Am a happy happy lady cos just found that dancing with the stars is on!! priscilla presley, shannon doherty, penn off penn and teller, monica seles and lots of yanks I’ve never heard of! But it’s the same music and we all know how that affects us don’t we! Anyway, this post was about the things I’m finding weirdly different. Did you ever notice (I never did) that American cars don’t have to have a front number plate? Or if they do it doesn’t have to be the same as the behind one. Some of you may not be entirely surprised to hear that I have a list of all 50 states and am crossing off the number plates from each state as I see them. And I have been led astray a couple of times by front number plates that aren’t the same as the back!
I’ve already alluded to the eating hours. I didn’t realise how European I had become until someone made me eat lunch at 11.30 and dinner at 6. I’m sure that’s cruel and unusual punishment in Belgium!
Obviously the service thing is so different. The need here to provide, but how much is that to do with the need to be rewarded? a lot I would say, especially having stayed at the Doubletree for a few days, where the front desk staff treat every request like you’re extracting a wisdom tooth (though I will say that everyone else has been lovely).
Anyway, that’s what divides me from the Americans. What divides me from almost everyone else on this programme seems to be that they are all married with kids. I’ve found three of us that aren’t married and four that don’t have kids. Out of 24… Call me Frida Kahlo…
Antonia in America, March-May 2008 