As an American who has never left the United States, much less traveled anywhere by myself, up and leaving my little town in Kentucky was no easy task. Being in a foreign land where I don’t speak the language is about as easy as it sounds. But, I wouldn’t have it any other way because it has exposed me to new experiences and taught me to be more resilient, and I am only one month in!

Therefore, with all of my new experiences and cultures that I have been exposed to, I decided to write a little bit about weird (or better yet, different) things in Europe that I didn’t expect as a sheltered American

The floors of multi floor places start at “0.”

This sounds so trivial, but it was the first “weird” thing that I was exposed to because I lived on the 4^th floor of my apartment…. Or, in American terms, I would live on the 5^th. Basically, the first floor is considered the “ground floor” so I suppose it makes sense that the first floor is floor “0”, but as you go downstairs, the floors go “-1, -2,…” and I just found that completely strange! Yes? No?

People drive on the same side of the road.

Alright, so this was just me being an ignorant American. I just expected Americans only drove on the right side of the road (like we don’t use the metric system or military time). But, my assumption was wrong, we are not unique, and I was surprised for about .2 seconds. Only the UK and all British colonies drive on the left side!

Sometimes, companies leave the credit card number on the receipt.

Now, this should be weird to everyone. What happens if I left my receipt on the table on accident? What if it got in the hands of the wrong person? Luckily I caught it and was able to dispose of the receipt correctly, but here is my advice to keep an eye on your receipts because you never know!

You have to sign a piece of paper after credit card transaction.

I think this is due to the fact that America is more digitized than Europe (not in all cases though!) but anytime I bought anything, even a €2 bottle of water, I would have to sign a piece of paper instead of a monitor. Most of Europe is pretty economically friendly, so I saw this as a surprise because it is such a waste of paper.

People drink alcohol on the trains and in the streets.

Now, unlike New Orleans, Wisconsin, and Europe, most of the United States has open container laws in place, so it was strange to see people walking around the streets with an open bottle of beer. Although I am living in France, I have asked my friends from all kinds of countries (Finland, Germany, UK), and this is the case in so many European countries!

Europeans don’t have air conditioning in living quarters.

Honestly, I was told about this before I got to Europe and I thought it was a joke. How can such big cities that get so hot seriously not have air conditioning?! Do we live in the 1800’s?! Well, apparently so because it isn’t a joke. There. Is. Not. Air. Conditioning.

The showers are those handheld showers.

 Honestly, this was the biggest shock and annoyance to me. As I have learned, as in America you see mostly mounted shower heads and hardly any handheld showers, it’s the exact opposite in Europe. How am I supposed to scrub my shampoo and hold a shower head at the same time? I’m a month into my adventures in Europe and I still don’t know how.

The chargers charge faster.

This is just science. The voltage of the chargers here are 220 voltage, and in America, they are 110 voltage. So naturally, it would charge faster. Much less, something I did not expect. Don’t fact check me on that 😉

Europeans don’t refrigerate their eggs or milk.

When I went to the grocery store for the first time and saw a section of shelves with eggs and milk that WEREN’T in a refrigerator, I was stopped in my tracks. Granted, eggs are laid and aren’t refrigerated, so that wasn’t as strange to me, but cereal with warm milk just does not sound appealing. At all.

They don’t put ice in their water (or their drinks!)

In the month span that I have been in Europe, I have yet to see a block of ice. Restaurants just give you a glass bottle of lukewarm water. Even for mixed drinks at the bars, I haven’t had ice! Maybe I have just been to weird restaurants/bars. I’m now counting down the days until I get an ice cold glass of water.

Everything is closed on Sundays.

Europeans don’t joke about “keeping holy the Sabbath day.” Grocery stores, restaurants, and cafes are closed on Sundays (and if they aren’t, they close super early). On top of that, stores open later and close earlier during the week. So my “fast-paced America” mentality gets time to cool down on Sundays.

All in all, I have had a great time since moving to France. Although this list has portrayed weird things I have found it Europe, it’s what makes my trip here so unique. It makes me more resilient, open, and curious to learn more about European cultures and trends.  

Au revior!

Thus far I have really enjoyed my study abroad experience. I have been fortunate enough to visit Krakow Poland, Vienna Austria and Amsterdam Netherlands. I have loved exploring and learning about each of these countries for very different reasons. Poland was one of the toughest experiences of my life but I would not have changed a thing.

During my time in Poland, I loved exploring Krakow, learning about its deep history and eating some of its traditional Jewish food. Although sad, the history surrounding Krakow’s immense Jewish background and the events that occurred during World War II was a very important piece of history to learn about. Learning about the dark events that took place to the large Jewish population that resided in Poland was an extremely hard pill to swallow. After walking around the beautiful city, visiting memorials, touring synagogues and finally visiting Auschwitz, this experience really changed my entire outlook on life. Once I learned about the gruesome details of the war and seeing what these innocent people endured, I looked at my life in a completely different light. Although it was a very tough trip, I realized how much I take for granted every single day and decided to live every day to the fullest. I would suggest for everyone to have this experience at least once in their lifetime. I am very grateful for the experience Poland gave me and the life lessons I learned in return.

Amsterdam, Netherlands was like something I’ve never seen before. The whole time I was there it didn’t feel real. The city is flooded with canals, bikes, awesome museums, and delicious food. The city has over 100 kilometers of canals, 90 islands, and over 1500 bridges. These canals are lined with storybook houses. Some are tilting because they were built on stilts and the land is shifting, but they are all tall and slim with open windows and hooks at the tops of them so they could bring the furniture in through the window. These canals are also lined with bikes! Every where you go people are zooming past you in individual bikes or two person bikes. I had the opportunity to go to The National Amsterdam Museum, Van Gogh Museum and the Tulip Museum, Each were equally fascinating. The food was my favorite thing. They had every food you could imagine and they weren’t lacking on the sweets. The Stroopwaffels were life changing in the famous Pancake Factory blew me away. Amsterdam was different from all the other cities I’ve seen so far and that’s what made it so special. I will definitely be going back!