First Enounter Stereotypes That Actually Happened When You Visited.

[JManc]

First time in LA, Jay Leno in a Duesenberg rolled up next to us. Same trip, in or around Beverly Hills, a bottle blond Paris Hilton looking type in spiked heals stumbling up the street with overly pampered poodles. (with a forumer here)

First time in NYC in the 80's, saw an IROC Camaro getting stripped a block or so from the World Trade Center.

First time in Houston in the 80's: Pick-ups with gun racks with beds full of empty beer cans and Cadillacs with bullhorns.

Paris: Eiffel Tower was literally visible outside our hotel window and people did walk around with grocery bags with bread sticking out...

[M II A II R II K]

Within a few minutes of entering Detroit from across the border I heard a gun shot whilst parked outside the abandoned train station and before the shot there were a whole bunch of memorials in the grass leading up to the station.

[chris08876]

First time I went to Monaco, I felt very poor and there were a ton of "hyper" cars around. Not super cars but hyper cars. It really is as divine (geography) as they say it is, and is rich town on massive steroids. There's rich and than there's Monaco Rich. Whole different level.

France on a side note has excellent, clean, fast trains. Very true, compared to the slow metal sardine can boxes that is NJ Transit, where a signal problem a day, keeps the status quo.

Some of the stereotypes are positive. The French felt very sophisticated and very well dressed compared to the slobs in the states. French guys and woman are skinny too. Didn't see many overweight folks.

When I went to Jamaica, some locals tried to sell me weed. I know Jamaica is the colloquial weed island, but the locals were very friendly and willing to sell once they find out I'm American. I said no, but its amazing the kindness is pursuit of USD.

[chris08876]

Too many Penn Station stories (Newark) to tell, but a memorable one.

A fella took a shit on the floor right by the escalator to track 5 (Raritan) line... at 7 in the morning, and I remember the guy that had to clean it up, with his mask, holding the mop, just with the 1000 yard stare.

7 am.... shit on the floor, crowds, people yelling, people talking to themselves and yelling near the main room by the Dunkin Donuts... when you walk into the bathroom, there is a fan blowing hot air out of the bathroom in which the air is rich and humid with the smell of urine.... some stalls out of service or being cleaned, one of the stall toilets has a sweater full of poop and vomit dunked into the toilet... with beer cans on the floor.

That is the Newark Penn experience on any given day.

At night, its dawn of the dead.

[Razor]

Originally Posted by Proof Sheet

Was the state trooper wearing a police shirt with a tie and they were the same colour so that the tie was basically indistinguishable from the shirt. That seems to be a common trait with US police forces.

I can't remember really..Just the NFL coach stache and mirror glasses..Fit the stereotype.

I'm not sure if this is a real strong stereotype of a common passionate sports fan in Philadelphia, but when I tagged along with my wife who wanted to go to The King of Prussia Mall, we split up and I just roamed around (I hate shopping)..I popped into a sports store to look at some caps etc., and I struck up a fun convo with a couple of the young part time suburban kids working there.They were maybe in their late teens. Anyways, I stated that "you guys even booed Santa Clause".one of them shrugged,pointed and responded with an unapologetic (insert loud Philly/NE coast accent). "Well You got to cheer for the home town when you are here".Almost like Santa deserved it..Just the matter of factness and the tone..I loved it, and expected it!

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by chris08876

France on a side note has excellent, clean, fast trains. Very true, compared to the slow metal sardine can boxes that is NJ Transit, where a signal problem a day, keeps the status quo.=

It's been a while since I used the RER trains in Paris, but from what I recall it felt worse than any of the NYC commuter rail systems. The RER trains were smaller than NY commuter trains, and people packed in a lot tighter. The French also have a different concept of personal space. I recall people being completely comfortable sticking their legs between mine to grab a seat.

[dc_denizen]

went to Montreal , saw a guy in the olympic park smoking a cigarette wearing a bike jersey and obviously having just finished a long road biking ride.

visiting finland, coming out of customs and greeted by silence - nobody talking.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by dc_denizen

went to Montreal , saw a guy in the olympic park smoking a cigarette wearing a bike jersey and obviously having just finished a long road biking ride.
.

That's a stereotype LOL?

[Sam Hill]

My girlfriend and I moved to San Francisco, back around 2006, into an apartment in the Tendernob (Post and Larkin). Our friends who already lived in SF helped us move. When we were finally finished, we took about a 10-minute break to drink a bottle of water. After our little water break, we went back out to the rental truck to find it was completely covered with graffiti.

Later that night I wandered off to a little bar I noticed earlier called the R Bar (which would later become a regular hangout of mine), to get away from my girlfriend and her cats who were stressing me out. As soon as I stepped out the front door of my building, a crack dealer offered me some crack, and a prostitute showed me her penis. I realized immediately I had made a huge mistake.

