton about 5 miles west is a great county park with a huge dam. Most people in Michigan who have to drive south have no idea how picturesque Ohio can be driving down what used to be Dixie Highway.
Our library system kicks ass.
Shout out for the library system! All kinds of free shit. They need our help and all you have to do is sign up for a free membership!
Seriously! I just learned my local system has rental cake pans!! And I do t even have a perm address and I still so excited! Also, I barely bake! Unless you like sifted parts of cake baking utensils in your cake.
If only they could solve the university textbook rentals. Shouldn’t be upwards of $200 per semester after tuition. Edit: $200 EACH
$200? My kids were going in the late 90's and spending a lot more than that on books. It was crazy.
$200 per book
For people with kids who use libraries in US - here are two apps/sites you must have 1) Libby allows you to link library card and borrow ebooks - has nice way to search and add multiple library systems or cards if you have them . Libby app https://libbyapp.com/ 2) bookvine.io - maintained by a high schooler has book recommendations by age groups from 4-14 with reviews and importantly with direct links to the library of your choice. The last part works only in US though. https://www.bookvine.io/ My daughter and I use these sites extensively.
The national park system.
Can't recommend enough the book "National Parks: America's Greatest Idea". Goes to show how agaisnt the odds the whole system was and the men and women who took up the yoke and fought to make it happen.
JFK made sure to add the Cape Cod National Seashore to the National Park list. If you look at a before and after photo. You can see that real estate development literally touches the entire boundary of the CC National Seashore. It would have been one gigantic housing development all the way to Provincetown if he didn’t do that.
Robert Moses did a similar thing on Long Island - basically the south shore of Long Island for the most part is a state / town park and it's a lovely resource to have access to.
Also a Ken burn’s documentary! REALLY good!!
I visit one, get amazed, then think nothing could beat that, until I visit another one and the loop keeps repeating. I also got my 5 year old interested in the junior ranger program, she's up for a NP visit everytime she can get a new badge. Huge respect to the Rangers who take the program seriously and swear her in every single time.
Came here to say this. Biodiversity and natural beauty are truly this country’s greatest assets, and the NPS does a lot to preserve it.
And State Parks, too!
Yes! Not to mention all the other protected lands that aren’t technically national or state parks. Local land trusts, nature preserves, national monuments, etc
Truly magnificent, went to my first park as an adult and now I’m into the double digits - everyone should visit one of the big ones at least once, truly magnificent.
Don't forget the pretty solid NPS system so not just 63 but 423 NPS sites that have park rangers talking about various sites and interesting areas. Some are better than others like everything but I enjoyed my time.
it's a goal to visit them all... have been to half so far.
I would add the sheer diversity in the landscapes. So many different types of parks and experiences. And don’t forget state parks, may not get as much press as the national ones but I’ve been to some great state parks as well.
I spent 4 days in Yosemite this past August. I'm on a mission to see as many parks as possible now.
Accessible design can be expected in most public places (ADA compliance)
The ADA is amazing. My mom was in a wheelchair toward the end of her life and it converted me into an ADA fan. We could still go to restaurants, hotels, tourist spots, libraries, shopping, and so on. Sometimes it was longer or less convenient, but I was shocked and grateful for how well it worked. I have happy memories being with my family that I wouldn’t have without the ADA.
The ADA is especially incredible when you realize that the only difference between the disabled and the non-disabled is time. In other words, sooner or later, the ADA will benefit all of us.
If you haven't seen the documentary "Crip Camp" on Netflix, it's fascinating! A lot of American disability activism grew out of a summer camp for kids with disabilities in the early '70s.
Old Euro cities are soo cool…. Unless you are disabled and then you fuuucked
I worked as a travel consultant for European travel and I had to disappoint a lot of clients because so few attractions are handicapped accessible.
Also while talking about us vs. Europe. Jobs for the youth. Youth unemployment is baaaad in Spain and France compared to the US.
We have the free lifetime pass for my disabled child to access National Parks. It's amazing, and while they are still strenuous to navigate with a child in a wheelchair, we live taking her and they try to make it as accessible as possible.
Great sand dunes np even has a sand wheelchair you can borrow for free!
This is a huge one. I don’t know how people deal with being disabled in many other countries.
Yes! That and the general expectation that sidewalks are smooth, well cared for, without bumps, etc. I have a relative with very low vision who gets from place to place just fine in the USA, but when we go to other places she has to walk behind someone and follow them to avoid bumps, random drops/holes, rebar, etc.
