A lot of the foreign friends I have had I have only known online. They were not in the US but usually in some other country. I used to have really bad insomnia and when it was 3am in California, most of America was asleep. But it was midday elsewhere and there were people awake in such places and willing to talk to me. Nor did I mean to indicate they were specifically "hard workers". But they were people who understood doing things that are uncomfortable on many levels, making really big sacrifices for something one values and so on in a way that seems alien to many Americans.

I have a form of cystic fibrosis and I have given up all my furniture and I sleep on the floor. I can't tell you how many people I have met online who are desperately ill and would clearly rather die a slow torturous death than contemplate giving up their couch. I can't relate to the idea of desperately clinging to your material possessions when they are helping to kill you and they cannot relate to my choice to have almost no possessions in order to be drug free and breathe without pain. Foreigners are typically much more understanding of that choice and are much more likely to be civil to me on a CF list where many Americans openly attack me and moderators frequently side with my attackers.

Europeans often have more holidays and do more traveling than Americans but don't usually have as many material possessions -- like a TV in every room of the house -- and aren't generally as steeped in North American "affluenza". It is a different set of values.