S/O: If you've gone to another country other than the U.S. what

[SKL]

:iagree:

My Indian coworker and I went out for Chinese food in Bangalore, and I downed my corn-chicken soup because it was the only non-spicy item I had seen in days.

 

He, on the other hand, sat there glumly stirring his portion around until he saw the hot sauce on the table and added heaping spoonfuls. Problem solved!

 

This reminds me how my friend (whose family I was visiting in India) was excited to introduce me to "authentic" Chinese food - the way they serve it in India. I went to two Chinese restaurants in India. The first, supposedly the best in Hyderabad, and I'm sorry to say I could not even eat the food. (And I am a pretty good sport about these things.) The second, near Delhi, and while I managed to eat it, I lost it back at the hotel. (Which is when I learned that the bathroom walls there provide zero sound barrier. I could hear them out there saying "she's vohmittting." :tongue_smilie:

 

And yes, I've been to China and tasted authentic Chinese. This was not that.

[Ibbygirl]

 

Fried plantain is YUMMY! So are ginnips (spelling ? - it's this small, round, somewhat hard fruit that is just a smidge fleshy like a mango. I fell in love with these things but they can't be imported into the U.S. because of some fly that goes after the fruit that we do not have in America and apparently do not want.

 

I just wanted to tell you that you can get plantains here in the US. Every grocery store where I live sells them. If you get them really green you can make Tostones which as soooooo yuuuuuummy. Or you can let them ripen (turn black) and make maduros which are delicious too. :) You can also boil and mash the green ones and eat them with eggs and onions. Dh loves to eat that for breakfast. :)

[Caroline]

I was in the Soviet Union in 1989. I went to Leningrad, Tallin, and Moscow. The public transportation was very crowded. The escalators moved very fast. The subway in Moscow seemed to be very deep. And people, especially in Estonia, were sad. And the men wore very tiny bathing suits.

[HejKatt]

This reminds me how my friend (whose family I was visiting in India) was excited to introduce me to "authentic" Chinese food - the way they serve it in India. I went to two Chinese restaurants in India. The first, supposedly the best in Hyderabad, and I'm sorry to say I could not even eat the food. (And I am a pretty good sport about these things.) The second, near Delhi, and while I managed to eat it, I lost it back at the hotel. (Which is when I learned that the bathroom walls there provide zero sound barrier. I could hear them out there saying "she's vohmittting." :tongue_smilie:

 

And yes, I've been to China and tasted authentic Chinese. This was not that.

 

I think that genre is called "Desi Chinese" food. Sorry to hear about your experience, you really are a good sport!

[Sahamamama]

Belize: I was 22 years old when I went to Belize, and it was my first time overseas. My first impression was the VIVIDNESS of the colors -- the sky, the sunlight, the flowers, the trees, the fields. It was as though I had lived my entire life on "dull" setting, and was only then seeing colors. My second impression was of a small Creole boy begging for a shilling, immediately after I had been told by my director not to give anything to beggars, especially the children. :001_huh: My final impression was of how heart-wrenching it was to leave -- the realization that, in spite of sickness, home-sickness, and hardships, I had grown to love Belize and Belizeans. It was horrible coming "home" to the States. I cried when I saw clean children at the airport, I cried when I ate a piece of meat, I cried when I put my clothes in the electric dryer. Overall, the normal adjustments! ;)

 

Mexico: Smiling, friendly people! Amazing food! :D I'd never been to the desert, so that was interesting. It's dry, for sure! Nothing was grounded electrically, so while working on a steel truss, I was electrocuted. My heart actually stopped, which felt weird, as though something was missing but I couldn't figure out what. Obviously, it started again. No harm done. I was wobbly for a few days, though.

 

Malawi: Tension. Malawi seemed calm and warm on the surface of things, but there was an underlying tension that made being there feel like sitting on a power-keg. The young people were so dissatisfied with their government. The schools were empty, because the students couldn't afford uniforms and books. The hospitals were closed because there were no supplies, not even aspirin or band-aids. I naively opened my tiny first aid kit one afternoon to treat someone's cut foot, and within seconds there was a line-up of villagers with minor injuries and infections. We handed out soap, and people came running from miles around for a small bar of soap. Lots of coffin shops. Lots of cemeteries. Funerals every week, usually all day on Tuesdays. Many small children without parents.

