When travelling abroad it is difficult to go with an open mind. Despite our best efforts we bring with us an excess of prejudice shaped by our own culture and view of the destination country. So to it was for me when I visited the United States. When coming back, people at home are very insistent that you play into their prejudice regarding where you’ve been as well, perhaps as a means of reinforcing their own identity.

Let’s look at some of the top prejudices about Americans, and see whether they have truth in them. I must emphasize that I have been mostly around the Pittsburgh area, and my observations may or may not extent to the rest of the United States.

#1 Americans are very friendly, but it’s “fake”
This is one of the most often heard things about Americans: that they are ‘fake’. What most people refer to when they say this is that they are friendly, but they don’t really mean it. This is not entirely true though: from their perspective they probably do mean it. It’s not that they are putting up an act, it is simply a different social etiquette.

I believe the initial friendliness of Americans, which contrasts somewhat with northern Europeans, has evolved as a means to deal with the high economic mobility in the country. This is probably inherited from the frontier days when the United States was still forming, but even today it is common for people to move around quite a bit in order to find jobs: economic mobility. An open and friendly attitude towards strangers, and a quick means that facilitates social assimilation into groups is a necessity in such an environment.

#2 Americans are superficial
This is related to #1, but at a slightly later state in interactions. Americans are more open to banter than the average Dutch person for sure. Striking up a conversation and getting an interaction going is easier in the United States. People familiar with the east of the Netherlands will find it similar in some respect to the difference with the more densely populated west of the country: conversation are faster and their content more fleeting. However, if you actually get to know a person you can take the conversation as deep as you want, just as about anywhere else in the world.

#3 Americans are materialistic
It is true that Americans have a lot of `stuff’ and like to show what they have. This desire may not be specific to Americans by definition. However, showing your wealth prominently through materialism is more accepted in the USA than in other societies. One plausible reason for this is that the United States was founded as a place where status was not to be acquired by being born into a particular social class, but rather by working hard to distinguish oneself. Hence, the only way to actually measure the status of others in such a system is through observing their acquired wealth.

This is not a bad thing per se. But there are few mechanism to curb the excesses, which leads to a rather larger divide between poor and rich people. Additionally, I have been told repeatedly that the American Dream, a large part of which revolves around wealth and independence, is no longer reachable for many young Americans.

#4 Americans are nationalistic
One of the things that is pretty much true. Although national pride is nothing new, America is one of the few western countries that infuse their kids with a strong sense of national identity. Their proudness can be viewed as a positive thing since it keeps them together. However, I think it mostly works against them, as it strongly affects international relations and is also an often used argument in debate: when Americans criticize their own country their patriotism is often questioned. Something which seems irrelevant to me.

#5 Americans are overweight
I believe about one in three Americans is significantly overweight. This was also roughly true where I was. It’s a sad thing, but as I have reported before, there’s little incentive to eat healthy or stay physically fit. If you want that it has to come from you, as the country’s regulatory authorities and commercial parties hardly provide any incentive for living a healthy life.

#6 Americans are conservative
This is certainly true for a part of the population. However, this is not specific to the United States. The two-party political system polarizes people into either being a republican (conservative) or a democrat (liberal). This forced binary option makes the political orientation of people very visible. It seems somewhat awkward for a country based on market economics to have so little choice in its political system.

#7 Americans are not knowledgeable about the rest of the world
This strongly depends on where you are. In a university setting they are probably no less knowledgable, and interested, in the world outside of their country. However, that’s a very narrow part of the demographic.

The truth is that Americans don’t have a lot of reason to travel outside their own country, since their huge land covers many climates, and has many beautiful sights. You can enjoy yourself there for a lifetime without having to ever travel outside of the country. That’s not to say that Americans don’t like to travel abroad: they certainly do. However, it’s probably true to some extent that their limited direct exposure to other cultures in terms of customs and language does not make them as aware of the world outside their country as the citizens of smaller countries in Europe.

#8 Americans are hard workers
As I understand it this depends a bit on where you are in the United States. The people in the southern states having an apparantly more relaxed and laid back attitude. However, in Pittsburgh life is fairly rushed. People frequently complain about the long hours they have to put in. There’s a fair amount of shops open the whole day, every day, or something close to that.

It seems like they are good at what I call “making each other crazy” with few vacation hours and long working days. Whether that is actually beneficial overall is fairly doubtful. The increase in working hours is probably offset by a decline in productivity during those hours. Americans work a lot, that doesn’t make them hard workers.

Conclusion
Overall there is some element of truth in all of the items mentioned. However, the reality is less black and white and has many more shades of grey than many people are willing to believe. This isn’t helped by the vast amount of documentaries that serve only to reinforce the common stereotypes. Americans also, in part, owe this to themselves, as they seem more than happy to reinforce their image in media. When you visit the United States yourself, I would recommend trying to keep an open mind, even if that may be difficult sometimes.

Since I’ve spent some time in the United States, what follows are some ideas for shopping and eating that could save fellow traveling Dutchmen some time. Some of these may be specific to the Pittsburgh area, but others may also generalize to other parts of the country, particularly medium to large sized cities. Use to your advantage.

