It is always interesting seeing how different places work.
At the moment I am sitting in the study with the window open, and a gazillion cars are flogging down the freeway that runs on the other side of a masonry fence about 20m away.
It is late peak hour on Friday arvo.
Only this is Good Friday. In Australia it is a public holiday. It is a sacred day for Christians and for the rest of us, it is a good day to bludge around or try to get to someplace for the last gasp of summer.
In Australia, the traffic would not be as heavy as a normal Friday. Noone works if they can possibly avoid it on Good Friday (and if they do work, they try to make sure that they get at least double time).
Australia is not nominally or constitutionally a Christian nation. If our prime minister said "God Bless Australia" at the end of a speech or what have you, everyone would be very very surprised. We have separation of the church from the state and it is not considered appropriate to ask for god's blessing on the country. (Mebbe cos Aussies consider that we already have that? Even with the drought and all?)
The US does seem to be a Christian nation, no matter what its founding fathers intended: '"The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion," states the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli. This document was ratified by Congress without much debate or contention and stands today as a reminder of the founding fathers' intentions.' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_Fathers_of_the_United_States, accessed 21 March 2008). The president says "God Bless America" at the end of speeches. It seems very odd then that Good Friday, being a Very Important Day in Christianity, is Just Another Day To Go Shopping.
I admit to going shopping but then again, I'm not a Christian 8-)
Showing posts with label differences. Show all posts
Showing posts with label differences. Show all posts
Friday, 21 March 2008
Sunday, 2 December 2007
Things I didn't know about America #438
When dinner comes out on a plate in the USA, you only get one veg. That's one veg plus a potato or rice or some form of carb. I only found out this is standard yesterday.
Back 'Ome, dinner appears with two or three veg as standard, or a mix of all sorts of stuff. My dinners usually come with at least three veg, usually in great steaming mounds, or stir fries with all sorts. I don't believe in stinting on the vegies. Vegies are Good For You!
So my dear Thanksgiving hosts, if you thought I seemed to be waiting for something, I was waiting for the other veg to appear. I didn't realise American meals only have one veg. I am used to having vegies of every colour on my plate. I was too polite to ask. :-)
Back 'Ome, dinner appears with two or three veg as standard, or a mix of all sorts of stuff. My dinners usually come with at least three veg, usually in great steaming mounds, or stir fries with all sorts. I don't believe in stinting on the vegies. Vegies are Good For You!
So my dear Thanksgiving hosts, if you thought I seemed to be waiting for something, I was waiting for the other veg to appear. I didn't realise American meals only have one veg. I am used to having vegies of every colour on my plate. I was too polite to ask. :-)
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
A bit of a vertiginous drive
Ah, long weekends. Thanks for the holiday, USA!
We hired a car with cruise control. Oddly enough it got better mileage with my poor foot pumping the accelerator/gas pedal than it did with the cruise on. I figure that the cruise is all the time up, down, up, down and never just sitting in one spot. It felt like that....
Anyway, we drove down the I25 to Denver then around Denver to Colorado Springs, through the Garden of the Gods, up and around a "back way" to a waterfall (no parking! We couldn't even pay our $5 to see a waterfall, dangit), then a late lunch at a lake. The demographics of Colorado Springs are different to Fort Collins (ie I saw lots of Hispanics and blacks - Fort Collins is awfully white - I'd like to find some friends who aren't white cos they often have a different take on life).
Off we went to Canon City (that has a ~ over the n) and Royal Gorge. $23 per person to walk across the bridge. You are kidding me! OK, so you get to ride on the carnival stuff too but we just wanted to go out on the bridge. Let me put that another way, Nathan wanted to go out on the bridge, Lynne is too much of a wuss to get anywhere near the edge. Can you spell vertigo?
You want pics? I have to choose and edit them yet! We only took about a thousand pics on the weekend. Each place will have to have its own post I think.
We stayed in Salida overnight at a random motel that just so happened to have a fridge and microwave. Here starteth the rant.
Back 'ome, all motel rooms come with the basics. What we call the basics are:
Imagine our surprise when we discover that many motels in the USA do not have tea and coffee making facilities (they either have a coffee dripolator or you have to go to the lobby) and fridges in the room! What are they? Why do you need to keep anything cold in a fridge? You can buy *anything* you want from our overpriced fridge in the lobby! Except I can't because I have to have a different diet from 99% of the US population, so all that wheat based crap and the milk? Poison! And if you are travelling and want to keep stuff cold overnight so you can have it the next day?