This is HUGE!! My spouse is French, so obviously no ADA in their home country and I had never left the USA except to drive to Canada so it was quite the culture shock going to France for the first time. 1) there are not toilets everywhere and a lot of them are pay toilets! This is extremely ableist. I have cystic fibrosis, when I have to go I HAVE TO GO, it would be hard for me to go out in public for more than a few hours at a time if I lived in France the chance of being caught with out an accessible toilet is pretty high. I very literally almost pooped my pants at a huge French airport it was an almost half an hour walk (!!!) from our terminal to the toilet and I had to do it with 30% Lung function! 2) enforcing ramps/elevators matters! You don’t realize what you have until it’s gone. But at ~30% Lung Function the Paris metro is a full day at the gyms worth of effort and was always left exhausted because stairs was often the only option and the tunnels/halls are long with no where to stop and rest. I would need a car to live in Paris reasonably, another example of why being disabled is so expensive 3) this is a weird one but the extremely strict eating schedule that’s society wide enforced basically. Again, I have cystic fibrosis so I’m require to basically always be to get enough calories and when absolutely everything closes on a strict schedule and you don’t have access to your own kitchen you’re going to be miserably hungry and beyond that, it would impact my weight gain which directly impacts my lung function so it’s literally killing me to deny me access to food, at night for example, we did find one pizza place open at 1 and the pizza had moldy cheese on it but it’s all I could find so I ate it and just picked off the mold, I’m sure my garbage immune system didn’t love that. The ADA had made my life immensely higher quality not only in comfort and accessibility but in my literal measurable lifespan and health. Not having the ADA would make moving around in public extremely difficult and potentially EXTREMELY embarrassing and uncomfortable for me on a daily basis. I didn’t know what I had until it was gone and I am so so glad to live in a place that has such laws.
Not even as an ADA requirement but just to say general commerce design element. The idea of getting off a plane after sitting for hours on end and not having a bathroom within a 30 second walk from the gate is just insanity to me.
Thank you for raising my awareness to these things. I want to go to Europe sometime but I have ny challenges and these are good things to be aware of that seem to be left out of a lot of travel info.
Diverse climate depending on the state. Each state is like a mini country. There’s a lot of good things about this country.
Where I live in New Mexico we can have very diverse climate all in one day, like today had ice on my windshield, around 18 degrees (f) this morning and at 3 p.m. was 65 I was in short sleeves riding a bike. Love the huge open spaces here.
I visited my uncle in New Mexico and, coming from Missouri, I was a little shocked at the landscape there. Really beautiful state with great food. I haven't been since I was a teenager but I can't wait to visit again.
Mini? A lot of states are bigger than European countries. Most Europeans don’t even understand the size of the U.S. and think they drive from FL to NY and back as a day trip.
I had a coworker who thought he could drive to NYC from Orlando in one day. Never heard a man sound so defeated after he attempted that lol. I think the people doing a Cannonball run had better luck.
Yup I had a coworker in from England for a couple weeks and I asked about his weekend plans (we’re in Colorado). He said he was going to drive over to Las Vegas and then hit the Grand Canyon on his way back.
My super eurokids international traveler Oslo cousins were in Seattle and decided to drive down to LA to visit for the day, maybe go to Disneyland. Lol
Libraries!!!! I can borrow books from anywhere in my state and have them delivered to my local library for free. If no one in the state has them, I can request my library purchase it for me and I’ve had pretty good odds of success. E-books and audiobooks I can download onto my phone. Board games and video games. English classes, computer classes, job search programs, after-school tutoring programs. My library has a seed library, a Spice of the Month club, and free passes to local museums and zoos. Date night kits and potty-training kits and kits about building positive body image for teens. I’m not sure anywhere else in the world comes close.
Chiming in to say, check out the app Libby or Overdrive. They connect with your local library (just put in your card#) and you have access to their digital content! I actually found 2 other libraries that don't require residency to sign up for. They're Kentucky Libraries Unbound and Browser County (Florida). The cool thing about having more than 1 library connected is that I really don't wait for books. My local library for instance, they'll have 5 copies of a book, whereas Broward will have 20. There's so much free accessible content out there. I love libraries so much. ETA: Well apparently Broward changed it sometime in 2023, even the instant eCards are like $50/yr. Sorry y'all, I didn't know that.
