Stores are open on Sundays
Surprises me every time

Vancouver/Edmonton to Australia (Sydney then southwest Victoria).

It gets properly cold here - it's not hot an sunny everyday like they advertise to us overseas. Aussies also don't use insulation in their houses so having to deal with single digit temperatures inside the house makes me die a little everyday.

moving from SA to Europe, I did not expect that I could feel hotter in Europe. I was naively expecting 4 months of snow coverage

When I moved from the west coast of Canada to the east coast, I was surprised how different the clouds and the sunrise looked. There are like, a lot more fluffy clouds, and the sunsets are more vivid across the entire sky.

The way it changed my mental perception of how far apart buildings are. I moved from North Carolina to Massachusetts, and distinctly remember that the first time I went back to visit the city I grew up in, I had a reaction along the lines of "wtf, did like a bomb go off here or something?" upon seeing it, because I'd become used to buildings being taller and closer together and suddenly by contrast the parking lots with scattered short buildings and wide roads reminded me of those pictures you see of cities after a war or disaster, where there'll be a few buildings relatively intact looking surrounded by flattened grey.

Every time I go back there now, I get a really eerie feeling because even though for the most part, the buildings haven't changed at all, the place feels as if they have, like everything has been squashed vertically and stretched horizontally.

Stopped drinking almost entirely, because moving also meant finding new friends (who prefer other activities than drinking).

Since physical places wasn’t specified, how much nicer the threadiverse (Lemmy) is compared to Reddit, way less toxic from my experience.

Eye contact / greetings between strangers

*in the USA

I'm originally from the south where everyone wears plastic smiles and waves in passing and all that.

Then I went to the northeast where it's more eyes on the horizon. A smile and a wave is met with a raised eyebrow or a sneer, and friends commonly show their comfort with each other using insults.

Then out to the midwest where zero eye contact gets you stared at, but heavy eye contact is taken as a challenge. It has to be just the right amount, and I'm still trying to figure it out after years.

I didn't expect the trees to scream at me

The culture of right of way between pedestrians and cars. Where I grew up, you could walk out to the double yellow and stand there and cars wouldn't give a shit. They'd just keep driving and expect you to stay out of the way.

Now where I live, if you just glance at a car when you're walking they'll stop where they are to let you cross.

It all gets very confusing for a pedestrian when you also get out of town drivers that don't adhere to that same culture.

It's more like what didn't change that I did expect. The rural midwest is still very hot, very right-wing (and far alt-right), and full of mosquitoes, much like the southern US. In fact, it's predicted the south will see more inches of snow and days of snow than the midwest this year.

Moved from the south to the Midwest and my mouth still orders "unsweet tea". Some waitstaff have no idea what I mean.

If you don't specify in the south you get diabetea.

I walk a lot more now that the nearest store is across the street and not 3 miles away.

Just how antisocial people can be, they often feel dead inside to me. Rarely smiling, very little low effort social interaction. It eats away at my soul.

The inaccessibility of anything in the DIY and construction side of life if you don't own a business in the industry. I was used to doing woodwork without the need for a table saw, now I can't get a simple piece of wood cut accurately without being a building contractor or having my own kitted out workshop. I loved working with aluminium and used to buy from suppliers, now it's inaccessible to me.

How convenient places are near me. Where I was, I had to drive 45 miles out and back to get anywhere. Now for a while, everything is 5 - 10 minutes. Chump change for miles and yeah if I really do want to broaden my exploration, can go a bit further, but not when I need something as before.

When we moved into a new house some years ago, there were only rabbits and no squirrels. The squirrels have since moved in.

That I need the same amount of time to the big city.

Distance to the city: 18 km -> 10 km Time to the city by train: 19 min -> 12 min Time to train station: 3 min -> 10 min

Losing my job. I moved closer to work. (That wasnt the goal. It was just coincidental)

So much!

From The South and moved to the PNW.

Lack of thunder and lightning is crazy. Like I went from hearing it all the time to once or twice a year.

Being able to see snow on the mountains while it's over 60°F in the valley.

How there isn't any warm water occurring in nature.

You can't find Cuban bread in every grocery store.

Man, I have so many things that shocked me. And many still do, lol.

I moved 100 miles, from one city to another in the same US state. Now I can't find good chinese food to save my life... Panda Express is unfortunately the best I can find.

Went living in a small village at 1000m altitude. Despite it's colder here, I no longer cough for months around winter.

When I moved from middle Connecticut to San Diego all the good Italian food was gone, yes there was sushi but no good Chinese takeout and holy shit forget about pizza. Cali pizza is nothing like CT pizza and I hated it. Don't even get me started on the mutant pile of stuff PA calls pizza.

Water bills. Moved from Williamsbrg, VA less than 10 miles down to the next city down, Newport News, and water went from like $30/mo to $100/mo (water+sewer+trash in aparment in both cases). Googling and it's apparently normal. Yeesh.

My relationship, bought a new house sold our old one and now it seems its slowly falling apart

Moved from Midwest to West to South. In the South, they use "How are ya?" as a greeting. I was not aware. So for the first few weeks/months, I was answering them honestly and just loving how friendly everyone was!

Took me a while to understand you're just supposed to say "Good-n-you?"

Felt like a fuckin idiot.

South to Midwest USA - the thunderstorms are less frequent, but way more violent. Also, cheese curds.

I don't live terribly far from where I grew up. I have seen so many snakes in my neighborhood. Growing up I knew what a snake was but never really saw any. I had to mow my lawn slower the other day because I saw two snakes in the grass.

When I moved from the Northwoods of Wisconsin to Los Angeles (Burbank), a lot of changes were to be expected... The one I didn't expect was the total lack of thunder n lightning despite rain storms that would flood the streets. I think I was out here at least 6 years before I heard any thunder and that was a one-time event. Been here for almost 29 yrs now, and I can probably count the number on one hand.

In the words of the great poet: wherever you go, there you are.

There are some things that can change. Some thigns can be measurably worse or better just based on various aspects of the place. However, if you're running from something, and that something is mostly or all you, nothing will have sustained improvement until you fix the 'you' part of that equation.

I moved around the US and later moved to Japan. I learnt this lesson the hard way. While moving to a place that fixed some things I hated about my life, the problems that were caused to me by me weren't helped until I worked on that part; it's still a work in progress.