I have long enjoyed watching YouTube videos in which expats from the US are living in Europe and vice-versa, and US citizens who have lived in Europe and then moved themselves back to the US describe their perception of differences between different countries in Europe and the United States.
A lot of the differences that are pointed out are usually very obvious and typically relate to stuff like things US being very new versus things in Europe being old, and how much vacation Europeans get/take as opposed to how people in the US don't, and the invariable food differences, along with differences in cars, road systems and public transportation... and things like that.
I'm not really interested in those because they've already been "done to death" and I don't think I can add much to that conversation that hasn't already been covered.
Instead, I'm going to focus on the more noticeable but subtle thing I have really come to understand after some 60-odd years of living on both sides of the Atlantic.
This specifically means primarily Denmark, France, Spain, and the UK on the European side, and the US meaning primarily Texas, Arizona, Oregon and Washington State.
All the typically described differences aside — and they're always going to be exceptions — the single thing I notice the most as a major difference between the two (and perhaps everything else ultimately stems from that) is what I would characterize as "the SPEED of life."
In the US we're always in a hurry, and sometimes it even feels like we're almost afraid to sit still... as if sitting still somehow would make us miss out on life, or at least miss out on some part of life.
From fast food to drive-in banking to how we do business in the US, everything is designed for fast movement. We have more time saving devices and systems than you could possibly imagine, and then some!
And even with that, it feels like we "don't have enough time."
We get impatient if the Uber Eats driver is two minutes late (which is already a reference to the fact that we don't actually have TIME to go to a restaurant and sit down to eat a meal...) and I watch people at the post office actually leave when they see there's a line of 4-5 people waiting to be served.
I first really noticed this when I first started living in the US semi-permanently, and soon grew aware that I was always the slowest eater at gatherings, even casual BBQ parties on the weekend.
When I am back in Europe, I'm actually considered a fairly fast eater... and I've even been asked things like "why are you rushing? You don't have a train to catch!" from my cousins.
The whole "speed of life" thing is perhaps related to the fact that here in the US we have some many things in our lives, all the time. The average American's schedule is far more crammed and jammed than the average European's.
I'm not sure whether this is all a result of some sort of collective cultural FOMO in the USA, or something else. Let's face it, we take pride in how "much" we have to do, how much we work... and sitting still is almost distasteful, like there is something wrong with you, if you're not "busy."
The USA have been my "adopted home" for more than 40 years now... and perhaps the only thing I have never fully been able to adjust to, is "the Speed of Life" here.
I definitely appreciate all the "things" of life in the US, I just would like to engage with them more slowly and thoroughly. But we just "don't have time" for that, here...
And so, when I do go back to spend time in Denmark — summer holidays, usually — the thing I appreciate most is generally that I get to have a few weeks of not feeling like I have to rush all the time.
In the greater scheme of things, it's probably a small thing... but it's also the thing I continue to notice the most. Right down to the fact that I actually sleep more, when I am in Europe... typically 8-9 hours per night, rather than the typical 7 hours per night, here in the USA.
To wit, I am sitting here at 1:00am, putting the finishing touches on this post...
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Created at 2023-07-02 01:22 PDT
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