{"id":12887,"date":"2015-10-08T11:27:25","date_gmt":"2015-10-08T09:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boeingbleudemer.com\/en\/?p=12887"},"modified":"2019-03-06T11:00:06","modified_gmt":"2019-03-06T16:00:06","slug":"5-things-surprised-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.boeingbleudemer.com\/en\/5-things-surprised-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"Five things that surprised me in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

While growing up in Montreal, the United States was practically our backyard. We would cross the border a few times a year, either for a day or a for whole month. Even though I feel some closeness to this country because I know well its political system (due to my\u00a0master thesis) and its culture, I still have no idea what goes on in real American homes.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the fact of living in France for several years gives me a more contrasting effect than usual, but at least five things surprised me during my stay in Florida.<\/p>\n

\"Plage<\/p>\n

1. The United States is no longer a cheap destination<\/h2>\n

A\u00a0few years ago, we would travel to the\u00a0US with empty suitcases in prediction\u00a0of the many purchases we wanted to make. Generally speaking, the prices were much cheaper than in France or in Quebec, allowing us to go a bit crazy.<\/p>\n

This summer, I realised that the prices in stores had increased. For example, before I left I had the idea of buying my GoPro camera on Amazon US and have it delivered to an address in the US. Fortunately, I took\u00a0the time to look at its\u00a0French counterpart\u00a0before committing to the purchase, as\u00a0the camera was less expensive in euros. This scenario repeated itself many times, leaving me without any purchases to make in the US.<\/p>\n

I found that outlet\u00a0stores did not offer as many bargains as they\u00a0used to.\u00a0Maybe that’s because\u00a0in recent years, private sales and discount stores have become increasingly popular in France and have accustomed us to rather low prices.<\/p>\n

In restaurants, once we had added up taxes and gratuities, our meals were quite expensive.\u00a0Even for us, Parisians!\u00a0It left me with\u00a0the impression that for the same price as a meal in\u00a0Paris, we ate lower-quality food.<\/p>\n

To add to the\u00a0general\u00a0inflation, the Euro-USD exchange rate is not as favourable as it used to (at the time of our visit, 1\u20ac=1.10$). It’s odd but even with a sales tax of 20%, I feel as if we get more for our money in France (and even more in Canada where the dollar is very low)!<\/p>\n

\"Bar
The tip jar, always close-by<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

2. Unprofessional\u00a0waiters<\/h2>\n

I have been guilty\u00a0myself of perpetuating the myth that waiters\u00a0were more pleasant in North America than in France because they receive\u00a0part of their salary in tips\u00a0that goes hand in hand with\u00a0customers’ satisfaction. Yet, it’s been a while since I’ve encountered such\u00a0rude and incompetent servers!<\/p>\n

For most Parisian waiters,\u00a0it is a real career\u00a0and it shows. I found it extremely rude having the waiter taking my\u00a0plate away and asking if I\u00a0wanted dessert before the other guests had finished eating or being asked 25 times if everything was OK or a waiter repeatedly\u00a0insisting to remove a dish that was not finished. At the restaurant\u00a0where we received the best service, I quickly discovered that the server was French! Showing as little savoir vivre<\/em> at the restaurant does not happen often in France … or Quebec!<\/p>\n

The worst about it, is knowing that waiters in Florida earn an hourly rate close to\u00a0$ 3\u00a0we felt some sort of moral obligation to leave a tip.\u00a0I felt robbed leaving an 18% gratuity to someone who made our meal unpleasant!<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Loud music everywhere<\/h2>\n

Restaurant, shop or nightclub, it’s difficult to distinguish these by simply listening to the volume of the music playing. Loud music being the norm virtually everywhere, it\u00a0must appeal at least to some\u00a0people.\u00a0On my part, I found it\u00a0unpleasant to have to raise my\u00a0voice to talk to my sister sitting just across the table.<\/p>\n

