Deprived European GFG is back from States - with cereal and stories to tell (long)

[welcometowitsend]

These observations are very true for Canadians as well. I think our obesity rate is slightly lower than the US (but we are catching up fast) and our unemployment rate is slightly lower than the US right now as well - but not as low as yours, Suzir. Our minimum wage is $10.25/hour and our dollar is almost at par with the US dollar right now.

We rarely eat those sugary cereals. Once a year, maybe. There's enough junk available that I just don't think they need to start their breakfast with it.

I can drive both manual and automatic but I drive an automatic - just more convenient. DH just bought a BMW that has 'sport mode' so you can shift gears like a manual without the clutch. Fun driving if you're on the highway without hurting his bad knee.

And yes, homework is a huge pet peeve of mine. Much of it is busy work and my PC is so busy after school with dance that it is difficult to balance busy work homework, dance and necessary homework. Ugh.

Very insightful observations by your GFG.

[upallnight]

What is a litre? Ha-ha. It is so interesting to see things from another country, even slight differences. We always go to Canada in the summer, half the boxes of food are on French and half in English- also things like cereal may be the same type box, but inside is a different product, like Fruit Loops would be little balls that taste NOTHING like Fruit Loops here. The candy is all so different there, even though there are pictures on the label....WTH is it? It's just different and cool! I always like to try new things, but things are so, so weird!!!! It's mostly inedible to me- we bring our own. But the fisheries sell fresh fish, so fresh it's coming off the boat. OMG Haddock from Nova Scotia. I could cry, it's so good. I'm glad you child had such insights on others and products, it's so cool, he most likely can't even tell you all he experienced. There just isn't words! Good for him!

[witzend]

Interesting stuff! I'm glad that he got the opportunity to get a look at us. I've never been to NYC, but I hope to go one day. It's really mind-boggling how vast our country is in area.

I think that one of the reasons that we have automatic transmissions is because we do drive that far and that long and the traffic really is that bad. Using the clutch to brake in stop and go traffic for an hour or so is murder.

[SuZir]

What is a litre? Ha-ha.

Sorry, British spelling for liter. And I forgot to change that one (I do try to use US measurements etc. because it makes more sense that one person has to do the conversions than that many have to.) By the way, how would tell quantity of something around liter? Would it be more common to say a quart or two pints or four cups. I did wonder because a liter is a very 'basic' quantity to us. We say a lot of half a liter, one third of a liter, 5 liters etc. Do you commonly use for example quart or would it be more common to say two pints? And two quarts or half a gallon?

[flutterby]

We would say a quart and a half gallon. Although, most of our liquids come in a half gallon or gallon, except for soda which comes in 2 liter bottles (besides 12 oz cans), and half and half comes in quart sizes I think (I don't drink coffee, so I'm not 100% sure). Most people would have to look up that 1 quart is 4 cups.

There is a joke around here that a manual car comes with a built in theft guard because so few know how to drive them. I don't know how to, but my son and his wife will only drive manuals. My mom stopped driving a manual when we lived in Atlanta and she was riding the clutch in traffic all the time. I drove 4 hours a day for work when I lived in Atlanta - 2 hours each way. More if there was a really bad accident.

Food portions in restaurant are huge, and I usually order off of the appetizer menu - and that's still too much for me. They do this to draw people in as food costs are the lowest expense for restaurants. Wait staff in restaurants have a minimum wage of $3-something an hour because they are tipped employees.

The only federal law about benefits is that anything worked over 40 hours in a week is overtime (paid at time and a half). According to federal law, 40 hours is full time. There are no federal laws pertaining to sick leave, vacation, or employer provided health benefits. Some states have laws requiring paid sick days, although my state isn't one of them. Companies add those benefits to attract the better employees. However, in this economy with 8.3% unemployment, they start cutting those benefits back. Some companies have policies where 30 or 35 hours is considered full time. At the firm I worked for before I became disabled, you could get employer provided health insurance if you worked 25 hours a week. However, only full time (40 hours plus) employees got paid sick days (5 per year) and paid vacation (2 weeks per year). We don't have free university, tech or vocational schools, and even before the recession I was seeing jobs requiring a 4 year college degree that were paying $10/hour. A 4 year degree can cost anywhere between $25,000 and $50,000 (or more) and it is generally required that you start paying school loans back (with interest) starting 6 months after you finish school. I guess they figure you're going to live with your parents or with roommates because you can't really live on your own on $10/hour here with school loans to pay back.

