Everything is Bigger in...

"Everything is Bigger in Texas" is the common motto we've all heard. Well in Italy, they like to say "Everything is Bigger in America!"

It really is true.
I don't even know how Italians survive out here.

The washer and dryer are so tiny. Even though they have a dryer, they barely use it. Probably because you have to stop it every time you use a kitchen appliance and it takes hours to dry. The average American family would have three times as many loads of laundry if they had an Italian sized washer and dryer.

The refrigerator. My host family actually said they hope to one day own an American refrigerator. I mean, who knew there was such a thing. Chiara said, "I want one with three doors!" They find it amazing that we have filtered water that comes from the refrigerator door and an ice maker. Like I mentioned in my previous post, there is no ice here. And the water we drink comes from a big jug of filtered water like you would see in an office setting. Americans would have to visit the grocery store two or three times a week because there is no way everything bought in one trip would fit into the fridge or the tiny freezer. Yep, that little white box on top is the freezer. They actually do have another freezer next to the fridge, but it's just as small.








Oh and the gallons of milk! Err..I mean, a bottle of milk. Americans would have to buy like five at once and I doubt that would last a week. Isn't that about the size of the individual milk bottles we buy for on-the-go?

The oven is pretty tiny too. No way would Americans be able to cook a complete meal using this oven. Don't forget you'd have to stop the dryer first, too. Otherwise it would be a disaster and you'd have to put your shoes on to walk all the way around the outside of the garden to spend twenty minutes trying to turn a key to open the electrical box to flip the switch back on. By the time you returned, your food would be spoiled and you'd end up just going to McDonald's. Which according to Italians, that's all Americans eat anyway. An Italian guy told me he went to America for work once and he ate McDonald's everyday because that's what Americans do.



The trash cans are smaller too. The entire trash system is quite strange. All trash must be sorted by Used, Paper, Plastic, and Everything Else. There isn't one big giant trash can to throw everything into and the trash isn't picked up once a week. There is a different schedule for each specified bin. For instance, Paper only gets picked up every 15 days. Chiara actually has a print out of the trash schedule. Americans would have to change those trash bags everyday, if not twice a day.

Chiara often jokes about how everything is bigger in America. Italians make fun of our pizza because it's so thick. True Italian pizza is very thin with minimal toppings. Italians also think we use a lot of sauces, especially ketchup. While peanut butter is not common at all in Italy, Nutella is.  They actually have tiny individual packets of Nutella. Chiara said, "America has Nutella jars so big you have to use a shovel to dig it out!" Semi trucks are also larger in America. In Italy the front "nose" of the cab is cut off. They often make fun of how big cars are in America. Just the other day Chiara told me that a lady drove to the school in a huge SUV just to drop off four kids and of course, she was American.

My favorite conversation I've had on this topic was with an Italian guy at dinner my second night here. His English wasn't the best, but I truly appreciate that he tried to speak with me. He started talking about America and how he's visited California, Las Vegas and Florida. He was telling me about the time when he was in Las Vegas about to check into his hotel room. He said, "Oh and the people! The woman working at the hotel was just so so...gross. And the guy too! So gross." He was cracking up laughing this entire time while using his arms to demonstrate a large person. He didn't know the word obese so he just kept saying gross. His wife said, "He's not used to seeing people that big."

In the eyes of the Italians, everything is bigger and mostly better in the U.S.A.