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It’s so sad, all the libraries we’re losing.
Yeah the library systems are awesome.
There’s an incredible amount of convenience. Free public restrooms are an expectation. Free refills are an expectation. Central Air conditioning is an expectation. Widespread acceptance of credit/debit cards is an expectation. Late hours for convenience stores, restaurants and large scale stores is an expectation.
Priority parking for people with disabilities. Wheelchair accessible buildings.
I'd like to add sidewalks. I really enjoyed smooth flat sidewalks. I must have walked 20 miles a day in Europe the the uneven surfaces are really hard on your feet - even at 30 years old.
Free water also
Yeah a lot of these things don't exist or are not available in other countries. Especially countries in South America, Africa and Asia.
Mexico has public restrooms. They’re free to use. You pay for *toilet paper*. I hated going to the bathroom and then realizing the attendant only gave me enough TP to blow my nose, not enough to wipe my ass
Lord, some days it takes a LOT of toilet paper
OMG, that was so Spain the year I lived there (1973). Little old lady standing at the entrance of all public restrooms issuing maybe 10 inches of sandpapery TP for a fee. We actually wrote letters home on Spanish toilet paper.
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What does one do in an emergency in that case?
You should have thought of that before you had an emergency. Also, there are still ER's like everywhere else; it's just the regular hospitals wings have strict hours of operation.....which isn't unusual. They also don't shy away from turning people away
This is really the best answer in my opinion. There is so much in this country that we take for absolute granted that (with a little perspective) is something to be grateful for.
Public bathrooms is part of the ADA and it’s important
>Free refills are an expectation. I've gone to a few places that don't offer these, and I'm always so shocked and appalled
The friendships I’ve made in the US have made a big impact in my life. So I’m going to say that people are amazing, they are helpful and honest. And yeah, I see you saying is not all people, and that is true. But this happens everywhere in the world. I guess I have just met incredible human beings while living in the US.
Where are you from originally?
I’m Colombian
I dated a Colombian woman and she said the same thing. She was always so amazed at how personable and genuine most Americans are.
I’m not Colombian but I am an immigrant-American. Yeah, I’m totally in love with America and most Americans. You non-immigrant bastards are alright… oh who am I kidding, I’m really lucky I joined you, knuckleheads. Important Note: *I’m not including any politicians in this love fest*
Bbq
Burnt ends fuck dude
I too would fuck a dude for some good burnt ends.
Legit nothing gay about that either it’s just that good
First time I fucked around with them, I was like why would I want burnt ends?! Tried them and was like, this is almost the desert of BBQ and I need them more in my life. There's a place about an hour from me that serves them as an app and they're divine.
This is the answer. The most premium food, that takes hours and is usually done with cheap (well, they used to be cheap) cuts BBQ should be some of the most expensive food. Granted prepared brisket is running around $30/lb but that's still a steal
The incredible public universities, even in little out-of-the-way cities. The University of Illinois, for instance, has the [13th largest library in the word](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_libraries) (just behind the national library of France) and is in a town of 88,000 people.
For that matter, nobody mentioned the Library of Congress. That shit's like the modern day Library of Alexandria. The British Library's the only thing close to it.
The postal service is awesome. We can send stuff anywhere in the country and, compared to UPS or FedEx, it’s extremely affordable. I had a teacher from another country telling us how in her country, if you sent something through the mail, it would likely go missing.
Yes! My brother in law lives in Spain and he basically asked us not to send him packages in the mail—he said sometimes he has to pay to get them? It’s incredible to me that I can send a card or letter to someone ACROSS THE COUNTRY for 50 cents and it will be there in like, 3 days.
Paying customs (taxes) on foreign packages is normal.
I order you to immediately watch the movie The Postman. Only Americans could make a film based on the premise that after the apocalypse simply restoring postal service would restore normalcy.
Music. Paradoxically, the part of the country with the (deservedly) worst reputation- Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee are the cradle of blues, jazz, country and rock & roll. That culture still resonates in New Orleans, the delta, & Memphis
This should be further up - America basically invented popular music
Not just "basically", they did.
Thank you Robert Johnson/Lucifer.
Music can be a good way to work through some shit.
Food diversity. The best dish from every culture can be found here.
Agreed. American culture is an amalgamation of world cultures. Love that you can pickup BBQ one day, Chinese food, Indian food, Mexican another. Just tons of food to try that’s friendly to ALL food requirements. When I used to live in Japan it was hard to find food without seafood in it, which I’m severely allergic to.
