The Weirdest Things I Experienced in America
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ค. 2024
- So I just came from LA and... well it was a bit weird...
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It's quite amazing to me how many times I can hear American people having reverse culture shock once they've managed to get out of the States for a while. It's not just us being snooty foreigners, America just seems to be genuinely quite baffling sometimes.
It is amazing how people normalise everything. That it takes people to leave for a while to notice these things. Pretty sad.
@@baronvonlimbourgh1716 The problem, so to speak, is that you don't ever even have to "normalize" something that has never been different.
Pure reflexive nationalist isolationism. Basically just learned ignorance. Thinking about countries outside the us in anything other than "foreign" is rare here. Sucks ass.
@@jwb52z9 no things have been different, we are just purposely not taught that things can be and in fact very much ARE different elsewhere. Anything different here is flagged immediately and weird and/or bad. Sucks. Takes active effort to learn otherwise unless you are in urban hubs with genuine intermixing diversity, and even then, that's not the typical "american culture"
It's jist the same mechanism as hedonic adaptation applied on a societal level, a product of being human exacerbated by the fact that very few of us ever leave the US for a significant amount of time, in part due to the sheer size of this place
I work at a hospital in Germany and we had a patient who was very dissatisfied and angry because something didn’t go as planned (nothing medical, I think she had to wait for hours and then the procedure couldn’t be done that day or sth like that, I mean we’re still in a pandemic and it was kind of hard during the winter, with to many patients and not enough nurses) and she said, almost screaming at us, „if we were in the USA I would be suing you!“ I thought it was really funny.
That's when you reply "and you would be bankrupt due to hospital fees"
I would have told her, and I'm American, "There's a very high chance that if you were in the US, you wouldn't be here in the first place because you most likely wouldn't be able to afford it and you'd have to choose food, rent, or heat instead".
You should have told her, if she's willing to pay you as much, you'll take care of her 24/7
Speaking of German hospitals, their current regulations for visits are a bit baffling. Officially, there‘s only up to ONE visit per day and you have to do a rapid test, even though you‘ve been at home for weeks and have had 3 vaccinations.
I know that their regulations need to be stricter than usual, but that just seems like it‘s too much.
@@r4nd0mguy99 I think it makes sense - you can still be infected even with a vaccination, and as for "been at home for weeks" - how exactly are nurses going to check that?
Another point: some visitors are a pest. Not on purpose (I hope), but making demands on the nurses, or turning up with the entire family, small (and loud) children included then staying for hours in a room that _their_ relative shares with two other sick people.
Right now, nurses are so bloody over-worked that anything that saves them extra work and stress is, I think, excusable. Keep in mind: the only way to make sure that a patient didn't just catch C19 from a visitor is to do rapid tests on every patient, every day.
Admittedly: I'm the sort of person whom you can put into a hospital bed and as long as the room is quiet and I've got enough e-books, music and games on my laptop, I think I'm on a vacation.
I lived in England for ten years, and three years in France, when I came back to the US, wow...just wow. My family always made fun of me, but I wasn't prepared for reverse culture shock. Ten years after moving back to Florida, I'm still not used to it LOL. Already convinced the French husband that we need to move to France when we retire.
You need to MOVE BEFORE YOU RETIRE, DONT GET ILL IN THE USA, THEY WILL TRY VERY HARD TO BANKRUPT YOU- your retirement will end in nothing.
I’d say the mask culture varies state by state. Here in Texas, you’ll see maybe 20% of people wearing masks in public. I did a trip to Portland and Seattle last week, and it was basically the opposite, with about 80% of people still wearing masks even as the mandates in Oregon and Washington ended in the middle of my trip.
Edit: groceries are definitely more expensive in California. When I was visiting my grandma in the Bay Area last year, I wanted to make carnitas, and pork shoulders there were like $30+ compared to like $15 in Texas.
was gonna say this too. i've heard californians talk about masks in a way i never would have even imagined (best sites to research styles and types stands out recently), while in texas, i was thinking of myself as way more of a mask-enthusiast just because i keep extras in my car and backpack in case i forget to bring one with me lmfao
Yeah, people are pretty lax about masks here in Tennessee, too.
If Californian's tend to be so much more stringent about it, I suspect that it's because, in addition to them having a sincere desire to protect each other, they also want to distinguish themselves as not being like the nut jobs in other parts of the States.
Can't say as I blame them.
I’m in Texas and a high schooler as well but I’ve seen things differently at my school. Out of all of my teachers only one doesn’t wear a mask. In most of my classes there’s like 2 kids who don’t wear masks, BUT they’re vaxxed. And my classmates tend to look at ppl who don’t wear masks more disdainfully lol. I’m vaxxed and still wear a mask bc it makes me feel comfortable like a lot of my other classmates. I think that gen z’ers and other younger generations might be more strict on themselves to wear masks or take more safety precautions. We have hand sanitiser dispensers everywhere and they run out pretty quickly. And we mostly practice social distancing if possible. My 6 year old sister packs her own extra masks and it’s pretty much the only thing she doesn’t forget to bring. I live in houston and I’m in public school if that adds any insight. Sorry for the long comment just wanted to lend a different perspective :)
@@homedepot.: the hope for America lies in its youth. The madness cannot continue from generation to generation.
Covid deaths per million .
California - 2,232
Texas - 3,007
Oregon - 1,653
So someone from LA who's been living in the UK for about two years: I always describe LA as being a city of extremes - extreme poverty, extreme wealth, extreme views, politics, weather, personalities. As a whole the city can be overstigmatising, but whats's really scary is that because everything is done to the extreme, it's incredibly hard to find little ways to change any of it. I promise you, we see the problems we have, but every answer a person has is divisive to others. You talked about feeling unsafe - if you're ever wondering why very few people even use the public transport/ walking routes that are available, we feel just as unsafe as you did. I hope you enjoyed the lovely sunsets (yay pollution) and the beautiful landscapes while you were there though! They seem to make the bad bits decently worth it.
oh now I'm slightly scared lmao. My mom and I are planning on going in september and we planned on using the public transport because we're both kinda scared of trying to drive
@@LuneP Being an American, I always tell anyone wanting to visit here as a tourist that they really shouldn't unless they have a huge amount of money or won't venture outside specific resort type places or they're staying inside an amusement park full time like Disneyland or Disney World. I simply don't think it's a good idea for anyone not born here otherwise unless you're willing to do things you'd never have considered before.
