I’m a Texan living in Amsterdam, so when I come back to the States (Dallas and Austin this time), I noticed things about American that I never did:

• People are eager to be helpful, especially when you have a bunch of kids. Everyone offers to help with luggage. A cashier will race back to the shelves to find a replacement for a broken item, or verify the sales price.
• People are apologizing all the time, and people tell them it’s not a big deal, and apologize back. At a haircut place, someone forgot at a jacket and came back. That person said “sorry,” the haircutter said “sorry,” and then there was another sorry in there.
• Everything is huge.
• SUVs and sedans are the norm, not hatchbacks. In Europe, the hatchback and small station wagon are the norm for cars. There are many Teslas too. In the States, there are Teslas, but almost no hatchbacks and very few station wagons.
• The eggs, even the organic ones, are a pale yellow.
• Also, I almost forgot that you refrigerate eggs in the US.
• Litigation lawyers love billboards. Hit by a truck? Workplace injury? Just drive down the highway and you’ll find five or ten lawyers with stern looks ready to help YOU GET MONEY. Sometimes they’re even holding sledge hammers or baseball bats. So weird.
• There’s a definite Austin look. Clothes are cotton, but outdoors-y. Tattoos for sure, but low-key ones. Shorts, t-shirts and even sleeveless t-shirts. Lots of dogs on long leashes with poop-bags artfully tied to the leashes. Which I guess is to say: very little designer clothes.
• Men do not, at all really, wear murses, man purses. This is so normal in Europe, that I don’t even notice it anymore

Originally in my newsletter.