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John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints |
Please bear in mind that the contents of this page are generalisations and in many cases my subjective opinions. The USA and Canada are huge countries - each region and each town is individual and there are many exceptions and variations to what I describe here.
Attitudes and Behaviour
Generally people in the USA and Canada tend to be optimistic and positive, at least outwardly. For example, if you win a hamburger in a scratch-card competition in a fast food restaurant in the USA or Canada then you'll more likely to be greeted with a joyous public celebration of your success by the staff than the negative and officious "You can't claim that on the same day" response that you'd get in the UK. People in the USA and Canada tend to be very friendly and helpful - occasionally too much so.
Whereas it is quite common to have to share a table with one or more strangers at a fast food restaurant in the UK, this is just not done in the USA and Canada. Not only are fast food restaurants far less crowded in the USA and Canada, and so the need to share tables greatly reduced, but culturally the sharing of tables with strangers seems to be a taboo there. Similarly, theme park ride cars are never shared with strangers, even when this means leaving some seats empty. This behaviour is somewhat difficult to explain given that people in the USA and Canada tend to be much more friendly towards strangers than the British, however one explanation is the much greater amount of open space in North America, wider streets, larger houses, etc.
Friday night is family eating out night in most parts of the USA. Any restaurant with a full car park on a Friday evening is probably worth a look; likewise any restaurant with an empty car park on a Friday evening is probably worth avoiding.
It is hardly ever difficult to find a vacant table in a fast food restaurant in the USA and Canada.
In fast food restaurants in the USA and Canada almost everybody clears up their packaging rubbish left on their table at the end of the meal and puts it in one of the waste bins.
Buildings
The majority of houses in the USA and Canada, and many other buildings, are made of wood. To a visitor from the UK this can make them appear temporary, but in most cases this is an illusion. Many older wooden houses are quite elaborate and photogenic.
David Priest kindly emailed me the following:
Most houses in Canada and the US are wood-frame construction. Older houses in the mid- to eastern- US and, I'm sure, Canada may be brick. Newer houses and houses in the mid- to western-US and definitely Canada are wood frame. In northwest US and much of Canada, we have basements. Apparently not so in the southeast US -- something to do with bugs?
Our houses tend to have a concrete foundation: basement floor and walls of concrete; upper floors and walls of wood frame construction.
Buildings on the West Coast are more and more built to withstand an earthquake. Certainly true of any significantly large office building structure.In many American towns, the most modern and well-built structures will be the US Post Office, the schools, the fast food restaurants, the huge single-story discount department stores (K-Mart, Wal-mart, Pamida, etc) and the churches. In larger towns the downtown area office blocks also often qualify for this description.
In the US cars drive on the righthand side of the road and car drivers sit on the lefthand side of the car. However, the brake and accelerator pedals are in the same positions as in the UK.
Air conditioning is widespread in cars, restaurants, shops and motels in the USA and Canada. In cars and motel rooms the air conditioning will not have much effect unless you close all the windows.
There's more information about cars and driving in the driving section.
There's more information about renting cars in the car rental section.
Dates
People in the USA write dates in the format mm/dd/yy (month/day/year). For example 7/4/98 is the Fourth of July 1998, not the seventh of April. This can be very confusing when consulting motel chain directories for the rates which apply during certain dates.
I would advise you to carefully check the date format required on the Immigration and Customs forms which you have to fill in on the plane before arriving in the USA. In the past, and in accordance with the normal standards which apply to bureaucracy the world over, one of these forms used the American (mm/dd/yy) format while the other used the British (dd/mm/yy) format; I believe sanity has been allowed to prevail over the mentality of officialdom and they both now use the British (dd/mm/yy) format.
Canadians use the British date format (dd/mm/yy), with the proviso, as one of my correspondents puts it: "unless they deal a lot with people in the USA and forget the proper way :-)".
Other ambiguities are listed in the ambiguities section.
