u/North-Point7309

I say this as a Polish person who's lived their life in the UK.

Everyday I wake up to see some bullshit on my phone, hating on Americans. Yes, there's a lot to dislike about the country and it's okay to moderately poke fun at a countries annoying habits from time to time but I've noticed an influx in comments on American posts that just isn't valid and is coming from a weird sense of superiority.

In the past two days I've seen two videos FLOODED with these comments. One was an American who is on holiday in Poland and was showing what she bought in the local shop. She put the price on screen and gave a haul, not once did she complain about the price. Her haul came from Zabka, a convenience store, but at the beginning of the video she said "We went to the grocery shop!" and every comment was something of "This is a CONVENIENCE shop!!! Not Grocery!! Stupid American!! It is SO MUCH more expensive!!!" like okay... She's on holiday and she either didn't know or didn't care. I don't know about other people but when I'm abroad, sometimes I do just buy stuff from the convenience shops. She didn't even buy 'groceries', it was like milk and cheese but the rest were crisps, easy pastries, drinks and snacks etc. The few 'grocery' items she did buy wouldn't be ridiculously cheaper in a big shop either. I also assume she's in a big city, where grocery shops are often further out or not in the 'prime' touristy locations.

The other video I saw was an American living in the UK who was talking about going to a shop on a Sunday. Here the shops close earlier and open later because of trading laws. She complained a bit, acknowledged it was a rule, and said she went to a shop at 10:30, picked up what she needed but was told that it's only browsing hours until 11 (which also, what's the point?). She vented, nowhere did she blame the workers or the shop, or demanded the hours to be changed on Sunday but the comments were once again flooded with "Go to the shop a different day/time!! Stupid American!!!". One comment said something like, "Airports are open early! Go there and get out." Chill. As a British person, I often complain about the whole shops on a Sunday situation, yes it's poor planning on my part but who cares? It's just a complaint (NOT to the shop, NOT to the workers, NOT even in hopes of change), it's just a "Sundays are so annoying" type of thing and I bet if me, someone with a British accent, made that video, the comments would be agreeing.

Another example I can think of is the whole "I went to Europe for the summer!" thing that happens every once in a while. If an American gets on social media and says something along those lines, the comments are filled with "Ugh, you know that's a continent, right? Did you go Bradford or Rome? Dumb American doesn't know about different countries". I get the whole point that each country is so different, but most people who say that went to Italy, the UK, Greece, Spain and Portugal etc. in one trip so it'd just be annoying for them to list those or pedantic to expect them to say "I traveled around Europe for the summer", when we all know what they mean and we're not being graded. Let's also not pretend that this is strictly an American thing. Since coming to uni and meeting people who are more well-traveled, I have heard "Yeah, I went to Asia on my gap yaaaaaar" countless times. It's the same thing but no one has a problem with it when it's a European saying that, because did you go Japan, or did you go Kazakhstan? If you were actually interested in where they went, the next line from you should be "Oh cool, where did you go?"

A lot of us need to step off our high horse and stop acting like we are smarter than every American. Don't even get me started on the whole "I'm too European for this" thing.

Hi all,

I had my first attack of (what I suspect to be) the gallbladder in January. This happened twice in one day, followed by a night of heavy drinking and a greasy meal post-club. I panicked during it and started frenzy googling and came to the conclusion it was my gallbladder.

I cleaned up my diet the next few months (not super strictly, just cut out some fat), included apple juice and apple cider vinegar in my diet and forgot about it, as an attack hadn't come back so I decided not to see a doctor.

Two days ago, I had an attack/episode again. As much as I thought the first one was bad, this one was so much worse. I couldn't sit, lie down, stand, crouch etc. It started off being the same pain so I assumed it was that again and decided to wait four-ish hours to see if it'd pass (as that's how long it took last time) but it just got worse. The most annoying part is that I was on holiday, and was about to go out with friends but I couldn't even handle sitting up to do my makeup so I told them that I just felt too sick to go out and reassured them to go have fun without me.

Four hours had passed and the pain was worse, my friends weren't back, there was only one key for the AirBNB and I just wasn't bothered to go to an A&E abroad. It was also maybe like 3am at this point, checkout was at 10am and flight was at like 3pm so going to the hospital seemed like too much of a drag to consider it so I toughed it out. I was able to sleep a little bit between 5-8am, where the pain had gotten so much more manageable. I also regularly checked my eyes for any signs of jaundice, in case this became something more serious. Thankfully, I was fine for the journey back home, a little uncomfortable but not a full blown attack.

First thing I did today was book an appointment with the doctor. I still had some mild cramping around my stomach area/gallbladder area but it felt more like gas or it just slowly recovering from the attack. I explained the situation and said something like 'I think it's my gallbladder, because of where the pain was, how long it took, and how it wrapped around to my back' to which she said, yes the gallbladder can cause attacks like this because of stones trying to pass but, in your case, it's most likely not serious because of your age (21). She was lovely and not dismissive, she booked me in for a scan and some bloodwork but I was just curious.

Is my age and the fact that my 'attacks' aren't regular pointing to something being a one-off problem; perhaps when eating greasy food or on holiday, when plenty of alcohol is involved?