American myths dispelled!

Hi!!

Once again, I have battled against the relentless business of life to write. Ahhh. And where have I found the required haven of peace to enable me to do this?

Why, at Dunkin' Donuts of course! Bill Clinton's favourite fast food outlet, so I've been told. The only reason I'm here. Nothing to do with the super-nice and super-cheap coffee and pumpkin muffin (only the equivalent of £2 for both! Hoorah!!)



Yes, this is ACTUALLY the very same Dunkin Donuts I'm in now. Beautiful, isn't it?


So, I think I'm getting really used to America! It feels totally normal. Except sometimes people come out with daft things like "freeway" when they mean motorway, or "check" when they mean tick, or "school" when they mean university. Also, they're all obsessed with pumpkin-flavoured everything at the moment (hence the flavour of my muffin!). But I love it, so that's ok.

Speaking of how America feels normal, here are a few American myths that I would like to dispel:

1. All Americans are morbidly obese - FALSE, they are NO fatter than you or I
2. All Americans drive massive cars the size of houses - FALSE - their cars are NO bigger than yours or mine
3. There are no such thing as footpaths here - FALSE! There are, happily, footpaths all over the place, although they call them "side walks" here, which isn't that crazy when you think long and hard about it
4. All Americans would rather get in their car and drive to the end of their drive to collect their post than walk the 10m to the post box - FALSE - I have never seen any American do that (but I have only been here for 2.5 months)
5. No Americans have heard of any country outside America - FALSE, some of them have
6. Americans DON'T recycle - FALSE, they totally do! WOOHOO! Plastic, paper, cardboard, glass AND metal. Thank goodness for that, otherwise I'd be bringing all my recycling home with me!
7. Americans drink their coffee out of cups the size of our cars - FALSE, their cups are definitely bigger than the ones we used in the 70s, but this is 2011, folks, and we are more like America in our coffee-drinking habits than we realise

My one disclaimer is that Philadelphia is not typically American. I previously thought of America as a big amorphous blob, culturally at least. But I get the impression that every state is quite different. Philly is cramped, with winding roads, small houses and small cars. It doesn't feel British (that would be pushing it) but it does feel vaguely familiar - maybe a bit of a mix of a lot of European styles of cities. Apparently, the "mid-West" wherever that is, has more of the stereotypical Americanness mentioned in the points above.

One of the other unique characteristics of Philly is The Mafia (or The Mob as they're known here). You'll be pleased to know that I don't have any stories about them yet. But even if I did run into them, I'm sure I could charm my way out of any situation with my much-coveted accent  ;op

Here's a quick NEWSFLASH of what I've been up to (if only I could insert a snazzy text-box or something here, but I CAN'T. If any of you are thinking of writing a blog in the future, google wouldn't be my first choice!!) Anyway, back to the NEWSFLASH!

It SNOWED 4 inches here on 29th October, the airports were shut and some parts of Pennsylvania had 13 inches of snow!!!


I went to Kentucky and DID NOT eat fried chicken (GASP!). They didn't actually sell it anywhere...probably because they're sick to death of it. There was a KFC museum in Kentucky that I did NOT go to (see, I told you they were short of history here!). I would have like to, to be honest, but the conference I attended was too packed for such extra-curricular frolics!


I had my first PHILLY CHEESE STEAK ever last week! Here is what it looks like:

Totally unhealthy but super-nice. Mine didn't have the peppers and onions in - so this obviously isn't a compulsory ingredient (at least I hope not, or I've been duped!)

I went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art a few weeks ago to see Rembrandt's faces of Jesus exhibition. Amazing! AND it's the same building that Rocky ran up and down the steps of!

That's probably it for now.. I am, I confess, still spending a lot of time studying. But am still LOVING the course. However, it is so busy that I haven't done a whole lot of exploring yet (as you may be guessing from the content - or lack of it - of my blog!!)

I am going to New York State on Wednesday for my first ever American Thanksgiving, so I will be able to tell you what some of America looks like when staring out into the dark from the "freeway" for 6 hours. Something to look forward to   ;o)