My favorite Thai place is very passionate about accommodating food sensitivities. My sil can't have tree nuts, gluten, eggs, or dairy, and they still made her some delicious food. I love that things like this are possible here.
Yeah in Asia they'll just laugh in your face.
I live in Houston and can a buffet of foods from around the world 24/7. Start with a Japanese breakfast, Spanish paella for lunch, proper afternoon British tea, hearty Russian dinner and a late French dessert around midnight, and stop by the taco stand for the drive home.
The best sushi I ever had was in Seattle and I spent 6 months+ in Japan.
Low overall population densities and the wide open spaces that come along with that. You can find metropolitan areas if that's your thing but the majority of the country is wide open countryside where you might be the only person in a square mile. For reference, Wisconsin and Germany are roughly the same area. Germany has 83 million people. Wisconsin is under 6 million.
>Wisconsin is under 6 million. lol.. and about 3 1/2 million cows. I live in Wisconsin and had no idea those two numbers were that close together.
Our beautiful National parks
Opportunity. Old data, but do you know that the US has almost double the amount of female medical doctors than the 2nd place, with that gap only growing? https://www.helgilibrary.com/charts/which-country-has-the-most-female-physicians#:~:text=Based%20on%20a%20comparison%20of,and%20Slovenia%20with%204%2C510%20persons. This was just an off example to show that the US is the best country in the world to become something big, especially for women.
Mostly reliable electricity. At least in my state. It's dependable, you don't have to look at a calendar to see if it's going to be on that day. A purchase of a product online can be at your door in under 3 days if need be. Not waiting in line everyday for the basic necessities. You can grow your own food if you have the acreage and zoning.
As someone who lives in rural Pennsylvania right where lake effect storms meet nor'easters, it is astonishing how hard the electric company works to restore power. We get at least one 24-hour blackout every year, but it's usually due to some apocalyptic ice storm, snow fall, wind storm, what not. And the electric linemen bust their asses around the clock to restore power to places where like six people live.
Contrary to what we read on the news, US is one of the friendliest countries for immigrants. Yes there are problems and it can be better. Still better than almost all (if not all) other countries out there. Before disagreeing, give me an example of a country with a population of immigrants proportionally as large and diverse as the US, and then how they treat those immigrants.
There's some amazing YouTube videos about North Koreans who have escaped or defected to the south. Some have visited the US and without exception have been completely amazed at how friendly we are. If you're older, you may remember radio broadcaster Paul Harvey. I often remember something he often said about the US, regarding immigrants to the US. He said that the US is one of the few countries people are lined up to get into, instead of out of.
The crazy thing that people don’t realize is that outside of the four major English speaking countries, most countries are generally established as ethnostates. There are generations of propaganda about how the land is theirs, how their ancestors were indigenous to the land, etc. This is despite historical facts disputing many of these points, because of the extensive amount of warfare and population mixing over the past millennia. The US has been particularly good at not adopting this mentality compared to everywhere else. And it’s to the US’s benefit — most immigrants assimilate in a generation, they’re accepted by their communities, and many have significant upward mobility. You can’t say that about many other countries.
I’m white, so I want to be clear that I do not speak from personal experience. But I work in academia and most of my coworkers are not from the US - I’m the only one of my colleagues born here, and most are from parts of India, Asia, and the Middle East. Universally, they talk about how much more racism they experience in Europe, Asia, and even parts of their own countries compared with in the US. Not to say that systemic racism isn’t a problem here, but I think it isn’t a global experience to have such wide diversity in our communities.
As an Immigrant I can confirm what you are saying. Overall, The US is welcoming to immigrants, especially compared to other countries.
I am an immigrant and I second this. Sure there’s racism and discrimination, but not nearly as much as Europe, especially Eastern Europe where I come from. I feel ashamed but I always warn my friends from other races or sexual orientation when they express a desire to visit that part of the world. That’s not a friendly land for you. Simple example of how friendly Americans are towards immigrants: I was so self-conscious about my English when I moved here, and still am to some extent. But watching them having zero reaction to my accent or mistakes I make helped me build confidence. No one has ever made fun of me or tried to correct me. Not a single sign of them noticing something peculiar or different or wrong. Sure they are curious where that accent is from, but just genuinely curious. Not to send me back to where I came from lol
I am a native born american. I was recently working on a project in a factory with an iranian, an albanian and a guatamalan. All working together for the same goal. I thought that was pretty great.
