So, how do We Look?

Written by Reuben Esparza | 30 April 2009

An International Introspective on the Facets of Life

With only our maple syrup swigging neighbors to the north and our futbol frenzied amigos to the south, geologically the US isn’t exactly in the mix when it comes to other countries.  Luckily, San Luis Obispo happens to be a sufficient showroom for a few exotic imports seeking education abroad.

To better give us an understanding of just how things compare beyond our borders, several transplants have agreed to spill the beans on food, nightlife, social behavior, and anything else we could think of.  This is what they had to say.

Bjorn Lindfors, 25 – Gothenburg, Sweden

Social Norms
“In Sweden, generally, casual friendships aren’t as common as they are here. Over there you wouldn’t really talk to a stranger on the bus, well, I try to but not always successfully. That’s what I love about here.
With bosses and teachers you always call them by their first name. There’s less of a hierarchy. To call them by their last name would be weird.
We say please and thank you but not as often as people do here. When you say something like, ‘Could you please do this or that for me please,’ it gives off the notion of a person without confidence. For example, at Subway people say ‘please’ after every sentence when asking for things on their sandwich and now I feel like I have to do it. I don’t like going there for that reason.
Also, here strangers will ask you how you’re doing but they don’t really expect an answer. We say that to friends when we actually want to know but not to strangers so that’s new to me.”

Clubbing
“There are sooo many dance clubs in Sweden. The house music scene is way bigger. SLO is small so there’s not much diversity in the clubs but in Gothenburg, which is about ten times as big, there’s jazz clubs, rock clubs, and just way more diversity. Also, people dress up more in Sweden. Very few clubs would let you in with just a t-shirt.”

Girls
“Girls act very different at nightclubs in Sweden. They don’t dance as promiscuously as they do here. They very rarely would grind their ass on you while dancing, although I DO like that. Oh, but also if a girl in Sweden kisses you at a club or shows a little interest in you, there’s a very fair chance they’re going home with you. One-night stands are much more common in Sweden, none of this second date crap.

   Here I think there’s more diversity among girls which is awesome. We have some immigrants from the middle-east and a few African countries, but it’s still not as diverse as here.

In the US, it’s not always that bad to touch girls that are dancing next to you like on their hips, but in Sweden that’s a no-no.”

Swedish Meatballs
“Well, we just call them meatballs. They’re made from ground beef and onions. We eat them with potatoes and lingunberries which you can buy here at IKEA.

Overall, we eat healthier and we tend to have more vegetables and less meat because it’s very expensive in Sweden.”

Celebrations
“We celebrate midsummer which is the longest day of the year. It’s a fertility festival and it’s very much a children’s holiday. If you have kids you play with them, you get really drunk, and you eat a lot of food. We dance around a large maypole in a circle and do the “frog dance.” Also, legend has it that if you put 9 different kinds of flowers under your pillow, when you wake up you will know who your future spouse will be. Nine months after midsummer lots of children are born, including me.

Alex Ghaffarian, 24 – Tehran, Iran

Food
“Very yummy food; there’s lots of rice, lots of oil, lots of good meat. They’ve got lamb they’ve got beef, but you don’t see any pork though. It goes back to the religious aspect of it. It’s thought of as kind of uncleanly. There is nothing like MacDonald’s or big chains like they have in the states but there are pizzerias where you can get a pizza quickly in like 15 minutes.”

Clubbing
“If you want to dance you would go to a friend’s party. You don’t see much of that happening in the public because of the restrictions the government puts on you. People do whatever they do and they always have fun but they do it inside their houses or in friends’ houses.”

Social ‘No-No’s’
“You don’t talk back to your elders. You DEFINITELY don’t talk back to your elders. You must have respect for them. If you don’t it’s really bad. Also, you have lots of respect for guests.”

Social Norms
“Well, if I see my family or I see friends, the way of greeting is a lot different than the American way of greeting. For example, in Iran the form of greeting is that I would come up to you I would give you a handshake and I then I would go ahead and kiss you on the cheek. You would do that to me too and it’s absolutely normal. I would do that to my father, to my brother and good friends but not a random stranger. If it’s a stranger then you give them a handshake.

