Things NOT to do in my country...

Time in a bottle ... yep, I prolly know all the lyrics :/

 

We have nice cites but some really bad areas in most major cities. The war on drugs turned the cities into war zones and gang bangers into millionaires. So then they bought lots of high-power weapons. So then the cops started buying military equipment. And round and round we go. Legalize drugs and you cut the legs off the gang bangers.

In the US, if you are in a gang area and see gang members, you don't even look at them. Making eye contact can get you killed.

 

We don't really have 'gang areas', although there is some minor (and cartoonish) Asian gang activity, and the ubiquitous M@fiosa. Either way, our criminals don't monopolise places/areas, for some reason. There aren't really any places you can't go, but if any could be said to exist, it would probably be the outer suburbs. And since no one has guns here, the worst that might happen in such a place is that your handbag is snatched by a 16 year old Asian kid who weighs 45kg and is 4'11" tall. But you'd have to be very unlucky, even for that to happen. I've been frequenting such places for half a century and haven't even come close to being a victim of a street crime.

America is a strange planet.

 

I was in fear for my life walking home from high school every day. I was never attacked by a gang but was confronted a few times. My best friend was attacked and he believed they were going to kill him. He only got away because they grabbed him by his jacket sleeve. He managed to slide out of it and run.

There was a really big black guy - a Blood - I was always running into on my way home. He was one crazy mf but for some reason he liked me and never gave me any trouble. Eventually he killed a guy for cutting in front of him in line, and went to prison.

 

The U.S. is quite regional and state specific.

California:

Do not carry a gun
Do not move once you buy a house with Prop 13 protection (cheap property tax for life - the only good thing about California law)
Do not get road rage in Huntington Beach... many many many MMA fighters live her.
Do not assume a large Adam's Apple on a woman means she is just a strong woman.
Do not reveal to a Liberal Arts professor that you are a Conservative, or a white male, just hide in the back of the class.
Do not turn your back on the ocean. I have pulled many of child and adult from their beat down by Poseidon.
Do not get comfortable with your employment and expect your big company to stay in the state
Do not mindlessly let your water run.

Nevada:

Do not expect cars to stop for you at a crosswalk
Do not stop at a light if it is turning yellow - you will be re-ended
Do not count cards at a casino. It may be legal, but the results are not good.

Texas:

Do not not carry a gun
Do not turn your back on many livestock... especially male ram and bulls
Do not assume that a woman is just being nice. Texas women... wow.

New York:

Do not expect people to be polite.
Do not expect someone to tell you of imminent danger

 

Are you sure this all happened? It reads like a movie screenplay, to my ears.

How can kids be in such danger walking home from school? Here, kids as young as 6 walk to and from school.

 

Haha, ever hear of Compton or Watts? I was raised in the same area. Yeah, it was really cool trying to deal with this at age 15 and 16.

When my parents saw what was going on, and when I got caught ditching over 40 days of school my junior year [in one semester], mainly because I didn't want to die, we moved. It was once a nice area. But then they started forced bussing - desegregation - and started bussing gang members into our schools. The gangs just used the bussing as a means of expanding their drug businesses, which also includes taking over the neighborhoods.

 

I didn't know there was any other way.

 

Probably applies for all Nordic countries. People up here used to live 20000 miles away from closest neighbour and I suppose this might be an explanation for this.

Sounds like a movie lol.

 

You haven't been on I-95 lately. The fastest drivers these days are flying down the right-most lane.

They're the worst, most dangerous places in America. There are oases of wealthy people in the cities, sometimes side by side with the rundown, crime-ridden areas, but you pretty much want to stay out of those areas unless you're with a local who knows how to stay safe. In Miami, there are several of these oases of wealth and privilege existing side by side with rundown areas, which is why for a while you could hear about a tourist getting shot in Miami every week, they would stumble out of the wealthy area into the dangerous area, usually in a rental car.

Oh, yeah, what not to do in America for foreigners: Don't criticize America. Criticizing the United States, its government, president, people, and everything else is the national past-time, but God help you if you, a foreigner, say something bad about America.

 

I know a Jim.

 

Don't feed the bloody Seagulls!

 

If you're new to America, don't get up in people's personal space. We're pretty particular about that.

It took being stationed Korea to notice that we have space issues. Over there you'll have people brush past you, or damn near run over you, on sidewalks an subway stations. It finally dawned on me, that space is a luxury in some parts of the world, and that every Korean isn't a rude sob.

 

Yes! That is so annoying when people invade your space bubble! If I'm standing in line and someone is too close behind me, I feel like pushing my elbow back and telling them, well if I can hit you in the gut with my elbow, then you are TOO close!

 

For people in other countries, most Americans are pretty big on manners, and we expect other people who are visiting to use their manners as well. Be polite, say please and thank you and you're welcome.

 

And say excuse me when you bump into other people or you need to get by somebody or whatever.

 

The weirdest thing for me on this planet are Asians and the lack of body space. They will get right up on you when waiting for the subway or in a line of something, especially women. It totally freaks me out when I am standing there and can feel someone's face right behind my back.

 

Ohio:

Everyone has a gun, don't be an ********.

 

That's the way it is over there. Sort of like Slurping food is a sign of respect.

 

I'm sorry but, 20, 000 miles?!
London - New York City's 3, 500 miles a part... Were their Icelandic/Nordic neighbours in Australia or something?

I don't know much about Kilometres... I know Miles are longer than Kilometres and if I ran 6 miles, that's 10k.

 

United States, don't break the law.

 

Well... if you do, make sure you're a politician. No one gives a **** about what they do.

 

In the South East, railways are more deadly because there is a third rail, the live rail.
People have been killed by electrocuting themselves trying to cross the railways down here.
This is from the South Coast to London. Railways that go North from London (like King's Cross) have over head power so they're safer but, if you happen to be on one and there's a diesel engine that's left its foot shoe down, if it's in the area on that rail further up or down the line, it will generate electricity and that can shock you.
You can dance on the live rail around here if you have thick rubber boots so you don't get earthed... But even then if you happen to have a pin tack on your thick rubber boot that you don't know about and it makes contact with the live rail, it will kill you.
So... In my country, DO NOT CROSS THE RAILWAYS. (Unless it's an actual rail crossing).
Trains are big, heavy, metal machines that have a stopping distance of 0.8 of a mile (or something).
and the railways in my country are some of the busiest I've seen.

This is from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_rail

apparently there's even a Wikipedia page about them; and this picture is the one that I'm most familiar with in my neck of the woods, but I've seen different versions of this in London and... I've even seen the word's first one in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. (Along the beach down there).

These are lethal/deadly in their power.

 

I think it would be eminently important NOT to be seen picking
ones' nose right before greeting { hardy handshake } with President
Trump out on the rally circuit.
Especially given how fussy and particular Donald Trump is about
germs and handshakes.

 

When I go to England I like to have some traditional Irish food there.

There is no such thing as traditional English food.