Why, thank you, Dear. Shaving works both ways. As a mid-teenager, I was wild to start shaving. My dad, who was normally very understated, took me by the shoulders and said, "Son, if you never listen to anything else I ever say, hear me now: PUT IT OFF, as long as possible." I wish that I'd listened, si man.

Are things out-sorted? Well, I am counting no chickens until C.'s visa is IN HAND. I will post no review whatsoever of the organized, congenial, truthful, fair, respectful, making-me-proud-to-be-a-Yanqui consulate until C. is safely and completely INSIDE the U.S. (probably October). This should speak volumes; see signature for an inkling.

Speaking of chickens ("pollos" in Mexico & Ecuador, si man), get a load of this very cool website: http://www.pollofeliz.com

On a visit to Ojinaga, Mexico (cool city, across from Presidio, Texas -- try to find it on the map), and without knowing a word of Spanish except for the crucially necessary "pollo," I managed to order and subsequently eat (in one sitting) a pollo entero (an entire roasted chicken) at Pollo Feliz. Question: Why is the restaurant named "Happy Chicken" if all of the chickens there are dead and are eaten, huh man? This quandary notwithstanding, it's said that each of us has 15 minutes of fame, and that was my 18 or 20 minutes thereof, si man.

Otherwise, my Spanish is so proficient that when I proudly and carefully enunciate "Soy hecho en Ecuador" ("I am made in Ecuador"), the Ecuadorians (and the Mexicans, too) immediately and helpfully point the direction toward the restroom. Uh, si man.

As a mere Colonist who has spent his life here across The Pond, I am hono(u)red to be in the august (next month, the septembral) presence of so many lovely, gracious Britannica-Americanas, si man. Anyone from anywhere who wants insights on U.S. stuff, including topics even more crucial than spiders, roachcocks, and pollos, is welcome to inquire, si man.

Hope you don't mind another US citizen poking his nose in here.

My wife (Russian) was astounded by "all you can eat" restaurants. Chinese buffets especially. She loves those.

For her, one of the things that still gets to her (after being here almost 3 years) is how (in general) American women just don't take care of themselves. She will dress nicely and put on makeup, even if all we are doing is going to Wal-Mart or some such. She'll see some dumpy American chick wearing a ratty t-shirt, stained sweat pants, and houseshoes while we are out, and just cannot fathom allowing herself to be seen in public like that.

For a while, I kept trying to get her to find some Russian friends (there is a rather large Russian community in the Atlanta area), but she refuses. Pretty much says that she doesn't want to have anything to do with them. I find it odd, but ok...

As for the recycling thing - dunno about elsewhere, but it is included in our trash pickup service. *shrug*

And, being in a large metropolitan area such as Atlanta, there's plenty of food choices besides "southern fried". Lots of farmer's markets, and international markets. We can even get some of her (and my) favourite Russian beer here.

Thanks for the entertaining reading...I always find it fascinating to see how others view us "Yanks".

well there are just amazing things here in the US.
one thing that bugs me is that in every store I am a different size. Some stores really vanity size and I'm like a 3. Others I'm a 6. Especially pants I cannot buy without trying them on first.

Not having the metric system throws me off...the system here makes no sense at all. 12 inches in a foot? why not 100 cm in a meter instead? Much easier. Also, Fahrenheit...I can't figure it out

How about fried food (in the south). If you get fish at a restaurant, there is more breading than fish on it.

Also, vegetables at the supermarket...not so fresh sometimes...my fruit goes bad after 1 1/2 days every time.

Fake friendliness...my biggest issue. Everyone seems so nice at first and "oh my gosh, we need to hang out sometime" but never mean it. If I say let's do something I mean it...Grrrr....drives me nuts

TB - as a TX-living London-born Brit, this really made me laugh!!


Yup .... I don't like this either. Also, saying "I love you guys" to a group of friends, or saying someone is your bestest buddy when you've only known them five minutes....

Also, tax added to the price posted. Can't stand it. You never know how much stuff actually is unless you shop with a calculator, know all the different % of tax for different stuff or are a math genius...

The Pancakes....yes yes yes....here they call them Crepes although they aren't the traditional crepes, more like our Pancakes.
Now I want pancakes...not the American kind...

Back in the 1960s & earlier 1970s, one could count on consistency in clothing-sizes in the U.S., but not since then. I too must try on everything before I buy it. This is very likely because clothing is made in and imported from countries all around the world, where concepts of "sizes" differ. When I visit border towns in Mexico (which cater to American tourists) and want to buy a T-shirt, I now know to buy the larger size "up" from usual (no matter for whom I'm shopping) -- XL instead of L, for example. Therefore, just about all that we can do is to view the labeled sizes as a guide, and work from that point. This principle applies even to shoes!

