Week 2, part one

So I've been in the U.S for over a week now. I get the Circulator to work, I walk to the apartment building where other interns are staying, I show the new interns where the lunchroom is. I've started making a list of all of the things I want to do before I leave.

Alternatively, there are a few things that I'm still thrown off balance by;

a) the casual manner of people at work, e.g. using expressions such as "hey buddy", "knock yourself out" etc. During the Enlightenment, Voltaire stated that the defining characteristics of a people/ nation. The historian Edward Gibbon agreed. I don't get offended by the casual and conversational manner of some Americans, I'm just not used to it, and could never imagine the same atmosphere between myself and my tutors at university!

b) the size of portions everywhere. I can't finish a meal here in any restaurant, and everything just seems excessivly big. Leading onto my next point...

c) trying to find normal-sized food in a supermarket is a true mission. Everything is multi-pack, or sold in deals which makes you buy more, or just over-sized. What I thought was a multi-pack of crisps ("chips") turned out just to be a massive bag, with a suggested serving for one person! Even the bottles of tomato sauce are huge, as if they're meant for businesses or something.

d) American television. Need I say more. Reality tv programmes on every channel, the fact that there is constant repetition (snippets of a programme are shown in previews, then before an advert break, and then "re-capped" two mintues later when the programme begins again...) and even the news here seems very opinionated! I miss the BBC coverage which would never refer to the Duchess of Cambridge as "Kate" and convicted murderers as "killers" or children as "kids".

e) the fact that nothing is energy-efficient, and there is no proper recycling in this area! Seems extraordinary in the 21st century.

Yet, there are still unexpected things which remind me of home!

This is a display in the museum concerning Bletchley Park! Coming thousands of miles away from Milton Keynes this was great to see. Living so close to it I think I sometimes forget the significance of the place, even though I wrote my GCSE History coursework on it.

 

 

I suppose it really shouldn't suprise me that there was direct communication between Bletchley Park and Washington D.C during WW2, with the breaking of the Enigma code. Despite this, it's great to be in the middle of an unfamiliar place, and be able to point at a picture and think "I've been there! I know this!"

Vocabulary learnt;

- "catfish"/ "catfishing", when someone sets up a social networking profile, assuming a false identity, with the hope of deceiving someone else.
- "invested" - don't think this is necessarily American, but the saying is popular here in terms of expressing commitment and emotional attachment, e.g, "in the movie I felt like I wasn't really invested in that character, unlike in the book, I just didn't care what happened to them"