People on the street aren’t as friendly there as they would be in San Luis Obispo. It’s kind of like New York style; everybody is busy or doing something. They don’t have time for stuff like, ‘Hi, how is your hike going? What’s your dog’s name?’ You don’t do that.

Also, you live(at home) with your parents longer because it’s not like here where people are like, ‘Oh I’m over eighteen years old so my parents just kicked me out of my house so I’m just gonna go ahead and live by myself now and maybe starve to death.’ Your parents care about you so they don’t want to see you move away from them. It’s part of the culture; it’s your parents’ responsibility to make sure that you are well off by giving you money when you need it.

Again, there’s much respect for parents. Almost no one would put their parents in retirement homes. You will find VERY few retirement homes in Iran.”

Girls
 “[Back when] the Shah was running Iran, girls could would wear short skirts and go to clubs. As soon as the Ayatollahs came in, well, at the time, people were looking for a change from the Shah. Shah was ruled by the United States as kind of the US’s puppet. Lots of people were unhappy and wanted change so there was a revolution and it happened to be the Ayatollah Khomeini that came to power. As he came in he brought the religious aspect of Islam into Iran. It existed before, but it wasn’t pushed upon you; you had the choice. When they came, they removed the separation of church and state.

At the time, people were following the Ayatollah to reject western influence, but now it’s all backwards. People are getting tired of the Ayatollahs now.

The country still makes [girls] wear some sort of covering. It’s not like Saudi Arabia though where they make the female wear something on their face. In the US, a lot of girls get boob jobs or liposuction you know, but over there since they’re supposed to be covered, a lot of girls have been getting nose jobs because that’s one of the only ways they can show beauty, in public that is.

All the concealing clothing is only worn outside. When you’re inside with friends or family no one gives a fuck, they’re wearing like, mini-skirts and tank tops. It changes one hundred percent. If you’re in public you’d get whipped, taken to jail, or fined.

Parting Word
“Get out there, get knowledgeable, and don’t let the media tell you how things are; go read. The media screws everything up for you. Unfortunately, they won’t give Americans visas to visit right now, but if you do end up going there people are going to adore you. People will bow in front of you and you will see a form of hospitality that you will not see in even seven star hotels in America. They will take you into their house even if they don’t know you, ‘Hey, come have dinner with us!’ They’re very hospitable.”

Julie Helene Waaler-Bjorkhaug, 23 - Eidsvoll, Norway

Food
“We make hamburgers from moose meat. My mother makes it really good. We’re from the countryside so we buy it directly from the farmers.

Our grocery stores are not that big. Compared to Norway, Albertsons is a pretty big store.”

Clubbing
“In Norway the clubs close at around 3:30am and the legal age limit is 18. On the dance floors here, guys are much more aggressive! The American way of dancing belongs in the bedroom.”

Social Norms
“Here people ask you how you are doing but they don’t really care about the answer. What am I supposed to say to that? At a store in Norway if a checker asked me how my day was going I’d feel like they really wanted to know. Here, I don’t even want to answer.

Also, if you’re having a party, people will say they are coming even if they aren’t sure. We don’t really do that in Norway, if we aren’t sure we say ‘maybe.’

Oh, and people in Norway are a little more reserved. Here people will just show up to your apartment without making an appointment. I like that.”

Celebrations
“We never celebrated things like Valentine’s Day or Halloween before but now it’s becoming more and more common.

We have “Russ” which is a celebration when you finish high school. It’s actually before our final exams. At the end of April we get our red graduation clothes and start a party that goes until May 17th. You have to wear the clothes inside out, then on the first of May we get “baptized” with water guns and you can wear your clothes right side out. You have to wear the clothes every day from the first of May until the 17th. If they catch you washing them they cut off your leg, supposedly. There’s a tassel on your hat that is dipped in various colors of paint depending on what feats you’ve completed during the 17 days. Some of the feats include having sex in public, downing a bottle of wine in five minutes and spending the night in a roundabout. On the night of the 16th all the cars get horns that play music and we go around and wake up the teachers.

We also celebrate St. Hams Evening which is a lot like the Swedish celebration Midsummer, but it’s not on the same day.”

Clara Deboos, 19 - Paris, France.

Food
“In France it’s normal to cook every single day. It’s cheaper and it’s better for you. I think that’s the problem here, it’s not always cheaper than going out to eat.