• Cheese: there’s a lot of cheese around: different kinds from different countries. This large selection reduces the number of cheeses per country, so most Dutch cheese that you’ll find is Gouda “goo-dah”. Most of that is not Dutch import, but produced elsewhere in the US. Cheeses are notably less salty, but certainly no less fat. I recommend trying Pepper Jack if you’ve never had it and like spicy stuff.
• Sprinkles: these are available in small packages for decorating cakes. Hence, putting this on your daily slices of bread will quickly turn into an expensive hobby. However, if you scout around you may find a local chocolate shop that imports Dutch products from de Ruijter “de-ruter”.
• Potato Chips: I’ve found only the plainly salted potato chips to be comparable to their Dutch counterparts. You will find many familiar brands: Lays, Cheetos, etcetera. However, this is a deception, since most of these have a different ‘taste’ and texture. Bell pepper “paprika” potato chips are nowhere to be found, but there are a lot of oddly spiced chips if you’re into experimenting.
• McDonald’s: if you’re looking for the typical yellow ‘mad sauce’ you won’t find it in the United States. Strangely it is marketed in Dutch supermarkets as an “American” sauce. Fries are generally served with ketchup and mayonnaise is available on request.
• Big American Pizzas: thick crusted pizzas are not popular in the United States as far as I could tell. Yet another marketing ploy …
• Teeth: if you want to keep them buy a good, preferably electrical, toothbrush as they will have to endure a sugar overload.
• Tipping: unlike in the Netherlands this is expected in the United States: not tipping is considered rude. However, tipping is not expected if there’s a tipping box on the counter. As a rough guideline to what you will be signaling with your tipping amount: ten percent is bad service, fifteen percent okay service and twenty percent is excellent service. Remember that barbers and taxi drivers also expect tips.
• Brands: In grocery stores expect to find a wide range of unfamiliar brands. Notable exceptions to this are Unilever brands and a broad range of personal care products. It’s fairly obvious what most things are though, so don’t be afraid to experiment (within reason).
• Rental Cars: try Hertz or Avis.

While you may be familiar with many large American (fast) food chains, there are fairly large competitors that do not operate in the Netherlands. For example most people will be familiar with Starbucks, but not with Caribou Coffee. Similarly, everyone knows the sandwich shop Subway, but not Quiznos. If you like Bagels & Beans in the Netherlands, you will also like Panera Bread in the United States. Looking for a burrito or taco? Try the Chipotle Mexican Grill. If you want any type of quickly prepared food: your options are virtually endless.

Here’s a list of companies found in the Netherlands with United States alternatives. This list is not exhaustive, and it’s certainly not exact as many stores in the United States offer a wider range of products in a wider range of categories (and of course: Wal Mart really has everything, hence it’s not included).

• V&D, Bijenkorf: Macy’s
• Blokker, Hema: Target
• Albert Heijn “To Go”: Seven Eleven, CVS Pharmacy, Rite Aid
• Albert Heijn: Whole Foods, Trader Joe
• C1000: Giant Eagle (East-US Regional)
• Makro: Costco
• Ice cream!: Ben&Jerry’s, Baskin-Robbins, Frozen Yoghurt
• Wolff, Pathé: AMC Theatres
• Mediamarkt: BestBuy
• Ikea: Ikea

In general I recommend just walking around and going in and out of shops to get a feel for what is different. You will probably quickly get the ‘hang’ of it.

Update: a pointer from a friend for those interested in purchasing Dutch products in the United States: www.hollandsbest.com.

… or roughly 32 000 feet above the ground, that’s where I am now, as you are reading this. In about six hours I will land at Schiphol airport in the Netherlands, back where I started hundred and twenty-three days ago. It doesn’t seem that long when you are at the end of it, but that’s still a good third of a year.

It’s been a mostly fun and rewarding experience, but I have to say it was also frustrating at times. Nevertheless, I’ve quite gotten used to being able to drop in at the Starbucks around the corner, biking down Squirrel Hill into Oakland, having all kinds of conversations with Americans, hanging out with film club people, going to Pitt games with my landlord, et cetera. So, although I am quite excited to go home, there will definitely by things that I’ll miss.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my stay in Pittsburgh, and there will be some final US related articles coming up in this category as well. Keep reading

During my stay in the Pittsburgh I’ve had lots of interesting conversations with all kinds of people. However, what stands out for me in particular is those with young Americans in their early twenties. They represent what America will look like tomorrow, and many of them are not very happy about what it looks like today. What follows are anonymized excerpts of various conversations, not exclusively, but predominantly with young adults, some of these have been slightly altered for the sake of readability.

Pride
I was standing near the front of a fairly crowded bus. We were waiting for it to depart: several people still needed to pay before exiting the vehicle.
“That’s taking a while,” I murmured.
“Damn, I just want to go home you know”, a middle-aged man standing next to me said. “They can just have their cash ready when they want to exit. They’re delaying all these people this way.”
“It’s not a very efficient system: paying cash, where I come from we use cards for that.”
“Where do you come from?”
“The Netherlands.”
“Oh wow, a friend of mine lived there for sometime, in Amsterdam I think.”
“Cool, then he probably knows the public transport infrastructure is better over there.”
“Sure, sure, better then here. There’s lots of things that could be improved in the United States.” He hesitated and continued: “but don’t misunderstand me: I am a proud American. It’s not a perfect country, but people keep coming here: just like you came to Pittsburgh, so we must be doing something right, right?”
I nodded in silent agreement.

