This is what they always say:
1. The United States is terrible because it does not have the right kind of café, because it has more poverty than they expected in a rich country, because it is a world power with oppressive policies.
2. Driving is a terrible imposition, and traumatic.
3. Academia in US is too corporate, not enough about human contact, does not provide enough social life.
4. Certain colleagues are really mean, and certain other colleagues are also mean in that they are not willing to join the new faculty member in wars against these colleagues.
I first heard this speech as a child, sometime before 1970.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
Yes, but the first line of the first complaint is a universally acknowledged truth ;-).
Yes, but they are the ones who expected to find something else. Given all the information that is available about this I do not know why they expected something else, and I do not understand why they are so shocked now – or why they think they are the first person to have perceived it, and why they think I should say oh! as though I were their disciple, and have the first blush of new discovery of a terrible truth with them.
Well, I was mostly joking, because it is a complaint that runs through my mind fairly regularly.
But yes, it is very rude to come to a new country and make complaints and not to expect the “locals” to already be cognizant of such problems.
These faculty/spouses of yours sound as though they have not received training in dealing with culture shock, and expect you to deal with it for them.
Expecting me to deal with culture shock for them, that is a very insightful way to put it.
But driving is a terrible imposition, and traumatic, so why shouldn’t one say that?
Because I am bored with the lecture – everyone says it in the same words and has been doing so since I was a child, and each one thinks they are the first one to explain it to me. Many seem unsatisfied if I don’t react as though they were imparting new wisdom or describing a problem only they have.