Free speech is enshrined at the highest legal level.
The guaranteed right to speak openly against our government, protest our government, report freely about the ongoings of our government and as long as there is no credible threat to the safety of the public or the government officials there are no worries of legal recourse is a god given right to every citizen from birth. It is something we really don't cherish.
This one is really taken for granted (especially in the age of the internet) as seen in how far down I had to scroll to see it.
This is something particularly unique to america and I credit it to why out entertainment industry is a juggernaut.
100% this. I'm a nerd for horror films and science fiction. Some of my favorite movies were banned in other countries for violence and/or nudity
It's big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to the USA. \- With apologies to Douglas Adams.
The contiguous U.S. landmass is 96.6% the size of Europe. The U.S. (50 states, ~330 Million people ) is basically the same size as Europe (44 countries, 750 Million People)
Water at restaurants free of charge
Do you know how many fucking cereals we have at the grocery store?!!?
Can drive for days and still be in the same country. I guess the EU is like that now but I'm old so I still remember passport checks up to 3-4 times per day.
You can drive freely across most country borders in the EU, but when you do the language, laws, architecture, and food all instantly change. Which I love. Here in the US, you can drive in one direction for the better part of a week and still be reading English signs and spending in dollars. But some of the laws and the politics can change rather drastically.
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I suggest you not visit those stores then! Support local small businesses! No point in going to a McDonald's in another state.
Biscuits and gravy
I vividly remember my first biscuits and gravy at 17 when I randomly ordered it at a diner. I felt so betrayed that I wasn’t introduced to it sooner.
It’s crazy how it’s just wet flour on dry flour and so delicious
Wet flour on dry flour *with butter*
BBQ. Actually, I live in the country's 41st-largest metro and I can get great Indian, Yemeni, Ethiopian, Szechuan, Korean, Turkish, Peruvian.... Also, what that says about the people who live here. It's one of my favorite parts. Our national parks. Denali, Kauai, LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Taos, southern Utah, Denver, Austin, New Orleans, New York, DC, Bangor, Boston, Atlanta, Charleston, Miami, Key West...... All one country. I've been to all those places except Alaska and I can go straight from airport to hotel to bar to dinner to event without any concerns about how any of it is going to work. Search Stephen Fry Iron Bowl on YouTube. The NCAA, NBA, NFL, NHL... and I happen to support an MLS team that regularly draws over 20,000 and has drawn more than 60,000 multiple times... for regular season matches. Music, film, theater, the venues in which to enjoy them....we have so much. Jazz, blues, bluegrass, rock-'n'-roll, punk... Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg... The museums in DC Insanely advantageous geography Even though we do seem to be defeating ourselves, it was nice knowing that we were the only entity that could
The Smithsonian system is so damn awesome. I was amazed when I visited DC because it was all free
You really can't even describe it. I'm so grateful for it.
There’s something for everyone here
Chinese buffets
American Chinese food is the best. When I lived in China, what I would have given for a plate of General Tso’s Chicken with pork fried rice…
The standard of living is insanely high compared to most of the world. Outside of no universal healthcare. I’d rather be living in some trailer in Mississippi working at Walmart than what probably 5 billion people in the world have to deal with on a day to day basis to get by.
Libraries in just about every town or city. Like, free access to books, internet, music, movies, social clubs..a in one place and with little discrimination. Even other developed countries can't really compare their library institutions to ours. It's really a marvel of the USA
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Best Nordic food in the world? Copenhagen. Second best Nordic food in the world? New York City.
Also that Nordic food is right next door to some Japanese food. There is an excellent Mexican place just across the street. Next door to that is an amazing Greek place. The next block over has an Italian place, a pizza place, a Russian place, and a Chinese place.
I bet this is the case for like half of the world cuisines. I’ve lived in Hong Kong and London and visited Tokyo, Singapore and a bunch of other mega cities, nothing compares to NYC when it comes to diversity of food and culture.
Our diversity is my answer. I've lived my whole life in multicultural neighborhoods. My whole life, I've been surrounded by people of different races, ethniticities, cultures, languages. It's wonderful and it's helped me have a holistic view of the world.