@@jwb52z9 what do you mean?
@@LuneP if your from the UK and you travel with a typical laid back and accepting of everybody no matter who they are or what crazy they are up to, you will be fine. We've done loads of this travel in America and you meet some characters but they all love you, especially your accent. This is not the same with all rich Americans. If you see a very wealthy aggressive, entitled American get out of that place.
@@LuneP you’ll be fine. I’m an LA native too and the reality is that the dangerous parts of the county and city are areas you won’t go to regardless because there is nothing to do there for tourists. Just operate with common sense and you’ll have a good time.
Homelessness is a massive problem across the entire west coast. I think it’s gotten worse since I’ve grown up here. It’s an intractable problem and I don’t think it’s going to get solved anytime soon.
there is NO WILL to solve it as that would "risk" profit to property developers and require actual money expenditure by others to enact a system that actually provides homes to the "un housed"
v2danman I've noticed that it's been slowly getting worse in Australia and New Zealand over the years as well, which definitely wasn't such a big issue when I was young! 😥
I’m a Brit living in LA and I agree with pretty much all of your observations. I can never get over how much a jar of jam costs here. You’re lucky to find one under $3! Although Aldi is here at least and they charge a lot less than most of the other supermarkets (“interesting” fact: Trader Joe’s is owned by Aldi, but it’s owned by Aldi Nord, whereas Aldi US is overseen by Aldi Süd!).
I totally felt the same way when I went to L.A in 2017.
On one tube journey to downtown LA me and my friend got followed by a guy with a tear drop tattoo; A guy sat next to us and told us his name was Crazy Horse because when he gets crazy he yells so much he goes hoarse and then he told us about his Lazer eyes; A guy sat next to my friend in an orange shirt that said LA PRISON on it and asked if she'd be his girlfriend; a guy walked backwards into my friend, and when she apologized he chased us down the block asking why she apologized, then a cop car swung into the junction, and policemen got out with batons and arrested him, meanwhile we're trying to help this woman who had a dog named Bacon who didn't want to walk, get back to her apartment...
In one day!!!???
Absolutely mental place, I'll never visit again in my life 😩
The sad part about that kind of experience is that the only places where things like that aren't happening are also the places where the majority of the most uneducated, backward, and bigoted people live.
Your mistake was going to downtown LA.
I visited Boston from the UK and it was actually super great. The people were relatively calm and polite, so I guess not all of the US is that crazy.
@@csnide6702 Mostly, yes, but there are Northern pockets of it.
The sad part is, $15 an hour in California probably isn't really even a liveable wage unless you're pulling overtime (not accounting for tips). Assuming that server works a 40 hour week, his rent would be half his income, and everything is so expensive out there that the remaining 1200 probably disappears *quickly* :/ In Ohio, my husband and I are both making around $13 an hour (minimum is $9.30, he works full time and I'm part time) and we're still sort of scraping by paycheck to paycheck.
Living in California (Silicon Valley area), can confirm. $25/hr is closer to a livable wage here. I have a friend who makes around $30/hr working full time and still has to live with several roommates to get by.
@@wewantyourblo0d wooow
I’m from Texas too, a suburb of Dallas to be exact (about 15 mins from downtown) I’m making 15 an hour but I can’t find an apartment I can afford where I’m not in fear for my life. Even the cheapest apartments are 50% of my monthly income. It’s nuts
this. plus, I think one thing Evan forgets is that the dollar is nowhere near as strong as the British pound, so that's why everything is "more expensive" here relative to what he is used to. rising inflation doesnt help, either.
@@csleet8786: the influx of Californians is having a big effect on housing, too. The California dollar goes a long way in Texas.
When I was in the States several years ago, all those giant ads on the highway surprised/shocked me. Especially you don't see many to none ads on highways in Europe.
Those giant hoardings reminded me strongly of the book Fahrenheit 451..
Needed this to round up my day. Thanks for the surprise, Evan
16 years of living in Europe then moving back to Australia - that was one hell of a reverse culture shock!
how did you find it? I'm 10 years in the UK and thinking of moving back to Melbourne. I definitely get what Evan means by "feeling like an outsider where you shouldn't" though.
Also the longer I'm away from Aus, the more I doubt the whole "easy going" thing. People are pretty strict about rules and the nanny state thing is real (compared to the UK at least)
Curious in what ways?
Things a generally more expensive in California, also the mask culture is very place specific. I live in rural Wisconsin, and here you will be criticized for wearing a mask, lol
Hello and welcome back to a man who really likes the word "bizarre"
Yep so bizarre 😂😂
Yes! My mom and sister were looking for a Nature's Table to eat at, in Florida. And Googlemaps took them right up to a Military Base! The funny thing was the person at the gate who had them turn around confirmed there was a Nature's Table on base but was really confused why it was showing up on Google
I just got back to the UK from San Antonio Texas after a 2 week holiday; the billboards are massive, everywhere and there are loads of them and it seemed every 3rd one was for a lawyer.
Everything is about the dollar, spend spend more money for the rich---f... the people they don't matter!
I've been to the US once, we went to NYC and Miami (as well as south-western Florida). I had a great time there but I know for a fact I could never live in the states, they seem to have a lot of issues that I just don't have to face in Scotland.