Newspapers
There is only one national newspaper in the USA: USA Today, which is highly recommended. However, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles times also cover many national stories and are widely distributed.
Daily papers tend to be quality publications, similar to British broadsheets such as the Times or the Guardian. However, with the exception of USA Today and the other nationally distributed titles mentioned in the previous paragraph, news coverage is restricted almost entirely to the local area with just a little US national news and almost no international news unless US troops are currently involved in an overseas conflict.
As well as being delivered to regular customers, daily papers are sold via "coin in the slot" dispensing boxes often seen outside supermarkets, fast food restaurants, etc. Most fast food restaurants have racks near the counter with newspapers which you can borrow and read over breakfast free of charge, returning them to the rack afterwards.
The equivalent of the British tabloid daily soft porn comics (Sun, Mirror, Mail, etc.) with their identical combination of scandal, titillation and condemnation of scandal and titillation in every edition are published weekly in the USA, the best known being the National Enquirer. These publications in the USA are usually seen for sale at supermarket checkouts. Some of their pseudo-science story headlines are hilarious. As with the British tabloids, one can only be dismayed, concerned and deeply saddened by the fact that so many people buy them.
Petrol (Gas) Stations
Unlike in Britain, in the USA and Canada petrol (gas) pumps do not switch on automatically as you lift the hose out of the pump. Instead, you have to pull a lever up, turn a lever, or press a button to switch the pump on. Then with self-serve you have to wait for the pump to be cleared down by the operator before you can start filling.
In and near large cities you usually have to pay for petrol before being allowed to pump, which means that you have to estimate how much you can pump (in Dollars). In rural areas you usually pump first, then pay.
There's more information about petrol (gas) in the driving section.
Radio
Most rental cars include a radio, and the occasional search round the dial can be interesting while you're on a long journey.
There are no long wave radio transmissions in North America.
Many FM (VHF) radio stations play older, better quality or adult oriented pop music, or modern instrumental music.
Many AM (medium wave) radio stations, especially outside the large cities, play mostly country and western music.
Steve Collins [slcollins@geocities.com] informs me that Public Radio stations are "listener-supported", i.e. paid for by donations instead of advertising. He says that they tend to be located on the lower part of the FM band, are commonly (but not always) affiliated with a university, and tend to play classical music. They also, Steve says, have good news programmes during the morning and afternoon "drive-times" (6am-9am and 4pm-7pm).
Sales Tax
With the exception of petrol (gas), all prices quoted in the USA and Canada exclude sales tax, which is added when you come to pay. This includes prices in shops and restaurants, accommodation rates and the cost of car rental.
Tea and Coffee
Coffee is drunk far more than tea in the USA and to a slightly lesser extent this is also true in Canada. Large cups of coffee are available at very low cost from petrol stations, convenience stores, etc., and are often available free of charge in supermarkets.
Nearly all restaurants, including fast food chains, give free refills of coffee.
If you order tea in a restaurant, you will probably be served iced tea. According to Steve Collins [slcollins@geocities.com] in the South this is very likely to be sweet iced tea, whether you ask for sugar or not. Steve very sensibly advises that you always order "hot tea" if that is what you want. Hot tea in America is usually made without boiling water and is not usually acceptable to British tastes. It's usually best to admit defeat and opt for coffee instead!
Some motel rooms have coffee and tea making facilities. Many motels have coffee available free of charge in the office/lounge area. You can buy a small cup heater at a very low cost from K-Mart or Wal-Mart with which to heat water for tea in your motel room. Obtaining such a device in the USA or Canada ensures that it operates at the correct voltage and has the correct design of plug. However, you will also need a container capable of taking the heat - motel plastic cups will not. Also, be certain to put the element in the water before applying the power, and to remove the power before taking the element out of the water. Finally, the use of any cooking or heating devices in motel rooms is usually prohibited (in theory).
Television
Most television transmissions in the USA and Canada are on VHF, although some limited use of UHF is made in large urban areas. The reception quality of conventional broadcasts is usually extremely poor, but cable reception can be quite good.
