Seems that way to me. 

In fact I was gunna say in recent years I've kind of been learning that, while there are always differences here and there... personal country related things, seems people really are basically the same all over. 

Those are some negatives aspects (for me). There are a million positives, too. It's relatively easy to adapt to this culture. 

That isn't the case here in the UK where we seem to talk about very little else. Some would observe that is because we have so much of it but the reality is not quite like that. The truth is, it's something we all have in common - walk up to a total stranger in the street and try and strike up a conversation, regardless of what opening gambit you use there is a fair chance that they will completely ignore you. However, the one thing you can guarantee is that you are both currently experiencing exactly the same weather and you can safely predict with high certainty that you will both agree that it will change shortly. If it is currently sunny you will agree that it will most likely rain later and if it is currently raining you will both be sure that it will brighten up soon. Before you know it they'll be telling you their life story as if you'd known them for years, and you never know, they may even ask something about you.

I've experienced that in the USA enough to believe it could be a thing but that maybe due to how I look or sound piquing their curiosity as they invariably open with a rhetorical question based upon my appearance or nationality. 

One of the strangest that had me planning the quickest route to the exit was "You don't have guns in Eng-er-land do you?"

In my case, such an statement would be quite the sarcastic one.

Yeah we do that.  It's definitely a thing.  I think many Americans think if you aren't overtly friendly then you're probably some kind of a dick.  For the most part I think people are genuinely trying to be polite and well-meaning though, hard to fault folks for that.

I travel internationally quite a bit and most of the rest of the world is far more reserved than Americans (except Aussies, they're a bit of an outgoing bunch).  

Sometimes I get pleasantly surprised and run into exceptions though.  I was eating in an out-of-the-way diner in Romania once and the servers were huddled and pointing at me.  After a bit one of them went into the back room and out came a young lady who walked up to me and proceeded to tell me all about her friend from Seattle and how she plans to go to the U.S. to visit her, and she really wanted to know what I thought of Romania.  

And in China I get kids come up to me all the time and want to practice their English and get a selfie with me.  I was climbing the stone steps of Wudang mountain last summer and a bunch of Chinese students ran into me and insisted on me posing for pictures with each one of them, they even wanted to put on my headphones to hear what I was listening to (it was Tom Waits, I don't think they were impressed).  And an old man came up to me at the bus stop in Singapore once and gave me a 10 minute lecture on everything that was good and bad about America (apparently we are more bad than good, but he was very polite in telling me this).

And I went to a pub for breakfast in Germany once where the older lady serving hustled me into a side room because there were a bunch of football fans getting roaring drunk and ready for a match (at 09:00am).  She fussed over me the whole time and made sure I wasn't hassled.  That was pretty cool.

Unless you're super f**king rich. Then everyone will worship you if you show it off.

In the small part of the Continent that is called the Netherlands no one has a problem with conversations about the weather. On the contrary, there are few subjects of conversation that fit the Dutch as well as the weather. It is subject to many changes and, just like politics, too often something not to be content about.

Milpitas, but not everyone there was a local 

Last time I visited Sweden a combination of the high price of alcohol and a more-or-less zero tolerance on drink-driving meant the one place you could guarantee meeting a drunk Swede was on public transport.

I think there are unwritten rules, even for Americans. And like anything else there are generational differences.  I grew up in the rural and suburban Western states in the 60s and 70s where it was considered pretty rude to not acknowledge a visitor to the area if you ran into them at a supermarket or community event or even walking down the street.  It's still that way in many of those places today.  Same goes for waving at people in passing cars.  I really never understood that one, but I recall as a child that my parents would cuff my in the head if someone drove by and I didn't wave to them.

We don't really have passenger trains in most of the West, but striking up a conversation with a total stranger on a bus kind of crosses a line.  There's a good chance the person doing that is a bit wanting in the mental stability department.  And I'm really not a fan of people who feel the need to chat when queued up at checkout lines or waiting to get into a concert or the security line at the airport.  A lot of people do that here but I'm usually already annoyed to be standing in line and don't feel like expending the energy to try and be polite to someone I'll probably never see again.