One of the things is that most tourists never see anything but the coasts because that's where all the "fun stuff" is now. Most Europeans and people in the UK would be horrified, literally, by everywhere else in the nation.
@@jwb52z9 Playing GeoGuessr is really eye opening in that way. Sometimes the first few seconds when I'm looking at a rundown location I'm wondering if it's Russia, Ukraine, Romania or... rural America. Everyone has seen these towns in movies and documentaries but seeing how many towns there are like that all over the US was pretty shocking. You'd think they'd be happy for people hopping the borders so they could breath new life into these towns but it's the opposite.
@@Hackaway Oh, they're only not ok with it if the people are not white and don't have any money, unfortunately. They, meaning the rich and upper class, love to be able to hire minority workers for servant work or farm work, but only if the servants are attractive or they don't have to pay the farm workers very much and can threaten them with various things if they don't work themselves to death in the crop fields.
That's because you went to NYC and Miami. They are both their own thing. Most of the US is nothing like those cities.
I'm an American who has lived in 4 states and 5 countries. You could not pay me enough to live in NYC or Miami. Just .... no.. on so many levels (high crime, high cost of living, too much noise, too many people, too much traffic, etc)
There’s a surprising amount of towns in the desert that the only thing keeping them from turning into ghost towns is that they are next to military bases like Lancaster, which is next to Edwards Air Force base. Although a lot of these towns are now also filled with people that commute to LA proper for work because they are more affordable than inside the metro area.
Here in Portsmouth, UK we are a massive Naval base and we have a place called “Whale Island” which is run by the Royal Navy. They have quite a few decent sports facilities nearby that people can use. It’s always amusing watching the faces of people not from the area accidentally drive on to the Naval base to be greeted by some armed military dudes 😂
Portsmouth is my city too.. love it... messy, overcrowded, old tatty buildings ... but its also beautiful with southsea, Old Portsmouth, Gunwharf quays etc.
@@jeanniewarken5822 Yeah - lived in Portsmouth 20 years and love it. But then I realise it's the thin strip at the southern tip I love - Southsea, Old Portsmouth, some of Eastney, etc. The rest of it I avoid.
A better comparison would be Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, thousands of tourist from all over the world visiting the sites with only a crash barrier and bit of hazard tape separating them from the working Naval Base (and that's with heightened security, it used to be quite relaxed).
Evans experience would be more like Salisbury Plain Training Area SPTA ( there are others) where there roads , public footpaths and bridleways, they fly red flags when training, mount a guard when firing things.
Things move on without you and you go back expecting them to have stayed the same. I emigrated from UK in 2011 and I'm sure I would experience some reverse culture shock if I went back there to live or have an extended visit. I live in Croatia, where people generally behave better than they do in UK. I'm not sure what I would make of LA!
Some stores check your receipt
Angeleno here. We don’t get used to the sunsets. This is made obvious in our sub-Reddit where there are often votes to ban sunsets photos since we post them so often. Lol
Opens TH-cam, sees Evan's video, frantically double checks the day of the week worried I time traveled to Sunday... Nope just a lovely surprise video.
Speaking of highways near houses, that "prison" wall at the beginning is a sound dampening wall to mitigate the sounds from the roads.
The mask culture is definitely different from region to region. Where I live in in the Triangle region of North Carolina (the most educated and liberal part of the state), masks are a very "sensitive topic" and asking people to mask is frowned upon or downright disallowed depending on the situation. It's even worse outside the Triangle, where masks and vaccinations are often viewed with little but suspicion or contempt. I guess it's that inevitable divide that exists in the US - generally liberal SoCal isn't the generally conservative South.
this is really interesting because i live near the outerbanks and what you said perfectly describes it, however, my boyfriend lives in Charlotte NC and it’s almost the opposite there. Lots more people wearing masks, people not really throwing a fit too often about masks, and all around this unspoken understanding of we’re all just trying to get this over with. However, I will say he lives right near UNC so it might just be because most of the people in that area are college students🤷🏻♀️ idk
I also live in the Triangle, in one of the most liberal towns in the area, and this morning I watched a man compare the public bus driver to a nazi after she informed him that the local transit system was enforcing masking for another month even though the county ended its mask mandate two weeks ago.
It's true. I live near Philadelphia (liberal), and a good number of people are still wearing masks, even though there's no mandate anymore. I drove "home" to the rural part of the state (conservative) a couple of weeks ago, and just NOBODY was wearing one.
How interesting. We live over towards Cary, and Everywhere we go has a sign on the door requiring masks to enter. The only time we encounter maskless people is outside, and about half of folks still wear them even then (including us).
@@bandmadd yeah, I've noticed that among university students here, too. NC State, Durham, UNC, Wake Tech, generally university students seem to be the most receptive to mask wearing in my experience as well. It may be better than what I described and similar to your boyfriend's experience in the NCSU part of Cary or in similar areas. I live in North Raleigh in particular, which is fairly split between older retirees, students seeking cheaper housing, and country folk.
Husband and I lived in Suffolk county in England for three years since he's active duty. Rural England is so. freaking. slow. Everything closes at 4-5pm. Even American fast food places closed at 10-11pm. Husband and I grew up in the central valley of California (not exciting, two hours north of Bakersfield, smog and nasty shit), but it was the city. I was used to hearing cops, helicopters, crazy people, etc. The village was quiet. Hell, I didn't even know where the police station was, nor do I recall seeing cop cars (outside of the RAF bases we had access to, or local events off base)
1) the randomly driving into a base. I never thought about it, but I don't recall Google Maps ever directing us through Lakenheath or Mildenhall, it always went around. At least in Las Vegas, Google will give me a little warning icon about private roads (aka military gates).
2) Reverse culture shock of sorts. After three years of being away: flags. American flags on every corner. Little ones, big ones, bathing suits, stickers. Like I knew we had a flag obsession, but it became so much more obvious. I still comment on it, four years later of being back stateside.