So our motel was not the flashest but at least we could keep stuff cold in the fridge... and heat dinner up in the microwave. Salida's Safeway doesn't have a great selection of GF/DF foods but I got by.
On we went to Gunnison. Nathan had a lovely lunch at a nice little cafe/bakery. The lady at the tourist bureau helped us decide not to go to Crusty Butt (Crested Butte) but so we instead pushed on to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. The landscape around the area is fascinating - we are well out of what I think of as Rocky Mountain scenery (big jagged mountains) and into mesa/butte country. DH made many bad Jar-Jar Binks references - mesa hungry! mesa sesa mesa! etc etc. This was all very new territory for us (the landscape, not the punning. Punning is normal). Very different to look at. Very very dry.
Oddly enough, the Black Canyon is up on a plateau that is higher than the local area. We had to drive up a large hill to get to it. The river cuts right through the plateau. Weird, huh? It is certainly worth a bit of vertigo for those of us inclined that way....
By the time we were done at the canyon, it was after 4pm. I drove a LOOOOONG way yesterday. 430 miles, and about 370 of that after 4pm. We got home at 11pm, and with very little speeding (it is hard to not speed whilst flogging down the I70 - there are many steep hills and I had a very new hire car whose brakes I didn't want to ruin). We had thought the holiday traffic would be terrible on the I70 and I25 but guess what? We were so late that it was fine! It was as light as I've ever seen it. Now we know the trick - get home so late everyone else has already gone home. Only it wrecks poor aged bodies the next day....
We hired a car with cruise control. Oddly enough it got better mileage with my poor foot pumping the accelerator/gas pedal than it did with the cruise on. I figure that the cruise is all the time up, down, up, down and never just sitting in one spot. It felt like that....
Anyway, we drove down the I25 to Denver then around Denver to Colorado Springs, through the Garden of the Gods, up and around a "back way" to a waterfall (no parking! We couldn't even pay our $5 to see a waterfall, dangit), then a late lunch at a lake. The demographics of Colorado Springs are different to Fort Collins (ie I saw lots of Hispanics and blacks - Fort Collins is awfully white - I'd like to find some friends who aren't white cos they often have a different take on life).
Off we went to Canon City (that has a ~ over the n) and Royal Gorge. $23 per person to walk across the bridge. You are kidding me! OK, so you get to ride on the carnival stuff too but we just wanted to go out on the bridge. Let me put that another way, Nathan wanted to go out on the bridge, Lynne is too much of a wuss to get anywhere near the edge. Can you spell vertigo?
You want pics? I have to choose and edit them yet! We only took about a thousand pics on the weekend. Each place will have to have its own post I think.
We stayed in Salida overnight at a random motel that just so happened to have a fridge and microwave. Here starteth the rant.
Back 'ome, all motel rooms come with the basics. What we call the basics are:
- a bed (duh!)
- a tv
- a bathroom and accoutrements (towels, soap, shampoo, etc)
- coffee and tea making stuff (ie a kettle/jug with instant coffee sachets, tea bags and sugar plus cups and saucers)
- a small fridge (we call them bar fridges)
Imagine our surprise when we discover that many motels in the USA do not have tea and coffee making facilities (they either have a coffee dripolator or you have to go to the lobby) and fridges in the room! What are they? Why do you need to keep anything cold in a fridge? You can buy *anything* you want from our overpriced fridge in the lobby! Except I can't because I have to have a different diet from 99% of the US population, so all that wheat based crap and the milk? Poison! And if you are travelling and want to keep stuff cold overnight so you can have it the next day?
So our motel was not the flashest but at least we could keep stuff cold in the fridge... and heat dinner up in the microwave. Salida's Safeway doesn't have a great selection of GF/DF foods but I got by.
On we went to Gunnison. Nathan had a lovely lunch at a nice little cafe/bakery. The lady at the tourist bureau helped us decide not to go to Crusty Butt (Crested Butte) but so we instead pushed on to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. The landscape around the area is fascinating - we are well out of what I think of as Rocky Mountain scenery (big jagged mountains) and into mesa/butte country. DH made many bad Jar-Jar Binks references - mesa hungry! mesa sesa mesa! etc etc. This was all very new territory for us (the landscape, not the punning. Punning is normal). Very different to look at. Very very dry.
