Foreign visitors ♥ America
You can see the videos all over the internet: foreign visitors for the World Cup, enjoying the US – especially the food, the free refills on soda, and the friendliness.
You can read a description here, and YouTube is filled with reports such as this one, a compilation which I’ve chosen pretty much at random:
One theme that repeats itself is shock and wonder at the sheer size of America. Similar clips have been on YouTube for years, featuring foreign tourists reacting – mostly positively – to trips to the US. So it’s not just something about the World Cup visitors.
But I’ve noticed one topic lately that I’ve never seen before in this genre of videos. It’s about seeing yellow school buses:
I spent a few years at Los Alamos National Lab. finishing a Ph.D. and spent some considerable time hanging out with Klaus from Köln, Germany. Eventually, his postdoc came to an end and several of his immediate family members came over to visit him and they rented a large van.
For something like 2.5 weeks they drove the entire west coast into Cananda, then on the way back covered much of the southwest, including Texas. Many thousands of miles. I don’t recall if they ventured into Mexico, though I’d guess they did just for the bragging rights. Talk about overdosing on the vastness of North America.
They’re getting noticed because of the World Cup, but videos of foreign visitors enjoying the U.S. — whether it’s the food, shopping, natural beauty, Americans’ friendliness and hospitality, or just the vast size and diversity of the 50 states — have been popular on YouTube for years.
We enjoy them because it’s fun to see other people discovering the countless positive aspects of our country, but also because it’s easy for those of us who live here to take them for granted — so it’s nice to be reminded.
It seems to me that most of these videos are from the south. If they had been shot from left leaning areas like New York or Los Angeles it would be an entirely different story.
I had this experience 30 years ago. Germans with matching T-shirts wandering
(in groups) across new mexico Indian reservations.
A lot of these videos are from influencers doing marketing, to the point that CBP has been reminding them that they can lose their tourist visas for making these videos. Which ones are influencers is easily discovered by looking them up on Instagram or YouTube or OnlyFans or any of the other places where they sell whatever they sell.
They may even be sincere; and that lady in the Bounty ads may even really believe that Bounty is the quicker-picker-upper, but it’s still marketing, and we probably shouldn’t confuse it for genuine favorable sentiment.
A lot of these videos are from influencers
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What share?
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to the point that CBP has been reminding them that they can lose their tourist visas for making these videos.
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They reminded how many through what conduit?
Niketas Choniates posts should come with a sad trombone soundtrack.
Wah wah wahhhhhhhhhh.
@Art Deco:What share?
Just look up anybody’s Instagram and find out. I gave you a link to one big marketing campaign and it lists like a couple dozen right there. If you want to calculate a percentage you go right ahead.
The ranch dressing girl from Sweden has been in a lot of stuff over the years; back in 2025 she was in the news for trying to sleep with at least one man in every country, in 2024 she was in the news for wanting to have a baby by Elon Musk, and in 2022 she was in the news for making enough on OnlyFans to buy a house. That German guy Freddy might be a real fan just having a good time, not sure. If not, it will come out eventually when someone takes credit for the campaign.
Maybe there’s a real Santa among all the mall Santas too, it would be the best place for him to hide. I can’t possibly check every single one. Undoubtedly some Europeans are making videos about the fun they are having in America without getting paid to say it. If you think something is too good to check, then don’t check it if you don’t want.
They reminded how many through what conduit?
All of them, through a public statement in El Pais, a major European media outlet.
I couldn’t possibly look up anyone on Instagram. I only signed up for X so I could read news links from trusted names there.
Freddy seems entirely authentic. He’s currently driving through Ohio and Pennsylvania on the back roads because he wants to see America off the interstates.
NC has obviously not interacted with any of these soccer fans and is basing his opinions off the handful of influencers included among them. As someone who has talked with them on a near daily basis for the past two weeks, they share the sentiments expressed by the TikTok influencers
Having moved from NE to Texas in the ’70s, I have a lot of sympathy for Euros having difficulty adjusting to the heat—especially the athletes. I played soccer from June-December in NE. I much preferred playing in temperatures below 65, and had no problem playing soccer in shorts in 37 degree weather (sorry, Ann Althouse 🙂 )
My AC use is minimal. I don’t turn the AC on until the indoor temperature gets to 82, and keep it at 80. That being said, I avoid outdoors in the sun. My daily walk is usually done in the dark. When I walked a friend’s dogs, before she moved, I often walked in the late afternoon. But there were plenty of trees to hide the sunlight. When I visited my uncle in Daytona Beach, I was unpleasantly surprised by the lack of shade trees along the sidewalks.
I am glad I am not sitting in an outdoor stadium at 3 p.m. in Texas. Which points out the need for water, water, water.
