But what I found was an ultra-tedious nitpicky rules and control mindset. Really turned me off.
Just surprised to see someone else say similar.
Oh, you thought you could cross the road there, even though there are no cars around? You shouldn't do that. You should cross at the stop signs.
Oh, you thought you could just walk in the building, go up to the counter and order food? Sorry, you need to walk through the special door, which puts you in the special food-ordering queue. You'll have to leave the building and come back in through the special door.
Sure, you won't get pulled over for going a little bit faster on the freeway in the USA. But in daily life, people much more often will treat you like you're dumb, incompetent, or don't belong somewhere.
A couple of examples came up in recent news opinion pieces (both by Americans who have moved to Australia and, coincidentally, both mentioning swimming):
https://www.smh.com.au/national/where-the-hell-is-he-what-au...
"It went on like that for a while. Praise for the boy. Not a drop of concern. I looked to my right. Baz’s Nippers instructor, Al, a brawny former professional rugby player, was smiling. So were the rest of the Australian parents all around us.
I was confused at first, but I could also see in everyone an exhilaration that reminded me of my time covering the war in Iraq during its most violent months. It had been years since I’d experienced that mix of feelings – the electric shock of appreciation for life, the confidence that comes from transcending danger with others, for something that feels bigger than yourself. And it made me realise that, despite a journalism career filled with hazardous assignments, I still had a lot to learn about risk, not to mention child-rearing."
https://www.smh.com.au/national/77-shootings-within-a-mile-o...
"Taking the kids for a swim at an outdoor public pool in New York felt more like a brush with the penal system. You are not allowed to wear any colour other than white, such is the fear of a poolside eruption of gang violence. Men have to wear bathers lined with meshing, and prove to the guards at the gates they are in compliance; a guard carries out inappropriately intrusive inspections. [...] "Any form of reading matter – newspapers, books, copies of The New Yorker – is strictly prohibited. In all, there are more than a dozen regulations that have to be adhered to – and even if you comply with those, there is the Kafkaesque possibility of being confronted with new ones that have seemingly been invented on the spot."