Assignment 3 - Grace Payne

Travelling is something my family and I do often. My grandma has been all over the world, and she's always wanted my brother and I to experience travelling the world with her. I've been to parts of the United States, mostly the south and the states around Kentucky, but I never really found any social or cultural differences. The states I've been to are so geographically close to Kentucky that we do things similarly. However, the summer before my freshman year, my entire family and I traveled to Rome, Paris, Florence, Venice, and London, and there I learned that things are not the same in Europe as they are in Kentucky.
The best example of cultural differences between Europe and Kentucky is the food scene. People in Europe, specifically France, give smaller portions in Europe. After they give you the portion, they expect it to be eaten, because take home boxes are practically unheard of there. As an American, large portions and take home boxes are the norm, so it took some adjustment not to ask to take home food. Also, some of the quality of the food is better. For example, Wes doesn't eat a whole lot, so sometimes we would stop by McDonalds and get him some food. When he got chicken nuggets, they were just an overall better quality than American nuggets. Also, they never put ice in their drinks. That took A LOT of getting used to. This should probably tell you that I like food, and I like my drinks with ice.
Another cultural difference was just overall friendliness. In Europe, if you're crossing the crosswalk and the light turns green for the drivers, they will honk at you until you are out of their way. It's always possible that Americans do it in big cities like Los Angeles or New York, but I have no clue, because I've never been to either of those cities. Also, pick pocketing is a large issue there. Since my grandma had been to Europe before, we knew about the pick pocketing, but my grandma still got pick pocketed, and they managed to steal her phone. This shows that Europeans tend to have more of a sense of "everyone for themselves," which is the opposite of the culture of the south, where neighbor helps neighbor.
Finally, I learned that not everyone views Americans positively. A lot of people hear the term "American" and automatically associate us with negative political views or obesity, which may or may not be true. Still, my family and I had to prove that we weren't noisy and disruptive, and that we just wanted to view some landmarks peacefully.
My entire European experience taught me lessons that I still consider now, some useful and some not. The more useful ones were how Americans are viewed by Europeans, and how we must transform the way we are viewed in order to gain more respect. The whole food differences lesson is useful if we go back, but it doesn't have much to do with social or cultural lessons.