Shame
“So, I’ve noticed that in the United States the gap between rich and poor is large,” I said.
“Yes, that’s right,” she replied.
“So, in Western Europe, particularly in the Netherlands, that gap tends to be a lot smaller: people are in some sense more equal, certainly in terms of purchasing power. We say `the strongest shoulders should bear the heaviest burden’”
“Right, that’s the way it is supposed to work here. However, it really doesn’t work that way since rich people get huge tax cuts. I mean: Warren Buffet even suggested imposing more tax on his own socio-economic group: the rich.”
“But, the American economic system does encourage more risk-taking and appears to yield more innovation then the European one, right?”
“Right, but I still prefer a welfare state, like those in Europe or Canada.”

Rich
I was having a conversation with a group of people.
“So, I am trying to understand how it works here: are conservatives mostly older people and liberals mostly younger people?”
“More or less, the people in the bigger cities: the densely populated areas near the coasts, are generally more liberal, and most young people that are conservative are rich kids,” a girl replied.
“Rich kids?”
“Yes, like: kids with very rich parents, if one thing is true in America it’s that being rich will make you richer,” a boy added.
“That seems perverse. So, how does it work with tuition, that’s supposedly high here, right?”, I continued.
“For Carnegie Mellon it is about forty-three thousand dollars per year, but it varies depending on the school.”
“What, seriously?”, I wasn’t really expecting it to be that high.
“So, what is it in the Netherlands?”
“If I’d tell you that you’d go crazy”, I smiled.

History
“So, then, what was the American fight for independence really about?”, I asked.
“Well, don’t misunderstand: the American revolution was about a bunch of rich white guys on one side of the ocean that were unhappy about the unfair levied taxes imposed on them by some rich white guys on the other side of that same ocean: the British.”

Heritage
“One of the things I’ve found quite disappointing here in the United States is the emphasis on a person’s ethnic heritage.” I paused and pondered if I should broach the subject further, “statistics presented in the media are often about race: White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, and all combinations thereof. I mean: I personally don’t think that should matter at all.”
She smiled, “race shouldn’t matter: I agree, but it is an historically very sensitive issue here in the United States.”
I continued: “As an example, I’ve seen a lot of non-white people working menial jobs. Is my observation incorrect or is this really true?”
“It’s true, it’s true. It’s not just race though, it’s more socio-cultural,” she paused and frowned. “And you know what’s even worse? Say someone manages to get out of that situation, for example: a black female, she then gets stereotyped as the ‘strong black woman’”
“Positive discrimination?”
“Exactly.”

Occupation (1)
“So, what do you think occupy Wall Street is all about?”, I asked.
“I think what it boils down to is getting money out of politics.”
“Money?”
“Yes, in the United States when you run for president you need money: lots of money.” He paused briefly, then continued: “so, most of that money is provided by companies. They basically throw their weight behind any candidate who best serves their interest.”
“And you also have a two party system, right?”
“Right, you can run either for the democrats or republicans, there’s really no other practical way to win an election.”
“So, to recap: would you say it’s basically about reducing the indirect political power and influence of large and rich corporations?”
“That’s exactly it.”

Occupation (2)
“Have you followed the occupy Wall Street movement?”, he asked.
“Yes, somewhat, someone told me about it, but enlighten me: what is your view on what that’s really about?”, I replied.
“That’s indeed somewhat unclear to many people. So, there are a lot of important issues that the occupy movement raised, like: the greed of wall street, the influence of corporations, etcetera.” he said.
“However”, continuing, “there’s one issue at the center of it all.”
“And what might that be?”, I asked.
“Young versus old”, he replied with confidence. “Look: the young generation is tired of the older generation trying to dominate and regulate everything in this country.”
He hesitated for a second. “Don’t misunderstand me, I think this is a great nation.”
“I’ve heard that before: that belief seems like a very common American trait”, I interrupted. “Where does that actually come from?”
“I think we’re instilled with it from a young age onwards,” he looked briefly up at a friend for confirmation while rubbing his hands to battle the cold breeze.
“Many people think ‘frak it’ and then ‘flee’ to Canada or Europe,” he continued. “But if everyone with progressive ideas does that: only the conservative ones will remain. There’s already too much emphasis on tradition and that’ll only make it worse”
“You should come to Europe”, I said, “Just for a while to see what it’s like, I mean: it’s not perfect over there, but it would give you a better feeling of the differences.”
“No system is perfect.” He smiled.

Many of the differences between the United States and the Netherlands are surprisingly small. After all: both are “western” nations. However, careful observation does reveal a number of them both small and large. Here’s a handful which are true at least in the Pittsburgh area and some of which likely extend to the rest of the United States.

Eating Habits
I’ve already discussed some food aspects at length. However, let’s take a look at habitual differences with respect to eating. When given a meal Dutch people usually wait till everyone has a plate and only then start eating: there’s a ‘synchronization’ point. In contrast: Americans start eating as soon as something is put in front of them. Furthermore, Americans generally eat with only one utensil: spoon or fork, unless they are cutting, and rest their other hand in their lap, something which is considered rude in Dutch culture. People in the Netherlands commonly use both knife and fork while eating and keep both of their hands above the table at all times.

