Got home last night from my annual Sweet 16 trip (no I don’t perpetually celebrate my 16th birthday, I perpetually celebrate March Madness and NCAA College Basketball) and while I was down there I started a list of assumptions that have turned out to be true. If you know me, and you probably don’t, I live in a world where stereotypes are re-enforcements to my outlook on the world right now. Traveling to Phoenix has only strengthened some of these.

So without further ado (and hopefully without any offense) here are some of my assumptions that have become fact in my mind.

in and out burger1 – The American fast food industry is their strongest and therefore the only safe business.

I noticed this as I was in line for a double-double animal style at In & Out Burger. For less than 12 dollars you can get an entire meal for 2 consisting of 2 great tasting burgers, 2 orders of fries and a 2 shakes. Obviously the value keeps people coming back, but the quality of taste (not to be confused with quality of food) is also great. The drive-through lineup at In & Out was around the block and the restaurant itself was packed on a Thursday afternoon at about 3PM.

2 – The Spanish language is most accepted assumption in the US.

Arizona is quite close to the Mexican border so having a lot of Spanish signs, merchandise and customer service people shouldn’t be a surprise. What is a surprise is that Spanish is NOT treated as French is in Canada. Sure kids learn it in school, but almost all government documentation is written in English only, with no reference to the large percentage of the US population that speaks only Spanish.

3 – US amateur athletics dominate… everything.

Where else in the world can you find more advertisements for ESPN 2, Classic and ESPN.com than you would anything else? I think the reason is because geographically the US is spread out a lot more than people would assume. Imagine living in a small college town where there is literally NOTHING to do other than drink, make babies and support the local sports team.

To end this I thought I’d add a sterotype that actually wasn’t enforced on my trip. That would be that all Americans are over weight. Over weight? No. Unhealthy? Yes! With the size of food portions in restaurants there is no mystery as to why so many Americans suffer from diabetes and obecesity. But don’t blame the people, look at the system. Inexpensive manufactured foods are one of the country’s leading industries and subsequently so are antibiotics and drug development.

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