Welcome to Gaia! ::

I haven't really traveled outside the US other than one day in Mexico and one day in Canada.

Still, there are differences just between regions within the states.

I grew up in the south west (So. Cal and NV) and moving to Ohio was a pretty big culture shock. Like nobody here eats spicy food, everybody is obsessed with the local football teams, and everything closes way too early in the evening. Also, I've noticed a bizarre obsession with Pepsi and Mountain Dew in this area.

You notice little things you wouldn't normally think about, too, like whether people say "soda" or "pop".

I will... I remind myself not to do it again, so I'll just put your name on the list beside mine.

It's that Midwest thing again. It's a ******** cultural wasteland.

@Digi: I think once you manage to do some traveling outside the country, it'll come as less of a surprise. I've had the privilege of doing so numerous times, so I'm more surprised by similarities between cultures than differences. Even so, it's always the little differences, to paraphrase Pulp Fiction, that really stand out in one's memory.

What do you mean they don't have different kinds of milk in Germany?! When we have them in Poland? Remind me to check that when I'm next time in Germany. I will damn check it for you. Just for curiosity.
And it's possible they add milk to coffee. But we do add cream to coffee usually. It was always like that. We were buying cream in the communist times only for my parents to add it to their coffee.

One cultural difference with milk I experienced on my own self. I was visitting a coleague at the University of York a few years ago. And he asked me if I wanted tea. Then he asked me if with milk. Sure, make it with milk, I love it with milk.
And he brought me tea with milk - but no sugar gonk
In Poland we drink tea with milk and always with sugar (Bavarian style, btw).

Tea....with milk. That sounds delicious. biggrin

We get our milk and juices in cartons opposed to glass bottles that they come in in many European countries.

English speaking people might have a tough time here, since everything is either in Finnish or Finnish and Swedish. That includes street names, opening hours, menus etc. biggrin Which reminds me, we use the 24 h clock, not the 12 h clock that Americans use. So things like "open between 7 - 21" might be confusing for some people.

Ohoh! We don't have many fast food places here. Like in Barcelona there was a Subway or McD or Burger King on every street! We also don't have stuff like Taco Bell, Burger King, KFC or Wendy's. surprised

It was note. This happened at his workplace full of other people. If he never even asked about sugar, nobody drinks it with sugar.

Digi: yes, tea with milk (or cream) is delicious. I always do one for me when I'm on the meetings and everything's available whee