[@NuttsnBolts] [s]Blame Hollywood.[/s]

On a serious note, I do feel the same way as you:

For school terms, in Singapore we start in January and end around November - just a month ahead of Australia, but we're similar in the matching up with the calendar year. (There's no point to start school terms in the middle of the year because we don't have seasonal changes here - we only have summer all year round, so it's kind of pointless to have summer vacation, obviously.) Even the education system we have here and the subjects/courses offered are completely different.

As for firearms, unlawful possession of firearms is equivalent to death sentence. (It's Singapore - well-known for having some of the harshest laws in the world.)

Another issue I have with regards to settings is residential houses. Unlike America with lots of land space to build big mansions and bungalows far apart from each other, population in Singapore is very dense and most people live in high-rise buildings (either government flats/apartments or condominiums). Ownership of cars here is more of a luxury than necessity as the country is small and public transport here is very convenient.

And... Unlike all the strong black vs white that is still going on in the US, in Singapore the government often emphasizes on racial harmony, and any form of racism is not tolerated here.

Most of what I know about America are through the entertainment media, American friends, and relatives who live in the States - I've never been to US before, so I can only base on third-party information to try and put myself into these Americanized settings, leaving the rest to my [s]insane[/s] imagination. It's actually hard to immense myself into such settings without the first-hand experience to feel the actual place on my own - and most of these third-party sources are only 50% true, the other half are mutated unconsciously by their own opinions and feelings.