I took my Irish partner to the Midwest for the first time. Here are 15 things that surprised him most about where I grew up.

Three years ago, I moved from the US to Ireland, met my Irish partner (now fiancé), and settled into a new life as an expat.

As much as I make fun of the many quirks of my home country, I find myself missing them all the time. So I was excited to bring my fiancé on a road trip around the humble Midwest, where I grew up.

Although he already knew about some cultural differences, such as tipping for services, nothing prepared him for the culture shock he experienced during his first visit to America.

During the course of our road trip, we spent hours browsing varieties of supermarkets, including Walmart, Target, and various local grocery stores.

The first time my Irish partner walked into a Walmart, his jaw nearly dropped to the floor. He couldn't believe the sheer size and just how many branded options were available for each item on our list.

The abundance of choice made shopping difficult. Picking a cereal wasn't just grabbing our usual from the modest selection at Tesco in Dublin. We were faced with choosing from a whole aisle filled with boxes on both sides.

With everything — Pop-Tarts, Oreos, peanut butter, and even milk — there were rows upon rows of options and flavors to choose from. It overwhelmed and amazed my partner at the same time.

The first night my partner and I ate at an American restaurant was a laughable experience I'll never forget.

In Ireland, after a meal is finished, the server usually brings a portable card reader to the table.

After the server brought our check, my partner asked for the machine so we could pay. The server explained the traditional US payment process and proceeded to politely stand there smiling at us until I had to say, "This is the part where we hand her our card."

He was shocked that she took our card away from the table and came back with a paper receipt that we had to personally calculate the tip on and sign.

I'd never considered it before moving to Ireland, but I agree with my partner that the US method of taking the card away from the table seems like a potential security hazard.

My partner quickly found out that servers in the US are very attentive. Each time we ate at a restaurant, we were asked how everything was either during or shortly before our first bites.

He was surprised that the servers were constantly hovering and that they were keen to keep us hydrated by constantly topping off our nearly-full water glasses.

We also never had to wait long for a bill. In fact, it was often dropped to the table before we'd even finished.

Perhaps it's just a byproduct of the tipping culture in the US, but in most Irish restaurants, a server wouldn't return to a table until they're summoned.

Probably the most pleasant surprise my partner experienced was unlimited drink refills and other restaurant freebies.

From endless bread and unlimited chips and salsa to bottomless fries at some places, he couldn't believe just how many things were being given out for free at restaurants.

My partner was already somewhat prepared for the portion sizes he'd find in the US. But each time our food was brought out, it never failed to elicit some sort of "wow" response.

He found the large plates of food to be a pleasant surprise because we ended up getting much more for our dollar than in Ireland. We often made two meals out of everything we ate by grabbing to-go boxes from the restaurant.

Getting to-go boxes at Irish restaurants isn't as common, mainly because of the smaller portion sizes.

The first time we went to Walmart, we found a few aisles of guns, knives, and fishing and hunting gear out in the open near the grocery section.

My partner was shocked at just how many options were on full display in a store that also sold milk and toilet paper.

As we roamed the aisles, his eyes kept bulging out as he would repeatedly shout "Did you see this one?"

This was the first time he'd ever seen a gun up close before, and he hoped it would be the last.

There's a genuine societal curiosity (otherwise known as "nosiness") among many Midwestern Americans that bonds people together quickly. I find it endearing, but my partner found it disorientating at first.

It's not uncommon for people to smile or wave at strangers. In fact, they sometimes converse with or offer to help others in public places, as if they were old friends.

Maybe it's because I've been away for so long, but I even found everyone to be particularly friendly during our recent trip. We received random compliments from strangers nearly every day, and people were generally chipper and eager to engage in conversations or ask personal questions.

One day while we were out on a walk, a driver waved and smiled, so I waved back. My partner asked who it was and was genuinely amused when I said I didn't know. It was just nice to wave back.

My partner was surprised by the sheer number of drive-throughs in the Midwest.

We're all about convenience in America, and there's a drive-up option for just about every need you could think of: pharmacies, banks, and even liquor shops in a small town in Missouri.

