We have a few thoughts on Europe and how the USA are similar and different...
First, the American dollar. We wish that our money was a bit stronger here in Europe. And, in most countries (with the exception of about three), we spent far more money on many of our day-to-day purchases than we would have in the states. This has really given us a greater appreciation for how cheap it is to live in the USA. Housing and food costs in the USA are startlingly lower than they are here. Imagine what you pay for food or other sundries in an airport or at a movie theater – that is the baseline price for what most Europeans pay for things every day. One of the best examples we have for comparison is gasoline – in Europe, you honestly pay about 8 times as much as you would in the states. Can you imagine how much different our use of fuel would be if every gallon of gas cost about $12-16? This is part of the reason why many Europeans drive very small cars or scooters, and why many of them just travel by public transportation – which is much better here than it is in the USA.
We also noticed that Europeans use credit cards with imbedded "chips" that contain all of the necessary information required. So, instead of swiping their card, and then signing for the purchase, they just insert the card into the machine and punch in a PIN number. Everywhere we went people seemed irritated when we didn't have a chip card - they were then sent off, desperately searching for an ink pen so we could sign for our purchase. We are sure it is only a matter of time before the chip cards enter the USA.
American media dominates the airwaves. In every single country we have traveled to, there have been American television shows (with the audio dubbed to the specific language of the country or, less likely, subtitles written underneath), American movies at the cinemas, and American music on the radios. (While we were in Croatia eating at a cafe, we knew we were listening to an American radio station once we heard a commercial for Jared's Jewelry...there probably aren't too many of those in Croatia). Additionally, we have noticed many people use Facebook here in Europe, just as we do in the USA. It is interesting that many European countries don't really have major film or television production centers.
Most Europeans speak at least some English, and most speak it well enough to perform their jobs or carry out basic conversations. This may be in part due to the fact that American media surrounds them constantly, but, still it is impressive to us that most people speak at least two languages. We have met many people during our time in Europe who speak three or more languages fluently! This has really made us feel inadequate in that we haven't made it a priority in our education systems (or in our own personal lives) to become multilingual.
Public toilets in Europe are definitely different than they are in the USA. First of all, most of them cost money – which, is really disheartening. I mean, when you have to go, you have to go, and the last thing you want to do is have to pay to go. However you would think that because you are paying to use the toilet, it would actually be a bit cleaner or nicer. Well, more often than not, this is not the case. Some of the pay-per-flush water closets (WC) are just as disgusting as the freebies. Train toilets are a different story too – most of these are quite gross. We have had a few pleasant experiences on trains in Germany and France, but the rest of them have been rather dirty and comparable to port-o-potties. At least train toilets are free, if you don't count the fact that you paid for the train ticket in the first place. On a completely different bathroom note, a few of our hotel rooms had bidets – most of them in Italy. While we imagine at one point in time these were possibly useful, the thought of washing one's genitals in them these days is a bit absurd because modern plumbing allows us access to showering facilities quite regularly.
Recycling is much more streamlined in Europe than it is in the USA. Most cities have large recycling disposals for plastics, paper, and glass throughout the streets (this includes Eastern European countries such as Romania and Bulgaria). We really don't have that yet in the USA – hopefully, we will soon!
Plastic bags at the grocery store cost money here – which is a drag when you are traveling. If you live in a city and can plan for a stop at the store, you can bring your bags with you, but when you are traveling and carrying backpacks, it isn't quite as convenient. Anytime we have received “free” plastic bags we have saved them and have tried to reuse them at the stores because we really can't see paying for them – even if it is only 10-20 cents per bag, that adds up.
They don't have the same types of smoking bans in Europe as they do in the USA. You see more people smoking around you on the streets, and you definitely notice it in public places like restaurants and shopping centers. It has been a bit surprising to us that there hasn't been a greater healthcare push for anti-smoking laws, and that more people don't opt not to smoke for health reasons.
As one would expect, you do not see the obesity here in Europe that you see in the USA. It really is strikingly different. We think it is less frequent here because the cost of food is much higher, because people are forced to live more active lifestyles due to the increased walking demands, and because of the increased use of public transportation versus automobiles. For anyone with an interest in nutrition, there are labels in many European countries – however, they tend to use “100 grams” as a standard of measurement for nutrition information, which doesn't always make it easy to figure out how many calories (or kilocalories) are in a particular product. (For example, if you are eating something that is packaged at 35 grams for the whole bag and the information is listed for 100 grams, it isn't an obvious conversion). One of the people we met from Germany, actually works in marketing for the yogurt company, Actimel, or in America, Activia. He said that the marketing campaign in the USA is really difficult because people there don't have an interest in promoting their own health. (This was sad for Erin to hear, but she can see how others may view the USA based on the country's very high obesity rate).
Grocery shopping is a different experience in Europe. While we have come across a few supermarkets here and there, most of the food stores are very small and have limited selections of foods. There aren't Walmarts or Costcos anywhere and the closest we have seen to something like that was a large Tesco in Scotland. People don't buy things in bulk, they buy what they immediately need (or what they can carry while walking home), and that is it. It has been a bit difficult to find certain products that you might normally see at a grocery store or convenience store – such as shampoo and soap. Beauty products like those are in specialized stores, and these can be even harder to find than grocery stores.