5 Things About Life In The US I Wish I Had Known Before

After living in the United States for five years, I still have no explanation for some American curiosities. Can you help me by shedding some light on them?

I’ve been living in Maryland for five years now, and since 2016, I’ve written a weekly article trying to explain the hows and whys of cultural differences between the US, Germany, and France. Still, I wonder about both little and big things in my American life.

Over the weekend, I was thinking about stuff I’m not able to explain properly. Sometimes this is because my experience is limited to local knowledge; other times it’s because I simply have no clue. Believe me, I’d love it if someone could explain the reasoning behind the five things below.

No, I’m not going to talk about guns or lock-down drills at school. I’ve written two articles about those topics. You can check this one out where I explain the role of guns in America to Europeans and this other one where I give you some insight into my everyday life with guns.

I’m also not talking about how bad you guys are at driving. I can’t get used to it, but I understand that life without a driver‘s license and a car is very difficult outside of New York! You can read my rant and 10 reasons why Americans can’t drive here.

No, here they are, 5 things about life in the US I wish I had known before moving.

5 Things About Life In The US I Wish I Had Known Before

Why is bigger always better?

Folks, why are the portion sizes in restaurants so huge? Is it because you need to feel like you’re getting your money’s worth? Or has it always been like that?

The “bigger is always better“ motto even applies to housing. I have seen my quaint neighborhood transform dramatically over the past five years. Nice Cape Cods and small colonials are being torn down little by little and replaced by big five-bedroom homes with larger rooms, higher ceilings, and newer appliances and bathrooms. Nice… but they have no yard!

I have five children at home. Do you really think we can SURVIVE a weekend or 11 long weeks of summer vacation without a trampoline, basketball goal, and ping-pong table in the backyard? TV, PlayStation, and Snapchat are not the solution, and I’m not ready to spend money at the movie theater or shopping mall just because our property no longer has room for a yard.

Why do Americans like living in houses that all look more or less the same?

When I drive through my neighborhood, I feel that the new houses look very similar. In my street with around 30 families, we have a few split-level and many ranch-style houses with one or two levels. During the last five years in the US, we’ve done a home exchange with other families around 10 times. I can’t remember a single house which would have been unique in its neighborhood.

I also wonder about the lack of exterior shutters, it was even the subject of one post in 2017: Exterior shutters: A huge difference between the US and Europe. Windows being one of the biggest sources of energy loss in a house, external window shutters are a real energy saving opportunity! Please, don’t feel offended, but I feel like you don’t care much about electricity bills.

Fat-free but sugar everywhere

I’ve developed a routine in American supermarkets, checking for sugar in all food. Still, finding plain yogurts and avoiding sugar in processed food is almost impossible. I’ve already talked at length about it (You can read more about what I think of American food here), but even if I’m aware of the paradox of American food — fat-free but too sweet to be healthy — do you really need to put sugar everywhere? Even in bread?

Why don’t you go vote?

I really don’t get this one. Voter turnout in this country is incredibly low. The Pew Research Center reported in a recent article that only 55.7% of Americans go out and vote. In Germany, 69% participated in the last election, while in France 68% did (Figures are for the voting age population).

Why is that? You are lucky to live in a democracy, one so strong that President Trump was elected with 3 million fewer votes than Clinton without riots breaking out!

Over the last couple of years, I’ve learned that many Americans don’t trust the federal government to do what is right. According to the Pew Research Center, only 18% of Americans today trust the federal administration to do the right thing.

Again, I really don’t get it. You have many opportunities to make your voice heard and it’s easy. If you’re unhappy with the work of your governor, senator, president, etc., you just need to register and vote for someone else at the next election.

Why so much hate for regulation?

As some of you may remember, my husband had a streak of bad luck at the beginning of the year. In January, he slipped on black ice and broke a vertebra. Then, a mean kidney stone sent him to the hospital where he underwent surgery the next day. Finally, he had another surgery in April because of three hernias.

In this February post, I questioned if the American heath care system is unhealthy. Since then, I found out that the US spends 17.1% of its GDP for health, compared to 11.5% and 11.3%, respectively, for France and Germany. Furthermore, the latest bills for my husband’s surgeries came in. Look for yourself:

Jean had the hernia surgery at a modest place in Rockville. Modest, at least from the outside. The Surgery Center of Rockville charged $39,651 for the operation! Add that to the surgeon’s bill of $3,714 and the anesthesia bill of $1,400, and the cost totaled $44,765!

What did I learn from it? I learned that my husband and I are too European for the American health care system. Both of us didn’t think for a second to ask for a quote and try to get a better rate. Granted, we are blessed with good insurance that negotiates the member rate afterward. Isn’t it crazy to have to haggle over the price of surgery?

A couple of weeks later, the Washington Post published an opinion piece stating that the US could learn a few things about health care from other countries. This sentence resonated strongly: “…Other advanced countries negotiate prices based on comparative effectiveness, or whether a new drug works better than existing therapies.” But, I also learned that the US “spends about twice as much on marketing as they do on drug development, something most other countries do not permit in most forms.”

Of course, my examples are not about drug prices, and I have no reason to complain about what we pay for medicine. Nevertheless, I feel that what American doctors and hospitals charge patients is just C-R-A-Z-Y!

If you are not American and are living in the US, what aspects of American life are you still wondering about? Thank you for sharing your thoughts in the comment section below. Scroll a bit further down to comment if you don’t have a Facebook account.