Conveyor-belt Style Food
The American contribution to the world cuisine is “fast food”. It is amazing, but also depressing to see how many fast food chains there actually are, many more than in continental Europe, it’s truly a Fast Food Nation. Most of these fast food restaurants transform traditional cooking into a conveyor-belt style chain where either each person completes some part of the task of preparing the final meal, or where one person prepares your food item while moving along bins with ingredients.

Recycling
Pittsburgh has a curb-side recycling program and encourages its citizens to split their waste in non-recyclable and recyclable stuff. The latter includes everything that can be recycled, including leaf waste for which we have a separate bin in the Netherlands. There is no separation of different types of waste in public waste bins as is common in for example Germany. However, on the University terrain bins of this type can be found in some places.

You can get money back for recycling plastic bottles. However, I’ve not yet come across the automated bottle processing systems prolific in the Netherlands. Furthermore, there’s a lot of plastic waste being generated as a result of coated cups, take-out cutlery and bags. While many systems are in place which enable recycling. It’s not consistent and overall Americans don’t really seem to care about recycling at all. If you’re European: there’s certainly no need to feel environmentally guilty compared to what is happening here in the United States.

Banking
You probably won’t find cheques in the Netherlands unless you are at an archaeological excavation, but they are one of the primary means of payment here after cash and credit card. Interestingly, even debit cards are made so that you can use them as a credit card. Internet banking is available and works fairly well. However, an “on-line” bank transfer boils down to the bank mailing a cheque to the recipient on your behalf. Again: the American banking system doesn’t exactly sparkle modernity.

Buses and Public Transport
The bus system in Pittsburgh is decent, although not exactly reliable or punctual. Unless you have a pass, you pay cash to the driver and you have to pay exact. There’s a machine that collects your bills and coins in front of the bus. Although I am not a big proponent of the OV Chip Card, the cash payment system here is inefficient and cumbersome. People enter and exit buses using the front door, rarely does the back door get used. This doesn’t really make sense to me either. Many of the buses are also equipped with bike carrying racks, located at the front of the bus, on which one or two bikes can be mounted. Although this is a nice service, I would not quickly put my bike at the front of a bus.

Trains are not a very popular mode of transport, since they take very long to get anywhere. The reason being that passenger trains don’t have a high priority on the rail network in contrast to freight trains. Most people resort to either airplanes or cars for any type of travel. Car usage has historically been heavily promoted, since a large part of the American economy used to rely on it.

Streets and Cars
The streets are somewhat wider, but that’s also because there are no separate parking bays: cars are almost always parked on both sides of the road on nearly all streets. Whilst this occurs in the Netherlands too, parking bays are probably more common.

Traffic lights in the United States are consistently on the opposite side of the street, while in most of Europe they are more commonly on the same side. I feel that opposite placement is actually better since this makes the light easier to see when it’s high up.

The cars are bigger: you will not see many compact cars driving around here. This is also caused by the fact that the driving distances are generally longer and the fact that gasoline is somewhere between two and two-and-a-half times cheaper here compared to the Netherlands. As far as I could find there’s no vehicle excise tax based on the weight or pollution of vehicles which would also explain why Americans prefer large cars: there’s no disincentive for owning one. However, there’s a road and fuel tax system.

As far as brand names are concerned, it seems French cars are not popular. There are very few cars that carry the Peugot or Citroen brand: I haven’t actually seen any. However, German and Japanese cars are prolific: BMW, Volkwagen, Audi, Honda, Toyota, and of course American car brands like Chevrolet, GMC, Ford and Jeep. Of these American brands only Ford is popular in Europe.

Bikes
Bikes are not very common: I have had people take pictures of me because I was riding a bike. Nevertheless, I have been told that their popularity is rising. Many bikers are of the “sports” kind and not of the “commute” kind. Bikes are a bit more common among the student population, but nowhere near as common as in the Netherlands. Furthermore, there are no separate traffic lights for bikes and there are only occasional bike lanes. On some streets it is certainly safer to use the sidewalk for biking, even if it sometimes annoys pedestrians

Finally, they do not have Saint Nicholas here. I guess the United States is just a bit too far from Spain. Can’t have it all.

Someone knocked on the door of my apartment.
“Almer?”
“Yes?”
The door opened with a shriek.
“Do you have classes?”, Sophie shouted.
“I don’t, what’s up?”
I walked down the stairwell to the landing so I could see her.
“Can you help me with something?”, she asked while looking up at me.
“A friend of mine got her phone stolen, and she traced it to some pawn shop,” she paused briefly, “so she asked me to go with her to pick it up.”
“Uhm, oh, really?” I replied in surprise. “Did she report it to the police? Did she ask them for help?” I added.
“Yes, they made a file, but said they can’t do much about it. It’s not a priority for them.”
“Okay. So, how can I help?”
“Well, it’s not really in a safe part of town and we’re just two girls …”

