31536000 seconds, 525600 minutes, 8760 hours, 365 days, 52 weeks, 12 months, 1 year. Whatever way you look at it I’ve been out here (kind of) a long time.
To put that into perspective, all this happened in that time frame: some miners in Chile were trapped underground for 69 days, Ireland realized that they’d been spending far too much on St Patrick’s day celebrations and had to be bailed out by the EU, there was the terrible earthquake and Tsunami that hit Japan, uprising across the Arab world, everyone in the UK got a day off for some wedding, and Osama Bin Laden’s run for World Hide and Seek Champion was cut short by the A Team (USA, USA, USA!!). Arsenal also decided that they were going to give it a good go at being shittier than Spurs.
Ok in the grand scheme of things it’s not REALLY such a long time and, in general, the time has absolutely flown by. On the other hand I can remember back to when I first landed here, waking up the first morning (back when the apartment was tidy and free from the clutter that I seem to have collected) and feeling totally lost and just wishing I was back home. Even if it was just for the afternoon and to have one final Sunday lunch with my family and to hear my little sister complain of ‘meat sweats’.
Things quickly began to feel more familiar however and soon I was caught up with all my new surroundings and that to everyone I was this new, shiny toy. I guess there aren’t many visitors in Indiana. I’ve since made loads of new friends here and joined a local ‘soccer’ team.
My plan was to always see as much of the country as possible whilst I was here. Looking back at all the major places I have been over the past year, I’ve done pretty well … trips to New York, Chicago, Washington DC, California (Los Angeles and San Francisco, Pacific Coast Highway 1), and Utah (Arches National Park and the Salt Flats). All fantastic trips either travelling by myself or with friends. On top of that you have the celebrations around the US holidays like Thanksgiving and 4th July (I know, but when in Rome …), where the families of friends I have made here invited me over. Great times.
There are still things that I find hilarious: the American love of cheese and the put-it-on-anything attitude, the complaints about the price of ‘gas’ when it gets to anywhere near $4 a gallon (in the UK it’s roughly $8.50 at the moment). There are things that I love though: the way the flag is flown almost everywhere and the pride that people have in their country (something that perhaps is slowly being eroded in the UK as Political Correctness rules), and most of all I love how open and friendly everybody is. Both locally (and on my travels) I’ve met normal people, relatively normal people, and then people that look like they are waiting for a revival of Bullseye for some 80’s nostalgia; but all have been open, engaging and easy to get along with. Well, I don’t actually include everyone in that statement. Any airport/border security officials are excluded as most look at my Visa as though it was approved by Gary Glitter.
The most amusing thing for me has been that, whenever I go out, most Americans I speak to fail to realize they too have an accent …
Me: “Hi, I’m James”
Person: “Ohh you have an accent!!”
“Ha-ha … yes I do”
“I LOVE it”
“You know, you have an accent too …”
“Do I?!” – you have to see it to appreciate the look of initial amazement.
You can’t make some of it up. I’m still trying to perfect my American accent but I just sound like a pissed off Terminator or Johnny 5. On the other hand most Americans sound like Dick Van Dyke a la Mary Poppins when they whip out the old British accent, so I’d say we’re just about square.
Then you also have the differences between the languages. Well not the languages, really, as they’re supposed to be the same one. Somehow we’ve managed to execute them in two completely different fashions. The whole tomato/tomato thing is widely quoted, but it’s true. The other day at lunch I was at a Chick-fil-a drive through, then came the usual line of “do you want any condiments with your order, sir?” so I asked for some “tomato sauce and some salt, please”. The couple of minutes that followed this simple request were pretty bizarre. The girl that originally asked, well she just walked away, never to return. A boy took over and asked the same question to which I offered the same response. “Sorry? We don’t have that” the young guy said; clearly he’s thinking ‘what the f*** are you on about?!’. So I repeated my request again. A confused look crept across his face … “Ohh you want two mustards and salt!”. At this point I’m looking around for the US equivalent of Jeremy Beadle or whoever to jump out, microphone in hand. But no, he was being serious, “Errr, nope. Tomato sauce; y’know – ketchup?”. And that was when the penny dropped and I finally got my order. I could tell you story after story of similar happenings throughout the year, but it would only bore you. Or me. One of us would get bored either way.
I’ve kind of forgotten where I was heading with this entry, so I think that will do for now.
I’m looking forward to the upcoming year and all the fun that lies ahead, but I can’t wait to see all friends and family back in the UK at Christmas.
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