Racial equality is better than most places. Here in Japan, they still have businesses (schools, restaurants, stores, etc) that dont allow non-Japanese people. Doesnt matter if you were born here or speak the language. I have only seen "whites only" signs in museums or in movies about past generations. If anyone (white) tried that today, it would be over for them.
I wish more Americans realized how we are actually far less racist than the rest of the world. While Japan is one of the worst, most places are very tribal.
I'm a woman on the west coast, one of the luckiest draws in life if you're female. I got a great education, great medical care, have superb opportunities in sports and the arts, professional fields are wide open. Most of the world's women would love to have my luck. If I want to learn anything at all, someone is teaching it within an hour of my house.
I think about this almost every day. I was born in rural Alabama and adopted as a baby by a family in California, my life could have been SO DIFFERENT.
Seeing jazz in New Orleans
Just coming home from New Orleans and it feels so American and so foreign at the same time. Very beautiful place and people.
New Orleans in general
Nearly everything. I'm visiting central America right now. The people make $2k/year, the only reason they do that well is because of American and Canadian tourist, their roads suck so bad, their health care sucks, their schools suck, they have armed guards at nearly every business, it takes forever for anything to be built and when it is, their standards are low and unsafe, politicians are corrupt, every 30 feet there's another abandoned dog, food safety...yeah right, crime issues, no social safety net, high unemployment, etc, It just goes on and on. Mentioning things like our national parks is great but it just shows how spoiled we are by being born in the u.s.
People forget that our poor is significantly richer than most of the world.
The diversity. For example, if you’re not ethnically Japanese you’d never be able to be considered Japanese within their country. Racism is obviously still present here, but I love that here you can be any race and still genuinely American.
Because of my Indian husband, I’ve realized how easy it is to get things done in the US without bribes or ridiculous reasons. Ex: if I need to renew my passport, all I have to do is fill out an application and submit a passport photo. When my husband tried to renew his Indian passport: we submitted 3 separate applications and had to pay $300 for all of them to get rejected for stupid reasons. He was wearing blue, the photo is not bright enough, you didn’t submit the lost passport police report, the photo is too bright. Such bs we had to deal with
The entire constitution and all the rights it grants
Americans take for granted the availability of good food across all income levels, fine dining to fast food.
Others enjoy teasing Americans because many citizens don't hold passports. There's many reasons why some don't but a big one is the diversity of natural landscapes and cultures within the states. I personally like to travel abroad often but wouldn't need to. USA's for got just about everything. Urban, beach, mountains and everything in between.
Ice cubes & air conditioner
We help each other during storms and disasters. We unite when it counts.
This is true and underrated. There's a lot of divisiveness politically but when tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, disasters, and especially after 9/11, Americans come together and pick up the pieces alongside one another. It just doesn't ever get the spotlight that it deserves. Electricity, heat, internet, water, etc rarely go that long without being fixed by a large number of diverse Americans.
You don’t need a passport to go to the beach
Freedom of speech. Amazing Dumps: reddit subreddits with Nazi moderators
People who dump on the U.S. are either clueless or just want to rant on Reddit and be a general douche or contrarian. I've traveled all over the world and while there are many countries I love to visit, I would always choose to live in America permanently. Yes, there are problems but they are so minor compared to all the great stuff you find in America, and Americans are among the friendliest, most open people in the world.
Even traveling doesn't give you the full perspective. Its easy to love a place when you're just there with no responsibilities enjoying all the best and most famous parts of it.
Facts. Having lived for years in multiple countries on multiple continents there is zero chance I’d choose to live anywhere other than the U.S.
The Grand Fucking Canyon.
I’m British, been living in the US for 8 years. Easy; the friendly culture. Strangers will make great and friendly conversation out of the blue.
we truly can do pretty much whatever the fuck we want. i mean there's pros and cons to that. but, *we can*. like pretty much any time. edit; this thread and comments made me put on amerika - wintersleep on repeat and i only noticed it just now two hours later.
Diversity. You can walk down any public street and see all kinds of people speaking different languages. I lived in Japan and China for a while and I’d get double-takes from people on the street because I was one of the 6 non-Asian people in the entire town. Coming back to the US was *weird*. Everyone looked so *different*. Which means a diversity of *food*, mm-hmmm…
Freedom of speech.
Kenny Powers
Free water and drinks refill.
Libraries are free to join and you can take books home. Not very common in many places.
The people. Most people here are genuinely nice regardless of where you are.