Twenty minutes later I was sitting in the back of a Hummer-like car. Sophie, in the front passenger seat, discussed strategies with her friend Mithra behind the wheel. This was going to be more than simply picking something up …
“So, what will we tell them?”
“We can say we’re Pitt students”, Mithra replied to Sophie.
“Where are you studying?”, she briefly turned her head towards me, then fixed her eyes on the road again.
“CMU”
“Oh, don’t tell them you’re from CMU, they’ll know you’ve money, they’ll raise the price you know, we’re all just from Pitt, okay?”
“Sure”, I replied, but I was still a bit puzzled about the whole thing and only half awake. Just half an hour ago, I was engaged in my daily morning routine, specifically: having breakfast.
“I was wondering: how did you track the phone?” I continued.
“With some remote tracking app you can see where it is,” she replied hesitantly. “After I found out where it was I called the phone.”
“You called your stolen phone? Did someone pick up?”
“Yes, a man answered and he was willing to give me the phone for hundred bucks.”
I blinked, frowned and repositioned myself after Mithra’s car hit a pothole.
“So, what was the catch?”
“We arranged an exchange, but he backed out and asked me to come to his shop.”
“So, that’s the shop we’re going to?”
“No, no, it’s a different one.”
“So, you tracked it to this shop?”
“No, I did a remote wipe and then could not track the phone anymore,” she paused, “I didn’t know the wipe would do that.”
Uh? I decided to end my cross-examination. I inferred she had probably frantically called pawn shops around town, trying to locate those with iPhones, after she lost the tracking signal.

We crossed a huge bridge across the Monongahela river.
“So, where’s the shop?” Sophie asked.
“Just across the bridge, in one of the side streets”, Mithra replied.
She turned left onto the street where the shop was supposed to be. We passed an intersection and were supposedly almost there. Since no cars were behind us, Mithra slowly let her car roll forward.
“That’s the place, that’s it”, she said.

We parked the car somewhere around the corner and walked up to the shop. With every step closer the atmosphere became grimmer. A tall black guy with a black cap was leaning against the shop front, arms crossed, while discussing something with an older woman. Some other people were standing around waiting. We reluctantly joined them. Two people could be seen scurrying around inside the shop: one with a ring beard and dreadlocks resembled Wyclef Jean, the other, in the back, was harder to see.

After several minutes “Wyclef Jean” came to the front door and opened it. The other person, apparently the shop owner, followed him at a distance. Black cap moved inside, as well as all other people that were waiting, including us. The large store was full of “second-hand” stuff: flat screens, stereo receivers, and phones.

Mithra walked to the back of the store and addressed the shop owner. I fixed my gaze on his face, it was scarred. He seemed to be in his late thirties, the girls thought he was of Iranian descend.
“I called about an iPhone? For about hundred-fifty dollars?”, Mithra asked.
He smirked.
“Oh yes, yes, we have three or so,” he assured, “but there are lots of people interested in these phones, so the price will be higher, you know.”
Great.

Although the shop was quite large, Sophie, Mithra and me stood huddled together in the back. The atmosphere was grim. Two girls came in, one of them holding something small. Wyclef Jean shoved them dollar bills in, what was intended to be, a concealed way. Some other guy came in with a host of items that he wanted to sell and bantered with the shop owner.

Finally, the owner gave us two phones to try and yanked out a third one after Mithra insisted. Not all of them were charged, so we had to wait for a while. Sophie walked around looking at various gadgets. She contemplated buying something, before deciding that it probably was a bad idea to buy anything here, despite the shop owner reassuring here that she would get a “full week warranty”.

One of the three phones was obviously not Mithra’s, as it turned out to be an older model. After one of the remaining two was charged, Mithra handed it to me.
“Is this one mine?”, she asked nervously.
I looked at the palm of my left hand where I had written the serial number of her phone that she told me in the car. Unfortunately, this phone was somehow locked and I could not get into the right menu to actually check it. Mithra asked the shop owner to unlock the phone. After hooking the device up to a MacBook we could see the name of the original owner: it wasn’t hers.

We examined the last phone and established it could not have been hers either. The owner tried to sell us some other “wares”. After repeatedly asking him about other iPhones, Mithra gave up. We walked out the shop and back to the car, crossing our fingers that it’d not been vandalized.

It wasn’t, and in a matter of minutes we were back on the road. Mithra called other pawn shops to try and locate more iPhones, she seemed to obsess over it.
“You want me to tell you the obvious?”, I asked. “Let it go, it’s just a phone and your data is no longer on it, just buy a new one, and … I mean, how did you lose it in the first place?” I continued. My brain had fully awakened.
“I left it on the counter at Target, the next moment it was gone.”
I sighed audibly. “Always leave your phone either in your pocket, bag or in a secure place”
“I know,” Mithra replied, “but we girls don’t always have enough pocket space for a phone.”

After ten minutes we were home. Sophie and I got out of the car.
“Thanks for coming,” Mithra said. She drove off.
“That was weird,” I concluded as we went back inside the house.
Sophie nodded in agreement.

Sixty-one days went by, sixty-one days to go before traveling back to the Netherlands. After a relatively rough start I am pretty settled now in Pittsburgh. I’ve made some friends and have gotten used to some of the American peculiarities. Although, I can’t appreciate everything about the United States, there are certainly things we Dutch can learn from. As someone on a bus remarked to me: “people keep coming here, so we must be doing something right …”

Carnegie Mellon University is pretty nice, in terms of bright people, decent facilities and the overall atmosphere. There always seem to be things to do and there are also always people around, even during the weekends. They aren’t kidding when they say the American work ethos is “all work and no play”, although the two aren’t, and shouldn’t, be mutually exclusive in my view.

