This might not be exactly the kind of thing you're asking, but -- as an English speaker (and American) -- it always surprises me just how universal the word "okay" is.

As an American, I was pretty surprised to learn that Civil War reenactments are a thing in Britain, too. Different Civil War, of course.

indiana, usa

the almost cultish consumption of coca cola. in northern indiana we have a fair amount of "authentic" and "american" mexican restaurants. almost all of them serve coca cola in a glass bottle from mexico. it tastes so much better than the plastic bottle/can american coca cola

I thought taking shower every day was a comum thing. Moving to Germany I learned that was not the case.

I guess it's the classic: a dish drying cupboard over the sink. It's universal in Finland and apparently not too common anywhere else.

I am from California, USA and I've been to Mexico, Germany, Ireland, England, and Canada. The most surprising thing to me was just how not different the rest of the world I've seen was from my home. There's little things here and there. The taste of certain foods for example. Or what side of the road is being driven on. But all and all, everything seemed the same. I never really felt like a fish out of water except a couple times in Germany when I encountered someone who didn't speak English (for the most part, they spoke both so not hard to get along).

Completely changed my worldview. Shown all this shit growing up how we are different and it's all just superficial bullshit. People are people. Doesn't matter where they come from. At the end of the day, everyone wants the same thing; the difference is all in how they go about getting there. And even then, they're not so vastly different that war or violence on someone for who they are or where they come from makes does not make any fucking sense to me under any circumstance.