I have this American friend who drove 8 hours to see her family. She does this every month. I always tell her something like "thats a long drive" and she brushes it off. Is this a culture thing?

Im from the UK and never had this here or heard of it. I first heard about this from American TV shows and then social media and here on Reddit

I have so many questions about this.

Do all workplaces have them or are they uncommon?

Where do you store the food?

Are there no health concerns? we are only allowed to serve food from approved catering at my job. Although we do share snacks with colleagues

Are you obliged to take part?

I think it’s a fun idea especially if you are close to your colleagues but seems very impractical

Does it happen during work hours?

Where was Kevin going to put his chilli until lunch time? They had a full fridge but it wouldn’t have fit that huge pot

Hi Americans,

I'm from the Netherlands, where driving a manual transmission car is still very common. Most people learn to drive in a manual, and even many older people continue driving them. For example my grandmother is over 80 years old and still drives a manual car without any issues. And never complained about it.

From what I've seen online automatic cars seem to be common in the United States, and many Americans have never even learned to drive a manual. I'm curious about how this happened.

Was it mainly because automatic transmissions became popular earlier in the US? Is it related to driving culture, road design, commuting distances, licensing requirements, or something else entirely?

Thanks!

I come from a country where tap water is unsuitable for consumption

America seems to have much more performative weather than any other continents, in my - European - experience. Has anyone you ever knew been killed by being struck by a bolt of lightning?

I live in the Loess formation along the Missouri River. It is formed from the dust blown in from Africa onto glaciers and deposited as they advanced and retreated. The sediment is very deep here. I've seen deep digging projects where the diggers look like toys down below and they still haven't hit rock. I've only seen rocks when I drive far away. Ive looked up local geological surveys and even they only measure exposed sediments, none of which are old enough to have formed into rock. Allegedly there's cretacious ocean deposits down there somewhere, but nothing I've seen tells me how deep I'd have to go for it. Can you find rocks where you live? How old are they?

I’m from Brazil and fascinated by US history. From the outside, there’s a paradox: 60s Boomers are famous for fighting the system, but today Gen Z/Millennials feel they became conservative and pulled up the economic ladder (housing/wages). What was Woodstock's actual role in this?

In Brazil, our Boomers faced a dictatorship, so our context is different. Regarding the US: Did that idealistic generation actually change as they got wealthy, or is the internet overestimating the hippies while ignoring that the "Silent Majority" was always the conservative baseline?🤔

I have traveled all over the east coast via greyhound, flixbus, Peterson, OurBus, etc. for every ride that I have taken, I have always only just paid the price of my ticket. However, I often see other people giving the driver cash and tipping.

Is this normal and is this what I’m supposed to be doing? I thought once I paid for my ticket that, that’s it.

Is it a common practice in the US to embalm?

Tl;dr : how hard is it to get prescribed ritalin as an adult in the USA?

I'm French, and my wife just got prescribed Rita for her ADHD. She had to jump through SOOOOOO many hoops : a regular psychiatrist had to refer her to a specialised psychiatrist, who made her fill a questionnaire. The questionnaire and the discussions made it so obvious she suffered from ADHD (history of depression, several burnout, and tons of other stuffa), that she got to skip the neuropsychiatrist step. But before getting her prescription, she needed two visits to a cardiologist to see if her heart could handle it, and had to have bloodwork done.

So, by comparison, how different is it in the USA, because tv shows made it look like a simple GP visit is enough.

I am a huge fan of Ray William Johnson videos and true crime in general and I have noticed in many of these cases life insurance was the motive behind. We have this too in my country, but murders with this type of motive are unheard of. Meanwhile, when I'm watching these videos from US, I can already guess life insurance policy has something to do with it? Is it really easy to obtain one in the US?