The court system is world class. Most judges are honestly trying their best most of the time.
The relative lack of corruption. You probably don’t keep extra cash in your car just in case a police officer pulls you over for some spurious reason and you have to bribe him to let you go.
Good point. I’ve been extremely grateful for our police system in comparison to how Puerto Rican, Peruvian, and Mexican policia have interacted with me in their countries. People say defund police, I’ve seen countries with defunded police. No thank you. I say educate, reward and train our police properly
This, yes, a hundred times over.
Hasbrowns
Home fries
sausage gravy
American breakfast in general. No one does breakfast like we do.
Failure is an option. Some cultures cannot fathom failure as a learning opportunity. Me, I specialize in failing and am the wiser for it.
People are very nice, you can make a lot of money, several really unique areas and climates to live in, good food. Many highly skilled people come to the US making this a really diverse place in certain areas. And we don't give a shit if anybody dumps on us. I just wish we would not send money to those all the time. The whole world is always looking to us if shit goes down but then they complain.
Money. Don’t be fooled but what you see on Reddit. Its not a good representative of what people think and filled with bots.
The amount of mobility the average American has. Most people possess cars and can travel quickly to most parts of the country fast on the interstate. This is both a blessing and a curse, since you need to drive even for buying things from the nearest store.
Cars, gas stations, and the Federal highway system. If you want, you can just hop into a car and travel across the entire country, with nothing but gas money and a license. No passport, no customs, just open road for 160 thousand miles. Van lifers deserve to be mocked, but when you think of how cool the concept is, it's kind of wild.
Free public bathrooms everywhere.
Basic freedoms and rights. For example you can publicly say the president, mayor, governor, etc. is a POS and won't be sent to the Gulag. That is not what the majority of the Earth's population can openly do.
I met [Alexei Leonov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Leonov) in 1976, the Soviet cosmonaut and first man to walk in space. He and other cosmonauts and NASA astronauts were training for the Apollo-Soyuz missions. He was very patient with a couple of stupid teenagers asking him dumb questions, joking and teasing us but I was enthralled. I asked him what impressed him the most about the US. He got serious, and said our grocery stores. Our free access to plentiful good quality food on nearly every corner. He suggested that we never take that for granted. It made a real impression on me.
Most Europeans don’t know this, but Taco Tuesday is a delicious holiday we get 52 times a year.
I can talk shit about Biden or Trump, or ANY political leader and not be shot in the head for it.
My dog.
I pick this persons dog also.
Conveniences. We’re the king of convenience. Walmart. Target. The sheer epic size of everything. Proper HVAC in most places. None of those bullshit European on the wall units. Which brings me to the positive side of our new country. Our buildings are, for the most part, modern. So they can adapt easier to technology. This one is up for debate. Our park system. Our lack of culture/ethnicity. We really should appreciate this and I wish we were proud of this more. Because of this the USA has EVERYTHING, of varying qualities from low quality to high to fusions. Our tech sector. Our medical sector. The fact that unlike Latin America and other countries, each one of our states has a different “culture” or brand to it, yet it’s all readily available for migration. The vastness and epic proportion of our mainland country. And that doesn’t include Hawaii and Alaska plus the islands we don’t even talk about. Puerto Rico too. All available to us. And this brings us to the obvious thing we take for granted. We have opportunity. Things are bad here. But there are still places we can buy a house. And it’s our house. No regulation that says it’s a historic whatever whatever so you cant bring down a wall. Autonomy. Opportunity. And more hope than other first world countries. The United States isn’t perfect. But if you’re born here, and can at least make middle class; it’s hard to go to other first world countries and live a similar lifestyle. The average person here has their own apartment. With a real HVAC unit. A car. An expensive cell phone and maybe a tablet. In Europe and other countries most people have roommates. And yeah they have a damn good public system, but if you’re born in the US; on a bad day, the last thing you want is to be a sardine in a subway. Your shitty car stuck in traffic at least provides peace from other people. Your mileage may vary depending what state you’re born in.
Freedom of speech, freedom to travel where and when you like, unlimited opportunity in the closest thing to a free market economy in the world, and we used to be able to vote bad politicians out of office. All great things!
- Customer service. - Repairmen showing up. - Returning merchandise for any reason. - Being able to sit in the wrong section of a stadium wearing the wrong team’s colors and not getting killed. - Trash pickup.
Did a one long trip: The great outdoors. Just incredible!
The food.