I didn’t expect Pittsburgh to be quite as big as it is. Although it is a medium-sized city for American standards, the distances are huge and places to go to are spread out. People here are generally friendly, also service personnel. For example, people in banks and shops tend to be warm and helpful without their behaviour feeling contrived. I can’t put my finger on it, but they have perfected the art of making you feel good and special.

Do I still feel nostalgic? Well somewhat, I still miss my friends and family, quality Dutch cheese, and normal sized food portions. But as mentioned before: I’ve also grown to appreciate some of the American ways. As predicted experiences like this change you in profound ways. And while the clock might be ticking, I am not done changing just yet.

Read Part I here.

Creak-creak, creak-creak, creak-creak, the steps of the wooden stairs went as two people ascended: me in front followed by Jack. When we finally reached the top I recognised everything from the initial viewing. First there was an alcove with two chairs and a small round table opposite a wooden cabinet. From there the studio extended into a large open space with wooden floors and several doors. One of these lead to a small, but fully equipped kitchen with a microwave, fridge and a stove. All utensils were there as well: cutlery, plates, pans. Opening an other door revealed a bathroom that actually had a bath in it besides a toilet and sink.

The main space of the apartment was fully furnished with a bed, tables, cabinets and also a desk, chairs, and a bookcase. There was a small TV with satellite access. Furthermore, the studio had as many as four large closets for storing stuff: plenty of space for a guy with only a suitcase and backpack.

I glanced at the large wooden bed with a mattress nearly a meter thick.
“I need to buy something for that,” I concluded.
“You’ll need some sheets”, Jack confirmed. “Wait, Laura knows where to get that. Lauraaaaa,” he shouted downstairs. She came up, stood besides him and stared intently at the bed while stroking her chin.
“Yes, you’ll probably need a mattress pad too. I think it’s a standard size bed, right?”, she looked at Jack for confirmation.
“I think so too,” he uttered. “They won’t have sheets anywhere close though. Look, we have to do some shopping in the afternoon. If you want we can take you with us, so you can buy anything you need”, he offered.
“Okay, I have a meeting in the afternoon. So, perhaps thereafter, but: only if it’s no problem. I don’t want to be any trouble to you”, I replied.
He smiled.
“No problem at all, we have to do some shopping anyway, so we’d be happy to take you with us.”
We walked down the stairs. Laura extended her hand as we reached the living room: she was holding something.
“Here is the key. Perhaps you should try it, since the door is a bit stiff.”

After some fumbling around with the key and getting the hang of how to get the door to actually open: using some force, I went out of the house accompanied by Jack. Laura was staying briefly to sort out some stacks of mail while he brought me back to CMU in their white car.

I called late in the afternoon, after my meeting, to set-up a time to go shop.
“Alright, Jack has to take care of something else, so only the two of us would be going there, is that okay?” Laura asked.
“Yes, no problem.” I was happy they were even willing to help me with this.
“I’ll pick you up in fifteen minutes in front of the University.”
“Great.”
“Oh yes, before I forget to mention: we have yet a third car. I’ll pick you up in that one: so, be on the look out for a black Mazda.”

Not long thereafter I was sitting in the front passenger seat headed towards the Waterfront: a shopping area just outside of Pittsburgh, across one of the bridges, situated in the Homestead borough.
“So, you like biking,” she inquired.
“Well … yes, but it’s a lot harder here then back in the Netherlands.”
“Indeed, it must be, with the hills here and all,” she replied while taking a turn. “We don’t bike here often, but we always bike when we go to France.”
“Cool, recreational cycling is nice, but given the roads and hills here in Pittsburgh: I can understand why you do not commute by bike.”
We approached the Waterfront: a plethora of tall buildings surrounded by huge parking lots, and a smaller core with restaurants and shops: paradise for girls that want to shop.

Laura first took me to CostCo: a wholesale shop somewhat similar to the Makro in Holland. However, of course: this is America, thus: everything is an order of magnitude larger. We approached the entrance and picked a cart.
“It’s a really big place, they have lots of stuff, not only appliances, but also good quality food items in large packagings,” Laura said. She leaned in and whispered into my ear: “and pay attention: consequently many of the people that shop here,” she paused, “are really `large’ too.”

I bought myself an electric kettle after which we went to several other shops: the Target, like the Dutch V&D, and finally Bed, Bath and Beyond which is, well: what the name says. After three hours the back of the car was stuffed. It would have taken me ages to get and move all these things myself. I sighed a breath of relief.

Finally, Laura dropped me off at what was going to be the place I’d be living for a while. I climbed up the stairs to the front porch, put the key in the front door lock, twisted it and give it a push with my shoulder: open sesame. I went upstairs to sort out the bags and put some cold water in the kettle I bought. I was still feeling ill, but I felt a lot better than a day ago: at least now I had some certainty. The kettle clicked as steam escaped from it. I gently poured some water in a cup with a bag of Earl Grey tea. Finally, this hectic day had come to an end. I stood near the window, sipping my tea as I overlooked my new neighbourhood: Squirrel Hill.

