What's an experience that is unique to your country of residence?

People in the UK drink so much tea (or coffee these days), that breaks in soap operas (such as Eastenders) cause the national grid to be on high alert, due to the incredulous surge of power from so many kettles being turned on at once.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_pickup

That's incredible actually

Not being able to afford healthcare and insurance.
Half of the population worshipping a felonious, racist, homophobic sexist as if he’s a deity.
K.C. Barbecue.

None of these are unique by any means (i wish the second was but fascism is rising globally).
The styles of it tho, I'll give you that.
- There are two types of BBQ: KC and wrong.
using Imperial over metric system
Sexist? When Jesus resurrected, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene. Eyewitness testimony from women was not even seen as reliable at the time. Jesus didn't care, badass feminist. Homophobic? Jesus never condemned the gays, not even once. Or the four Gospels he was never recorded as saying anything remotely homophobic. Racist? Jesus is not even a white European lmao. Plus, people of all nations worship Him.
White American fundamentalists, they offer you religion. If you wanna find Jesus, he's in the Bible. If you seek Him, you will find Him. God bless 🙏🏻
Unless you meant Trump... in which case you're absolutely right lol. If I was a US citizen I'd vote for Harris probably.

school shootings (being common)

Losing a war with flightless birds.

Have you tried diplomacy?
- We try to get the fallen back but none yet.

Churches the size of castles full of people preaching humility.

US or is there another?
- Christ I hope there isn’t
- I assume some place in Europe because they quite literally have cathedrals and such that are like castles.
  Though, I've never actually seen a megachurch from the US to be able to compare sizes. They're definitely unique to the US.
Not just humility but literally poverty as a virtue too
- It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven but there’s such a thing as the Space Needle, and camels are like tiny compared to that thing…
Bro there are massive churches, cathedrals, temples, and mosques, across the Middle East, Europa, Asia, Africa, and both American continents… i assure you it’s not unique to whatever country you’re in
- God is everywhere. Surely priests/monks and mullahs and gurus, etc, etc. twist things cuz they want your money. But you at least believe in God right? Who else could have caused the Big Bang? There's always cause and effect!
- I guess I’ve never seen the equivalent of a megachurch anywhere else though. Cathedrals are big, for sure, but not like some of these monstrosities.

Going to the forest to pick mushrooms, nuts and berries. Going to the beach to pick up washed out amber. Having a lot of people grow their own food, even the city folk.

Oh that sounds like a dream!
- If you like the former Soviet romantic a bit and can live with the fact that you are on Russia's doorstep it's indeed a very nice country. I had friends there,it's really nice.
I was 99% sure Finland for the first one though, but somewhat makes sense
Czechia... except we are landlocked. Poland, then?
- Look at my flag, lol. :D

Being atheistic as the norm. Sky daddies don't hold much power here.

Found a Czech. That makes about 7 of us. We should start a community!
- Yaaay! I think there's already !czech@lemmy.world, though it's not very active.
That's just....not unique tho
- There are like 4 countries in the world where less than half people is religious. Of those I live in the one where huge majority is not religious. We're the most atheistic country in the world. Because "only" quarter of our population is lunatic enough to believe in such bullshit.
  So yes, very much unique.

Okay not my country of residence, but you can choose to burn at the 4th hottest global temp of 54C (129F) or you can also freeze at -65C (-85F).

Optionally, you can also enjoy staring directly at the sun as it rises or sets due to the air pollution.

Oh and you can also find this funni river dolphin:

I didn't know this would be a guessing game. What is Pakistan?
- Hehe yes.
What a guy
Sir, this is a duck

Car insurance is optional
Kids get govt subsidised dental care until they’re 18
Most common prescriptions are $5 or free
We did away with pennies because they’re pointless
It’s common to go barefoot into shops and grocery stores
Most kids in elementary school go barefoot
Semi automatic weapons banned
Kids get 20 hours govt subsidised daycare per week
When you sell your car the license plate typically goes with it
Most gas stations serve hot food and it’s good (by American standards)
Online banking allows instant direct cross-bank money transfer, so nobody uses Paypal or Venmo
Nobody pays by check, nobody carries around a checkbook
It’s not unusual for public parks to have exercise equipment
For short domestic flights, time between entering the airport and boarding the plane can be as short as 60 seconds
The milky way is still visible in good sized towns
Praying mantises are still common
Money (bills and coins) feature women, nature, and explorers not war generals, bankers, and buildings.

