Haven't these people heard of air conditioning?
Can I get some ice please?Whaddya mean everything isn't open 24 hours?
These are the things that you can hear travelling Americans complaining about loudly on golf courses around the world and these were the things that I missed when I first moved abroad too. However, I quickly discovered that in reality I had no idea what I'd actually been living without all those years. Ice in my drinks became irrelevant.
I moved abroad for graduate school, got an impractical masters degree from an excellent university, met a boy and never came home. Those first years of post-college adulthood are tough (wherever you are) - and I was woefully unprepared for them. Like many young graduates I didn't realise how much more actual experience is valued over where you went to college or what grades you received. I, inevitably, ended up in a string of jobs that I saw as 'beneath' me, but in retrospect provided exactly the experience that I needed.
It was hard - and it should be hard, but I also realised that so many of the things that my 20-something friends back in the US were losing sleep over, just weren't a problem for me. I had instant access to universal healthcare, that legendary European tax burden that Americans love to hate was actually less than it would have been in Illinois and I was accruing undreamed of amounts of paid vacation time.
I wasn't earning much more than minimum wage and my (now) husband was getting by on a PhD stipend, but it was enough to make ends meet. We were eligible for a modest weekly tax-credit that made such a difference to us financially, that we're probably still feeling the ripple effects of it to this day. Demonize the welfare state all you want, but it helped to get us from struggling young graduates to productive, tax-paying members of society; seems like a pretty good return on investment to me.
Next week I commence year 10 as an expat and the things that I once missed about living in America now confound me. I get flustered with the military precision of the drive-thru; the amount of choice (and wastage) in grocery stores completely overwhelms me; and driving everywhere just leaves me in a semi-permanent state of carsickness.
We visit the US regularly and my (British) husband rarely fails to observe that you have the freedom to do everything in American except have fun. How true. You can take an assault rifle to the grocery store but can't legally enjoy a cold beer in the park on a sunny day.
Americans like to bang on about freedom ad nauseam, but in the UK and now Australia we are free to do so much more. We are free to take a (paid!) vacation; free to have a beer outside; free not to live in fear of guns in the wrong hands; free not to be denied healthcare because the freedom of a corporation trumps our own. We have free speech (but money is mercifully not free speech), free religion (or no religion), and certainly a free(er) press.
Don't get me wrong, there are many things I love about America and I believe that Americans are a genuinely smart, generous, an innovative bunch, that are trapped in a self-made political system that is held hostage by the highest bidder and lunatic fringe. I'm also not saying that everything in the UK or Australia is perfect; both countries currently have unpopular, centre-right governments with particularly bad education and environmental policies. Nowhere is perfect, but we are lucky enough to mostly (Malaysia was a bit of a black spot) live in places that match our values and priorities far better than America does or can at this point in time.
So sure, I will always believe that your first-world status should be called into question if you still have separate hot and cold water taps; but on the whole a few minor inconveniences are a small price to pay for the social safety net and well-being that comes with living in a society where those on the bottom - or those just starting out (like we were!) aren't left to flounder and struggle. Ironically, living abroad is what has enabled me to achieve the so-called American Dream.
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