Busywork homework and little to no recess have been huge complaints since my son started school (he is now 21). It is very different from when I was in school even, and I had my son when I turned 18. I credit the little to no recess to the huge uptick in ADHD dx's. If the kids can't sit still because they aren't getting enough exercise, they need medication - or that seems to be the mindset of a lot of people. How well a child "stays on task" is now part of a report card in elementary school. As far as homework, schools teach to proficiency tests here that grade the schools and teachers based on how well the kids test on a test given once a year. Repetition and rote memorization are drilled into the kids, and there is also a lot of drilling on how to take a test. It's a huge flaw in our educational system. AP Calculus is the hardest math class in high school here, in general (AP stands for Advanced Placement so a student generally has to test into the class, or have received a certain grade or higher in the AP math class preceding that one.)

Obesity is a huge problem and there is more than one cause. Food portions have gotten larger. "Junk" food is quite a bit cheaper than healthy food. And a couple of decades ago the government or the American Medical Association, or whoever it was, decided - based on one flawed study - that saturated fat was the really bad thing responsible for heart disease. So the low fat trend started, and food was altered to have less fat, which meant that they added sugar and carbs to replace the flavor. Too much saturated fat isn't good, of course, but too many carbs is worse. (Speaking of food, GMO (genetically modified) food isn't labeled here like it is in the EU, so if you were eating Kellogg's cereal chances are you had some GMO food. Most of our corn and almost all of our soybeans are genetically modified. Not sure if that is a concern of yours or not.) As far as portion sizes in the nutrition information - no, we generally don't measure it out and eat it as it says, and we don't share a can of soda. Often people are fooled by portion sizes in product labeling. They don't read the part where it says, Number of servings: 2. It is often just assumed that it is a single serving, and assumed that the nutritional information listed is for a single serving instead of doubling it. I personally would have a hard time eating 3/4 cup of cereal plus milk.

People being so busy makes me tired. Everyone is always in such a hurry. On the other hand, we don't get as much time off from work as people in Europe and we try to fit in the fun stuff when we can. Personally, I require downtime or I am just not pleasant at all to be around. Also, when two people meet for the first time, often the first question is, "What do you do?", meaning - what is your job or profession. I've heard that's not necessarily the case in other countries, though I don't have any personal experience with that. Here your job position or profession seems to define you, and people are definitely preoccupied with that.

My son and I were talking last week about our cars being bigger than cars in Europe, and I think just about every other country. He was telling me that North America is the only continent where the Honda Accord is sold (the Accord is basically a larger version of the Honda Civic). We seem to have some weird preoccupation with size. I have a Mazda3 that is small and easy to parallel park, gets good gas mileage, and can only comfortably seat people in the back if they don't have legs.

[Dammit Janet]

LOL Heather, you give a good explanation of the US but I sure hope with your little car you dont end up with any grandchildren soon or end up needing an electric wheelchair. I can barely fit car seats into my Focus now because they increased the size of the mandatory car seats and the one I bought will not fit in my focus in the way it was made to turn rear facing. I had to give it to Cory and Mandy for their SUV. I use one of the older and smaller ones you can haul around. Not the legal one but oh well. If I had all 4 down Keyana would have to sit in the front even though she is too young. My car will also not hold one of those lifts for the power chairs. I am going to eventually have to trade in for a minivan. I hate the thought of putting another car payment on me but it seems inevitable if it comes to that. And from what I understand of the cost to get a van customized...oh my gosh! I have no clue how I will ever be able to afford it. Right now I cant even lift my regular wheelchair into the trunk by myself so I dont take it out alone. Its pointless.

[InsaneCdn]

I have a Mazda3 that is small and easy to parallel park, gets good gas mileage, and can only comfortably seat people in the back if they don't have legs

Read more: http://www.conductdisorders.com/foru...#ixzz24HvqCfCc

That is exactly the problem... we had to get rid of our econoboxes because... the kids don't fit in the back seat - not either one of them. They are tall, but worse than that, they are "all leg"... very, VERY long-legged.
We're stuck with... vans, or full-size crew-cab trucks - or boat-sized luxury cars and even then the back seat isn't big enough. Ain't nothin' else out there that fits a 38"+ inseam.

[flutterby]

It's a smaller car, but it is definitely not an econobox car. I love my car and the main reason I got it is because I don't hurt in this car like I have in other cars. If I do hurt, the seats are heated and that helps a lot. 28/40 gas mileage doesn't hurt either. PC and his wife aren't planning on having kids for at least 10 years, if at all, and GFG probably won't (and shouldn't) have kids. Chances are high that PC and his wife will be living out of state by then. They're going to have to move for grad school, and neither are in love with this state.

[InsaneCdn]

GFG can't even fit in the driver's seat of that car. No joke.
I would be able to drive it and enjoy it... I've always liked them. But... too many years left before the kids leave home. <grin>

[flutterby]

Then he would have to be extremely tall. I have a 34" inseam and there is plenty of room left to move the seat back, and it has a telescoping steering wheel.