Seems pretty good. Where?
- I’m guessing New Zealand.
- I guess NZ. But it's just a guess.
Where is this ? Do you have giant insects there or deadly weather to compensate?
- Since you asked...
  :::
  :::
I was going to say Australia until children attending school barefoot. I've also never caught a domestic flight in 60 seconds.

Our "solution" to gun deaths is to add more guns.

Make armor out of guns.

Almost as many saunas as cars. One sauna for every ~1.7 people.

You have the best hard seltzer full stop. Also how's USA cosplay day lately?

We start our spicy food tolerance early, our candy is spicy.

Mexico?
- Yep.

Proper Poutine

You are save to eat raw meat. I Love Mettbröttchen with Zwiebel.

German sushi
Isn't that like whole Europe? I eat tartar steak from time to time and I don't go above medium-rare with normal steaks.

Living below sea level for generations, and only remembering when you see other countries flood.

if NL gets annihilated by some climate related disaster, can the rest of the world claim hubris
- Absolutely. You get first dibs on "I told you so". But until then, I get the right to go "neener neener neeeeeener"" at the sea.
Luckily, you are already trained to used these bad boys:

Going bankrupt due to medical bills.

It's easy to tell where you live.
It's in your username.

Cheesesteaks. And no, a steak sandwich doesn't count.

Chicken cheesesteak with provolone and fried onions on an amoroso rollllllllll
- This has always bothered me. If you don't use steak how can it do be called acheesesteak.

Death from not being able to afford medical care

They said "unique", not "very common"
- I mean it's still unique to the US. Plenty of other, poorer countries have better healthcare.

Constant mass shootings.

UK. Cold and hot water coming from separate taps. WTF? I was once told that it is because hot water boilers used to have their tops open to the outside, which meant the hot water could contain some debris, so it was important to use it only for washing and not let it mix with cooking water. But in bathrooms in some modern builds that definitely don't use that kind of boilers you still get separate taps. I told one of my British colleagues about how it's been bothering me since I moved here and she said "oh yeah, I never realised that I've never seen that in any other country". She also told me that kids are just taught to wash their hands quickly under the hot tap, so that they don't run the water long enough for it to turn scolding hot. WTactualF?

But are showers just one head still?
- Haha luckily yes!
Weirdest UK experience for me was the electrical shower heater thingy. Still can't wrap my head around that one. But it's apparently not unique to the UK.
kids are just taught to wash their hands quickly under the hot tap, so that they don't run the water long enough for it to turn scolding hot. WTactualF?
That's a wtf within the UK as well, just fill the bowl with water using the taps to get the right temperature.

That's actually really tough in this global age. I live in Japan so things like tea ceremony and Shinto practice come to mind, but there are Shinto shrines and practitioners in many places and people do and teach tea ceremony in other places now. Many would call it the home of sushi and, at least for the common types today, it's probably true (though certain methods that led to sushi are thought to come from Viet Nam in the past).

Tanuki exist in other parts of Asia. I assume onsen (hot sprint) monkeys do as well. Maybe something with Wasabi, but I doubt it. I'm not sure, really.

Edit: thought of one: seeing the Iriomote cat in its natural habitat (although that's really hard since they were nearly hunted to extinction for their pelts at one point). Speaking of Okinawan islands, you can also see Taiwan on a good day from the westernmost point of Yonaguni. That was neat. I took a picture with my phone at the time and it's really hard to see anything, but I could see land with my eyes.

Horrible Past.

(Fossil) Vehicle production as economic livelihood.

Bread fetishism. "Beer purity law".

Semi-ironic calls for a kebap price limit

Germany is that you

I can tell if you're Catholic or Protestant by the way you pronounce the letter H.

I thought this was a reply to one of my comments for a second and thought "what kind of roast is that?" haha
- 😆

The most popular pop culture in the world

Japan?
- No. Lol.

Our court system can sue a bag of money, find it guilty, then the bag of money goes to the coffers of the police department that legally stole it from a citizen that committed no crime other than having a bag of money.

... You're American, aren't ya
- Yep

There are like 4 days a year everyone just puts their old sofas, broken TVs and other junk outside to be collected by a garbage truck the next day. As this furniture is mostly usable, people in white vans go around to collect the most valuable stuff, which makes up most of the traffic in villages on those days and causes old people to complain about Polish immigrants.

