What you lack in the USA: people from all continents tell

Fresh pita bread from a shop near the house, walks in a pine park by the lake, family holidays... The longing for family, familiar tastes and worldview persists even after several years of living abroad. What do expats and emigrants miss most about the United States? I asked my friends and colleagues from different countries and continents.

Фото: Depositphotos

Tselmeg, Mongolia

In the US, I am very surprised by people who wear pajamas or sportswear on the street. For me it is strange, because in Mongolia people dress well and are painted, even just going to the store. And here I lack the feeling of my own beauty. I always feel attractive in Mongolia, where my dark eyes and hair and high cheekbones are considered very beautiful. In addition, I do not understand the concept of small talk. Why talk about the weather? People ask you a question without waiting for a sincere answer. And people are constantly smiling.

Jovana, Serbia

The constant cold in American offices is what irritates me the most. The air conditioning inside the buildings works so hard in the summer that you need a pair of warm socks - even if it's plus forty outside! Another thing I don't like is how easy it is to buy guns in the US. I think this needs to be better controlled, especially given the events of recent years.

Bhim, Bhutan

Life in the USA and Bhutan is difficult to even compare. We are a very small country. For example, we don’t have traffic lights, and police control traffic using whistles or hand movements. And to get higher education, you need to go to neighboring countries - Nepal or India. But we have no violence or robbery at all, no one carries weapons, you feel safe everywhere. For example, you can leave some valuable thing at home and no one will take it. We respect each other, we are one nation.

Torgoyapo, Colombia

In America, I miss my family the most. We always spent time together, especially on holidays. Also in the US, I do not understand the health care system at all. It is hard to believe that medicine is better in some developing countries.

On the subject: Personal experience: things that Americans cannot live without

Фото: Depositphotos

Jovanco, Macedonia

Everywhere you look in the United States, there is unhealthy food everywhere. Hence the health problems people have. At the same time, medicine is very expensive. Just crazy, wildly expensive and confusing. The same goes for car insurance.

Eka, Georgia

What I miss most in the USA are familiar tastes and cheap natural food. Although I love trying new things, I always ask my friends to bring me Georgian spices and herbs. At home everything was simple and clear, but here it was difficult for me to start getting used to the new banking system, transport, and healthcare from scratch. And it's complicated by bureaucracy, like mailing checks. I also miss centimeters, meters, kilograms and kilometers, because my life has turned into mathematics - I constantly have to count when shopping or estimating distances.

Saymir, Albania

Short distances and availability of public transport to the most remote corners are what the US lacks compared to Europe. I walked to work, to the store, for coffee, to a restaurant or to the park. Although Tirana is similar in size to Washington, this lifestyle is not always possible here. And by car or public transport I could very quickly find myself in another city, in the mountains or on the beach, or even in another country. I also really miss the Mediterranean Sea and that climate. No ocean compares to this incredible view of the calm sea at dawn or evening.

Sabina, Uzbekistan

One thing I really miss about Uzbekistan and living outside the city is the sense of community and trust in each other. At home, I could knock on my neighbors' doors and they would feed me delicious food because they know me, my mother and grandmother. In the USA there is no such feeling of closeness with neighbors. Most of them might stop here to talk about something unimportant—mowing the lawn or an error in the weather forecast. I would really like for neighbors here to learn more about each other and share their culture.

On the subject: What our people can not get used to in America after years

Фото: Depositphotos

Leonard, Australia

I miss our traditional pies with mushy peas, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetables and chicken flavored salt. And also the Pavlova dessert. These are two of my favorite Australian dishes that I can't find in the US.

Manny, Ghana

What I miss most is how simple Ghana's towns and villages are. Although technology has penetrated everywhere, our markets sell livestock and poultry that were raised in a factory and were not fed a mixture of feed and antibiotics, they lived freely in a pen, eating grass. I remember how my sister laughed at our brother who lives in the UK. On Facebook, he bragged about buying beef labeled “grass-fed.” “What else do cows eat?” she wondered.

Azra, Bosnia

The closeness of family, the strength of friendship - that's what I miss in America. I miss watching my niece grow up, watching my parents grow old. I miss laughing with my sister. Family birthdays. Anniversaries. Funeral Life that goes on without me.

Michele, Italy

I love to cook, but the taste of our products does not compare with those sold in the United States. But when I tried to bring parmesan or prosciutto here, it turned out that customs rules do not allow it! It was a huge disappointment.

Фото: Depositphotos

Artem, Kazakhstan

One of the features of life in the USA is the mandatory presence of a credit history. This first surprised me, then angered me, because new immigrants have to start their financial history from the very beginning. And in the USA I don’t have enough kilometers, meters, kilograms, liters, degrees Celsius. In the USA, as before, the measurement system is archaic. We also had to get used to the “new” date of birth: first the month is written here, and then the day and year of birth. Where is the logic? It's unclear to me!

Aya, Burma

When I first came to the United States, I was very surprised to see that stores here sold boiled, peeled eggs in plastic boxes. We don't have that. This shows how much Americans value convenience. Another culture shock for me is that the natural shell, the eggshell, is removed and instead placed in plastic packaging.

Original column published on the Voice of America website.

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