3) Food whines: I miss UK McDonalds. Their chicken nuggets and McChickens are/were (idk, things could have changed) so much better than US. I also miss Nandos so much. I still get email adverts lol
I want to try Nandos so badly. I hadn't heard of it last time we were in the UK (like a decade ago) and it looks so good!
@@TheJoyBinkley it was! I think there’s one or two Nandos on the East coast
@@aidenoffire1987 ! just checked, they're in Chicago and DC. sigh.. perhaps they'll expand. :)
As to the base thing, I’m pretty sure they ran into the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps base. Chances are they got directed to the commissary on base? Kinda weird, but I don’t think US google maps really takes those boundaries into account?
@@GeographyPal I just checked by telling my Google maps to go to the local base exchange (like a mall). A small yellow triangle popped up saying the route had restricted usage or private roads. 🤷🏻♀️
11:30 do you want to know two of the main reasons why so many people seem to be „crazy“ in US cities?
Healthcare system and opioid crisis.
As long as Americans think that compulsory public healthcare is communism or socialism or whatever there will always be a large number of people simply left behind. All of these people you described suffer from mental illnesses, addiction being just one of them. Psychosis could be another illness, bipolar disorder, of course these illnesses can be caused by drug addiction, but the reason is not relevant anymore when it’s already there.
In a compulsory public healthcare system people have higher chances that they receive treatment and care because for example they regularly see a doctor and the doctor could take note of the changed behavior over time.
I won’t say that these problems do not exist in Europe, because there will always be people with mental illnesses and drug addictions that will never receive treatment, but your chances of getting any kind of treatment are so much higher in our public healthcare systems than in a stronger eats the weaker healthcare system like the US have it.
The same applies to prescription drugs, which are prescribed way too quick in the US and also you can buy stronger medicinal drugs without a prescription than you can buy in Europe without a prescription.
It all comes down to care in the end, do people care for the society the live in?
For the US the answer is a rather clear “no”.
Really interesting thanks
Really sad actually
The right wing in the US has done a very good job over most of the last century or so brainwashing their voters and minions to vote against anything that would be in their best interest. They've been kept poor, hungry, undereducated, and desperate with the Republicans telling them everything that would actually help them is some form of Evil. The white poor are made to think, "we might be poor and etc., but at least we're white", which is simply to keep groups that would otherwise eventually help each other apart. The religious zealots in the US want to label everything of which they do not approve now as "Evil" as well. That includes the idea that "you should never have to help anyone without a case-by-case individual opportunity to say no, especially when the religious zealots want to label someone an "evil sinner" and thus unworthy of help along with banning everything in society that is "of course, evil", to them. When you combine the ingrained and brainwashed mindset that too many Americans have that says, "Do everything yourself or you're an evil, lazy, vagabond. If you can't succeed alone, you should just drop dead, literally, and get out of the way of everyone who did succeed alone". If you don't "somehow" die as they think you should, you're expected to simply stay quiet, miserable, and obedient to them while also often being sick and in massive debt you'll never get out of in life short of a proverbial monetary miracle. The only exceptions to this are if you're very elderly, a young child, or disabled. If you're disabled, though, you had better make sure no one around you even thinks you might have ever even possibly had a hand in causing or contributing to your disability. In that case, you're considered unworthy of help even at that mediocre level. If you're disabled, like me, from birth, and you end up bad enough to need the only meager help a disabled person can get in the US in terms of healthcare, the combined rules, if you're on both of the available programs, make it such that it's basically illegal to have an income that would do you any good or you lose all help and it's usually going to be a cold day in Hell before you would ever get the help back again. I can't even get married because my spouse's income, assuming I can ever find a spouse, would be counted against me and that would also make me ineligible, unless I married someone disabled and in the same programs I am in now. The problem with that is that it would invalidate one of the major reasons a person like me would get married, the financial help. It would be monumentally stupid for me to marry a person in my same situation. The only ways I'll ever even have a infinitesimal chance of a better life are if I can find a wealthy foreign national, like a British citizen, to take me out of the nation permanently and support me to be able to get British citizenship, I somehow win a huge amount of money that would last me my entire life, or, even less likely, a huge leap in medical advances happens before I'm elderly and too feeble or infirm to have it do me any good.
@@jwb52z9 that was a depressing read.
I’m so sorry about your situation.
Unfortunately I don’t think anything can be done in the short term about the brainwashing of your nation in regards to the healthcare system.
Even democrats seem to oppose universal healthcare as they don’t highlight that your current system is more expensive for the majority of individuals than a tax funded system would be.
@@PoppyCorn144 It can't change until, somehow, all of the GOP/Republicans are gone and we elect real Progressives and can maintain it long enough for people to want things to stay changed.
I noticed the 'mask culture' today in the UK - I rarely go into my city centre as I usually shop locally or on-line. Today I ventured into the city centre with my daughters/granddaughters. I happily wear a mask, as do my family. We wore masks today when entering high st stores, and the looks we got made us feel like alien invaders. I wanted to pin a sign to my back saying "I'm wearing a mask because I have a rare blood cancer...my family are protecting me and don't want me to live in isolation forever" Obviously we didn't as we look on it as personal choice, we care for each other... touching wood no one in my family has contracted Covid, so we're doing something right.
Same. I did buy a badge to pin on my coat as they are available! I also am ready to ask strangers if they want my and my family’s medical history if challenged…. Hope you continue to stay safe from contracting covid and unchallenged by the uninformed.
myself and my partner still wear masks when we go into shops and on busy highstreets - less and less people are wearing them now unfortunately - I'm so sorry people judge you, I hope you stay safe ❤️
Whether you had a problem or not, its YOUR CHOICE and a very sensible one. the "others" were just thick stupid idiots.