When I saw a section of the video enthusing about WalMart, I immediately thought of the “People of WalMart” videos which highlight all the strange and grossly obese WalMArt customers. (Of course, anyone who frequents WalMarts knows that those videos are very selective. )Then the American commenter commented about obese people in WalMart.
I melt at 65F. It is hot in Hooterville today at 82 (81 in East Hooterville). Tomorrow’s forecasted high is 62 and by Saturday 60. The hideous unshielded fusion furnace in the sky will be masked by cooling rain and clouds.
Nick identifies as a “Sad Trombone?” Inconceivable!
I thought he was a “wet blanket.”
Had no idea Europeans thought yellow busses were a prop.
A Scottish couple, seen a few of their videos sure seem like they might stay.
For tourists to come and stay in USA for weeks must cost a lot of money. And free time. So, these people are pretty well off.
I love the videos of international visitors enjoying serious American BBQ.
–“Two Brits try real Texas BBQ for the first time!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cxA_gkhRyo
There’s a fun Texas BBQ joint in Abq called Rudy’s. Its slogan:
_______________________________
I DIDN’T CLAW MY WAY TO THE TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN …
TO EAT VEGETABLES!
_______________________________
Amen. 🙂
Many years ago, my Wife were having dinner in a Paris restaurant (Vietnamese) and sitting next to us were a couple from Frankfurt. His English was passable, so we held a conversation. He ask were in the US we were from. I told him, but it really didn’t register. So I said, Denver is about the same distance from NY, as Paris is from Moscow. His eyes got real big.
I can’t stand to watch soccer. It’s got to be the most boring sport in the world. But I find myself fascinated by how the World Cup is organized.
For instance, the round-robin stage has the teams divided into twelve groups of four, with everyone playing every other team in their group. So the top twelve teams get their own groups with the lesser-ranked teams filling in the groups, right? Wrong. The 6th and 7th ranked teams are in the same group, making it near impossible for either of the other two teams in that group to advance.
Another really weird thing is that only eight of the twelve teams who finish third in their group advance to the next round. The weird part is that America’s opponent in the first-round of the next stage depends on exactly which teams those are. As of tonight, of the 246 possible combinations left, one and only one combination has the United States playing Senegal, the 15th-ranked team in the world. The other 245 of the 246 possible combinations have the United States playing 64th-ranked Bosnia-Herzegovina instead. What? Why?
Then there’s the funny stat that over their three games in the tournament the Qatari team scored more goals for their opponents (2) than they did for themselves (1).
What a weird game in a weird tournament.
My wife used to work here in the USA for a German domiciled company.
Many of its German employees when assigned to work at a USA location hoped they would never be re-assigned back to Germany. They much preferred to live in the USA instead of Germany.
mkent
I can’t stand to watch soccer. It’s got to be the most boring sport in the world/
That may be, but I really enjoyed playing soccer. I enjoyed playing it more than watching it, though from playing it I got a better sense of strategy when watching it.
An anecdote will indicate the hold that soccer/futbol has on some places. I was working in Argentina. After having worked all night, I was awakened in the middle of the afternoon by a noisy parade of beeping car horns. The two main soccer rivals in Argentina—River Plate and Boca Juniors of Buenos Aires–had just clashed. Boca fans took their cars and their horns to the street in celebration. And the town was 1000 miles away from Buenos Aires!
huxley, Rudy’s is good, no doubt. I am reminded of being asked in a WalMart by some tourists from Ohio to recommend a BBQ joint. I told them to drive down a main street until they find a BBQ joint.
I agree with Gringo that soccer is more fun to play than to watch. One thing the American sports (baseball, football, basketball) have over the goal sports is that in all of them you can come from behind to win on a single play, setting up more dramatic situations.
Well, the long string of improbables was broken tonight when Sweden tied Japan, allowing both teams to advance to the knockout stage. With Sweden advancing to the first round the United States will play 64th-ranked Bosnia-Herzegovina on July 1st. If we get past them (we should) our World Cup presence will most likely come to an end against 9th-ranked Belgium on July 6th.
I mentioned yesterday the bizarre way the World Cup set up its groups and brackets, with the world’s 6th-ranked team Brazil being in the same group as 7th-ranked Morocco. It gets even worse. The bracket is set up so the runner-up of that group plays 8th-ranked Netherlands in the *first round* of a 32-team playoff. Why would you do that?
Worse still, if 13th-ranked Colombia upsets 2nd-ranked Spain tomorrow, the top two teams in the world will meet in the first round of a 32-team playoff. You’ve got to be kidding! Who sets up their brackets that way?
Would someone from the NCAA please call the World Cup people?
I’m gonna have to go along with NC here. When you’re getting an input that tickles your ego (personally or group-related) or otherwise seems too on-the-nose, it’s usually a sign that you’re being marketed to somehow.
I’m sure some of this is totally real. But some of it is a calculated PR operation, too.