Oh boy, talk about going waaay over the top. Where do you live in the US? In a ghetto? My experience has been quite different. People are more or less the same everywhere, with a slight advantage on politeness going to the US. There are plenty of rude, obnoxious, and stupid Europeans. Thankfully, just like here, you don't have to hang out with them. I have very good friends on both sides of the Atlantic.
Having just read that sweeping generalization you made, I will seriously question the extent of your bi-hemispheric experience.
That goes both ways. While I can't speak to your experiences specifically, I can to mine.
My father was an International airline pilot for over 2 decades so, my experiences started at a young age. I have done work exchange programs overseas so, I'm not your average Eurail pass college student. I have also worked professionally in Europe. My personal experience spans 20 years, though it's been a few since I was last over there.
Thankfully, I have never lived in a Ghetto but, I did live in a barn for while
Sweeping generalizations, well without context I guess that's one valid point of view but, not what I intended. I have lived in big cities and little towns from rural Oklahoma to big city Atlanta and similar megalopolis's. In some small town's I lived in, people were friendly and welcoming and in others all they did was watch me as the stranger in town and act like I was going to steal one of their women folk or kids. Then there were others that just wanted to tell me how to live my life and weren't too bad but, I got tired of the busy body's personally. In the bigger cities, I guess it all depends on where you live and your station in society. Perhaps you lived a different lifestyle then I?
If you don't see the arrogant American's in your extensive travels in Europe, then you obviously travel and interact with the locals differently then I do. I have watched a brain dead girl cuss at a custom's officer who asked to check her bag. She couldn't keep her mouth shut and caused a really big scene. Instead of rifling through her bag, this agent and several others emptied her bags out. If she had been polite, she wouldn't have needed to pick up her panties and bra off the floor and she wouldn't have had her makeup case spilled across 3 tables.
You haven't been accosted on the street when someone figured out you were an American. Good for you. The oddest one I had was when some folks from a country I won't name decided it was my personal fault a nuclear powered US Navy ship entered "their" territorial waters. I was there to eat, they were there to argue with me apparently. Thankfully experiences like that are few and far between in Europe.
In the USA, have you ever been aggressively "pan handled"? Have you had homeless people spit on your windshield at a stop light? How about general vandalism? Car break-ins? How about insurance fraud schemes? I had them all and some others.
So far, I have not personally feared for my safety once in any European country. I can't say the same for the USA in various cities.
As far as friendliness, well again that's my experience with the people I interact with. Outside of work, if I meet a woman on the street in Europe, I universally get a friendly response. In the USA, my experiences are more varied and all of them aren't what I would term friendly.
So pardon me please if I make a sweeping generalization based on my experiences when I walk through customs without any fuss and watch the American who thinks they own the world tell some custom's officer in a foreign country how it is and then complains when they really scrutinize their bags and paperwork. Please forgive me when I experience crime in the USA and don't in Europe.
As for my experiences in "professional" Europe, they are different then what I see when I travel in Europe. On business, it's big cities and 5 star hotels. On my own time, I want to eat where the locals do and drink the beer they do. I go to their local fairs and festivals. When I come back, people at work will likely be surprised that I didn't go to some museum or castle and instead did something in a park with locals. I have had many great experiences going to a local market in the city center and eating lunch there from various vendors offerings. Experiences like those are what I miss about Europe.
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). The Wenger wouldn't raise any eybrows either. Larger, locking folders than that may be dodgy in town, but fairly ok on the countryside (at least in this country). That's based on experience, not sure about the actual laws.