7months down the line I still see people wearing masks. If it helps them feel safe then carry on it might become a cultural thing like Japan they wear them when they don't feel well to stop the spread of viruses
Evan: “Hey, Siri: shut the f*** up.”
My HomePod mini: “There is nothing to stop here.”
What have you done, Evan? You kicked off the robot uprising!
I felt a pang when you described feeling like an outsider. I was moved from one city to another (same country) and when I returned for a holiday I did not belong there anymore. I was an outsider. It was sad! We are supposed to be wearing masks on public transport. Today I was on several trams and trains. Maybe 10% of the passengers had masks on.
Have an amazing day! Thank you for the video!
One of the reasons I’ve been avoiding public transport for the last couple of years has been because of the number of people who don’t wear masks. I took it once and the majority of the people on the train weren’t wearing them, even though it was legally required at the time and vaccines weren’t even a thing yet.
Driving into a military compound may not be common in the UK, but my school once accidentally took us into a quarry where the army were doing shooting practise, which is at least vaguely similar.
Gotta keep those enrollment number down *somehow* right?
Never stumbled into a military base in in or out of the US but interestingly I was shocked by how many fully armed anti-terror police I saw when I was in Spain and Italy. People with rifles guarding tourist spots, I didnt expect to see more guns in Europe than I did in the US, maybe I just live in an under-armed part of the states.
Yeah I'm from the UK and I've only ever seen a real gun when I went to Rome, it was super surprising to see that.
@@olivia6496 wow really? What part of the UK are you from out of curiosity? I’m from the UK too and have seen police / security with guns walking around shopping centres and the like
@@prescottperfection6354 Scotland! A town near Edinburgh. Genuinely had never seen a gun until I was about 16 in Italy
@@olivia6496 must be an English thing then!😂 especially the closer you get to London
Eh the only places I’ve seen armed police in London is large train stations like Victoria and airports. And obviously landmark buildings like Buckingham palace.
In Japan I drove into a Japanese Army Base. It worked out because we gave rides to a couple of soldiers who showed us the way to town.
Always lovely to hear from you, Evan. As American ex-pats ourselves, we have experienced the same when jetting back to the US for short visits. It's a rather common thing, I hear.
Happy Friday Evan!
Fascinating! Would like to hear more of your reverse culture shock experiences
Living in LA, I’ve gotten so used to some of the things other people find baffling (high rent, crazy people everywhere, little to no walkability, crazy traffic, etc.) that when I visit other places, it’s genuinely kind of unnerving that these things aren’t the case.
Another great video Evan! That last part about feeling like a tourist in your previous home was super interesting! It’s really a weird feeling! Also, whenever I have vacation time, I find it hard not to go home, since everyone’s there, so I haven’t travelled elsewhere in years! Did you struggle with that?
Would love to hear more in these topics, maybe it would also help people going through it! Keep up the good work :)
This was so interesting! Thanks Evan! ☺️
I’m enjoying this video so much because this is my life as a Californian, as a waiter, as someone who is constantly in a big city with lots of homelessness, as someone making a documentary about car dependency. This video is talking about my daily life at the moment.
good luck on the documentary. where will you release it?
I love this. Been dipping in since you began, fresh from the USA. You do realise you're turning into a Londoner. That's what's so magical about London, everybody arrives with their own culture and over time it all merges. Another generation of Londoner's are born. So nice nothing has really changed. You're great.
Filming set up looks great, loving the lighting
Looks like Fridays are the new Sundays!
Need that jumpsuit! I have their velvet onesie and it's heavenly, I'll never go back to normal clothes 🤗
I have accidentally driven into a military base up in Northumberland lol, I think its perfectly possible to end up in one in the UK, they're just less common and really in the middle of nowhere
You can’t drive accidentally into a military base in the UK, a training area maybe or firing range, but those are public places anyway.
I'm from Australia & I visited America recently & on the way from lax to Anaheim omg so many lawyer adverts especially sweet James!
Hi Evan, just started watching you, nice video :) even the onesie seems nice haha
Were you feeling time pressured about the video length though? You spoke a little fast on this one
Hahaha!! Former military brat here. We don't bite! You'd probably actually get along with the military community fairly well (as we're always between two cultures and usually well-traveled and some of the most open-minded Americans I've met).
But yeah, you're probably not the only one who's been directed on base to our Commissary. I actually am pretty sure about where you went, I had a friend that lived there for several years. Google just doesn't know the difference, I guess as bases seemed to be pretty well mapped on it. Seems unsafe to me, but what do I know! lol.
In Chicago and in Illinois I've seen major regional and even neighborhood-level differences in masking. In the small town where I used to live it got to the point that maskers and non-maskers were shopping at separate sets of stores; honest to god it was one hardware store and one supermarket for maskers and the other hardware store and other supermarket for non-maskers.
'... honest to god it was one hardware store and one supermarket for maskers and the other hardware store and other supermarket for non-maskers.' And so the divide is complete.
I moved to London from Chicago 25 years ago and when I go back to the USA (LA/SFO/NYC/Chicago/Miami) I feel the same way as you.
So I presume you prefer London to Chicago. Why did you move to London?
Driving around Boston for the first time in a LONGGGG time (self-quarantined), I was amazed at the number of "recreational cannabis" billboard ads...
Nope groceries expensive as hell in the USA rn. Also because of my job and house prices rn I’m currently having to relocate because I can’t afford to live in the state I have lived in my whole life everything is crumbling fast in America and nothing is improving nor do I think it will for a long time tbh
Things seem to be declining quickly. I wonder why people aren't in the streets demanding change.
