PeevePile • A Pet Peeve Archive » People who travel to foreign countries on vacation and then refuse to participate in the culture or attempt to eat any of their cuisine.

People who travel to foreign countries on vacation and then refuse to participate in the culture or attempt to eat any of their cuisine.

Went on a trip to Asia, and the friends I went with refused to eat at any real restaurants that normal people living there would go to and instead opted for fast food or convenience store food every night.

— Daniel from Texas | Travel | 11.5.2008 | Comments (5)

I don't know why they even bother to go. It would be cheaper for them to watch a documentery if they do not want to experience the culture.

— Rene posted 11/5/2008

My friend whose parents are from Pakistan and only eats halal meats went on Hajj last year, and I was like "So, what's the first thing you're going to do when you land?" and he was like "Get a halal Big Mac. And it's going to be awesome." I don't think this counts as an example of the thing above though, since he couldn't experience this part of U.S. culture in the U.S. In fact, I thought it was kind of amazing.

— Diana posted 11/5/2008

There are more things to experience while traveling than just the food. In some countries, eating food that you aren't used to can mean spending the trip hurling in the bathroom. Now THAT seems like a wasted trip.

— Stinko posted 11/5/2008

Yes! I can't stand traveling with people like this. Even worse is when they're excited to see some crappy chain restaurant in a foreign country. "WOW there's an applebee's in Paris! We have to go there, just to say we did!" I don't see anyone getting that excited driving past an applebee's in the states.

— Alison posted 11/5/2008

OMG! I was having a discussion with a friend about why foreigners didn't like Americans. (Were all international students in China, shes American) and I told her it's because there are some loud obnoxious people who will never shut up about how everything in bigger in America and then refuse to respect other peoples cultures! and the she said that it wasnt true. But she goes to the fucking American Embassy to buy shampoo because she doesn't want to mix with the 'locals' and the supermarket! Pathetic..

— Rwar Tiger posted 11/6/2008

When parents start voicemail messages with "hey [name], it's your mother/father." » My husband does this with his kids! It never fails to drive me bugshit! – Mindy 7/26

Grubby, tangled haired children. » Keeping clean is one thing; the kids I see don't even start out clean. Parents and kids both seem to roll out of bed and go to the local WalMart (where else?) without so much as running as hairbrush through their hair or taking a bar of soap to their bodies. I think we can be quite sure they don't know what a toothbrush is for! The trend of wearing pajama bottoms in public needs to stop as well. – Mindy 7/26

When strangers try to touch my children. » Good god, it's like you read my mind. I absolutely hate it when I'm in the grocery store and people touch my son's feet or poke his little cheeks. Yes, I know he's the cutest thing on this earth but THAT DOES NOT MEAN YOU CAN TOUCH HIM – CakeThief 7/24

Air quotes. » use shocker quotes instead. form shocker with fingers, bend to mimic quoting action. – kn obel 7/22

When non-white street beggars call me racist when I don't give them money. » I always want to know if people would feel equally as badly if the opposite were true. Like, if you only gave money to non-white street beggars out of guilt/fear of being perceived as racist. That's racism, too, right? Right? No one complains about that one... – Chelsea 7/22

When non-white street beggars call me racist when I don't give them money. » Ugh. This happened to me when I declined to sign a petition without even hearing what it was about (I was also not a registered voter in that state AND was in a hurry). Jeez, I'm not racist! I hate all petition signature gatherers equally. – Kate 7/21

02.11.10

Send in your mobile phone pet peeves for the week of February 15th! Perhaps the simplest and most common generator of peeves, the mobile phone prods and pricks us in all places, public and private. With skull phones just around the corner, it’s likely these peeves will soon become irrelevant—so let’s spray them across the galaxy while we still can.

01.18.10

For the next week or so, the pictures for peeves will be of Peeve Pile’s national spokesperson, Rob Grace, and his special person, Shana, enacting various peeves. Please feel free to make such pictures yourself. Just include a link to them when submitting a peeve.

01.02.10

Hello. I’ve added a voting feature, so you can vote as you assume that you would – just click on a one-to-five star rating (it will tell you your vote has been recorded); five indicating that you completely agree with, or find the peeve amusing, one meaning the opposite.

Once a bunch of ratings are in, I’ll add a worst, and best rated area to the right column.