Television station channel numbers are physical channel numbers in the USA and Canada, so Channel 4 is actually on broadcast on channel 4 (etc.), unlike in the UK where logical channel numbers are used, with Channel 4 (and all the other stations) being broadcast on a variety of channels.
In my opinion television programme quality is in the main atrocious, although the game shows can be good fun, especially the nightly Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!. Jeopardy!'s questions and question master are somewhat similar in style to those of Britain's "Fifteen to One" quiz, although the rules of the game are different.
US television only has an extremely limited amount of news coverage, and that very superficial. Most news bulletins are in fact little more than a trailer for the next bulletin together with a claim of how wonderful that station's news coverage is.
Unlike in Britain, television game and quiz shows in the USA tend to assume that the contestants and the audience are completely familiar with the rules.
US television game shows, at least on the conventional channels, are largely free of the endless diet of double-entendres and sexual innuendoes which pervades many of British television's game shows. According to Steve Collins [slcollins@geocities.com] sexual humour and titillation is alive and well in many American drama series, soap operas and women's daytime talk shows. In drama series this is more often in the form of humour than outright comedy.
Advertisements appear extremely frequently, with no indication whatsoever of when they start and finish, together with product sponsoring especially during game shows. The constant advert breaks make the viewing of a programme with any kind of a plot almost impossible. Steve Collins [slcollins@geocities.com] informs me that American television has sixteen minutes of commercials per hour. Steve points out that the American Public Broadcasting System (PBS) network has better quality programmes and no commercials. The 13-Apr-00 edition of the Daily Brief carried the following news item: "A new study by the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the Association of National Advertisers says that the average hour of prime-time television in the U.S. contains 15 minutes, 44 seconds of advertising - an increase of 25 seconds/hour from the previous year."
To my mind American television is a hell created by marketing people who think that the audience share not only their materialistic aspirations but also their incredibly low level of intelligence. One can quite see why the Internet has become so popular in the USA. For some idea of what American television is like, UK viewers could perhaps try a few minutes of Britain's Channel 5 or the British satellite/cable channels.
The cable/satellite television station "The Weather Channel" with 24-hour weather reports can be useful for visitors on holiday, as can Headline News and CNN with their different styles of 24-hour news coverage.
Some Other Observations
I'm very grateful to Shawn Jipp, sjipp@ibm.net, for contributing the following valid and useful observations which bear out my own experience and conversations with people in the USA. Shawn has a personal web site with his travel stories from around the world which you might like to visit.
The newer buildings in American towns also include the shopping malls.
About fifty percent of all meals in the USA are now eaten out - i.e. away from home. Friday lunch and dinner is popular to be eaten out. Buffet lunches can be obtained for $10 or less. In Las Vegas food at the casinos is plentiful, good, inexpensive.
Most people in the USA only get ten to twenty-one days holiday (vacation) from their workplace per year. Also, there are a smaller number of official holidays each year than in Europe.
Shawn says that most people in the USA take their holidays within the USA, although this includes the popular destination of Hawaii. A trip to Europe or Asia is regarded as something very special. Some people visit the Mexican resorts.
The following news story appeared in the 29-Oct-98 edition of the Daily Brief: "A new [United States] Census Bureau report concludes that people in the USA tend to move to a new home on the average of once every five years. Those who own their own home were found to stay at one location longest: an average of 8.2 years. The conclusions were drawn from data collected in 1993". I suspect (without any statistical basis) that people in the USA move house much more frequently than the British. On this point, Major Jim Collins of the USAF kindly sent me this comment:
Your comments about the mobility of American society vs British (Europe) are valid. Remember, we come from a "pioneer" mindset, and nearly all of us are immigrants. Our national psyche if you will, is to move on when economic conditions change. "Following the job" or "Going where the job is" are pretty common expressions of this mindset.
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Most recently modified 10-Aug-04