Passports
Outside of serving in the United States Navy, I never had need of a passport. When I had to get one back in 2017, I didn't know anyone who had one, or even how to go about it. No one in my family has a passport, and people thought it was strange for me to be asking about it. "What, are you on the run?" was a refrain I heard often, In their minds, I must be fleeing the country with cash and disguise in hand.
It took a month of visiting different offices around the state, in order to get one quickly. I've never gone through so much hassle in my entire life. In all, I spent about $500 for the booklet, and hope to never have to go through that headache again.
Contrast this with citizens overseas, where many people seem to have a passport. I can only chalk it up to geography, where in Europe for example, you have a bunch of little countries shoved next to each other. Whereas in the U.S., we have Mexico and Canada (which is the 51st state, let's just be honest here), bordering us. There are people here who have never even left their home state, much less entertain ideas about leaving the country. We have everything we need here, so there's little reason to go anywhere else.
Religion
In many countries, people wear their religion on their sleeves, but where I'm from, it's a personal thing that you only share once you've gotten to know someone. During my trip to Germany, we were shocked during orientation, when the instructor began asking us what our religion was. He asked me, and I told him it was none of his business!
Turns out, there is some sort of "church tax" in Germany, where they actually force the people to pay for churches! Of course, there was no way we were going to do that, so he threatened to put us down as atheist which was fine by me. We believe in the separation of church and state here in America, it's one of the main reasons the country was founded in the first place. So it was surprising to see the state so involved in forcing the people to pay for religion in Germany.
I was also surprised when people would walk up to me and immediately begin talking about religion and asking me what mine was. Or even just making assumptions based on where I was from.
I was in a pizza shop in Germany giving them my order, when an African guy heard me talking, walked over and out of the blue says: "You're American. You are Christian, no?" Startled, I looked at him thinking "do I even know you?" Realizing he wasn't aware of how we were raised, I took a deep breath and told him that that was a very personal subject to ask someone about as the first question.
There was no cross hanging from my neck, and it was really none of his business. I'd run into this often overseas, and always let them know it was a private matter. It's best to get to know a person first before inquiring about their personal beliefs.
Close-talking and touching
At a Subway shop in Germany, the clerk was excited to ask me about life in the United States. This is something that happened often, much to my surprise, since Germany is an awesome country in its own right, so much so, that I'm surprised anyone would want to leave. So he comes out from behind the counter and walks so close to me, I could almost count each individual eyelash he had.
Each time I would step back to maintain my personal space, he stepped forward, until I had to stretch out my hands and tell him he was getting awfully close to me. He apologized and we laughed about it, but I think he got the message. Same thing happened in Panama, which made me wonder if the concept of "personal space" like an invisible bubble about three feet around you, isn't just an American thing.
On campus while in Germany, I was having issues registering for classes, when this very nice English student came over to help. The British accent is the best in the entire world, followed closely by the French. It makes them sound very posh and distinguished when they speak, and it's a great way to pick up American girls. They all think you're Prince Harry or something. :)
So we chatted for a bit and he's helping me navigate the menus. Next thing you know, I almost jump out of my seat feeling a hand running up and down the small of my back. Turns out that's a British thing that they do when they think you're "mates" a sign of friendly affection with apparently no other connotation.
There were three Brits in the class, and they all did this (if they liked you, that is), and all got so close when speaking, that you could tell what they ate for breakfast. They were some of the best people I've ever met, even if I had to keep backing up during conversations with them.
Not getting everything first
We're so spoiled here in the states, that you only realize how different things are in the rest of the world once you leave. It never quite hit me just how many things are US first, or US only, until I spent an extended time away from home. From first-run movies, to technology products, so many things are offered here before trickling out to other countries later on.
The surprise hit me when ordering items from Amazon. The other Yanks and I, got the German version of the site, and there were things they simply refused to ship to the country. This was something I'd never experienced before while living in the US, and really showed the divide between us and the rest of the world. So many products that were plentiful at home, were either unavailable, or simply banned altogether in Germany.
This really made me appreciate the benefits of living in America, which you don't really realize unless you leave. Canada is right next door, and there are even some things that are exclusive to the US that they can't get unless they travel here. So the next time you hear a fellow Yank complaining about the states, keep that in mind.
Food
It was funny seeing a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream that only costs a few bucks here, selling for almost $15 there. It was also described as an 'import" which made me chuckle. I also saw these tiny "American Style Pancakes" six for $8, but I snapped them right up in order to get a little taste of home.
So I stop at a fast food place and order some french fries to go with my burger, and the clerk had smeared it with mayonnaise. I had no idea this was a thing in Europe, and sent it right back asking for ketchup instead. In what kind of parallel universe do they squirt mayonnaise on fries? Just the thought of that gives me the dry heaves. It's absolutely vile, and disgusting. Ketchup or bust, baby! :)
In Mombasa, Kenya, we all sat down to eat, and they bring us these huge plates full of perfectly-cut cubes of "meat." Each cube reeked and was the size of a human fist, and we Americans all looked at the dish, then looked at each other in complete puzzlement.
