I saw more obese and morbidly obese people than I ever had seen before in my life. Literally, before I visited NYC, I think I only once or twice saw a morbidly obese person.

Any time I’m in the States I’m always shocked by the amount of homeless people. Especially in San Francisco and Los Angeless.

I witnessed a mother opening several packs of sugar and sprinkle it in their kids Coca Cola. I’m still speechless. I also can’t comprehend how people think private health insurance is a threat to their freedom or that private prisons could be a good idea. Lastly, the gap in the toilet doors. WHY

I went to the US in 2014. We landed in San Francisco and had to rent a car. We thought: "we're in america, let's rent a big car" So we rented a "big" car. Then we joined the I101 and we were the smallest car on the road... So with our redefined car we went to the Golden Gate Bridge but we were hungry. So we stopped at a diner. My brother ordered a burger and a small 7up. He got a liter of 7up. He wasn't even halfway and the waitress came to ask if he'd like a free refill (!). To quantify the bigness would be an insult of the bigly bigness that is american lifestyle. Certainly a shock for me.

Strangers talked to me for no reason. I could be walking on the street and a total stranger would come up to me and say "nice jacket" or something similar.

Educational system sucks and is made to print money and throw the youth under the debt bus. Professions that don't make any sense to spend years in uni for (nurse for example) instead of doing an apprenticeship course.

When I was a young child I went on holiday to Florida. I remember going to a museum and seeing a ‘non guns’ sign at the entrance. My mum has to explain to young me that in the US people regularly carried guns around, which blew my mind. Still does today.

People wear shoes inside their homes. So strange.

Obligatory (not-really-but-yes-totally-obligatory) tipping

My wife was shocked by all the open space, and how we horizontally fill much of it up with low, hastily built buildings. Strip malls and such. "It's like you have more space than you know what to do with." And it's true! She was also astonished that you can drive through dozens, sometimes even hundreds of miles of wild empty nothingness, with nothing but the road you're driving on to indicate you're still in civilization.

To be honest, the flag salut in school. I could not comprehend it. I had flashbacks to videos seen in history class.... Made me feel super uncomfortable.

Swiss are famous for the love of cheese and putting cheese on and in things, but America takes that to another level...even if the cheese is less good tasting. They think they have Swiss cheese, but what they call Swiss like a really sh*t version of Ementaller cheese. They are surprised that we have like 400+ kinds of cheese, none of which we call Swiss.

Americans are shockingly open and friendly. It is terrifying at first. The generally are lovely, but I can see why they think we are cold. It took me years to understand things like small talk between strangers. Many times when I first arrived I thought people might be mentally ill, cult members, or trying to set me up for a crime. lol.

I was a 17yo french guy visiting California, I was mostly annoyed by how much people wanted to hug for no reason.

Extreme friendliness to you when you're a customer. Too much in my opinion, it made me feel uneasy

The size of food. And not just portions but like the size of chicken breasts in a supermarket and things like that.

Teens addressing adults by their first name. When the school bus driver invited my 16-yo self to "just call him Dave" I had no idea what to do with myself. It just wouldn't go through my throat. Also, the over-the-top-friendliness in the service sector towards total strangers. Yeah, no wonder American's think we're gloomy and depressing, lol. The first time a shop assistant exclaimed "Hi!! How are you today??" looking as if the sun has just come into the store I had a minor panic attack because I thought we had met, she knew me and I was the asshole who forgot her. People criticize the American "fake friendliness" and the obligatory "fine" but I quite liked it if it wasn't turned up to 11, made everything seem smoother.

We've been several times, but my first experience was when I was 15 and transiting through Houston to get back to the UK from visiting Mexico. I think it was just the scale of everything that stuck with me at the time. We never left the airport, but the scale of the airport, the sheer size of everything (including the people I'm sorry to say) was enormous. The size of the walkways, even the toilets were bigger. I was hungry so bought a slice of pizza, and I swear it was the size of a dinner-plate (although on reflection probably not). I've gotten used to it over repeated trips and it doesn't phase me anymore - but the US certainly takes 'bigger is better' to the extreme.

In general, low price seems to be favored over high quality. An American will buy a 10 USD shovel a dozen times in his life.

Extremely dirty and old public infrastructure - NY subway feels unsafe to use at times, some of the stations look like they're collapsing any minute now

So many whackos around. People just standing in the middle of the pavement with a huge "Jesus is coming" sign or similar

My experience was that Americans act or seem to be more friendly and personal. But it always feels like they don’t actually mean it. Don‘t get me wrong, I met great people in the US. But Europeans, especially Germans, seem to be more reserved at first or second contact.

Americans are very aggressive drivers. Courtesy for fellow motorists seems to not exist. Everyone everywhere goes considerably over the posted speed limit, even when police are present. I never figured out what the rush was or the reason for the "me first" attitude when driving. Perfectly friendly people turn into raving lunatics behind the wheel.

The country is vast and covers many different climates and biomes, yet it is also shockingly the same. One can be at the Wal-Mart in Juneau Alaska or Portland Maine and see the same products. The plazas contain the same stores, with only some regional variation. It is really weird how similar the feel of it all is...even when the people and landscape are different.

Paying with a 5 dollar note and getting my change back in notes. It's weird to me that 1 dollar notes even exist.

The prices not including tax so you never know how much you're gonna pay because you can't multiply by 1.08875 in your head

The water level in the toilets, I walked into 3 different cubicles in JFK that where all seemingly blocked, until I realised that in the states the water level in the toilets is much higher, like half the bowl, where as here in Europe theres just a bit of water at the bottom.

All my USA visits were for business purpose so I can only tell how insanely toxic is US working environment. also as someone born and grown behind iron curtain, young stupid me idealised USA as country of freedom not as a country where people like to all aspects of their lives to be dictated and policed. The number of arrests in the US every year is something completely absurd to me. and one more thing, I was told I should follow some urinal etiquette which means use every second one for no reason but I don't know if that was real or some sort of joke against me.

The feeling that everyone is out to squeeze you for just one more dollar. Granted, I've mostly visited touristy cities (NYC, Miami, LA, San Francisco, Las Vegas), so it might be different in more rural/less touristy areas, but it was all sorts of small things which built up to this feeling, and it made me more wary when I encountered people who seemed friendly, because I'd automatically assume they just wanted money from me. And pretty much everything came with a prize tag. So weird to drive into a national park and paying at a booth to enter.

How divided everything is. There are only extremes, no in between. I thought this was mostly the case on the internet. On the drive from the in Florida airport I saw an "the NRA is a terrorist organization" billboard right next to one advertising semi automatic (assault) rifles. I was also surprised how many churches there were in rural Florida. Most seemed to have advertising unlike anything here in Europe. Some seemed to wage war against each other.