Oddly enough, the Black Canyon is up on a plateau that is higher than the local area. We had to drive up a large hill to get to it. The river cuts right through the plateau. Weird, huh? It is certainly worth a bit of vertigo for those of us inclined that way....
By the time we were done at the canyon, it was after 4pm. I drove a LOOOOONG way yesterday. 430 miles, and about 370 of that after 4pm. We got home at 11pm, and with very little speeding (it is hard to not speed whilst flogging down the I70 - there are many steep hills and I had a very new hire car whose brakes I didn't want to ruin). We had thought the holiday traffic would be terrible on the I70 and I25 but guess what? We were so late that it was fine! It was as light as I've ever seen it. Now we know the trick - get home so late everyone else has already gone home. Only it wrecks poor aged bodies the next day....
Tuesday, 26 June 2007
In which we veer a LOT sideways
As I wandered around some department stores (Kohl's and Tarzhay to be precise) I became aware of something very important.
Men's underpants are VERY different here. Yes, we have boxers and trunks in Australia, but we also have something known as jocks. (no, they are not gridiron/football players, they are very popular men's underpants in Australia.)
Jocks are brief. You can see some almost jocks (the white ones on the left) in this product page. Jocks have sides that are about 3" long. Some have a little "escape hatch," most don't cos really, they don't need them. They are about as brief as "budgie smugglers" (Speedos).
The closest I've found to jocks here are some Haynes things that quite frankly, when we bought them in dire need on our last trip, were more the saggy baggy granny underpants of the jock world. *Very* disappointing.
I can see that sooner or later we will have to put out a distress call. "Send jocks urgently!" to Nathan's parents. "American jocks are not!"
Anyone know wher we can get jocks at a normal store? I am sure there are some very *special* stores we can get them at online, but those are not the places I wanna go!
Men's underpants are VERY different here. Yes, we have boxers and trunks in Australia, but we also have something known as jocks. (no, they are not gridiron/football players, they are very popular men's underpants in Australia.)
Jocks are brief. You can see some almost jocks (the white ones on the left) in this product page. Jocks have sides that are about 3" long. Some have a little "escape hatch," most don't cos really, they don't need them. They are about as brief as "budgie smugglers" (Speedos).
The closest I've found to jocks here are some Haynes things that quite frankly, when we bought them in dire need on our last trip, were more the saggy baggy granny underpants of the jock world. *Very* disappointing.
I can see that sooner or later we will have to put out a distress call. "Send jocks urgently!" to Nathan's parents. "American jocks are not!"
Anyone know wher we can get jocks at a normal store? I am sure there are some very *special* stores we can get them at online, but those are not the places I wanna go!
Monday, 25 June 2007
On US light switches
Be surprised. Be very surprised.
They are BIG!
And they are UPSIDE DOWN!
We have these little things in Australia. The switch is a rocker type switch (at least modern ones are) that is about the size of a thumbnail and is pretty flat. It has a curve that is about the same curve as a finger pad (oddly, since fingers are used to turn them on and off). Down is ON and up is OFF.
US switches are sorta pointy and stick out a lot further than Aussie ones. UP is ON and down is OFF. That will take some getting used to when I am frantically slapping at the switch in the middle of the night, cursing it for not turning on cos I am turning it off!
Plus there are no switches on the power points. We have switches in Australia. You can turn something off at the power point and it is off. Here you have to unplug stuff. And we have 240V not 110V.
Now all I need to do is move to England or Europe, to a place where they have European style light switches, which are a pair of big square pads on the wall. I won't know whether to push up, down or slap the wall then!
8-)
They are BIG!
And they are UPSIDE DOWN!
We have these little things in Australia. The switch is a rocker type switch (at least modern ones are) that is about the size of a thumbnail and is pretty flat. It has a curve that is about the same curve as a finger pad (oddly, since fingers are used to turn them on and off). Down is ON and up is OFF.
US switches are sorta pointy and stick out a lot further than Aussie ones. UP is ON and down is OFF. That will take some getting used to when I am frantically slapping at the switch in the middle of the night, cursing it for not turning on cos I am turning it off!
Plus there are no switches on the power points. We have switches in Australia. You can turn something off at the power point and it is off. Here you have to unplug stuff. And we have 240V not 110V.
Now all I need to do is move to England or Europe, to a place where they have European style light switches, which are a pair of big square pads on the wall. I won't know whether to push up, down or slap the wall then!
8-)
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