About one month ago …

“Beep-beep, beep-beep, beep-beep.”
I rolled over quickly to grab my phone and turned the alarm off. I had been lying on the bed awake, waiting for it to go off. My head was pounding like a pile driver, my throat was dry as sandpaper, and my sheets were soaked: I was ill. On top of that the hotel had informed me, the night before, that I had to get out of my room within two days. Great, only fourty-eight hours left, and no outlook on any semi-permanent place to settle.

I had viewed a couple of houses in the preceding week. However, by now I had run out of time, energy and willpower: no more viewings. The night before I decided to simply go with the best option so far: the top floor in a family house. I had sent an e-mail to Sophie, the landlord of that place, the night before. So, I closed the alarm application and opened up my e-mail to see if there was anything new. And: yes, I got a response. Since she was out of town her in-laws would take care of business and hand me the key. Their phone number was included.

Hastily, and only half awake, I dialed the number. It was nine and if I’d manage to get out of my hotel room before eleven, I would not have to pay for yet another night. I had spoken to one of the in-laws before: Jack. He had picked me up with his small red car for the initial viewing.
“Hi, this is Jack”
“Hello, good morning, this is Almer, how are you?”
“Doing fine, thanks for asking.”
“Look,” I paused briefly, “I’ve decided to go for your option.”
“Okay, that’s great to hear, you’ll enjoy the place, I am sure.”
“So, where do we go from here? I mean …”
“Let me put on Laura, she handles the details.”
“Okay, great.”
As my nose was clogged I snorted briefly to remove the blockage.
<rumbling as the phone is passed>
“Hi, this is Laura, so you will be the new tenant, great to hear,” she sounded excited. “Where are you now and when do you have time to move?”
“I am in my hotel. Ideally, I’d be out of here by eleven …”
“Okay, hold on,” she interrupted.
<In the background>
“Honey, he needs to be out of his hotel by eleven. Can we make that?”
“Sure, sure,” Jack was still audible, “I can pick him up in the car.”
“Wait, so, let me put Jack back on so he can arrange to pick you up.”
<rumbling>
“Hi, so do you have a lot of stuff?”
“No, only a bike, a suitcase, …” I pondered. “Oh yes, and a backpack of course.”
“Okay, no problem, that’ll fit in the car I think, perhaps I should bring the bike mount. I can come and pick you up whenever you’re ready,” he assured. “Just give us a call as soon as you are good to go.”
“Great, thanks. I’ll call you in a bit.”
<click>

It was already half past nine. All my stuff was still scattered across the hotel room. I had to be fast: I quickly jumped out of bed, picked up the nearest set of clothes, and put them on. I collected my other pieces of clothing, which were randomly draped over various pieces of furniture, and hastily stuffed them into my suitcase. I went into the bathroom and saw all the stuff that I had neatly laid out there: toothpaste, deodorant, razor, etcetera. Breaking the composition, I put one arm around all of it and shoved it into my toiletry bag. After packing every other thing, and forcing the messy suitcase to close with my knee on it, I started moving my stuff into the hallway. The backpack, the suitcase, and finally: the bike, which I had put in the hotel room next to my bed leaning against the wall. God, I was happy to get out of there: living out of a hotel room is definitely no fun.

I called Jack. He assured me he would be there in five minutes. So, I made my way down to the lobby, moving stuff down in two phases. Checking out was messy due to some confusion over a discount, supposedly that was factored in, but I still felt screwed over for some reason. I went outside with my stuff just as Jack came walking down the driveway.
“Hi, how are you? My car is parked around back”, he pointed. “Let me take your suitcase.”
“Great, thanks.”
“I did not bring the bike mount, I think it’ll fit in the back”, he said as we approached his (second) car. It was white and somewhere in between a huge car and a small van. We managed to fit everything inside it quite easily.

As we stepped in the car Jack’s phone rang impatiently. He picked up.
“Yes? we just got in the car, we’re on our way”, he said wile fastening his seatbelt. “Okay, yes, I’ll ask him.”
Jack turned to me, I suppressed a cough.
“What kind of coffee would you like?”
Apparently the person on the other end of the line was Laura, she was walking over to a coffeehouse to get us something to drink. Great, I thought, finally some people who actually try to make you feel welcome. As we drove from the hotel to the house Jack told me a lot of things about the area. Although he was not originally from here, he’d lived in this neighbourhood for a couple of decades. Nearly all his children took residence in this part of the city within walking distance of each other.
“So, if this is a good neighbourhood, what are the bad ones?”, I inquired.
“Places like Homewood, the Hill District, East Liberty”, he replied. “I’d steer clear of those.”

We arrived. The driveway of the house was steep and narrow.
“I am not going to drive up there, I know Sophie and my son Charley can do it easily, not sure how they manage that.”
He parked the car near the sidewalk instead. We walked up, I parked my bike at the back of the huge house after which we entered through the wooden back door into the dining room. The table was full with stacks of unopened mail. Laura looked, got up from where she sat and walked towards me.
“Hello,” she said while extending her arm.
Laura seemed friendly. After she gave the coffee she got for me, I suggested we’d first take care of business. Honestly: I’d never signed a cheque before. It seemed to me like something out of the eighties.

We went through the living room to the stairwell. The suitcase was very heavy as I’d lumped pretty much everything in it. I carried it up the stairs myself, while Jack carried the backpack.
“You’ll like it here. Anyone who’s ever lived up there loved the place”, he reassured as we walked up the final flight of stairs to the apartment.

