CULTURAL SHOCK IN THE USA

Dew and I spent a week in Chicago and she had already lived there, but for me, it was the first time in the US. I had already heard and read about the cultural differences, but I would like, now that I have experienced them firsthand, to explain them from a Spanish point of view and hopefully you will find something curious.

Chicago Board of Trade Building

• Huge drinking glasses: I get the feeling that in the US everything is huge. Huge buildings, huge supermarkets, huge streets, huge cars, the food portions are gigantic and so are the soda glasses. If you go to the cinema, the small glass is the largest glass in Spain, and on the street you will see everyone with a huge glass in their hand. Something that amazed me was that you could eat and drink everywhere. In the shops, on public transport... In Europe (at least in the places I have been) you couldn't eat or drink on the bus (although we have always sneaked drinks in), here I asked if it was possible and they looked at me like: Why wouldn't it be, ma'am? Also, when I say that the glasses they carry on the street are huge, and when I say huge I mean a litre, I am not exaggerating. Maybe you've already seen them at Starbucks but the size of the coffees they drink is impressive. It's true that the coffee is very watery and maybe has the same amount of caffeine as an espresso, but it never ceases to surprise me.

• Driving safety is zero: Not only were there vehicles of all kinds that I am sure would not be legal in Europe, but almost everyone drives with headphones on and shamelessly looking at their cell phone. Also, as I understood, even if the traffic light is red for cars, if there are no people passing by you can turn, something like when in Spain the traffic light is amber for cars and green for pedestrians, but always.

• The war against cash: Although in Spain is usual paying with card as well and young people use less and less cash, there are still places where they ask you for a minimum to pay by card or prefer that you pay in cash. There are even still (although it is increasingly rare) places that do not accept cards, not only in Spain, I also found it in London recently and I had to go to an ATM to pay for the food. Here (at least in Chicago, where I've been) they have greatly increased the use of the card, I didn't need cash at any time. In most places, in fact, it says: “we don't accept cash” and I heard a couple of conversations of “Wow, this is another place where they join the war against cash”… I guess it's for financial control.

• No guns signs: In all the shopping centers and in some establishments (not all of them) there were signs prohibiting weapons, but what seemed most incredible to me was that at the airport, when we were going to pass the security check to leave, next to the sign to put the liquids and creams in bags and that they are less than 100 ml and such, there was a sign that said something like "From here you shouldn't carry weapons", in case there was any doubt... like "No, That toothpaste has more than 100 ml, you have to leave it, but the gun is welcome".

• Bleeding control kit: Just as in Spain we can find fire extinguishers or defibrillators in shopping centers or museums, on our visit to the Museum of Natural History we found a bleeding control kit, in case... I don't know, you get shot watching the dinosaur section and you have to have an emergency transfusion.
  

• Capitalism taken to the extreme: Capitalism is in the air. Everywhere you go, there is the expensive option and the poor people option (I don't say cheap, because nothing is cheap). Do you remember when we could take a carry-on suitcase for free on planes and you would board according to the row you had? And now you have to pay if you want to bring something more than a backpack and those who pay the most board first. I also remember that the first few times I flew with Norwegian they had free wifi and now you have to pay for it. And I always think, why limit the resources if they are there and we could be using them all? Well, in the US I had this feeling with everything.

• Museums are organised differently: And it's incredible, but the extreme capitalism that I've already told you about has come to this point, and I think it's so internalised that you can even see it in how they consume culture. I wouldn't know how to explain why, but I had that thought throughout the whole visit. I already saw it years ago when I went to the Royal Ontario Museum and I felt it again at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. The conclusion I come to is that museums in Europe are better organised. You have signs everywhere showing you the different sections and they are arranged in a fairly coherent way. What I have found in the North American museums that I have visited is that they are not well marked at all, if you do not have a map it is impossible to find the different sections and sometimes they have no distinction and you go from one section to another without even realising or knowing where you are. They also had several parts that you can only see by paying a separate entrance (quite expensive, too) or attractions within the museum in which you can only participate by paying, even if you have already paid for the “general” admission. 

• The food is super tasty and it tastes different. I had already heard that Coca-Cola tasted different, and it's true. Although I've been to restaurants in Europe with American food, it didn't taste the same. I don't know if it is because there are preservatives or flavor enhancers that are prohibited here. What I liked the most was the cheddar. We have all tried the typical cheeseburger with American cheddar and it has nothing to do with it, it is much tastier and the texture is much more "melty".

• Fruit and vegetables are very expensive and in restaurants it's not usually an option. I think they don't have fruit and vegetables so introduced in their gastronomy as we do in Spain. Since I’m used to the Mediterranean diet, where you can order a thousand salads and where dessert usually includes fruit, everything we ate was fried, burgers and things like that, and although I also like this type of food, after 5 days I was dying to eat a salad. It's true that if you go to a Mediterranean food restaurant, that is, Italian, Greek or something like that, you will have options, but if not, at most you will find a Caesar salad, which yes, it is a salad, but it has fried chicken, fried bread, sauces and cheeses, so it loses a little of the freshness that I look for as a salad fan.

In summary, I didn’t have any super strong culture shock because in the end, globalisation and the fact that much of the audiovisual content that reaches us is American, means that we already know many of these things, but I wanted to share with you the little things that I thought were strange in some way. Finally, I'll add that I've been to a city that is supposed to be the cleanest and most walkable in the United States. I suppose I would have to go to other places in the US to dig deeper into the matter, perhaps in the future I will.