The guys then starts pouring what looked like gravy on them in order to mask the smell, but that clearly wasn't working. I spoke right up and asked the dude what in the hell animal these cubes came from. He insisted they were beef, but none of us were buying that.
The stench was awful, and we could only imagine what foul beast produced this plate piled high with meat cubes. They smelled like rotten eggs, but he insisted that that was how they were supposed to smell, and that it was completely normal. I pushed the plate away and went to McDonald's instead, many others followed.
To this day I wonder what exactly that meal was. We figured it had to be from an elephant or something, as these cubes were huge and stacked like a pyramid on each huge plate. There was enough food to feed three people, and we all had our own. It must have come from a very large animal, and if anyone from Africa has any idea what these gigantic cubes were, please do share.
Despite that, everywhere I went in Africa was filled with stunning vistas, bright colors, and hard-working people. I've never been to West Africa, be we have refugees from that region in my city who surprised everyone by speaking French. Someday I hope to return and visit even more countries from this vast and beautiful continent.
England
England is my favorite country. I love America, and am a true patriot, don't get me wrong, but I like that entire region over there. They have the single best accents in the entire world, bar none. So much history, and so many impactful things happened there which had effects felt around the world.
Castles and important ruins are everywhere. They have a monarchy and the royal family, which I think is great since we don't have one here. There's a much lower cost of living than in the US as well. Yet, for some reason, many people I spoke to in England were trying to get out.
The Brit on the plane next to me said it was because of the weather. That the country was wet and damp, and it rained all the time. I'm guessing the climate is sort of like Seattle? which I'm told is a great place to live. However, I saw an astounding number of Brits when visiting Spain. Many of them lived there and had emigrated from different parts of the UK.
The word "damp" is something I would hear over and over again in reference to England. I was there in September, and it rained a bit on my second day there. I stayed in a city called Birmingham, which for some reason, seemed to have very few native English people in it. Damp or not, I'd live in England in a heartbeat, possibly in the south where they get a little more sun year-round. The country seems to be right in the middle of influences between the US and Europe, having the best of both worlds.
I think what my travels have taught me are the benefits of getting out and exploring this big-wide world. It's opened my eyes to some of the things that we do well here, and others that we could borrow from different countries and cultures. But please, no mayonnaise on my french fries! :)
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Damn, very sweet read. Really loved to read about your experiences and your thoughts on some of these things.
I'm Nigerian, I've never been to Europe, but I've always thought Europeans didn't know anything about personal space. I think Italians are the worst😅, they'd grab you and start kissing you once you step out of the plane, I think.
Why are you talking about beef like the animal that produces it is not a huge animal too?😂 Does the phrase 'fat cow' ring a bell? Anyways it could be anything; here in Nigeria, though, I've never seen beef cut in cubes, furthermore Africans usually have strangely smelling foods and ingredients, it could have been some delicious-perfectly-healthy-but-having-a-strange-smell-to-Foreigners ingredient that was added to the meat that gave out the smell. I don't know, though, and I don't know if you can trust that eatery, its nice you guys were mindful of what you ate in Foreign lands.
I've heard England has bad weather too, messed up that people who grow up in England still think the weather is bad, how could they not have got used to it and feel at home only in it😅
Here, you had a bunch of kids, many like me, who were leaving the country for the first time. For some, landing in Africa was akin to stepping on the surface of the Moon. When we visit other lands, we look for the familar. McDonald's, Burger King, and the like. None of us were ready to be adventurous with food. :)
That said, Kenya was wonderful. You should have seen the locals laughing at us American sailors trying to balance things on our heads as they did. They made it look effortless in comparison. We had a chance to climb on an Elephant to have our picture taken. We were absolutely terrified! Only one of us was brave enough to do it. The other sailors were shoving me forward to do it, because they were scared as well. I paid the $10, and reached out to touch it, but then we all ran away after it turned and trumpeted at us. Screw that! Good times though! lol
Hahaha😅
Seems you can even write more posts about these things.
Great post. Thanks for sharing. I planned on visiting Europe and definitely England, Ireland, and Germany at some point. Planned as in past tense. With the state of the world now I have no intentions of traveling as I don't want to be on my way there and have some new mandate or lockdown strand me somewhere of force me into a situation where I am forced to take permanent actions on my body or my family without choice.
Thus, I can only live vicariously through posts such as yours.
Thank you so much. It was funny getting that passport, I had to travel all over the state as I had a deadline to show the people in Germany that I'd gotten one, or the trip was off. I went to Germany via a short stop in Iceland and England.
Speaking of the current crisis, I was planning a trip to China in late 2019, when I first learned about what was happening there via a US expat internet forum. I'll be so glad when we can travel freely again. Australia and Greenland are on my bucket list! :)
I finally got my passport a couple of years ago (I am 52) because I had to make a business trip to Toronto. Canada by that time required a passport. I'd been to Edmonton in Canada right before that passport requirement became so rigid.
I am familiar with how much of a pain in the ass (and expensive) getting a passport can be. That is why I was around 48 or 49 when I finally got around to getting one.