The thing that threw me off during my apartment hunt was that SF rents seemed extremely expensive to me. My brain couldn't compute how a neighborhood with extremely expensive rents could somehow be a bad neighborhood.

[Commentariat]

First time I went to the US, we landed at LAX and rented a car. I’d never driven on the right before so we just cruised around local streets for a while to get used to it. Ended up at Hermosa Beach, got out, and the first thing I saw was a hot babe with huge fake tits walk by, as beach volleyball games went on in the background. It was like something out of Baywatch and made me think ‘Wow, I’m definitely in LA’.

[texcolo]

It was the first time I took my wife to Texas. We hit Dallas, Ft Worth, Austin and San Antonio. We drove back through New Mexico to Denver. On our way across the Texas-New Mexico state line we saw three gauchos practice their lariat tossing.

[SIGSEGV]

Whenever I go back to visit Romania, it never ceases to amuse me how disorderly boarding is on the flight to Bucuresti. "Zone A" -> Everybody lines up, pushing and shoving.

The border crossing on the Greyhound between Boston and Montreal is also amusing since the Canadians are so nice and organized and the Americans are verbally abusive and incompetent.

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by Commentariat

First time I went to the US, we landed at LAX and rented a car. I’d never driven on the right before so we just cruised around local streets for a while to get used to it. Ended up at Hermosa Beach, got out, and the first thing I saw was a hot babe with huge fake tits walk by, as beach volleyball games went on in the background. It was like something out of Baywatch and made me think ‘Wow, I’m definitely in LA’.

Yup, those areas def have a la tv show feel to them.

When people say LA isn't like how its shown on movies
I wonder where they go. The beaches, mansions,.trendy
Areas actually exist. The glamorous areas in real life are actually more in your face than in movies.
I think they put so much stock
In the walk of fame or something..who knows.

[CaliNative]

There are some cities where many of the people don't use deodorant at all in summer. I will be polite and not mention where. Except to say that one city has a famous painting of a woman with a smile that is barely a smile. It is a very wonderful city.to visit though, so this is a minor quibble.

[CaliNative]

Delete

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by LA21st

Yup, those areas def have a la tv show feel to them.

When people say LA isn't like how its shown on movies
I wonder where they go. The beaches, mansions,.trendy
Areas actually exist. The glamorous areas in real life are actually more in your face than in movies.
I think they put so much stock
In the walk of fame or something..who knows.

L.A. is a mosaic. You can find everything. The beach towns are nice. There are also vast working class areas, hilly areas with mansions, industrial areas, etc. Great diversity.

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Whenever I go back to visit Romania, it never ceases to amuse me how disorderly boarding is on the flight to Bucuresti. "Zone A" -> Everybody lines up, pushing and shoving.

The border crossing on the Greyhound between Boston and Montreal is also amusing since the Canadians are so nice and organized and the Americans are verbally abusive and incompetent.

The Canadians are also better at controlling the pandemic. Organization matters.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

The first time I visited San Francisco was back in 2004 for a friend's wedding. I was travelling solo and after flying into SFO, I took bart into town to get to my hotel in the tenderloin.

Immediately upon walking up the stairs from the civic center subway station, I was greeted by a group of skeezed-out SF street-people that the city is infamous for. As I took my very first ever steps onto the sidewalks of SF, one of the street-persons leaned over and promptly vomitted upon a lamp post a couple of feet away from me, with some of the vomit splatter splashing back and landing upon the toes of my shoes.

I had been in the city for mere seconds and I already had homeless person vomit splatter on me.

WELCOME TO SAN FRANCISCO!


I imagine that it will likely forever remain my most memorable introduction ever to a new city.

the first time i was in san francisco i about ran into a 70 year old man walking down the street (downtown) buck naked with his clothes (i guess) in his bag over his shoulder. he was behaving completely rationally otherwise.

last fall i got caught (and sort of stranded on the other side of the street) in a (random to me) taiwanese-american parade complete with sportscars, beauty queens, and marching bands in chinatown. felt very california.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Sam Hill

As soon as I stepped out the front door of my building, a crack dealer offered me some crack, and a prostitute showed me her penis. I realized immediately I had made a huge mistake.

Huh? Sounds like a fun, vibrant, and very friendly neighborhood to me. They were just making the new guy feel welcome!


her penis... so San Fran

[benp]

On my first visit to Moscow (early 2001, right before 9/11) our van driver got stopped by a traffic cop for a bribe, the driver took us to a clothing store where there was a "better" exchange rate for $-to-rubles and it was a window at the back guarded by a couple of thugs and people with thick stacks of $100 bills in line, and at the hotel (a major hotel) young prostitutes brought in by the old rich oligarchs and mobsters were being constantly chased away from the buffet by the hotel staff. Oh, and lots of private armored black SUVs hanging around certain bars and restaurants.