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This is crazy but thank you for writing. I LIVE in the US.!
I joined expats as I want to find out about living in Poland.  And all I get is mail about the US!
I want to get away from the US.

What are the activities everyone must try at least once in the USA? This will depend on where you live as each state/city has different things/habits.

What are the activities that one should partake in if they want to discover the local culture?  Culture...if you can call it culture... play golf, watch a basket/football game, go fishing, eat hamburger/hot dog, go to the movies...

Are there any activities that are characteristic of the USA? eating hamburger, fishing, play golf...

There are many activities to do in the United states, but vary from every state to state, like in pennsylvania you could visit hereshey's chocolate world and in los angeles you could go to universal studios.

Roberta_Ribeiro wrote:

Culture...if you can call it culture... play golf, watch a basket/football game, go fishing, eat hamburger/hot dog, go to the movies...

Are there any activities that are characteristic of the USA? eating hamburger, fishing, play golf...

Look beyond the surface, please. 

Road trips are quintessential American. 

Annual road trips in the summer and winter vacation. 
Road trips as rites of passage for young adults.   
Road trips with your teens to visit colleges, then when the time comes, road trips to take them and their belongings to their dorms. 
Road trips as quick getaways. 
Road trips home or to in-laws for Thanksgivings and Christmases. 
Road trips to State and National Parks. 
Road trips to the mountains, the beaches, and the deserts. 
Road trips for camping, fishing, hiking, and skiing. 
Road trips to see fall foliage. 
Family road trips, couple road trips, group road trips, and solo road trips. 
And the most special road trip is one to follow the iconic Route 66 road trip!

My husband and I travel extensively all over the world, but we've also taken road trips anytime we lived in the States, covering on the average of 2000 miles annually just for the pleasure of seeing the country by car.  One of our road trips took us from the East Coast to the West Coast, up to Canada, across 5 provinces, then down again.  It was a 6 week and 8000 mile trip in a Mini Cooper.

Americans love to drive, and with wide and smooth freeways that connect every part of the country to every other part of the country, road tripping is one of the many important aspects of American culture.

BTW, how could you think there's a lack of culture in one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world? 

"Culture encompasses religion, food, what we wear, how we wear it, our language, marriage, music, what we believe is right or wrong, how we sit at the table, how we greet visitors, how we behave with loved ones, and a million other things"  (Cristina De Rossi, anthropologist, Barnet and Southgate College of London and Universidad de Buenos Aires).

For some lack of culture means different from what they like, agree with.

Ciambella hit on a good one, consumption of resources. Americans love to consume resources, especially non-renewable ones like fossil fuels. They have a general indifference about caring for the earth we live on by driving big hoopties and living in Mcmansions and going crazy over single-use items. Often the apathy towards environmental stewardship goes hand in hand with religious thinking about subduing and dominating the earth. So there's that, and then there's also the overall attitude of looking out for number one and climbing over whoever to get there.
Aside from this, xenophobia is a big one, as are warmongering and saber rattling, particularly when it comes to tapping into other countries resources. Lastly, the culture is characterized by a watered-down level of knowledge about academic subjects: a lot of Americans would be hard-pressed to convert a fraction to a decimal or tell you who fought who in WWII, though sadly a lot of them will hold fast to an admiration of the Confederacy of long ago and claim they have all got to have their own munitions stockpile in case someone tries to tell them what to do.
The foregoing is not a portrayal of every American of course, but it's a pretty pervasive snapshot of the culture, particularly in the more provincial, rural regions. Enjoy.

Cyrelius wrote:

Ciambella hit on a good one, consumption of resources. Americans love to consume resources, especially non-renewable ones like fossil fuels. They have a general indifference about caring for the earth we live on by driving big hoopties and living in Mcmansions and going crazy over single-use items. Often the apathy towards environmental stewardship goes hand in hand with religious thinking about subduing and dominating the earth. So there's that, and then there's also the overall attitude of looking out for number one and climbing over whoever to get there.
Aside from this, xenophobia is a big one, as are warmongering and saber rattling, particularly when it comes to tapping into other countries resources. Lastly, the culture is characterized by a watered-down level of knowledge about academic subjects: a lot of Americans would be hard-pressed to convert a fraction to a decimal or tell you who fought who in WWII, though sadly a lot of them will hold fast to an admiration of the Confederacy of long ago and claim they have all got to have their own munitions stockpile in case someone tries to tell them what to do.
The foregoing is not a portrayal of every American of course, but it's a pretty pervasive snapshot of the culture, particularly in the more provincial, rural regions. Enjoy.

So when are you leaving, where are you going?

I've got to put up with the place for a little while longer still. Hopefully by the time I retire I can be an American expat elsewhere where there's still you know community and humanistic values.

Cyrelius wrote:

I've got to put up with the place for a little while longer still. Hopefully by the time I retire I can be an American expat elsewhere where there's still you know community and humanistic values.

I hear you, been to Fort Worth.