Continues at Part II

When you arrive in a new country one of the first things you are confronted with is the local eating habits. This affects the whole spectrum of places where food and drinks can be bought: from restaurants to grocery stores. Hence, it is time to take a brief look at the top characteristics of the American diet.

Portion Size
The size of a meal in the United States is on average two to three times larger compared to what you would get in Europe. Only high-end restaurants and some foreign restaurants are exceptions to this. I haven’t made any concrete calculations, but I am quite sure that the amount of calories in a single average dinner combined with a fountain drink approaches the recommended daily intake of calories. On top of that fountain drinks come with free refills: drinking over half a liter of a soft drink is bad enough by itself, let alone refilling that already oversized cup once or twice.

When I ordered a Cappuccino at Starbucks I was told that “Tall” (354ml) is the smallest option they have. The others are Grande (473ml) and Venti (591ml). Then there’s even the Tentra (916ml) option for some of their drinks, which is larger than the capacity of the human stomach. I am not sure about you, but I have more or less come to expect coffee to come in servings of 200-250ml. In a similar vein: I ordered a medium Cherry Coke at a movie theater, what did I get? Over a liter of cola!

The large portion sizes extend to grocery stores: I’ve seen potato chips in bags about the size of my own torso. By default most packaged drink sizes are larger than in Europe: cans are 355ml (12 fl oz) instead of 330ml, small bottles 590ml (20 fl oz) instead of 500ml, and large bottles are 1890ml (64 fl oz) instead of 1500ml (and sometimes even 2000ml). Notice that the proportional difference gets larger each step we go up: 1.07x for a can, 1.18x for a small bottle, and 1.26x for a large bottle.

From left to right: a tea cup (175ml), a measuring cup (250ml), the movie theater cherry coke (1100ml) and a `normal’ cherry coke bottle (2000ml)

Restaurants and Eating Out
In the Netherlands it is common to eat at a restaurant perhaps once a week. Of course there are exceptions, but most cooking is done at home. In the US it is very common to eat out at least four to five times a week. Service at most restaurants is usually quite quick, and Pittsburgh is filled with quality restaurants. So, the preference for eating out is not surprising. Furthermore, the restaurants are diverse and true to the taste of their home country and region: chefs do not go overboard to cater to the local taste here. That means that Chinese food is really Chinese food, not the watered-down variant we’ve become used to in the Netherlands. The diversity of restaurants is high, which supports the conclusion that the American diet consists of a broad selection of local tastes that originate elsewhere in the world.

Sugar
It has become clear to me: America is on a sugar high. Many foods are somehow sweetened. For example, the bread you can buy in the supermarket looks deceivingly like normal Dutch bread. However, once you actually taste it you will notice that it is really sweet: as if several bags of sugar have been added to the dough. The same goes for many other American foods, especially processed ones, in which sugar is commonly replaced with high-fructose corn syrup which is allegedly less healthy than normal sugar.

Soft drinks are also sugary of course, unless you go for the diet variants. I believe the maximum recommended intake of refined sugar is about 40 gram. In the United States the smallest can of coke you can buy is 355ml which contains 39 grams of sugar. Hence, it may not be surprising that the United States has the highest sugar consumption per capita in the world: about 70 grams per day. Which is nearly one-and-a-half times more than the average Dutch person consumes.

The love for sugar in the United States has historic roots. It is believed that Christopher Columbus brought sugar to the new world. There was a high demand for it, but: harvesting sugar was labour intensive. Since there were not enough European settlers to do all this work people were brought in from elsewhere: slaves.

Tea
Similar to many Dutch people, Americans prefer coffee over tea. Nevertheless, tea is easy to obtain in the US. Many herbal teas are inherently caffeinless, but black teas are usually not. However, in the United States it is very common to see bags with normal black tea alongside bags of `decaffeinated’ black tea. I’ve not seen this before, although it makes sense perhaps as decaffeinated coffee is a global phenomenon.

Fat
While both French and Dutch people may be accustomed to using cheese for its merit of having a strong taste, in the United States it appears to be viewed quite differently. Oddly enough, cheese appears to be a relatively tasteless slice, or sauce, of fat that you add to something to make it `fuller’. Comparable to adding whipped cream to chocolate milk to make it sweeter.

In many American fast food chains the food is literally drenched in fat, as if to mask the inferior taste of the low-quality ingredients. Sadly, America’s own food `trademark’ is taking something nice and then applying the fast food formula to it: burgers, pizza, chicken, you name it. If you want to eat out, the general advice is: skip the American restaurants. So, no McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Arby’s and Dunkin’ Donuts. Instead go to one of the many excellent foreign restaurants, like: Japanese, Chinese, Indian or Thai.

Generally: Unhealthy is Cheap
Several days ago, as I walked down the aisle of the local super market, I heard someone complaining about the prices of the healthier foods that were available. A shop employee responded: “It’s simple, ma’am, if ya wanna eat healthier ya gotta pay more”. In regular grocery stores the vegetables are often of poor quality and the fruit is expensive. Better quality food can be bought in more expensive supermarkets^[1]. The fact thus remains: eating healthy is costly: a perverse incentive.

It is no wonder that America is getting ever more obese …