Growing up in Australia, I watched A LOT of American movies and TV shows, and entirely formed my understanding of American culture from them.
As a result, there are certain things I grew up believing were a totally normal part of American culture that seemed really weird for me. To this day, I have no idea how accurate some of these things are — but here's what movies and TV made me believe about America...
1. Everyone lives in a big two-story house.
2. Unless they live in a city, in which case they have a huge apartment.
3. Kids have huge bedrooms that they don’t have to share with siblings.
4. And every house has a basement AND an attic...
5. And a garbage disposal in the sink...
6. There's no fence between yards.
7. Families sit down to huge cooked breakfasts every morning, with pitchers of freshly squeezed orange juice.
8. People drink milk with dinner.
9. High schools have very strongly defined cliques, and the jocks and cheerleaders are the most “popular” kids.
10. High school sports are huge for some reason — specifically high school football.
11. Everyone catches the school bus.
12. Unless they’re in high school, in which case they drive fancy cars that first-time drivers have no business driving.
13. Nobody takes their lunch to school — everyone eats food from the cafeteria.
14. Everyone also eats in the cafeteria or, if you’re a loser, sitting on the toilet.
15. People get really dressed up for school and wear different outfits every day.
16. Schools themselves consist of one really beautiful building.
17. Homecoming queen is a huge deal.
18. And prom takes place in a really fancy venue.
19. Literally everyone goes to college.
20. It snows everywhere during winter.
21. And finally, everyone carries guns around all the time.
