zlacker

From the other side, I'm American who spent time in Europe and I felt similar.I don't want to use the term “uptight” but I can't think of a better word.

No, I’m not trying to be disrespectful and I’m doing my best to be respectful. But it was culture shock and I wasn't used to the array of “we don’t do that here” and “you can’t dress like that there” etc. I was kind of on eggshells in many interactions over things that noone would give a second thought to in the US.

(For context, I visited The Netherlands, Belgium, and France)

>>ajdude+(OP)
Could you give examples of what kind of behaviours generated a "we don't do that here" or "you can't dress like that there"? Dutch/Belgian and French culture are quite different, even between Dutch and Belgian there are enough differences to create some friction, and I'm asking for examples because I would never expect a "you can't dress like that there" from Dutch people, for example.

Uptight, surely, there are plenty of pockets of uptight cultures in Europe, even more in their largest cities. I consider Stockholm uptight as fuck but on the other hand I'd say that Malmö is pretty relaxed.

Using Europe as a single, homogeneous thing is the same mistake as calling the USA a homogeneous culture. There are traces of culture in both places that are quite orthogonal across many regions but there's so many regional differences that it becomes irrelevant.

>>ajdude+(OP)
Sounds a bit Doe Normaal. Not the most endearing cultural trait. But then, when we lived in Ireland nobody would _tell_ us that they thought we were freaks for wearing colourful clothes or not caring about church or athletics, they would just insult us behind our backs.