@@baronvonlimbourgh1716 so there is and this a super deep issue and I could write paragraphs/Essays about it but to really summarize and simplify it there’s thing big things at play here. The rich have divided the poor so well through gerrymandering lack of education and other factors their vote matters a lot less so it’s harder for poor and marginalized communities to vote. So that one way things don’t change. The other way is the people who are effected the most by a lot of the legislation can’t afford to take a day off work to protest even though they want to. And I mean the last is even when we as Americans have been screaming the system is broke for I mean since America was pretty new but especially now the government turns a blind eye because the big corporations are what fund and run their campaigns. Like everyone in America knows our government officials are puppets for corporations (of course not all it is a generalization) then that along with other factors make it to where the corporations will generally always win and it won’t change because the system is so broke but a lot of Americans have been indoctrinated into believing this is the best it possibly can be because you know “we are the greatest country”. There’s way more I could get into but this I think kind of best summarizes why Americans seem so silent I promise you we aren’t and a lot of us want better things but it’s so hard to make things change in America. But there’s hundreds of thousands people working everyday to change things. I mean I’m an educator and almost once a month a different body of educators are striking etc to try and create change. So I have no clue on what to say to conclude this post if anything I wrote above was confusing let me know and I’ll try my best to clarify
@@baronvonlimbourgh1716 You're right. The right wing has done an excellent job in brainwashing their voters and minions into voting against everything that would be in their best interest. They rile up the poor white people to believe that no matter what problems they have "we're still white and better than the minorities". I wish I could link everyone in this comment section to my comment about it.
Complex issues.
Such a shame for a country with so much potential.
@@tmahan1000 the division is wider than ever and you cannot even explain America's particularly toxic brand of capitalism to those who don't want to hear why their problems are not those of a particular president.
not looking at my screen and then hearing “this video is sponsored by One Piece” i’ve never snapped my head faster. all i could think was “huhhhh??” and then realized… wrong One Piece
I love driving in America, we rented a Chrysler Sebring and I drove from LA to San Francisco and back again over two weeks. Stopping in Santa Cruz on the way up and San Luis Obispo on the way back. It was a proper road trip adventure. Being stopped by the police because my "reg was out of date" was especially confusing as I didn't know what a reg was (Americans put their tax disk on the number plate). When the nice policeman unbuttoned his gun as I slowly reached for my UK driving licence was a very stressful moment - I knew to tell him where it was before I got it out. The road sign saying "do not stop for hitch hikers - military stockade" was interesting I almost wanted to do it. But the highway back into LA was vast I was in the middle and couldn't see the furthest left or right lane, after all the movies in the 80s and 90s I felt honoured to be stuck in LA traffic. I did mess up once coming out of a Burger King in Santa Barbra, I ended up on the wrong side of the road at a set of lights but the drivers behind me gave me the space to correct it. Such nice people. But I do find it easier to drive on the other side of the road in foreign countries when the steering wheel is on the appropriate side of the car. I couldn't drive a British car in America, I would end up killing myself.
i can definitely relate to that weird feeling of being an outsider in a place you used to live after moving countries... moving countries feels like shifting realities
When you get your driving licence, take a road trip to the west coast of Scotland in the summer (Oban up to Ullapool). Best sunsets I've ever seen (and I've done the US West coast, driving from the Canadian border to San Diego).
Yeah, California native here, but currently live in Japan.
-Lawyer thing is particularly extreme in LA but it's in other areas too.
-Prices of things, yes are expensive. It's one reason I can't relate to any of my friends in Japan who complain about how expensive Japan is because I lived with worse. It's only melon prices that are noticeable to me.
-The sunset is pretty, but it is pretty because of the bad air quality. The smog does stuff to the sun's rays at sunset so there's more of those pinkish hues because of deathly air. It's something that gives you pause.
In Vaca in the USA, food was so expensive
And what the Fuck is that thing that meat cost as much as tomatoes by mass !?!
As a french It made me realize how important food is to me and my culture
I’ve lived in LA well over a decade. The homelessness has been getting swiftly worse and more intense and it no longer resembles the place I first saw. Most people I know don’t have a lot of money or power, but they are not desensitized to it either. They are sad and sorry and outraged (on behalf of people struggling, not about them) and are increasingly uncomfortable/ afraid (especially women walking around at night sometimes). They vote with this as a central issue, they canvass, they volunteer or donate when/ if they can. They are not desensitized, but they are also not sure how to personally or individually fix it either. It’s just heartbreaking.
I am in the UK and our town has a barracks that Google loves to think is a shortcut. Luckily it's well signposted but I still use waze.
My son and friends went to SIGGRAPH in LA and saw Seal Beach on the map and got an Uber there. It turned out to be a military base and the driver was an immigrant. That was not a good time!
I haven't been home to the UK for a long time and I expect things to be very weird. Each time I go things have changed so much it feels familiar and yet not.
You had the pleasure of running into Naval weapons Station seal Beach :D
I am from a small city in western Canada, but have been living in a huge Asian city for over 20 years. When I go back for a visit, everything seems stark and empty. Also usually much colder, becuse my holiday times are April and October.
Yeah, I was going with some people to the landfill and Google Maps tried to take us to a National Guard armory that was around the corner from the landfill. Nobody came out to ask for ID, but we made a quick trip around the parking lot, saw the landfill from where we were, exited the parking lot and followed the road around to the landfill.
I had to turn around in the entrance to a military base in Virginia (near DC). I had followed a freeway exit sign (Starbucks or Tim Hortons 1 mi to the right) and ended up on a base.
I wish the rest of the US was like that. In Kentucky mask culture is definitely what you talked about that's been in media. I went into a gas station store with one on today and immediately got to hear two guys loudly talking about how "the Dems" are socialists and going to get what's coming to them. It's all I could do not to ask them what's so wrong with shared ownership and limited class distinction but this is also a big pew pew state so I figured I better not. But I absolutely know it's because I was the only one in there with a mask on and they mentioned masking being a "control tactic". Sorry I have long COVID and don't really want to risk getting it again even if community spread here is pretty low right now?
The risk of hitting your head while riding a bike is really low, but why risk not having a helmet? I'd wear one, I'd wear a mask, it's for my own safety. I also wear a mask for others safety.