 

Dominican Republic: I was five months pregnant with my firstborn when I went to the DR, so I saw everything through the prism of motherhood. Beautiful hot and sticky babies under mosquito nets, sleeping fitfully, deeply breathing. Hard-working women in the kitchen, preparing delicious food to feed our building crew. Hurricane warnings (we were nearly evacuated). Singing and praising God in Spanish. :D Crazy drivers!

[Susan in TN]

things surprised you?

 

 

I was in Scandinavia for several days in June, so some things are fresh in my mind...

 

In Copenhagen it rained quite a bit and at first we were surprised at the people walking and bicycling around in the rain. After a while though, we realized that if you don't go out in the rain, you'd never leave your house! The bike lanes everywhere were wonderful!

 

Restaurants running out of food. This happened 3 times - once in Denmark and twice in Norway. These were modern restaurants in tourist areas, not particularly busy or crowded.

 

Being refused service in a restaurant because we were Americans.

 

Fish for breakfast. It was served at all the hotel buffet breakfasts and I just couldn't do it; I did try a bit of smoked salmon one morning. Loved the gjetost and fruit, though.

 

No decaffeinated coffee. They had no idea what I was talking about. (I suppose there's really no point in coffee without caffeine? :D)

 

The graffiti. Even in tourist and historic areas, on the front doors of businesses, everywhere. Copenhagen and Oslo were the worst.

 

The brightly colored business vehicles - all bright red, blue, yellow, etc. It was very cheerful.

 

The beauty of the Jotunheimen mountains and the fjords. Of course we'd seen pictures but they just pale in comparison to what you see with your own eyes.

Edited August 2, 2012 by Susan in TN

[mohop]

We've been living in Jordan for the past year, and there are probably too many things to mention (and, keep in mind that I am ethnically Arab, so I thought I knew what to expect). But here are a few:

 

-Trucks drive around selling propane gas tanks (for ovens and portable heaters) that sound like american ice cream trucks.

-The amount of, and lack of thought given to, littering. People just throw their trash in the middle of the street all the time.

-The prevalence of live-in "maids" and the ways they are treated.

-Horribly insulated homes and apartments. (It gets very cold in the winter!)

-The way people celebrate (driving around honking horns and shooting guns) when high school exam results come in.

-The poor quality and high cost of goods, but the high quality and low cost of labor.

-Friendliness with children. My daughters have had to get used to strangers wanting to hug and kiss them and take pictures with them.

[julikins]

There are so many things I can relate with having lived overseas most of my life. Going back to the States can be quite a shock sometimes too. Especially the cereal isle!

 

 

Papua New Guinea: Spent 6 weeks there, two in the tribe.

• Being fed the worst red stuff, salty, ever. It was a fertility food apparently.
  
• Not being able to step over things, it could cause the man that sits there or eats the food close to it to become infertile.
  
• Having an elderly women open my elastic waste in my pants and squeeze my ovaries. I had no idea what she said but I'm sure it had something to do with marriageability or fertility.
  
• Watching a young girl being sold (arranged marriage) to an old awful looking man for a couple goats. She was terrified.
  
• The people in one tribe we worked with had to walk 5 miles every day to get water.
  
• Men holding hands, it signifies friendship, nothing else. The guy on our team (American) walking down the path holding hands with a PNG guy. The PNG guy was smiling thinking, "This is my new friend." The American guy, red in the face, thinking, "If I let go I'm going to offend him."
  
• Walking for a couple hours down a stream (like in the water, through a beautiful shaded waterfall) with a family to get to their garden. Drinking sugar cane juice directly from the cane to get a clean drink.
  
• It was so beautiful. The stars were incredible at night with no electricity for miles around and being on top of mountain.
  
• I could go on and on!
  

Brazil: This is based on living interior northeast Brazil. I'm not going to mention the many things that have already been mentioned. Other stuff.

• not just bagged milk, but also boxed milk that doesn't have to be refrigerated--think of all the chemicals in the milk!
  
• crazy driving, people come at you head on and expect you to get off the road! No shoulder, people sitting on the edge of the road at night and expect us not to hit them. Being hit by drunk drivers and they drive off.
  
• small kids (in the interior at least) are not trained to pee in the toilet, they do their business wherever, whenever, no diapers. I have a little 4 month old and I have people ask me if I actually keep her in diapers all the time. Um, yeah!
  
• The people are so clean! They take multiple, like up to 7, showers per day. They also sweep and mop daily and many several times daily.
  
