Cultural Oddities

Photographic examples:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=111335&id=510568119&l=00bf606be8

There are many differences between the US and the UK, particularly if like me you’ve been living in a Southern US state. I thought it appropriate to note some of these differences for posterity:

1. Most people will know this already, but cars are significantly larger in the US, especially in the South where SUVs and pickups are the transportation mode of choice. By way of example, please see exhibit A, the first photo in the set accompanying this post. This is the government issue “car” which my office was given to ride around in for business purposes and which I therefore got to spend quite a lot of time driving. In case the picture doesn’t do it justice, the truck (let’s not keep up any sort of pretence that this is a car) is taller than me. I had to climb into it. It could drive less than 200 miles before needing more fuel and its gas tank is the size of a milk tanker. I called him Titan. I loved that truck.

2. Continuing the theme, some Americans aren’t content with taking a tent or a caravan on holiday, they need a mobile house to sleep in. Fortunately for them, the market is flooded with a wide variety of campervans the size of a rock superstar’s tourbus, and we saw countless examples of these environmentally friendly behemoths motoring along the interstates. Obviously such a monstrosity is far too cumbersome to drive around once you get to your holiday destination, so the savvy American camper tows their SUV/large truck behind it to give them something nippy to run around in. The truly enterprising also take a golf buggy for the mornings when walking 500 yards to the toilet block is just too much effort, but sadly I couldn’t get a photo of that particular setup.

3. I have seen many examples of foodstuffs of dubious nutritional value during my trip. The best examples are probably the frozen boxes of blueberry pancakes wrapped around sausages on sticks. I never tried one, but was impressed with the outlandishness of the concept when I saw them in the supermarket. And if fast food is just too darn speedy for you, you can pick up a box of your Taco Bell favourites in the frozen food aisle and cook them yourself at home. Genius.

There were also some nice little oddities in Winston-Salem that I kinda liked. Obviously the fact it's the home of Krispy Kreme donuts was a constant source of happiness (as the perfect excuse for eating donuts...). There's also an adorable Shell petrol station shaped like a shell (it doesn't sell petrol anymore but is the last one in the US so they kept it for tourists). And if the photo of the tower in this set looks familiar, that's because it was the trial run for the Empire State Building. Enough people liked the mini version in Winston-Salem that they built the full size one in New York. There's some knowledge for you.