I was shocked that he'd never heard of these — I always thought they were just commonplace.

He was also overwhelmed by the number of drive-through fast-food restaurants. There were multiple options on every corner or along every mile of the highway.

At one point during our trip, my partner turned to me and asked, "Why does everyone feel comfortable having their name displayed in front of their house?"

I was really confused until he started pointing out political signs in people's yards, which made me laugh for days on end.

I couldn't blame him though. In Ireland, political signs are typically never displayed in front of people's homes. In fact, it's often considered taboo to publicly talk about who you're voting for.

Experiencing both cultures has really put into perspective for me just how vocal people in the US can be about their political opinions.

My partner was prepared for everything to be bigger in the US — houses, food portions, roads, and even cars. But he wasn't prepared for how many pickup trucks we saw.

This could've been heavily skewed by the fact that we were driving in the Midwest, which is largely known as a more rural region of the country with lots of farming.

Throughout our road trip, we made it a fun game by counting all of the trucks we saw. In most places, trucks outnumbered regular-sized sedans by about four to one.

In addition to pickup trucks, he also noted that he'd never seen such large semitrucks before in Ireland.

It's no secret that Americans enjoy the freedom of the open road. It actually took me a few days to get comfortable behind the wheel again during our road trip.

My partner was shocked by all the cities and towns that catered toward roads and automobiles instead of pedestrians, as they tend to in Europe.

When we first arrived at the airport, he wanted to walk to the rental-car station rather than wait for the shuttle. On Google Maps, he saw it was only a short distance away, but he didn't realize it was on the highway with no pedestrian access.

My partner found the number of highway lanes and their width disorientating, and he couldn't get over the amount of traffic in every town we drove through.

He also found it hard to get accustomed to the different traffic laws in the US, which made for some pretty amusing driving stories.

When we pulled out of the rental-car station, we hit a red light, and I started to turn right. Immediately all I could hear was "Don't go! Don't go! Don't go!"

I had to explain that, where we were, we could turn right at red lights when the road was clear (unless otherwise stated).

Similarly, we don't have middle turning lanes in Ireland, so he was very confused when I pulled out into oncoming traffic one day, which led to another round of panicked shouting.

My partner had to get used to handing out his Irish driver's license and preparing himself for any cultural questions.

In Chicago, we stopped at an Irish pub, and I joked that he might get a free pint when he showed the bouncer his ID.

Unfortunately, there was no free beer for this Irishman. After my partner showed his Irish license and I showed my Missouri one, the bouncer only acknowledged mine by saying, "Ah, a fellow Missourian."

Since our road trip took place in October, my partner got to experience a good old-fashioned American Halloween.

The original birthplace of the holiday is actually Ireland — where an ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain has been celebrated for over 2,000 years — so I always expected more festivities there. Unfortunately, I was surprised to find that Ireland doesn't worship fall in quite the same way Americans do.

Growing up in the Midwest, fall was always my favorite time of year.

My Irish partner has always been baffled by the seasonal activities Americans partake in, such as paying for hay rides to fetch an overpriced pumpkin, getting lost in mazes made entirely of corn, and planning a trip for the sole purpose of admiring the changing colors of leaves.

When he participated in all of these activities for the first time, he said he'd never experienced so much culture shock.

Since Halloween mega-stores with costumes and decorations don't exist in Ireland either, my partner found the experience of walking around one completely alien.

But I was like a proud mother when I was showing him around the neighborhood on Halloween night as hundreds of people walked around in lavish costumes and trick-or-treated at houses covered in over-the-top decorations.

One of the biggest things that surprised my partner during his trip to the US was the much faster pace of life.

Even in small towns, we found giant one-stop shops and supermarkets that stayed open 24 hours. At all hours of the day and night, streets were congested with traffic and full of lots of people.

With endless options surrounding us, there was so much to experience that we felt unproductive if we weren't doing it all. I think this is what fuels a large part of the cultural mindset in the US.

In Ireland, we have an "it is what it is" mentality, which translates to "sure look, it'll be grand" as the Irish say. It's precisely this mentality that has encouraged me to live a slower pace of life in Ireland.