The chocolate in France is very different than it is here. They add more things to the chocolate here. In France I think they use more cocoa.”

Sports
“It’s way easier to play sports here in the US. California is very sports oriented. In Paris, the streets are narrow and busy plus the air quality is not very good. If you want to go jogging you have to go to the woods or to a stadium.

Soccer is of course very big but one sport that’s fairly popular is Judo. It’s often one of the sports offered in high school.”

Boys
“I think here boys are more direct. People will ask in the middle of a conversation, ‘Hey, do you have a boyfriend?’ They would never ask that in France. They kind of try to guess or figure it out through one of your friends.

In France, if a stranger buys you a drink in a club, it’s more like they expect you to hang out with them. Typically if they buy a girl a drink in a club it’s not because they want to be friends. As to whether or not you accept the drink, I suppose it depends on what kind of girl you are. I have friends that accept drinks, and I may have as well… but then after five minutes you find a good excuse to walk away.

Here guys are way more persistent. If you say no, what else do they want? It’s pretty clear the first time. In France if you say no, it’s not a big deal and guys move on. They think it would be stupid to continue pestering the girl.”

Celebrations
“On the 21st of June we have a national music party. Everyone goes out on the street and takes out drums or a guitar and bass, and people just play music. It starts at around 6pm and goes on until around 2am. There’s a lot of drinking and dancing. They don’t block off the streets but there are so many people in the streets that it’s impossible to drive. It’s so much fun!”

Social Norms
“In France, for greetings, we don’t really hug, we kiss, or we shake hands in a more formal setting.

Almost everyone smokes in France, but as of last year, you can’t smoke in bars.”

Booze
“You can pretty much drink at any age you want. I never carry my ID on me and they’ve never asked for it. This goes for clubs as well, as long as you don’t look like you’re 10.  Hmm, I don’t even know what the legal age to get into a club is, I think maybe 16? 18?”

Jascha Moie, 25 – Munich, Germany

Food
“Well, of course we have all kinds of different sausages which we sometimes eat with sauerkraut. We don’t use microwaves as often as people do here. Also, fast food isn’t as common as it is here, maybe for lunch. We have little food kiosks called an “imbis.” A good deal of our fast food is Turkish food.”

Sports
“One of the biggest soccer teams in Germany is FC Bayern Munich. Bayern had a whole lot of money pumped into them during the 70s. Germany won the World Cup for the second time in the 70s, that’s when Bayern became big.  Now they have all the best players.

As far as fighting, Bayern fans don’t really fight at games because they always win and there’s nothing really to fight about.”

Booze
“In Germany you can drink beer and wine when you’re 16. When you’re 18 you can drink anything.

Germans are very proud of their beer. There are odd specialty beers here. I’m not used to hoppy ales. Our light beers refer more to the color than the taste. We have pilsners, helles, weisse beer, and bock beers which are heavier.

Munich probably has around 8 good-sized breweries. The best weisse beer is Schneiderweisse and Franziskaner. The best light beer is Tegernsneer.

In Germany they say if you’re drinking wine, you’re over 30.”

Celebrations
“Oktoberfest was first held for a royal wedding for King Ludwig almost 200 years ago, and they liked it enough to repeat it every year since. It was probably very good for the brewers; they could market their beer very easily. Oktoberfest now is pretty much one big fair. We have rollercoasters and games, and we eat large pretzels and drink a lot of beer. These celebrations are held all over Germany but Munich has the best one.”

Driving
Automatic vehicles are very rare in Germany. Maybe one out of every twenty cars are automatic, the rest manual.

Basically in Germany we don’t have stop signs, only yield signs. Usually they only put stop signs at intersections where you can’t see very well. And even where there are stop signs it’s not like here where there’s a cop waiting for you to break the law.

The Autobahn
“As far as speed, let’s say 120 mph is what most people would max out at depending on the car of course. Plus, gas is getting expensive also so that affects people’s speed. Also, unlike here, over there you only pass on the left. If a cop sees you pass on the right he may pull you over.”

Girls
“Overall I’d say German girls have more morals than American girls. In clubs they don’t really freak dance, it’s very uncommon. Maybe like, they see Americans over there doing it at a club and they’re like, ‘Hmm, let’s try it!’”