Often,\u00a0the music was so loud that dinners had to speak loudly to be heard by their tablemates, making the restaurant so loud that it was difficult\u00a0to eat our meal normally. After all, it is not so surprising that the US army\u00a0has used the music of Britney Spears and Metallica as torture in Iraqi prisons<\/a>: it works very well.<\/p>\n

Oddly, when we lived in Montreal R\u00e9jean, the Frenchman, complained all the time about Music being way to loud in North America\u00a0and I always thought he was exaggerating. In France, it is rare to hear the music in restaurants and even though\u00a0shops sometimes have music playing, it’s more of a background noise than a full-on nightclub. After seven years in Paris, I got used to it and suddenly the love of Americans for loud music bothered me.<\/p>\n

\"Cocktail
I did sip a few cocktails but they added up quickly on my tab!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

4. A large range of beers, including several microbreweries<\/h2>\n

I like to take a glass of wine with my meals but at most places, the choice was white or red piquette<\/a><\/em>. On the other hand, the rest of the family was offered to choose between ten different kinds of beers, some being domestic and some from microbreweries. Jealous, I decided to join them even though I’m not a beer drinker.<\/p>\n

Since\u00a0I am not used to\u00a0drinking beer (until recently I could not take one sip without being disgusted), I started with a\u00a0Bud Light, no\u00a0bitterness or strong taste. Gradually, I came around to trying\u00a0the Blue Moon or New Belgium beers and I liked them. In\u00a0Paris, I was shocked by the anemic choice of a beer offered in\u00a0bars: Leffe or 1664 … it is best to drink\u00a0wine;).<\/p>\n

\"Repas
Points 2+3+5 =\u00a0It’s best to rent a room with a kitchenette or an apartment<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

5. The best of food and the worst of food can be found\u00a0at the\u00a0supermarket<\/h2>\n

After many bad experiences, I’m always\u00a0very careful in the US about what I buy\u00a0in grocery stores: one second of inattention and you can find\u00a0yourself buying a product with unhealthy amounts of fat, salt or sugar. I\u00a0have to read each and every\u00a0labels as you can be surprised\u00a0by what goes into seemingly mundane items (I was\u00a0traumatized by sweet corn dogs). Moreover, many food additives are still allowed in the US<\/a> but are banned in Europe and Canada.<\/p>\n

While I was conscientiously trying to avoid products containing BHA \/ BHT, hydrogenated oil or glucose-fructose, I realized that there was also plenty of food I was desperate to find in Paris. There was fermented tofu, all kinds of nuts, chia seeds, kale, peanut butter without additives … it’s almost paradise! If all these healthy foods are easily found in a normal super market (Publix), you can imagine the treasure trove that is Whole Foods, an exclusively organic supermarket!<\/p>\n

\"Plage<\/p>\n

We still had a great time travelling through\u00a0Florida!<\/h2>\n

Yes, the music and the waiters\u00a0really annoyed\u00a0me and it was a feeling\u00a0shared by everyone travelling with me. As a solution to this problem, we\u00a0quickly\u00a0switched from regular\u00a0hotel rooms to rooms with kitchenettes or, even better, apartments. Although it was not possible for us to completely avoid restaurants, we went as little as possible and it felt great! At the supermarket, we bought a case of beer, kale salad and vegetarian\u00a0burgers:\u00a0we were finally at peace!<\/p>\n

I am still sorting and processing my photos from Florida, but I already know that I have great things to show you !<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While growing up in Montreal, the United States was practically our backyard. We would cross the border a few times a year, either for a day or a for whole month. Even though I feel some closeness to this country because I know well its political system (due to my\u00a0master thesis) and its culture, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,339],"tags":[428,361,421],"class_list":["post-12887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bla-bla","category-travel","tag-florida","tag-north-america","tag-usa"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.boeingbleudemer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Palmiers_de_South_Beach_en_Floride.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boeingbleudemer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boeingbleudemer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boeingbleudemer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boeingbleudemer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boeingbleudemer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.boeingbleudemer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boeingbleudemer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boeingbleudemer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boeingbleudemer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boeingbleudemer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}