Well what about El Pollo Loco? I mean - is it the poultry version of Mad Cow Disease???

I think it means "The Crazy Chicken".

We have a local chain restaurant here by that name.

That's what I was getting at...

I would rather eat a happy chicken than a crazy one, although whether they're happy vs. crazy after they're dead is open to conjecture.

I believe that in Nuevo Laredo (Mexico), I saw a pollo restaurant called "Pollo Loco."

Here's a crucial question for our newcomers: Of the various fried-chicken chain restaurants here in the Colonies, which is your favo(u)rite, and why? Which is your least favo(u)rite? Examples are: KFC, Hartz, Church's, Popeye's. There may be other regional chains. Si, man?

El Polo Loco FTW!!

KFC is teh suck

Never tried El Pollo Loco actually Kinda like Church's But right now I am a Wendy's person cause I love their salads

El Polo Loco is great.. every time we go the chicken is soo good.. and I love their mac and cheese...

although El Polo Loco is not really fried chicken it is marinated and then grilled... mmm yum..

I am not yet in US but there are a few things which I observe talking to my husband and I find it weird.

You can get apartments which includes all utility paid! some even give free cable and internet! I was actually shocked knowing it, because out here in India when we rent out our apartments, the tenants have to pay their water and electricity and all the bills. I guess water and electricity charges are way low in US.

Another thing I find weird, may be its just my husband and not everyone, he buys all his week's groceries at one go, even the vegetables. I don't really enjoy to thaw veggies before making it(took him 2 hours once to thaw a cauliflower), and out here in India, we do every day shopping at evening, go to veggie market and buy next day's vegetables. So that freshness is a factor I will have to encounter.

In my experience (lifelong American), apartments that offered "all utilities paid" were more common perhaps 15 years ago than they are now. In Houston, where I live, there are very few such now. This is likely a function of supply and demand -- if vacancy rates are high, apartments will offer incentives to attract potential renters; if occupancy rates are high, there is no need for special incentives. Water charges (at least in my area) are reasonable, but electricity is terribly high. My electric bill this month for my 3-bedroom house was $224 -- oof! It was over $300 each of the last two months. Of course, the summer temperatures here have been rather steady at 95+ F. (35+ C.).


It is quite reasonable that you would notice these differences. In my experiences outside the U.S. -- mostly in Mexico and Ecuador -- I have observed many more "specialty" stores (selling a particular, finite range of products) and fewer "hypermarkets" (large stores where you can buy everything from groceries to appliances to clothing to whatever). Examples of such large retailers in the U.S. are Wal-Mart, Super Target, and Super KMart.

I consider it a shame that there are so few "family" stores remaining in the U.S., in comparison with the rest of the world. There were more in past years (the 1960s and earlier). The concept of "mass retailing" -- offering many consumer items in one store, and in a chain of such stores around a city or the country -- combined with the economic principle of "economies of scale" -- meaning the more items that a store can buy from its suppliers, the cheaper the cost -- probably led to the slow demise of family-owned stores. When there is a story in our local newspaper about another family store going out of business, it is not uncommon to read this quote: "Wal-Mart (or Home Depot, or other big business) can sell products at retail for lower cost than we can purchase those products from our suppliers." It is sad, but true. I have NO training in economics, so others here can comment more meaningfully.

This is a roundabout explanation for why your husband (in typical American fashion) likely buys everything on one trip: because he can, because it's convenient, and because it's cheaper than shopping at several stores more often, unless there's good reason otherwise. Add to this the reality that Americans are always in a hurry, and the high gas (petrol) prices that discourage stopping at one store for one thing and another store for other things, and we can see the reasoning.

Regarding the vegetables, I can only conjecture that due to storage and preservation standards in U.S. stores, vegetables stay fresher longer than they might in other countries. I have never frozen fresh vegetables or even heard of that practice (I am a guy who has been single for a LONG time), so again, others can comment more meaningfully. I do know that proper refrigeration (versus freezing) will maintain the freshness of vegetables for a reasonable time.

You have asked some very good questions, and I hope that the above answers help a little. Please be encouraged to ask anything else.

This isn't really "strange" but more of a "Hey, that's awesome." The grocery stores provide sanitary wipes at the entrance so you can wipe your cart of any germs on the handle. Now I get perturbed when the container is empty.

They also provide umbrella bags so you don't have your wet umbrella dripping all over the place.

Americans mostly do all their shopping in one huge go, because the markets aren't on every corner like they seem to be in most other countries. Its not as convenient to do shopping every evening on the way home from work. In the town where I live, everything is soooooooooo spread out its just crazy. The bank is on one side of town, the drug-store over there, and the grocery over there and so on and so on. Any neighbourhood I've lived in in Ontario, everything is all pretty much in one spot, grocery, drug-store, bank (at least a machine), and other shops. The way the town is set up here, is incredibly in-convenient, we have to drive all over the place just to get our weekly errands done. Its one of the major things that bugs me here.