Another thing I've found different around the world is people's manners while driving a car.  Everywhere I've been in Europe (except Germany), people tend to be completely self-absorbed and drive like they don't give a crap about anyone else around them.  Same goes for China, Korea and Singapore.  And the honking is incessant, especially in China.  I've been driving for almost 40 years in the U.S. and have probably only honked my car horn 2-3 times.  I've had my current car for six years and don't even know what the horn sounds like (actually I don't even know if it works ).

On the subject of waving at cars, in the UK when driving some of the less popular models sometimes a driver of the same model as you will acknowledge you by waving or flashing their headlights. This happened occasionally when I owned VW Sirocco Mk2's, and that became more frequent after they went out of production so where rarer on the road. However, it only seemed to happen in my Hyundai V6 coupe if the other car was exactly the same model and colour as mine, but when I bought an MG TF roadster I don't recall ever seeing another MG roadster owner not wave regardless of the model they were driving, even drivers of vintage ones would acknowledge me as a member of the "on the road club". 

Before my visit I asked if I should bring anything with me (meaning to do my job, such as specialist tools, back-up discs, instruction manuals etc.) - the reply I received was: "1 litre bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label". 

 

I spent a couple of weeks in Bangalore a few years ago, the honking is incessant there as well. There is no real concept of lanes or letting people out, everyone just piles in and hits the horn like crazy. The noise gets on your nerves pretty quickly but strangely we only saw one minor accident the whole time we were there.

This is so true, India is like on a different planet.

I spent 6 months there about 15 years ago, and drove my own bike, now that I'm thinking about it it's a damn miracle I came back home in one piece.

 Italy is without doubt the maddest place I've ever driven, whether in a large city or driving around narrow mountain roads at break-neck speed the technique for changing lanes or overtaking seemed to be "horn, manoeuvre, mirror, obscene-gesture and then horn again". In the end I just eased off the gas and let them get on with it. Until it started to rain, then they turned into the most cautious drivers you could imagine - leaving the roads clear for us Brits (and the Dutch for some reason) to show them how it should be done.

But yep - the driving in Rome was something else, I briefly experienced it as we approached the city before returning the car to the Avis. That was always part of the plan anyway as we didn't need the car for three days in Rome... and on seeing a guy eat a bowl of pasta while driving and then a woman putting on her make-up at 80kph on the autostrade, we realised this was a good plan. The taxi ride into the city was something you'd pay good money for at an amusement park.

Am I wrong? Does it happen everywhere? 

We got a taxi to the hotel from Bangalore airport. It was still dark in the early morning and foggy. Our driver came across a refuse lorry in the outside lane and some other lorry in the inside lane and he couldn't get past either of them the normal way, so he just drove straight up the middle of them.

It depends. In the UK we tend to be suspicious of over-familiarity, especially when someone is trying to sell you something, just because someone is using my first name I'm not going to assume that I'm getting "mate's rates" from them or that the deal is in any way special. But since I have difficulty saying my surname because of my accent (so it tends to come out as the noise a duck would make if it had a beak full of marbles) I generally just give my first name and spend the rest of the conversation being referred to as Mr Dean... Or if it is Starbucks "Dian"

I insist this is probably a little bit of my atypical brain talking  but I have never really seen this in all the countries I've gone to and, of course, in Ecuador. 

And people here can be actually quite loud and willing to talk to strangers (especially when they're trying to get laid), perhaps unlike in some other parts of Europe, which is why Croats often call Scandinavians cold and reserved. On the contrary, I sometimes see them as refreshingly polite.

You can't avoid talks about gay rights and 90's Civil war here, our politicians constantly remind us not to forget arguing about those things.

Football (soccer for Americans, we don't recognize any other) can cure all the problems, but also make many new.

A glass of beer, wine or spirit during lunch or welcome is not drinking. And actual drinking is acceptable every day of the week. Everyone's drinking here.

Beware of drunken Croats who try to get laid with you. They'll most likely just follow you and talk about themselves for a while.

Also, we might offer you with tons of food and drinks. And refusing can be seen as an insult.

Money and salaries are not taboo themes in Croatia. Only taboo theme here are Civil war veterans. And religion in some smaller areas.