• The way they clean bathrooms, they call it "throwing water". That's why everything is tiled because they literally throw water all over the entire bathroom then squiggy it dry.
  
• The kids drink from the same cup as the other 40 children that took a drink, and they double, tripple, continuously dip into the food. No germ consciousness!
  
• Public health care is so bad! It just makes me mad!
  
• Everything is so expensive, except for fruits and vegetables (locally grown) and manual labor.
  
• Again, so much more I could say, but I digress...
  

Edited August 3, 2012 by julikins
clarifying post

[Laura Corin]

[*]not just bagged milk, but also boxed milk that doesn't have to be refrigerated--think of all the chemicals in the milk!

 

Boxed milk that you can keep outside the refrigerator (until it is opened) is usually UHT (ultra heat treated) to be sterile. It's the milk equivalent of canned tomatoes and is common in a lot of countries.

 

Laura

[Jean in Newcastle]

When we were in the Philippines we worked very briefly with an indigenous tribe that lived in that part of the islands. I was very surprised that this tribe was black skinned and were pygmies, very much like the pictures of people I've seen in Papua New Guinea and were not Asian.

 

Then we went to the local zoo. After seeing the exhibits of Bintarang and other local animals, we came to the exhibit for this indigenous tribe. :svengo: None of the Filipinos could figure out why my family was upset. The people in the exhibit insisted that we take their pictures because this was their job to be stared at and seen as a novelty. We paid them a small amount for taking their pictures which at least helped some since I know the tribe lives in terrible poverty.

[Denisemomof4]

mexico: i wad not prepared to see cardboard box neighborhoods. :sad:

 

China: i thought it strange that the malls had pictures of Americans in all their advertisings. They also blasted America country western music in the mall.:confused:

 

Bathroom stalls had the p!ss pot in the floor and no stall doors. :scared:

 

The bus driver drove to the country and went door to door asking to give the Americans a tour of their house. The second homeowner proudly let us in. Her house was so barren and the pigs lived in a room attached to the house. The pigs looked very sick and I worried the humans could get very sick living with them.

 

Ot was neat how community fishing ponds were set up for neighborhoods, many with rice paddies.

[Ibbygirl]

Dominican Republic- Santo Domingo has a rhythm all it's own. It's almost like music.

 

There isn't enough electricity and water to keep it on all the time so it is turned off regularly. There are buckets and pots and pretty much anything that can hold water, all filled up lined up everywhere and when the water is off, you use that water for everything. There were two big water barrels at fil's house that we used to bathe out of. You soap up and then use a small bucket to pour the water over your head to rinse. As soon as the water comes back on, everyone starts immediately filling all the containers up again. Same with the electricity, as soon as it comes back on again, everyone starts cooking since it can be a few days before it comes back on once it goes out.

 

The traffic is nuts and they drive on sidewalks, make a 2 lane street 3 lanes (or more!) it's crazy! hehe

 

The people are amazingly warm and friendly and love babies. DD was 8 months old when I went there the first time and I cannot even tell you how many times someone snatched her out of my arms because they wanted to hold her.

 

There is a bakery on top of a hill in the colonial city that has the best bread and cheese I've ever had in my life. I dream about that bread and cheese sometimes.

 

Cashiers don't give you your change back when you buy things. They give you the bills, but never give you the coins.

 

They have really good chocolate. :)

 

They have the distinction of being the first permanent European settlement in the New World, The First Capital for Spain in the New World (Santo Domingo) ,the have the first Cathedral in the New World, First University and First Castle.

 

Christopher Columbus is buried there.

 

They have a magnetic pole in the western part of the country. We parked our car at the bottom of a hill, turned it off and put it in neutral. The magnetic pole pulled our car up the hill and we were going as fast as 35 kilometers per hour at the peak speed. That was fun. :)

 

It is the birthplace of merengue music.

 

The food is delicious. The people are wonderful and the scenery is breathtakingly beautiful.

 

There is horrible poverty there. I saw entire families living underneath overpasses of streets cooking out of a big black kettle on an open fire on the side of the road. :(

 

When we were all the way west near the Haitian border it looked like open country. We drove and passed some wood shanty homes with tin metal roofs, but it was mostly unpopulated or so I thought. When the sun went down I could see all these campfires all over that stretched on and on. I don't know if those people had shanties to live in or if they were just outside or what, but when I saw that, I understood then why so many people die there in hurricanes. :(

Edited August 3, 2012 by Ibbygirl