Older, larger cities in the US are different of course, and set up with more of everything all together and within convenient reach of each other. But it seems newer towns and cities just kinda plop #### down wherever it lands and don't think about it, so that everyone is entirely dependent on their cars.

Well I have never seen the umbrella bags but then I am in Palm Springs so very rarely see umbrellas either!!

The wipes are awesome though - I don't care about wiping the cart cause Jeremy pushes it but it is nice to clean your hands and cool them off from the 110+ heat

But, U.S. grocery stores don't sell moose brisket or deep-sea elk, proving yet again why Canadia (or whatever your country is called -- I draw a blank except for a dim recollection that it's like an Arctic western Kansas) is superio(u)r to the U.S., si man, eh.

P.S. Years ago, I had a Canadian girlfriend, so I have a lot of good-natured cheap shots to share, si man, eh.

mmmmmmmmmm....moose meat

Moose brisket is good, but I prefer pollo (whether feliz or loco, eh, si man).

we're moving back north so we'll be closer to the moose. My husband has never seen one, let alone tasted one. Of course, I don't know if there are any in New York state, but we could maybe go hunting up in Vermont or Maine.

But even the deer are bigger up there than here in NC. They're just puny little things here. Hardly worth the effort really. We keep feeding them, hoping they'll fatten up, but they still don't get as big as the ones up home.

there might be some diversity in Texas, but there's nowhere near the diversity there is in England, and I've lived in both places now, so will brook no argument

don't eat fried chicken, so can't answer that question... we've found a few non-chains, including the place we got tonight's FAAAAABulous Vietnamese sandwiches (3 for $8! $4 for each person! can't get much better than that ) but it's a bit of a struggle...

I also hate the way tax isn't included in the ticket prices! just stupid

and yeah, I can't get used to the non-metric system... I'm constantly asking Dave how many cups in a quart, or how many pints in two gallons, or some such... sort of used to temperatures, but under protest... writing the date backwards is just DUMB, and the paper sizes annoy me too! nothing's logical... and I can't get any of my pictures framed because they're 'non-standard sizes'... (I wanted to tell the girl in the shop they were standard for every country in the world bar the US, Myanmar and Libya, or whichever are the only other two remaining countries which haven't gone metric, but thought it would sound sour and mean when it wasn't HER fault )

we tend to buy veges and fruit once a week, and I find it almost all lasts... I'm not sure why it lasts so well; I get a bit suspicious, but it IS all fresh (I dislike most canned or frozen veg) so I just have to accept it
I've started growing some of my own in little pots on the window sill... I've got rocket and some other lettuces going well, and have just planted some extra herbs, and some roma tomatoes

and we paid $109 for our electricity (3 bedroom house in Houston) in June
I was aiming for under $100 in July, but it ended up being $133... I was all disappointed, until I looked at the fine print, and realised the price for kilowatt hour had gone up by almost 40%... so we actually used less, but still paid more
oh well, it's 100% green power, so I'm not THAT annoyed... just a little

no progress on the recycling thing
but we DO have funky in-ceiling speakers, which are playing my fave Australian radio station as I type (ah, the wonders of the modern world!) so SOME things are moving forward
oh, and I'm working (strictly voluntarily) three days a week, so that's good
(and explains my absence from here recently )

It's so cool to hear from StP, si man! However, we must agree that Texas has more Mexicans than England does, so Texas is therefore more diverse, si man.

It's quite logical, actually: Our paper is called "letter-sized" because it's, well, letter-sized, si man. "Yours" is so wacky that it's not called "letter-sized," but rather A4, like something that some worker-bee scientist cooked up in a Petri dish, si man.

But, then, who would be The Prettiest in your stead? Someone could certainly be The Loveliest, but not The Prettiest. Ergothuswithforthly, you should be un-absent from here recently, si man.

One thing that I consider eminently charming about Brits is their use of the term "whilst" instead of "while." It's almost as endearing as saying "si, man" instead of "eh," si man, eh.

I hunger for a mooseburger, yet none is forthcoming. Whilst waiting, I may have to settle for pollo, si man, eh, verily, wot.

You think having Mexicans makes Texas more diverse than England??

Seeing as you live so close to Mexico, that's not too surprising, even expected.. you should see the amount of foreigners we have all over England. Mostly Asians, but of course many Europeans.

Not to mention that I live in Bath, which is a major tourist spot. You literally have to dodge your way around all the foreigners just walking through the centre! So I'm pretty used to seeing all different kinds of people and am surprised when I go to the US.

what TBone THINKS and what TBone SAYS do not always have to agree

Shoot away. I love good-natured cheap shots. lol



Hey man. Don't bogart that joint. Pass some over here.

