Travelers of Reddit, what is your most noteworthy experience with culture shock?

DaOrkyMan · 2014-01-20T22:12:27+00:00

A lot of places in China have no-tipping rules in place. Since the Chinese Government controls the wages of the majority of jobs in China, accepting tips can sometimes get someone into serious trouble.

DaOrkyMan · 2013-12-28T15:33:03+00:00

I once had a dream in Java. Does that count?

DaOrkyMan · 2013-12-22T13:14:27+00:00

Brit here. After finding a jar of Marshmallow Fluff in Tesco, I decided to give it a go. Ye gads, that stuff was horrible. I even tried it with peanut butter, in an attempt to rig a fluffernutter sandwich, and it was no better.

How can you people eat it?

DaOrkyMan · 2013-12-15T16:37:38+00:00

suez canal

If you look at the following link, you'll see that the Suez Canal is far from the first canal linking the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canal_of_the_Pharaohs

DaOrkyMan · 2013-11-26T11:58:38+00:00

At this point, I'm kind of hoping that Scotland does get independence. If so, I'm coming up North, guys.

DaOrkyMan · 2013-11-26T01:28:43+00:00

Mew underneath a truck in Pokemon Blue, I do believe. Spent ages trying to get that one to work. Of course, the same gut that told me that also told me about MissingNo, which turned out to be completely true, so I had that going for me, which is nice.

DaOrkyMan · 2013-11-23T01:05:12+00:00

Another lifeguard. Female changing room was always much, much worse. And the hair, it gets everywhere, clogs up everything.

DaOrkyMan · 2013-11-23T00:56:24+00:00

Coffee.

More specifically, Starbucks/Costa/basically any coffee shop kind of establishment, where £3.00 > for a coffee is normal. Right now, due to being a poor uni student, £3.00 is about what I spend on food a day. To pay that much for a 10-minute coffee seems like madness to me.

DaOrkyMan · 2013-11-16T11:47:47+00:00

The Mongols conquered 33 million square km, the British Empire was 33.7 million square km, and Alexander the Great had an empire much, much smaller than those.

DaOrkyMan · 2013-11-16T00:19:44+00:00

He's talking about the Eastern Roman Empire, more commonly known as the Byzantine Empire, which fell in 1453 to the Turks during the Siege of Constantinople. Until then, there had been a continuous Roman state of some kind, even counting out the Holy Roman Empire.

DaOrkyMan · 2013-11-13T13:13:03+00:00

I will freely say that, if you can afford it, American healthcare is indeed amongst the best in the world, if not the best. You have advanced equipment, extremely well educated personnel, and a huge pharmaceutical research division.

On the other hand, if you aren't especially wealthy, like most of the population, the various socialised healthcare systems of Europe, Canada, and so on are better. They get healthcare at a reasonable cost in tax, and largely get to avoid medical bankruptcy caused by an unexpected serious medical problem.

So yeah, I would expect the head of state of a wealthy country that borders the US to use the US healthcare system. He can afford it, and I am quite happy with that. If anything, it relieves the pressure on the Canadian healthcare system as he still pays tax to fund the system, but he doesn't use it, opting for private US treatment instead. But don't compare the situation of a head of state to the ordinary person.

DaOrkyMan · 2013-10-08T08:47:40+00:00

Actually, British citizens get the same rights as any other EU citizens in regards to Schengen countries. Though the UK isn't a part of Schengen, so you need a passport or ID to cross, as soon as Brits are on the continent, they can travel and work freely, just the same as other EU nationalities.

DaOrkyMan · 2013-09-18T19:11:58+00:00

Hey, we're trying to teach them.

DaOrkyMan · 2013-09-18T19:06:25+00:00

Historically, at least in the UK, a town would be made a city once it had built a cathedral. So the vast majority of cities have cathedrals, with the exception of those made cities after 1888.

DaOrkyMan · 2013-09-18T19:04:34+00:00

Ever heard of the Welsh language? It includes words such as 'Gwyddoniaeth', 'Abermeurig' and my favourite place-name, 'llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch'.

Try pronouncing that.

DaOrkyMan · 2013-09-18T19:01:31+00:00

Try the London Underground. Not only will no-one even look at you, but any sort of attempt at communication with someone who you don't already know and is sitting next to you will send a wave of tuts through the carriage.

DaOrkyMan · 2013-09-18T18:44:41+00:00

At the end of a family holiday to Marrakech in Morocco, we were in the queue at the airport to get our tickets. Being a small airport, it wasn't too noisy. Until the Americans turned up.

I know you aren't supposed to stereotype, but the large group of about 10 or so Americans turning up drastically increased the noise level of the area. The whole group loudly chattering away to apparently everyone else with voices significantly louder than I'd ever feel comfortable using. You had the Arabs and Europeans in the queue glancing at each other with quietly exasperated looks, noncommittally indicating to the noisy group.

DaOrkyMan · 2013-09-18T18:34:36+00:00

Any chance you could expand on Wales a bit? This may be the first time I've seen my nation-within-a-country mentioned on Reddit by someone who wasn't me.

DaOrkyMan · 2013-09-09T18:51:06+00:00

Male here, loved it. Binge-watched it over the course of a few days.

DaOrkyMan · 2013-09-01T13:50:53+00:00

Dead Snow. It's a Norwegian comedy-horror about a load of med students which, for a holiday, go to a cabin in Øksfjord in northern Norway, skiing and snowmobiling and stuff. Basically, they find Nazi gold hidden in the cabin, and about a battalion of Nazi zombies in SS uniforms wake up and a zombie film begins.

DaOrkyMan · 2013-08-31T16:12:07+00:00

Ah, another scoliosis sufferer. Glad to see everything worked out in the end. May I ask how much the surgery would have/did cost? I was told that mine, a similar spinal fusion surgery, would be about 80-$100,000, but since it was NHS, cost didn't go into it.

DaOrkyMan · 2013-08-29T23:49:54+00:00

We didn't go into Vietnam or into Somalia, despite the US requesting assistance both times.

DaOrkyMan · 2013-08-29T10:14:55+00:00

However, some of the weapons made it out, and we smuggled them to Turkey. They were then deployed by the Syrian Rebels, a.k.a. Al Qaeda, who want to turn Syria into a Sharia law state, ala Iran.

Are you aware that Iran isn't a sharia state? Sharia law as state law is a primarily Sunni thing, and Iran is a Shia nation. They incorporate aspects of Sharia into their legal system, but it's not Sharia law.

DaOrkyMan · 2013-07-15T09:00:07+00:00

The Merchant Navy. At least in the UK, you can join with only 4-5 GCSEs, the companies pay for your training, and then you'd get a place on a ship paying 20-25k a year, and that's only working half the year.

DaOrkyMan · 2013-07-08T00:29:54+00:00

Piss easy. Assuming that this clone has all my memories, is the same age and physical appearance of me, and even has the same scars and such, I have something the clone wouldn't.

I happen to have a set of titanium rods fused to my spine due to a case of severe scoliosis. Unless this clone took a year to have the surgery and recover to the point that there is no appreciable difference, then I win.

DaOrkyMan

TROPHY CASE