It’s been a while …

It’s been a while since my last update … I seem to have been really busy outside of work without really doing that much!

The other night I headed to Bub’s Burgers in Carmel. This place was featured on Man Vs. Food where the show’s host attempted to eat FOUR of the Big Ugly Burgers … it’s a 22oz (pre cooked weight) burger; 1lb when served on your plate! It was a monster, but started quite well. I got through the first half in a little over 5 minutes but the remaining half must have taken me around 45 mins … it wasn’t even funny towards the end! But, the burger was finished and my photo is now up on the wall!! (until the New Year when they all get taken down)

The weather has also turned a bit recently, the mornings becoming much colder and daytime temperatures now as expected for this time of year. Last weekend I headed down to Fall Creek and had a walk around the reservoir trail, it was a fantastic day weather-wise and the trees/leaves were a great mixture of colours …

Today there was also an outbreak of rain that lasted under half an hour or so; was also accompanied by some thunder and lightning.

The area seems to be going crazy for Halloween which is something I need to get used to compared to the UK, but I’m armed with my boy scout popcorn to give away. I’ve also bought some pumpkins to decorate – I’m just trying to think of some clever things to try!

Of course, no good weekend would be complete without a great win for Arsenal. A 3-0 win made it a great start to the day.

I’m looking forward to the week ahead. We will be busy at work and then at the end of the week it’s my birthday; I’ll reach the grand old age of 25!

This week has also thrown up plenty of confusion between US and UK vocabulary. I think the day I don’t giggle when somebody says “pants” instead of “trousers” is the day that I can consider myself a grown-up …

Until next time. Have a good week!

Tasty toroidal treats …

All TV shows shown in the UK depict US workplaces as donut/doughnut havens. Ok then not all of them, but the Simpsons etc is good enough for my point. The fact is that of the 5 weeks I’ve been here I haven’t seen a single donut around the place (other than the ones I’ve brought in). So, to actually make the stereotype true I have started Donut Friday. This week was the 3rd Weekly Donut Friday instalment … unfortunately the more people that find out about it the more I’m having to start bringing in.

One month: DONE.

It’s gone so quickly but today saw the completion of my first calendar month out here … it feels like it’s gone so quickly. I feel like I’m now settling into US life, meeting new people, and work is going very well.

11 more to go!

A bad experience …

I ventured into Indianapolis this weekend. It was strange driving there because I don’t recall seeing a “welcome” sign but I just assumed I was there. By a stroke of luck I picked a weekend where there were road works everywhere … so I spent most of my time following diversions to a destination that I didn’t knew existed! After driving around the city for block after block, I finally found a multi-storey car park that was near some areas of interest.

This is where the problems started.

I parked up in a space on Level 4 and headed across to the elevator/lift, I stepped inside and pressed the ground floor button. The doors shut, but nothing happened. I pressed it again; still nothing happened. I stood there for a bit (being very English and patiently waiting) but nothing was happening. So I left the lift and headed for a stairwell that I had seen in a corner of the car park. Normally, in the UK, I always take the stairs – it’s just something less to go wrong. So I headed down the stairs and got to the last exit door. I walked through it and the door shut behind me. I’m now standing in an area that I thought would have been a lobby or entrance of some sort, except I’m surrounded by old broken furniture and baby high chairs! There are 2 doors in front of me; neither of which have handles and can only be opened from the other side. There are some fire exits at the far end, but unlike UK ones they look alarmed. I figured that I’d just go back up the stairs and try the lift again. I tried the door that I entered the room from but this doesn’t open from this side … “Sh*t”. One of the doors had some sinister music playing behind it (in a horror film way; not Justin Bieber et al) so I tried banging the door but nobody answered. There was nothing left but to risk the fire exits and, here comes the crap ending to the story, so I did. No alarms or anything. Just a nice exit down an alleyway with skips and dumpsters – all I need was to get mugged and the cliché would be complete. This didn’t happen!

So … never take the stairs. The rest of the weekend has gone pretty well!

The weather can’t decide …

whether it wants to be hot or cold … today it was baking. Comparison with King Lynn below …

:)