Having a lot of Mexicans in Texas does not make Texas extremely diverse. It just means it has a lot of Mexicans, which is expected for a state that shares a border with Mexico.

We are the chorus, and we agree. We agree, we agree, we agree. Si man, si man, si man.

Si, man!


Here, we call them "furriners." Maybe some of them skin moose for a living, si man, eh.


I commend you on your cleanliness, si man!

I had never really noticed or cared about that before I lived in Germany for a few years. I had always lived in cities of relative inconvenience. What other world was there? Now it really annoys me.

What annoys my husband is turning cycles for stop lights. I never noticed it either before he pointed it out, but hmm. Maybe a conspiracy of the automatic transmission industry? He said he can't wait to get back to driving on roads that don't have semi-eating potholes in them. Like every pothole he hits burns into his soul somehow. He also now understands what I meant by 'construction season'. All of the main arteries near our house are completely ripped up save one.

What's a turning cycle?

It is the time it takes for stop lights at an intersection to cycle through all of their colors and turns. In Germany, it is set up to optimise gas mileage and decrease unnessary stopping, where possible. Here, in his opinion, it doesn't seem like that was given any consideration. I get to hear about it all the time.

I'd agree with that... lights in Australia and the UK seem better attuned to the actual traffic flows than they do here... sometimes you seem to stop forever and no one's even coming the other way

I always have to fight the urge to just go ahead, but then I think "what if there's a cop hiding somewhere just waiting for me to go thru and give me a ticket?" so I sit there and wait. *sigh*

And, what if there's a Mexican hiding somewhere, hoping to prove to a Brit that Texas is more diverse than London... or at least hoping to mooch a bite of a mooseburger?

When Texas has a significant amount of Polish, French, Indian etc then it can claim more diversity. The following is an article from 2007 regarding foreign immigration into Britain ( bear in mind how small the UK is in size)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/majornews/...ish-exodus.html

*sigh*

why do people insist on taking TBone seriously? it only encourages him

But isn't that what VJ is all about? Blindly encouraging people every step of the way, whether it makes sense or not to do so?

I think it's in the license agreement and terms of use policy.

julez, I wish you would stop messing with my LIFE

make me

*puts all julez's's paperwork in a create*

*ships create to USCIS marked 'please delay indefinitely'*


you were saying?

Wow - cheap electricity!! Ours comes to over $100 a month and we have a tiny one bedroom apartment - and can only afford to run one AC unit at a time Not fun in the desert... we get a discount as well because of all the windmills but it is still really expensive *sigh* Winter is going to be like winning the lottery!!!

I think the fridges work better here - I noticed that when I put salad in the bottom bit, it keeps it fresh for ages! The only thing that doesn't keep too well by comparison are the tomatoes that go a little wrinkly

As for growing things... well - that is a whole new ball game in the desert... my plumeria is doing ok I think - I thought I was killing it but it seems ok now it dropped a couple of leaves - now the top leaves are green and look healthy but aren't really getting any bigger... oh well... I guess no progress is better than it dying - maybe it's concentrating on putting out roots as it is a cutting... I have a pachira and neanthe bella inside but both are going crispy - I've been watering them but that didn't help so I stopped watering so much and that doesn't help either... *sigh* Now I know why there are so many gardeners in Palm Springs and why cacti are commonplace - the two I have haven't been touched since re-potting and are doing fine

All my papers are already in a create just waiting for the next immigration hurdle!

In fact, right now, lots of my personal effects are in creates as we're still unpacking. I am impervious to your wicked ways!

*fills all julez's's creates with mayonnaise*

you were saying?




hmm, I feel all slighted!
it's not that cheap - mid range for here; about 19c per kilowatt hour - I put our low bills down to my energy saving ways

we don't have an electric clothes dryer - it's one of my pet hates that in a part of the country which is as hot as Hades and everyone has a massive backyard everyone wrecks the environment by running electric dryers for hours, so I refuse to have one, and hang all our washing out, on the back patio on the sunny days (99% of the time) and in the spare room when it's rainy (today )
apparently hanging clothes outside is 'trailer trash', but I thumb my nose at that... what a crock; we all have a duty to do better environmentally, and that's one thing that's easy (here, at least, though I also managed to dry my clothes in an 8ft by 7ft bedroom in London, so I suspect it's possible anywhere )

and I keep the aircon at 84 or 85... occasionally we put it lower, if we're really feeling it, but otherwise we just don't need to live in a fridge

we're pretty good with other things too, but those are our main savings, I think... a guy in our subdivision told us he paid $570 for electricity in June
I just... couldn't work out how you could do that...

crate create


Too late! We know what you're doing now.

Where I'm from, we put the pepperonis under the cheese and not on top!