Things that I am not saying are bad but that are weird to be as an American:

• Paying for water (a really, really small amount of water) at restaurants
• Giving me a tiny bottle of coke and also a smaller cup to put it in. Maybe it looks classier but do I really need both?
• Why are these the default hand-drying method?

  

• Paying for the bathroom, even in some restaurants or some museums (like, I paid to get in...) 
• Hiding kitchen appliances behind cabinet doors

• Keeping sandwich bread in the freezer, even if you use it every day
• Buying cold-cuts almost exclusively pre-sliced and pre-packaged
• Not refrigerating milk and eggs in the store. (they're processed differently)
• Not saving leftovers after dinner (lots of people do, but it isn't uncommon not to)
• Surprising lack of stop signs 
• Putting lots of American flags on food packagings and other products even if said product has nothing to do with the U.S. 
• Putting the nutritional information based off 100 grams of the product, even if one serving size is less than or greater than 100 grams, which is nearly always.
• The seemingly constant presence of snack bars. I mean, it makes as much sense as any other type of eatery, but in America snack bars are more of a “there’s nothing else here” option than a “yes, let’s get lunch/dinner at the snack bar!”
• I heard about hagelslag but I thought it would be an exclusively breakfast thing. I didn’t expect it to be a food that could be eaten at every meal. 
• When people reference hockey they usually mean field hockey
• Movies here have intermissions (even American movies created for an American theater) 
• Not taking home leftover food from restaurants (though portions are admittedly smaller than in the States)
• That "Your Mom" and blonde jokes are still popular
• The unironic use of the word "chill"
• The loose application of the Dewey Decimal System
• The direct manner of speaking. I have come to really appreciate the fact that Dutch people do not feel the need to sugar coat what they're saying. I'll admit it took a while to get used to, in the first few months I would often feel that Dutch people were being rude or judgmental. But they're just being honest. It's so refreshing to see a culture that doesn't feel the need to beat around the bush
• When it's your birthday they don't just congratulate you, they congratulate everyone in your family. It's was definitely weird at first but I just find it so sweet. Really helps to make birthdays family events. 

Obviously every family is different, but it is these little differences that I love to discover. Like the way the little kids all put their jackets on the ground before putting them on, or how early and well kids learn to swim here (which is very practical, I think). How people often speed well over the limit, but will always stop for pedestrians. How polite people are at large events, and how accommodating they are to those who don't speak their native language (something American's could learn from, even though very few people speak America's actual native languages, and we have no official national language. People often forget that.)

I'll be updating this list throughout the year. No country is perfect, but I hope at the end of year I'll have a nice list in my head of things I prefer from each country.