Independence Day

It's the 4th of July and thus the whole of America is celebrating Independence Day by eating hot dogs and potato salad whilst lighting technically illegal fireworks. Of course they'll be dressed in their red, white and blue. We are a fair bit more educated in US independence history having just visited Colonial Williamsburg. What will we get up to? Find out Monday. (That sounds a lot more dramatic than how the weekend is likely to pan out - we may just open and read the Declaration of Independence that we picked up in Williamsburg)

Product of the week: F150

According to Wikipedia the F-Series is a series of full size pickup trucks (utes) from Ford sold for over 5 decades. The most popular variant of the F-Series is the F-150. It has been the best selling vehicle in the US for 23 years and the best-selling truck for 31 years. Analysts estimate that the F-Series alone makes up half of the Ford Motor Company's profits in recent years.

These cars are HUGE! It seems that Southerners like their cars big, red and with a confederate flag on the front number plate. With gas prices rising to $4 per gallon (roughly $1 per litre) everyone here is complaining. I usually tell them they have it good given that Oz prices are, I believe, $1.60 per litre but they don't want to listen. And they don't want to give up their gas guzzling cars. The F150 is the most common car in Wilmington and given some of the narrow streets around here it is scary driving next to one. I'm surprised I don't see dozens of side mirror casualties strewn about the place.

Travel Moment 4 - Driving from Las Vegas to Yosemite

We drove 8 hours from Las Vegas to Yosemite via Death Valley and Mono Lake. It was an amazing day with so many changes in scenery that were simply breath taking. Here we are driving out of Las Vegas ready to drive on the wrong side of the road!

Travel Moment 3 - Lake Mead

Our tour guide was taking us to the Grand Canyon but on the way we stopped to glimpse Lake Mead. In the town of Boulder, a herd of Barbary sheep live in a park with this amazing view of the lake.

Travel Moment 2 - Maid of the Mist tour at Niagara Falls

Travel Moment 1 - Architectural cruise in Chicago

Chicago is one of my favourite cities. Let me qualify that. Chicago is one of my favourite cities in summer (in winter my great aunt got frostbite on her ear going to the supermarket). Today's travel moment is about an architectural cruise through the waterways to marvel at the skyscrapers. It is always a risk to join a cruise - they are either awesome (Sydney, Paris) or dead boring (Vienna, Perth). In this case it was awesome! We sat back, drank Starbucks coffee and enjoyed the sunshine whilst our announcer explained various building styles and techniques. From the Wrigley, to the corn cobs, to the John Hancock, to the Sun Times we enjoyed our cruise and recommend it to you. We also recommend seeing the Wrigley up close as built into its outer walls are stones from other famous buildings (great wall of China, Notre Dame, and the Parthenon to name a few)

Doctors, Dentists and Chiropractors, oh my!

It seems to be our experience and the experience of other Australians living here that medical professionals here in the US are good at getting your money. They are good at diagnosing issues, putting forward the standard treatment plan, executing the plan and charging a lot of money. Whilst proficient, it is almost like entering a factory with robots. There is no discussion of alternative treatments and drugs are often the medical answer (which is no surprise given the amount of marketing that is entered into by the pharmaceutical companies - I have often seen sales reps at the doctors surgery. In fact the reps have their own sign in desk and room to go to at our doctors office) No wonder our health insurance costs are so high! I think the best policy is to stay well.

1 year later

We made it! We have lived in the United States of America for 365 days (though a little less for Andrew due to his quick trip back to Oz). We are still asked by Americans what we find different about living here versus living in Australia. The answer is quite simply everything. Whilst in some ways it is very similar there isn't a day that goes by that we don't feel like aliens. It's in the small everyday things of life that differences occur.


Here are some of the differences we've encountered:

• using inches, feet, miles, ounces, pounds and farenheit


• driving on the other side of the road


• corn syrup


• different pronounciations (eg 'erbs' for 'herbs')


• words with different meanings (eg telling someone to put something on the bench in the kitchen will be met with quizzical looks)


• free shipping


• cheap electronics


• obsession with new consumer goods


• big gas-guzzling cars


• no foothpaths and no walking


• Southern friendliness


• lack of public transportation


• ridiculous formality for visiting friends


• culinary ignorance (are these pine nuts?)


• bulk buying

and the list goes on...

American baby showers!!!!

I went to my first American baby shower last week for Amber. I was curious to see how different it would be to an Australian baby shower! On the whole it was fairly similar - lots of nibblies, lots of women, lots of noise and laughter and lots of presents. We played a couple of games which were okay except for one. This particular game we had to guess the brand of chocolate bar from the contents. We had a list of potential chocolates and we were allowed to look at and smell the sample chocolates. The only catch was that the sample was smeared onto a diaper to look like poo! It looked so GROSS!!! One lady (who has 3 grown children) couldn't even bring herself to smell the diaper and turned a little white in the face. It was quite funny but oh so awful! I told everyone that I would be blogging this back to Aus and most of them instantly shouted to me that this was not a normal game to play at baby showers and shouldn't be held up as a typical American baby shower!


According to Babyshower101.com it is a popular game. "Guess the Chocolate - (Materials- 5-10 diapers with 5-10 different types of chocolates). This game is one of the funniest and most popular baby shower games. Have the baby shower host or appointed person moderately melt 5-10 different candy bars separately, placing each one in a diaper to be viewed by everyone. Mark each diaper as A, B, C, D, etc. Have everyone guess which candy is in each of the diapers. Make sure to use some candies that have nuts, toffee, caramel, etc. You are sure to get great laughs!"


Australia you be the judge.