God forbid that the rest of the US should be like California
People shouldn't be up in arms about masks either way, and never should've been. If you want to wear a mask, you shouldn't be attacked. If I don't want to wear one, I shouldn't be forced to. This was how everyone thought prior to 2020.
@@SusanChristmas right?!
@@Liggliluff yes exactly! Similar to how wearing a seatbelt when others in the car isn't just for your safety... You could become a projectile in a wreck and injure other passengers and while that doesn't happen every time someone wrecks without a seatbelt... Why take the risk?
I’m surprise this didn’t happen to you when you lived in Jersey. I almost ended up on Fort Dix more than once. Because it was the fastest way to a store was going through the base. I literally could not figure out how to get to the store and gave up.
Evan re your military compound experience, I remember here in the UK going for a drive with my parents in the countryside somewhere - IDK where sorry - and we stopped the car for a second to get some tea that we had packed and there were signs on fences saying this was a military restricted area..
I think you ended up at the 29 Palms base. That one happens to be for desert training (which makes sense given our recent war history).
So Cal has a few famous military bases but I think if you live here you are likely keenly aware of their locations. I did find a national guard base by accident once, but I didn’t try to drive in. 🤣
The main gate to the base at Twentynine Palms is really nondescript, and then you pull up and a gate guard is asking you for your CAC at the gate of a Marine Corps base and you kind of freak out.
My father in law lived near a military base in Maryland, and when I visited with my husband in 2012 we ended up almost going onto the base like 4 times.
I've just come back from LA, and will be going back out there next week for 6 weeks. All of this is SO true! I noticed the lawyer billboards everywhere also.
LA especially, you can't walk anywhere. Everybody gets Uber/Lyft and it becomes so costly, and then in restaurants you've got the tax and tips which drives up costs even more.
My parents live in God's waiting room aka Florida and there are Billboards advertising cremation. I think that is very creepy.
Get them out of Florida, it has the worst record for looking after retired people. VERY POOR HEALTH CARE-set to bankrupt you. They could loose everything. Thats why there are so many Lawyers- Like Vultures
@@johnchristmas7522 It's also to do with the fact that the US produces more lawyers per capita than (I think) any other nation. There are some actually quite good reasons for that. The US is one of the most litigious nations on Earth, it is a common route into politics, and it is seen as a safe bet if you don't know what you want to do in life; quite a lot of places will hire you on the strength of a law degree if you apply for a "degree required" job, where they are fussed about what actual degree it is, just that you have one. That said, the supply greatly exceeds demand, so smaller practices have to work quite hard to drum up clients to generate billable hours
Masks are the same way here in western Washington! I work at Starbucks and if someone doesn’t have one on, we’re supposed to offer one. Although, just last week our county has lifted the mask mandate
Recently visited family in Germany and was shocked that they were not only strict about wearing masks but it had to be a specific type of mask you should wear.
It was also funny that groceries seemed to get more expensive for them while they still looked cheap to me for someone living in London.
I know there are some places in the US where people tend to care more about the type of masks that people are wearing but as far as I know there aren’t any laws that specify what type is required. Was it a similar thing in Germany or did they have like actual laws that required specific types of masks?
@@lydia3460 the absolute minimum are surgical masks (most famously the blue ones), and masks made from cloth were banned. But depending on the state (yes, Germany has states), they could mandate an FFP2-mask, which offer better protection to the wearer. And everywhere, FFP2-masks are highly encouraged. There are talks of removing the mask mandate altogether soon, but AFAIK that hasn't happened yet.
I am from the UK and always think that Germany is a better country to live . Am I wrong?
@@kevingrant7098 depends what you expect. There will always be situations where you will think, this should be done differently. It also depends on your situation, are you poor, wealthy, have a job or not, etc. Social security is lacking in Germany, but not as much as in the UK, to my understanding, so while you don't want to be poor in either country, the UK would be worse. Pay can be higher in the UK, though, so if you have a sought after talent...
Overall, I love to visit the UK, but would probably prefer Germany to live, if I ever choose to leave my country.
That wall mirror 👌👌
Sunsets up in the Pennines are pretty spectacular
LA sunsets are the most beautiful. Positive side of all the pollution! Remember seeing on the news years ago that Reagan got buried at sunset. Always thought that was a weird request then went there and realised. Get a license and drive around the U.K. Maybe you’ll love it on the roads here. Try the national parks and see. 😃
I'm in Japan , it was a shock going to the UK last summer and seeing so many people not wearing masks
It's optional here
Talking about highway billboard, I was in Florida last month, and I saw a billboard saying
"child support 800$/month.......Vasectomy, dial 866xxxxx, Low-cost No-cost, Options available"
and obviusly tons of lawyers
I've been to Donna Nook on the northeast Lincolnshire coast to see the seal pups. As you get close there are lots of signs telling you to ignore your satnav and drive straight on as otherwise you'll drive onto a military base. At a guess it used to happen rather a lot.
I just moved from the Midwest to Seattle last year. The income inequality is horrible. I feel like I’m a part of the problem just by living here (even though I have no money and am subsisting on student loans). It is so hard knowing there’s nothing I can do to even make a dent. Everything you described is just daily life here. 😢
Is income inequality a bad thing in and of itself? Places like Venezuela, Somalia, North Korea, etc. have very little income inequality...everyone there is dirt poor and can't afford basic necessities. Your average Seattle resident has far less money than Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates, so there's HUGE income inequality...but they're among the top 5 richest people on the planet. The poorest person in Seattle has more money than most people in those countries.
@@royalemeraldbuilder5058 the issue is not Bill Gates but the 1000's of tech employees making 100K driving "cheap" apartment rents to a point where police officers and teachers CAN NOT afford to live in the area they serve - not to mention the store clerks or the mechanic to fix your car
@@jasonriddell hmm. Maybe that is a real problem there. Don't know, I don't live on the west coast. But perhaps the state and local governments could help out by not taxing the snot out of everybody?
