Things I have noticed about Chicago - Part 3
Letting your car run while waiting to pick up the kids from school doesn't seem to be a big deal here. In Sweden you can't do that for more than 1 minute but when I pick up Roy from school I stand in a line with the motor running up to 15-20 minutes. I sometimes turn it off anyways because the smell is just awful! You would think that people would care about those fumes around everyone's kids but nope.
It just makes me laugh when Americans say that they are going to bake cookies. And then they go and buy pre-made dough in cans, cut them in pieces and put them in the oven. Haha, no that's not baking!
In every store there is a person by the check-out counter who packs everything for you. But in some stores you have more staff than costumers because one person is screening the products and charging you money for it, and then the other person is standing at the end packing everything for you. So if you have 7 check-out counters in a row that makes for a lot of people. I like it and at the same time I don't. It just seems ridiculous that I can't just pack my own stuff. Once I got a bag with just a loaf of bread in it...
The TV-commercials are so embarassing and bad that I can't stand watching them. Considering how many amazing actors there are in The States I'm surprised that the actors in commercials can't act at all. But they're not exactly given the best scripts to work with either.
There are lifeguards everywhere on the beaches. I understand it at the large beaches but at the small ones?? Shouldn't the grown ups be able to look after their kids? At the small beach that we've been to twice this summer there is always one or two lifeguards out on boats and one walking around on the beach. I don't get it. I just don't get it.
TV-commercials still drives me mad. They even have a commercial break just before the prieview of next week's episode.
They have so called "snow days" here in America where school gets cancelled if the weather gets too crazy. But in Chicago they apparently don't have that since they are just like Sweden - used to getting lots of snow. Last winter was really bad though so they had a few snow days just because it was way too cold to go outside.
People say "excuse me" or "sorry" for every little thing. You can be half a meter away from someone in a store and they end up getting a liiiiitle bit in your way and they immediately apologize..... It's nice that everyone are so polite but trust me, I'm okay, I survived that terrible ordeal ;)
It surprises me how many big celebrities are doing commercials. Things that I have never thought they would be apart of. In Sweden we mostly see American models in beauty commercials. But here there are celebrities such as Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Aniston doing commercials for the most ridiculous things. And their faces are re-touched to the point that they look 10 years younger. I honestly didn't think they gave in to those sort of deals.
I knew that the tabloids here were worse than in Sweden, but it physically hurts to read the headlines sometimes. "Lisa-Marie is not Elvis's daughter".... oh, please....
I thought we had most of the American TV-shows in Sweden because 87% of our television is in English. But there are SO many crappy TV-shows here that never even reaches Sweden. Thank goodness.
They change intros and scenes that some countries never even gets to see! Sometimes the intro songs are different. And when I was watching "Friends" one day I almost fell off my chair realizing that there were scenes that I'd never seen before. It's very odd seeing your favorite characters of all time saying things that you've never heard them say before. It's like being sent to an alternative universe. All of a sudden I no longer knew all of their lines!!
Like this - watch from 1:45...
I know this was problably the most negative one out of all 3 parts. But it's all said with a sense of humor and I still love America to bits ;) It's this goofiness that tends to make America interesting and fun. And I know for sure that Swedish people do some goofy stuff too. So... let's see what California has to offer. Although I don't think much can surprise me after Chicago!