The first time I took my twin sons to the United States, my 11-year-old, Thomas, refused to spend a single dollar for two days. Our money back home in Australia is different colors and sizes. A five is pink, a 10 is blue, a 20 is red. American notes are all the same green and the same size, and Thomas was convinced he would hand over a 20, thinking it was a one. So he just stopped spending.His brother Charlie has spent his whole life avoiding vegetables. Somewhere in the second week, after one too many trays of fried food, he put down his fork and asked if we could please find somewhere that did a salad. I nearly spat out my burger.There are some things you expect when you first visit the U.S. The huge portion sizes, the tipping, the friendliness of people. But nobody warns you about the little things.Walking into an American pharmacy, Tara O’Reilly, from Ireland, thought she had found the candy aisle. “My partner needed something for acid reflux, we went to the pharmacy and were surprised by not only how big the tub of TUMS was (there must have been over 500 tablets) but also how inviting it looked,” she said. “Each tablet was colorful, vibrant pink and purple, the label decorated with berries. If I didn’t read it, I would have assumed they were sweets.”The medicine was not the only thing that looked like candy. Sam Eastwood got the same feeling from a bottle of Fanta on a family trip to Florida.“In the U.K., Fanta is a pale orange color, almost akin to a soft sunset. American Fanta, on the other hand, smacks you round the face with its food coloring, and its almost syrupy texture thanks to how much sugar is in one bottle,” he said. “It’s safe to say the rest of the family were not as impressed with this concoction as I was. But to this day, I am still very fond of American Fanta, so much so my wife bought me two dozen cans for Valentine’s Day this year. I’ve only just finished them!”RapidEye via Getty ImagesThe portion sizes and color of soda were a surprise to some travelers.The food itself was one thing. The way it was eaten was another. Filipino food writer JB Macatulad eats rice with nearly every meal, but found the way Americans ate it baffling. “In America, people would eat rice using just a fork, which I found bizarre and inefficient,” he said. “If you were to use just one utensil to eat rice, wouldn’t a spoon be the more effective tool? Even more strange than that, many Americans would often eat steamed white rice on its own, which to most Asians sounds incredibly unappetizing.” Years later, he still hasn’t forgotten it: “A fork? Seriously?”The scale of ordinary places threw people too. Late one night outside New Haven, David Ratmoko, who lives in Switzerland, stopped at a gas station for a bottle of water.“It wasn’t a gas station. It was basically a grocery store, a hot food counter, a pharmacy section and a sitting area, all open at midnight, full fluorescent lighting and a guy asking me if I needed any help finding anything,” he said. “In Switzerland, very little is still in operation after 8 p.m. I had no idea that you could stop for gas and find yourself in a full-fledged food court at midnight. That night, I called a friend back in Zurich just to describe it. He didn’t believe me.”My boys had the same look on their faces the first time we pulled into a Buc-ee’s. They came around fast once they found the Beaver Nuggets.Another thing my sons noticed was the number of flags. It caught Tyler Desjardins’ eye too. He was walking through a suburban neighborhood with a client when he couldn’t believe how many there were and started counting them. “By the time I had finished the block, I counted at least 40 flags (including three on one porch),” he said. “So, I turned to my client and asked him if there was something special going on in that area at that time. He looked at me like he was completely confused and replied no; it was just a regular day of the week. In Canada, you do not see flags on private properties unless you are an organization or an individual promoting a national event or holiday.” Desjardins had at least been walking. Most Americans Kevin Stack saw were not. Stack, who runs the Happy Irish Wanderers blog, noticed how little anyone walked. “When we explore new cities, we walk everywhere and can clock up 10 miles easily in one day. But when we visited, we were shocked by people driving everywhere or taking an Uber, even for a trip less than one mile,” Stack said. “If you guys had wings, you would be too lazy to fly!” Even routine tasks reflected that same car-first design. Charles Noble experienced this at a drive-thru ATM. “I pulled up to a drive-thru ATM and genuinely sat there staring at the machine for a good ten seconds,” he said. “In the U.K., ATMs are walk-up units bolted to walls. You stand, you insert your card, you get cash.” The machine sat inches from the driver’s door. “I rolled down the window and leaned out, trying to reach the screen while keeping my foot on the brake. The machine beeped at me. I muttered to myself, ‘Right, this is ridiculous.’ Back home, we queue for cash in the rain. Here I was ordering cash like fast food from a speaker I couldn’t hear.”Not all surprises are strange ones. For Stack, there was a pleasant shock. “What left a ‘good shock,’ though, was how knowledgeable people with Irish ancestry were with their Irish roots, being able to speak the Irish language, the history, and sing Irish Rebel songs,” he said. “The drinking skills were still there, too!”My sons have been back to the U.S. several times and love it. Thomas got over the money thing by paying for everything with his phone. Charlie got used to the fried food. He hasn’t asked for a salad since.