The village children also have a look around if the weather is nice. Village adults don't, not because they are above it, but since there is a genuine risk a neighbour you've known for decades will sue you for stealing; the garbage does belong to them still as the courts have determined.

Edit: Sorry for forgetting the most important part.

I don’t think the furniture thing is that unique. I’ve been in a few countries where that’s called a council pickup and pretty common.
- Every third monday of the month in my town
Well that just sounds like New Jersey.
Sounded like hungary until the "old people to complain about Polish immigrants" part
Here they complain about gypsies

If you go far enough, you will see deserts, tropics, and taigas. I think that's unique to us, at least...

US or China?
- Maybe Chile? They've got a tropical island and the mainland goes from desert to Antarctic
I was gonna say something similar, but I'm pretty sure the same could be said for the country North of mine. Or South of mine except for the taiga.
- Interesting, I can't think of two countries bordering each other that have all of these.

High medical bills

Ketchup chips.

What kind of chips do you mean? French fries or Lays? If the latter, I doubt it. If the first, I doubt it. Salt and vinegar crisps on the other hand, are uniquely popular in the UK.
- Potato chips! We have salt and vinnies here too. Not unique to the UK at all.

Winning a domestic sports league and calling yourselves "World Champions"

In 150km of travel you can technically cover elevation of > 8,500 m

My country is the opposite. It's pretty much impossible to travel 150km and accumulate more than 8500 height meters. (highest point is 170 meters, and it's a loooong walk to get there).

Probably like, 95% of the people in my city are either neutral or supportive of LGBT people. The last 5% are so fucking insane that it's still scary to be LGBT. - (major Texas city)

Edit: I kinda assume this is unique because I'd think most places are either safe (with the occasional heckler) or completely unsafe. Texas seems special because it seems like most people don't care or are supportive, but then you get the nutjob who's entire reality is shattered by the idea that you aren't straight and/or cisgendered and all they can do is get apocalyptically mad about your existence.

Edit 2: oh yeah, on a less depressing note, iirc Texas is like, sorta kinda half canyon. Iirc Palo Duro canyon doesn't really have an end to it, it just kinda.... widens until it becomes part of the normal landscape (I might be thinking of a different canyon though). As such, you could basically consider anything downstream from the canyon as being inside the canyon, resulting in a huge chunk of Texas existing in a canyon!

spending to much time at work and to much time on medical billing and administration and spending to much time on taxes and other government paperwork while making enough for now if your lucky but knowing you won't have whats needed later in life

Unfortunately not just a U.S. thing

Free market Jesus.

School shootings.

We eat a banana with our soup.

And we like to put cheese in hot cocoa.
- I almost instinctually downvoted that.

Most of what an American would call bread, we don't consider bread. Bread is dark. They don't really sell bread in American stores, not sure about western Europe.

Our mustard will make grown men cry and your nose runny. Can be helpful when it's blocked actually.

Checking under the toilet seat for redbacks.

Fruit Explosion Muffins

Holy shit those look amazing. Those are at Tim Hortons?! I gotta try that shit.
- Lower your expectations, it's still a Tim Horton muffin

Milk in a plastic jug?

Canada?
- That's milk in a plastic bag tho

Unchecked gun violence by a population against itself

/start rant

Europe loves to shit on US. Find another country or continent that Europe contrasts themselves from more than US. Popular contrasts:

Gun safety
Medical expenses
Educational expenses
Workers rights
Length of history
Mass transit
Police brutality

I can't go a day on Lemmy without seeing at least one of the above. Yet, you don't see daily comments on how Europe is better than Brazil, India, Japan, Australia, Canada, Egypt, South Africa, Mexico, etc. Can you imagine if they did that?

News: Man Freezes to Death in Rural Canada

EU resident: That never happens here because we have have mandatory heater laws or some shit.

News: 5 People Gunned Down and Robbed in Sao Paulo Favela

EU resident: No idea what that's like to live in that fear since we don't have large pockets of extreme poverty and guns are highly controlled here.

News: Mumbai Police Assault Orphaned Girl

EU resident: I've never heard of such a thing. Our police are here to protect us and orphanages are considered sacred.

