Notes on a big country...
Seeing how my body is stubbornly refusing to conform to GMT here are some musings on my time spent stateside...
* American diet coke tastes good. It's notably different to british diet coke but still good. This was a major relief (see previous Barcelona entry).
* Starbucks tastes like Starbucks anywhere you go. Another major relief.
* American vegetables are freakin' ginormous. I could not get over how big the peppers were in a grocery store in Jersey City.
* NYC's chinatown kicks London's ass. Ours looks so puny in comparison.
* New Yorkers have an undeserved reputation for being hurried and rude. Everybody I came across was incredibly pleasant and helpful. In fact the only mildly irritating people I encountered were the brits standing in front of me in line for security at Newark airport. They kept complaining about the system and how it "wouldn't be like this in London". FYI Newark officials were MUCH friendlier than Heathrow's.
* There is a small but definite language barrier between the USA and Britain. My prime example came when I dashed out of the Met and onto a bus on fifth avenue to escape the pouring rain. The bus driver kindly let me find my seat first instead of fumbling in my purse to pay the fare. At the next stop I walked up to him with two single dollar bills. Seeing them, he replied, "change only!". I took this to mean "pay with correct change only" and wrinkled my forehead in confusion as I thought I was paying the correct amount of $2 and therefore required no change. I pointed this out to be met with a more forceful "change only!". I continued to appear perplexed and so he clarified "no bills!" at which point I realized that by change he meant coins and returned to my seat to dig out eight quarters.
* American coins all look identical to me. It didn't help that many of them just said "one dime" which meant I spent most of my time trying to remember if that was five or ten cents.
* Adding sales tax at the cash register confuses my little brain.
* My body loves EST and seemingly hates GMT.
And as promised here are some photos...
Here's me pretending to be the statue of liberty.
Rockefeller Plaza
Manhattan from the Staten Island ferry
Times Square
Brooklyn Bridge
The top of the Empire State building... in the rain and the fog...
* American diet coke tastes good. It's notably different to british diet coke but still good. This was a major relief (see previous Barcelona entry).
* Starbucks tastes like Starbucks anywhere you go. Another major relief.
* American vegetables are freakin' ginormous. I could not get over how big the peppers were in a grocery store in Jersey City.
* NYC's chinatown kicks London's ass. Ours looks so puny in comparison.
* New Yorkers have an undeserved reputation for being hurried and rude. Everybody I came across was incredibly pleasant and helpful. In fact the only mildly irritating people I encountered were the brits standing in front of me in line for security at Newark airport. They kept complaining about the system and how it "wouldn't be like this in London". FYI Newark officials were MUCH friendlier than Heathrow's.
* There is a small but definite language barrier between the USA and Britain. My prime example came when I dashed out of the Met and onto a bus on fifth avenue to escape the pouring rain. The bus driver kindly let me find my seat first instead of fumbling in my purse to pay the fare. At the next stop I walked up to him with two single dollar bills. Seeing them, he replied, "change only!". I took this to mean "pay with correct change only" and wrinkled my forehead in confusion as I thought I was paying the correct amount of $2 and therefore required no change. I pointed this out to be met with a more forceful "change only!". I continued to appear perplexed and so he clarified "no bills!" at which point I realized that by change he meant coins and returned to my seat to dig out eight quarters.
* American coins all look identical to me. It didn't help that many of them just said "one dime" which meant I spent most of my time trying to remember if that was five or ten cents.
* Adding sales tax at the cash register confuses my little brain.
* My body loves EST and seemingly hates GMT.
And as promised here are some photos...
Here's me pretending to be the statue of liberty.
Rockefeller Plaza
Manhattan from the Staten Island ferry
Times Square
Brooklyn Bridge
The top of the Empire State building... in the rain and the fog...