This Week in America-land...

While out and about, we drove by a billboard advertising a fried bologna velveeta biscuit.  I kid you not.  I thought it was some kind of joke, but nope, it's for real.  Now I know why I never visit Hardee's.  Apparently it looks like this:

I couldn't find it on Hardee's Nutrition Guide, funny that.  Bologna, blegh!!   

We were driving in the countryside at the weekend when we came across a truck with flashing lights in the middle of the road and a bunch of people in florescent vests picking up trash.  On the back of the vests in huge writing was "I am a drunk driver".  It was a group of people convicted of drunk driving doing their community service by picking up trash - what an awesome idea, the UK should practice this too!  But no doubt it would violate some kind of Health and Safety or Human Rights rule...

Almost every time I visit Walmart, I see questionable things.  I normally just keep my head down and ignore, but I was guilty of rolling my eyes at a young man who almost ran me over as he tried to park in the space close to the door for pregnant women.  Huge mistake.  He jumped out and started yelling at me, asking what was my problem.  I then proceeded to break my personal speed record, sprinting for the safety of the store.  A reminder to keep my eye rolls to myself in the future.    

I love my American kitchen tap (faucet).  You can lift the top off of the tap and it turns into a retractable hose.  How bleedin' handy is that?!  If we ever move back to the UK, this is one thing I will miss terribly!

And the last observation this week is that it is always a good idea to know if your tent is waterproof or not.  Make sure that you know this before you go camping with your kids and dog and get hit by a massive thunderstorm.  Yes indeed.  We got absolutely soaked and the tent floor turned into a small lake.  On the plus side, at least the tent didn't blow away in the crazy wind gusts - the water weight probably helped with that.  

Until next time in America-land, folks!

Word

As I've said before, I have changed the way I say and do a lot of things since I've been living in the USA.  My friends and family back home are the first to tell me I sound like a 'Yank'.  But you know what, some things I just can't bring myself to change.  Scottish to the core I guess :)   Here's a wee list for you!

Giving someone the V's (or the tongs as we say in Scotland)

So I don't do this every day and usually only when driving, but occasionally, somebody will cut me up, go through a red light or other similar thing.   Luckily for me I suppose, most people here think I've just given them the peace sign.  Ha, if you just cut me up I AM NOT GIVING YOU THE PEACE SIGN!!!  I am insulting you with my fingers in the way I am accustomed to!!!  Technically, the V sign was first used to indicate victory in World War 2 with the palm facing out, but nowadays it is mostly used in the UK as a rude gesture, palm facing in.  Less rude perhaps than a one fingured gesture - I reserve these for really special occasions :)

I can't stand Liam Gallagher but he demonstrates the V Sign perfectly :)

My name

Hi, my name is Pam.  PAM.  Not Peym or Pehm, but Pam.  I will never change the way I say my name although I probably should because it causes all kinds of confusion.  Americans do not say 'A', it's more of an 'E' sound.   When I introduce myself, I get all kinds of funny looks, but this makes me feel special in a strange kind of way :)

Rubber

Over here a rubber is a durex or a johnny.  Where I come from, a rubber is an eraser.  It does make me giggle when I use this word over here in the British way.  People think I'm even madder than normal and sometimes give me sympathetic looks.  While this word would be very easy for me to change, it gives me too good a giggle when I use it not to (childish I know)!   

Motorway

Road names here are confusing.  Freeway, highway, what the heck is the difference?  If it's a big road, it's a motorway and I will continue to call it a motorway!

Holiday

"I'm going on my holidays".  Another sentence that gets me a lot of funny looks.  Holidays here are called vacation.  When you say holidays in America-land, it means Thanksgiving, Christmas, Halloween, Valentine's Day and that other big American 'holiday' St Patrick's Day.  If I said I'm going on vacation to somebody from the UK, they'd laugh their ass off at me and call me a Yank again :)  Not that there's anything wrong with being a Yank (I am one now!) but some things you just can't change!

Tap

Tap = faucet.  Why use 2 syllables when you can use just one?  To me, it will forever be a tap.

As an added bonus, here are 2 extra things that I reluctantly had to change.  No choice.  But I still find it difficult to do so.

Checks

When writing checks over here, the written money amount is written like so:  thirty dollars and 72/100.  
I hate writing this, it just seems so silly!  Why not just write thirty dollars and 72 cents?! C'mon America!
Incidentally, we spell checks 'cheques' at home. 

Dates  

Even before kids (BK) when I worked in an office over here, I found it extremely difficult to write dates American style.  Why do our countries write these differently?  It makes no sense.  Over here they put the month first, then the date, then the year.  At home of course, we put the date first and then the month.  I've messed up so many times with things like renewing my driver's license because I thought I still had a few months left when in fact I didn't.  Lucky for me, the policeman who checked my license let me off.   My license said it expired 4/8/12 which I of course thought meant 4th of August.  Nope, it had expired in April.  My bad.  I have become vigilant at checking dates nowadays, but I still struggle when I'm writing them.

And so ends this week's observations on some of the differences between my two countries.  I hope you had a good laugh enjoyed reading them!  I guess I'll always be somewhat mixed up, but that's fine, I'm proud to be half Scottish and half American :)