News: Almost 90% of Egyptians Have Electric Power

EU resident: What a shame that Egypt isn't a developed country.

News: Shoot Out between Rival Cartels Kills 13 Adults, 3 Children

EU Resident: That's why we don't share a border with the US or genocided the indigenous inhabitants here.

If 9/11 happened tomorrow, you'd see comments like, "What a tragedy. I'm happy I feel safe in Europe because we aren't building bases in the Middle East. The worst thing I have to worry about is if people in Dubai think I'm American when I'm on vacation there."

We get it. You guys are superior. The US has considerable social problems despite its GDP. You'd think you would be a little more grateful about the US helping yall build those fantastic social programs after you guys fucked yourselves up in WWII. Or US subsidizing your military defense, from aircraft carriers, troops, foreign bases, military equipment production, space, to being a nuclear sponge. Y'all be shitting your pants in the Summer and the freezing your asses of in the Winter with Putin if it wasn't for us.

/end rant

Or US subsidizing your military defense,
I'm sorry to say, but the reason the US sucks isn't because they "sacrifice" so much to help others. This is a super common argument to make, but it's not true.
The US government spends more on healthcare per capita than most countries, in medicare, medicaid and veterans care. The reason everyone else doesn't benefit, is because all that money disappears straight into the pockets of the super rich. You could have the same social programs without spending a single cent more, and probably spending less.
You see, one of the reasons we like to shit on you so much is because of your fake feeling that you somehow managed to solve WWII.
WWII would be over soon-ish even without you, you joined last minute when it started affecting you directly. Which is fine, you had no obligation to help back then. And it's great for us that you joined because it means fewer people have lost their lives. But you believing that without you we would have lost is some Putin-level propaganda.
Your misguided belief that thanks to you we have better lives and that's why you can't have nice things is not only another great piece of propaganda, it's also utter nonsense. If you're capable of doing it, why don't you do it for yourself?
The other reason we like to shit on you is because you like to cosplay as a developed nation, but the only thing that's developed about you is being rich, other than that you're the same dictatorship as other developing nations (except you have two ruling parties, not just one).
What's the point of making fun of Brazil? What happens there is just sad and everyone knows it, no one pretends otherwise. But in US, when bad shit happens, half of you pretend it's fine and you're still somehow superior to everyone around.
- You forgot the crippling debt that the US saddled many countries with after the war, a lot of which have only recently been repaid
- WWII would be over soon-ish even without you, you joined last minute when it started affecting you directly.
  1941? That was the last minute of WWII? Are you high? Are you familiar with the continents of Asia, Africa, and/or Oceania? Or does your knowledge of geography and history end at the borders of the noble European continent?
  The Soviet Union didn't even join the Allies until June of 1941. And they did a hell of a lot more to win the war than any of the western European Allies, that's for damn sure.
  Not to mention the vast economic and logistical aid given prior to entering the war. Not to mention the Marshall Plan. Not to mention the Berlin Airlift. It's not a misguided belief, the US has verifiably used its economic and military power to protect the interests of western European allies throughout the past century.
☝️ This is the result of decades of propaganda telling people they live in the "Gradest Cuntry in the Wuuuurld"
When the internet was starting to take off, Yanks used to love shitting on Europeans, calling us europoors and laughing at our "lack of freedumb", but it only took a few years for them to realise they'd been lied to their whole life about how little happiness and protection they have compared to Europe, and just how often they get fucked in the arse by megacorps.
Hence, angry little cunts like OP here, frothing at the mouth about nonexistent comments, bringing up a war that ended 80 years ago, and voting for a deranged orange baboon
You are the reason I'm going to say I'm Canadian if i ever get to visit a better country
- And people like you are the reason I'm suspicious of all Canadians here. Actually met a yank who first identified himself as a Canadian. Wasnt too happy when he got told on his assholeness.
  Dont be an asshole, dont be a fake Canadian. Sorry for my suspicion to any actual Canadians.
Are you okay? Go touch grass
Being thankful for the US "subsidizing" military defense and foreign bases? Sure, you definitely build bases in other sovereign countries out of the goodness of your hearts and not for your own tactical and espionage interests. No European would shed a tear if every US troop fucked off tomorrow
Maybe we can pool together and get the fellow Lemmy user a prescription for some lithium? Or someone with free healthcare sends him/her a few packages?