7 things Americans consider normal that would surprise most Canadians

You can drive-thru basically anything

Americans do not like getting out of their cars.

Obviously, Canada has drive-thrus. I grew up in Vancouver, not a remote village without a Tim Hortons. But America has taken the concept and absolutely run with it.

There are drive-thru pharmacies. Drive-thru banks. Drive-thru ATMs. Depending on where you are, you can find drive-thru liquor stores, coffee shops and all kinds of other businesses seemingly designed around one fundamental principle: you should not have to leave your vehicle.

Getting married? There's a drive-thru for that. Going to a funeral? I sh*t you not, there is a drive-thru for that.

After living in Los Angeles, I've become part of the problem. If there are two locations and one lets me stay in my car, guess which one I'm going to?

Americans are WAY more into roadtrips

This is one of the biggest cultural differences I've noticed, actually. Americans are incredibly well-travelled within America.

Almost half of Americans don't have a valid passport, which sounds wild to me as a Canadian, until you realize how much travelling Americans do without ever leaving their own country.

People will casually drive to another state for the weekend. Spring break can mean piling into a car and driving 10 hours. Doing a cross-country road trip is practically an American rite of passage.

I have never in my life heard someone from Vancouver say, "For spring break, we're driving to rural Alberta!"

Meanwhile, Americans will drive through three states like it's nothing. To be fair, they have a lot to work with. You can go from beaches to deserts to snowy mountains without even leaving California. Drive across the country, and the landscape, food, accents, and culture change completely along the way.

So while Canadians love a road trip too, I think Americans are way more inclined to vacation within their own country.

Every state has a completely different personality

Before living here, I don't think I understood just how culturally different American states could feel.

Canadians obviously have regional differences — and Quebec is obviously its own thing — but I still think there's a general social quality that feels distinctly Canadian.

Maybe that's why whenever I tell an American I'm Canadian, there's a decent chance they'll immediately say, "I LOVE Canadians!"

I'm always like, "All of us? Have you met us all?"

Meanwhile, America feels like 50 different personalities living under one flag. There's Southern hospitality, New York bluntness, California casualness, Texas pride and a million regional identities in between.

It's one of my favourite things about living here.

Americans know basically nothing about Canadians 

This one bruised my Canadian ego a little.

Growing up, America was constantly present in our history classes. Canadian history constantly overlaps with American and European history, so I assumed Americans learned at least some of the same stuff.

Then I moved here.

One of the funniest realizations I've had about America is how many Americans I've met who had no idea Canadians fought in the Second World War alongside the Allies.

Obviously, this isn't every American, and I'm not conducting history exams on everyone I meet. But it was genuinely surprising to realize how much American history Canadians absorb compared with how little Canadian history seems to cross the border in the other direction.

Every snack comes in approximately 700 flavours

Walking down an American soda aisle feels like someone gave a 12-year-old complete creative control over product development.

There isn't just Mountain Dew. There's some blue raspberry, cherry, tropical, zero-sugar, limited-edition Mountain Dew that looks mildly radioactive. Everything has a flavour. Then that flavour gets another flavour. Then they release a limited-edition version of that flavour.

Oreos don't need to be Oreos. Chips don't need to taste like chips. Soda can apparently taste like anything scientists are capable of putting into a can.

Canada gets plenty of weird snacks, but the sheer volume of options in the U.S. is wild. I don't even necessarily want them. I just need to know what they taste like. And that's how they get you.

Target isn't a store — it's a way of life.

I finally understand the Target thing. Canadian Target never stood a chance.

The best way I can describe American Target to a Canadian is if Winners, HomeSense, Best Buy, Canadian Tire, Walmart and Real Canadian Superstore had a baby, and somehow the baby was nicer than all of them.

Americans do not play about Target. Going to Target is an activity. Don't know what to do this afternoon? Should we just go to Target?

You get a Starbucks. You wander around. You look at extremely cute homeware you absolutely do not need. You enter for toothpaste and somehow emerge two hours later, having spent $137.

And weirdly, it's just pleasant to be in there. The lighting isn't offensively bright. The aisles don't feel chaotic. Everything is suspiciously cute.

People just... don't fix their cars

A Canadian friend came to visit me in Los Angeles and, after being here for a little while, asked me something I'd somehow stopped noticing.

"Why does every car not have a bumper?"

Missing side mirror? Scotch tape it. Massive dent? Didn't need to open that door anyway. The rear bumper is held together by what appears to be sheer force of will? Time to go 95 mph on the freeway.

I don't know whether it's the cost of repairs, insurance, the sheer number of cars on the road or just the inevitable result of spending your life on freeways — but people seem remarkably comfortable driving a car that looks like it recently survived a minor war.

I've lived here long enough that I barely notice anymore. Which, I suppose, is how I know America is officially home.