That’s just because of California. I live on the east coast and the food is plenty expensive, and servers still make very little. Some states have policies about minimum wage.
In England I eat much healthier since I can actually afford the produce lol 😂 I feel that.
Aye to address the military compound thing. You might have run into MCAGCC Twentynine Palms? Big ass military station. The road to get into the main gate off the actual town is long, and you can go for a while before you know where you’ll end up.
What I’m wondering is if google maps took you to the ‘nearest groceries’ which just happened to be the Twentynine Palms commissary on base??
Edit: As to why the base would be there. Twentynine Palms does training for force integration and stuff, so the middle of nowhere desert provides an arid sparsely populated area to conduct and simulate operations in relative seclusion. The plus side is also that you won’t annoy the hell out of any significant population with a huge base, and live fire exercises, because the adjacent town is pretty tiny.
7:14 That $1 Trader Joe’s onion is even more of a kick in the teeth when you consider that the entire chain is a subsidiary of Aldi!
Haven’t even started the video yet, but your hair looks 🔥 digging the long hair
bruh the US is so giant and diverse. Everything you talked about was LA specific. For real. When I go to LA being from a small town in Indiana, it's just as foreign to me. That place is one-of-a-kind.
🤣 born and raised in LA County and I still stop to take pics of the sunsets. They never look as nice in the pictures though, the colors shift so much
OMG !!!! LA sunsets are pretty BECAUSE of the amount of POLUTION in the Air😝
I’m regards to you feeling uncomfortable in LA: I went to England last Christmas (US citizen) and my friends had hyped me up so much about pickpocketing so I was *terrified*. I constantly was checking my fanny pack. In Southampton I was approached by a woman (definitely on drugs) asking me random questions and my bf had to pull me away from her. She yelled after me saying how rude I was. Definitely freaked me out a bit.
@@jillhobson6128 LOL! True,but as funny as hell,when reading this brief exchange!🤣
Dude you just set off half my smart home…. I really wanted my music on shuffle in every room
The issue you had with the military base is very common with Army bases. To give you an example since you have lived in NJ, Fort Dix covers many square mile in the middle of the state. Many roads use to go through the base as long as you didn't turn off the road. After 911, they completely fenced in the base. Many of the entrances have closed gates. Only the main entrance from route 68 is opened and only to military.
I have this with London having moved to Edinburgh 10 years ago.
I live near an Air Force base, they usually have a part that is accessible to civilians. And even the base itself is not usually so difficult to visit if it’s not Global pandemic time. It gave me a bit of a start too the first few times. One of the guys casually made a joke about the bureaucracy of the federal government and I couldn’t relate at all 😭
Your military base experience kinda reminds me of the time my grandma and I were on a road trip in the Angels Camp area and we were looking at real estate up there. The signs all pointed up the mountain but when we drove up higher, there was a sign that said that only authorized vehicles of a certain type can enter. She apparently didn't see it and kept driving as the GPS told her to continue. We kept climbing the mountain as there was nowhere to turn around and the GPS stopped loading. The road became pretty narrow and overgrown with branches everywhere. I kept refreshing the GPS and it finally loaded the location. It was a fire service road. For off-road fire vehicles. We ended up driving to the very top of the mountain where there was finally a spot to turn around. It took about 25 minutes to reach the bottom and as soon as we were on a paved road again, we got a flat tire. It turns out that the road we were driving on was shell rock and had popped our tire. We changed the tire but our spare was also flat. We ended up being towed all the way home. I'm just so thankful that we didn't get stuck on an unnamed road with no signal up in the mountains.
At least you were stopped by the US Army in the US. In 1960, my friend David and I, rowing in the Holy Loch, were intercepted and turned back by a US Navy cutter. I am still indignant!
Reverse culture shock: how underdeveloped tap to pay is in the US. Even though I only spend a few weeks on vacation in the UK I got so used to Apple Pay literally everywhere! When I come back to the US (even in LA) tap to pay isn’t functional everywhere.
@@csnide6702: it comes out of your account just the same or are you finding money on the pavement.
@Nick Sintora: I follow a couple of NYC youtubers who are not using tap to pay on the metro system. I find that surprising.
@@eattherich9215 right! It’s crazy!
@@csnide6702 Cash is not going to be around forever. Automatic/Instant payment systems are the future. The US is also the only nation left that lets people write checks routinely anymore as well.
@@csnide6702 That kind of remark reeks of a paranoid mind.
@1:01, thanks for starting my day off with 😂 A few stores here had greeters handing out masks, but that was a short lived thing. UK driving licence, Evan. You are a Brit now. 🙂 @11:48, you haven't travelled by bus enough in London. On nearly every journey I take, there will be someone bearing witness or urging sinners to repent. Google maps are rubbish. Don't ever rely on them to get you where you want in a timely manner. Love the arc lamp, by the way.
There's a military base in my small town (Portugal), I don't know where the actual entrance is, but I'd never try to drive into it by accident - it can be seen, and recognised from all directions.
Can 100% relate Evan, feeling a foreigner in your motherland. I have been in the U.K. half my life now, U.K. citizen for 12 years.
Definitely I go to visit & enjoy the experience & seeing family, would not choose to live there how it is right now. I guess you could say I have gone ‘native’.
Where was your motherland?
@@kevingrant7098 like Evan & Springsteen, born in the USA.
It sounds like there is some music playing lightly in the background of the video. I really like it! Is it a certain song? If it is I would love to know it! Thanks🙂
Trying to drive to DCA (airport just outside of DC), multiple times I've ended up at the pentagon bc google maps is so confusing
GPS maps do not always recognize restricted access stuff, especially if you were at a Reserve or National Guard facility. The gate guards are used to that, though, and have policies to handle getting you turned around.