Roadtrip!

The past seven days I mostly spent driving. I needed to get an apartment lease before actually relocating to a new state, and this week break between Finals and Graduation was the best time to do it.

The stats went something like this:
~1500 miles (hmm, time for an oil change?)
-7 states
-9 state border crossings
~$20 in tolls
~50 gallons of gas
-4 audio books
-17 apartment viewings in 2 days (13 on Monday, and I finished ahead of schedule! If you can believe it)

It was fun!

There were two short adventures of note:

-Rt 23 from Toledo OH to Ann Arbor MI was a cute little road. For about 15 miles I was confronted with many signs: "State Prison in Vicinity. Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers."
Indeed.

-I stopped for gas and lunch in a little WV town just outside of Charleston. In fact, it may have been the outskirts of Charleston, I forget.
I was innocently washing my windshield when a Marine recruiter approached me and asked if I'd ever thought about joining the Marines. (I didn't know their recruitment policy involved patroling the gas stations.)

I didn't know how to tell him that I am really not the person they want enlisting, so I blinked at him a few times before I finally just said, "Erm... no..."
He then asked if I had any friends interested.
So I wished him good luck. I didn't know what else to say to a Marine recruiter.

Hunt of the Haggis

There are no British specialty stores anywhere near Charlottesville, that I can tell, but there are a few in NOVA. When leaving home this weekend I remembered that I had set myself with a mission. I needed to find some haggis.

There is a place called the British Pantry out past the airport, in Aldie. They have British biscuits, chocolate, meat, and other products in one room and a tearoom in the other. I could tell I was at the right place because they had a British-style telephone booth in the front. The other cars parked there had license plates like "UKGIRL" and "CYMRU", my little Scottish flag sticker fit right in.

I bought 1.77 lbs of haggis for $15.71. It will probably not be worth it, but that's okay. It's haggis.

It wasn't too far out of my way, though the roads back there were little two-laners with passing zones and lots of hills. It probably only added about 30-45 minutes to my total drive time. I'm going to try and find someplace closer to Cville that doesn't mark up quite as much. First stop should be the Foods of All Nations just down the street, then we'll see.

Pictures should be coming soon, as well as stories of a third (and final?) Hunt.

Summer in the City

I guess that travel can include Charlottesville. I am not sure. Either way, it's interesting to note what is different since coming back. Many of these things are particular to Cville, the plethora of summer construction, including the physics side parking lot, tearing up the main road through Grounds, and work as always and yet with little progress behind Cabell. I used to park behind Cabell a lot, it actually had spaces... I wonder where all those people got displaced to. The sculptures in the medians are mostly changed, as are certain restaurants/bakeries/cafes. I can't find anything in the grocery stores, but that is a problem wherever you go.

Even the Cville Kroger has a British food section, of two small cases at the end of the Frozen Pizza aisle. Most of the shelves are empty, but they have McVittie's Digestives. I'll be honest, I was tempted. I'll bet Harris Teeter has more, and Foods Of All Nations more still. The cider situation is worse than I thought, but it's nice to know exactly what's in the food I'm buying. Amazing how different packaging can be. As yet the only food I would like but can't find is haggis. No one understands haggis.

I'm slowly adapting to American currency, American prices, and American attitudes. Sometimes my friends tease me for using British phrases, but "half-seven" for 7:30, "queue", and "can't be bothered" will stick for a long time I hope. I know how to drive on the right-hand side of the road, and I'm getting used to looking left-right-left when crossing the street. Life skills, life skills.

American cars

I've had a little bit of trouble with American roads.

Mostly I'm fine but every here and there I have to stop and think about what I'm doing. Usually this is a problem when I'm out walking, say with the dogs, or running. I can't quite remember which side I should be on, where cars will be coming from, or how to cross the street. It's not instinctual, I have to give it conscious thought.

That doesn't surprise me; though I didn't drive in Scotland, and never adapted to driving on the left-side of the road, I'm definitely used to being a pedestrian in such situations.

However, I have since noticed a little trouble driving. Not always, but in strange situations.
Case in point.
I went shopping the other day and was driving (in the right lane) in the parking lot towards a space I wanted. Another car ahead of me, coming towards me, was in to my lane, presumably to make the wide left and snag the same space.
But for a few moments I stared blankly at the car head-to-head with my own. My mind raced. What country am I in? What side of the road am I on? What side of the road am I meant to be on?
And finally, So, if I'm in America, then why is he in my lane?

Too late. My parking spot was gone.

the things you never knew you never knew

Recently I've been thinking of a lot of things that have since become normal but I realise do strike as very different.
In the UK, there is no such thing as jaywalking. Out walking with a group of Brits, I have on several occasions been asked, "Is it true that in America it's against the law to cross the street when you're not supposed to?"

I guess when you think about, if that's how you've always had it then you don't think about it. But for us, we have rules about when you're not allowed to cross the same way you have the "right of way", or more accurately the "necessity to yield". Still I think most people have the impression that jaywalking is enforced when I have never heard of anyone actually being fined for such an action.

I have on several occasions been asked, "Why does America have so many stop signs?"
Until those moments I forget that a stop sign is a rare sight on British streets. They just know to stop or not to stop, depending. Many intersections that might be governed by stop signs in America are replaced by the roundabout.
I hate roundabouts.

A lot of things are not as refrigerated than at home. Grocery store eggs are typically located near the milk and cheese, but on the opposite side of the aisle where they are not refrigerated. You would not believe how often I see unrefrigerated margarine and milk, for that matter.

I was once asked, "But I thought Americans didn't drink tea?"
I was once told, "Americans don't understand how to make tea." I think that if your standard of tea is so low it requires the universal addition of milk then you can't judge. Not to sound judgmental myself, of course.
The electric kettle is a bit of a strange invention, if you ask me.

I had haggis for the fifth time tonight!
Several times I have heard with surprise, "Wait, you don't have haggis is America?"
Once I was asked if I knew what a baked potato was.
Several times I have been confronted with foods cooked "American style" and they never taste right.
I have learned to stay away from ketchup this side of the ocean.

Sultanas are raisins.