For a year and a half since moving to New York and then Los Angeles from his home country of Denmark, my husband has been asking me questions about this weird country of ours that I sometimes struggle to answer. It’s not that his questions are difficult. It’s just that I’m so used to the way things are here I don’t think to question it. But maybe I should.

Here are some of my favorites.

1. Why do doctors and nurses wear scrubs in the street?

We live in Santa Monica, California — a popular tourist destination, which is also (to our surprise) a home to many hospitals, as well as car dealerships. This means never a day goes by without seeing a used car salesman or a nurse or two. Scrubs are everywhere — in Starbucks, Target or a local pizza joint.

My husband looked puzzled first time he stood in line at the Rite Aid behind a man in scrubs: “Aren’t they supposed to be sterile?” I shrugged. In Europe, it would be very unusual to see a doctor parade in the supermarket wearing his work gown. But after years of watching medical personnel ride the subway in New York wearing scrubs, I stopped taking their uniform seriously. Maybe someone can educate me on the topic. Until then, I have nothing to tell my husband.

2. What’s the point of vanity license plates?

First time my husband saw a vanity license plate, he wasn’t sure what he was looking at. I explained that people paid annual dues to DMV to have those plates because of their, well, vanity. “But aren’t they embarassed?” he wondered. I laughed: “It takes a lot more to embarass an American!”

Perhaps, the only license plate my husband actually appreciated read: “WifeNo2.” He laughed and praised the driver for her self-irony.

For a Dane, raised in the country where fitting in is so important that even colored clothes is discouraged, a vanity plate is akin to being naked in public (ironically, Danes don’t mind public nudity). For an American, on the other hand, it’s only one of the many ways to stand out from the crowd. Even if not the smartest one.

3. What’s the point of appointment times?

Danish people are obsessed with being on time. Nothing and no one runs late in all-so-efficient Denmark. Punctuality equals respect and Danes are a very respectful bunch. And then you have America where appointment times are a joke and yet no one will actually admit it.

Every time my husband dutifully arrives 15 minutes before his scheduled doctor’s appointment, he’s then shocked to be waiting around for 40 or so more minutes. “What’s the point of appointment times?” he asks me. And I tell him that, honestly, I’ve given up on that years ago.

Recently, we attended a Green Card interview at 7:15 AM. We had three children with us, including a baby. We scrambled to get there, running five minutes late. My husband was freaking out. I didn’t raise an eyebrow. “A government appointment will run on time!” he panicked. Surely, we waited three hours to be seen.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to keep things on schedule?” my husband asks me every time we encounter such a day. Amazingly, I never even thought of such a simple thing.

4. Why are American doctors treated like royalty?

This one really puzzles my husband. He noticed that doctors in America are treated like royalty. They even have special license plates! While a doctor is certainly a very respectful profession, only in America do they get to enjoy such privileges. They already make more money than any other doctors in the world. “So isn’t that enough?” my husband wonders.

Doctors in Europe are often not in it for the money. In some countries, public doctors are routinely underpaid. I always had a tremendous respect for those choosing to work in such a demanding field just for the sake of it.

So, to a European, it’s strange to see American MDs glorified to such a degree. After all, they don’t even keep their appointment times.

5. Why do Americans talk so loudly?

My husband is blown away by all the loud, and honest, conversations we overhear every day. “Don’t they care that we can hear them?” he asks me. “I think they want us to hear them,” I answer. Honestly, I don’t know the answer. But I do know that nothing is too private here in America.

A man in Brooklyn was talking on the phone about his vulnerability, for the whole park to hear. My husband squeezed my hand and smiled. I knew he was listening. A woman walked by telling her boyfriend off very loudly. “He probably deserved it,” my husband joked. If we have nothing else to do, we can be entertained just walking around and people listening all day long.

Do they want us to hear them? We don’t know but we can’t help it.

6. What do Americans need so many rooms?

One of my husband’s favorite things about America is HGTV. We can’t get enough of it. Yet he has the same reaction to every episode of “Love It or List it”: “Why do they need so many rooms?” After 15 years of living in tight quarters in New York, I don’t have an answer for him. “What’s a mud room?” “What the hell is a drop zone?” he continues. “Why do they have so much shit in their closets?” He’s on fire.

To a minimalist Dane from Copenhagen, with some of the world’s tightest and most expensive real estate, I have nothing to say. I think it’s in people’s nature to expand and take up as much space as they’re given. Americans are lucky to have a lot of land, amazing houses and closets you can walk into. I just hope they know it.

7. Why are dogs in America so anxious?

The very first time we took a walk with our European-expat dog in Brooklyn’s finest Prospect Park, my husband looked around and noticed that dogs around us were behaving strangely. Many of them were out of control, unresponsive or anxious. They pulled, barked, some even attacked our dog during off-leash hours. “What’s wrong with the dogs here?” my husband wondered. I think I found the answer (you can read it here) but I still have my doubts.

Every European we have met since then has confirmed our experience: dogs in Europe are simply much better behaved. Ironically, most of them regularly walk without leashes.

I explained to my husband that anxious dogs are just the tip of the iceberg. It’s the anxieties of their owners that we should be talking about.

There’s so much more where these came from. But I can only try to understand and explain America one tiny piece at a time.