Everything on the rocks
Posted by Anya in Stuff that's different and weird on March 16, 2008
Another cultural thing – in America it must be against the consitution to drink water without ice in it. Which means it is too bloody cold to drink.
Now this might possibly be because the water tastes horrible. It might just be a case of getting used to it. I’ll let you know if I do.
Taking flight in Philadelphia
Posted by Anya in Activities on March 11, 2008
Guess what? There’s a studio in town that teaches trapeze! Who’d have thought it? I signed up for a course and had my first class today. It is GREAT to get back on the bar. Even better – the guys here have wrapped* corde lisse so I am ropeburn free. Hoorah.
There’s even talk about a performance in May. That might be the incentive I need to get a routine going. Watch this space.
* the ropes are covered so they hurt less 🙂
Crimes against Cheese
Posted by Anya in Stuff that's different and weird on March 11, 2008
The other night I was talking to some folk in a bar and they were talking about Easy Cheese in a can. I thought they were winding me up BUT IT’S TRUE. You can buy aerosol cheese here. Oh the horror.
Pennsylvania Tort
Fun and games today trying to get car insurance. As far as the insurers are concerned, I’ve held a driving licence for a whole 2 weeks. So it isn’t particularly cheap.
Even stranger is the Pennsylvania legal aspect. Apparently 63% of car accidents end up in court in PA. So there are options in the insurance (full tort or limited tort) . Limited tort means that you can only sue someone for serious injury but not for eg mental anguish, whereas full tort means that you can sue for whatever the hell occurs to you from what I can gather. Bonkers.
Subprime
Posted by Anya in Stuff that's different and weird on March 11, 2008
You know the “subprime” issue you hear so much about in the news – well that’s me. I have ZERO credit here. My UK (excellent) credit history means nothing here. I was even turned down for a JCPenney Store card. Oh the shame.
New car
So anyone who knows me knows that my biggest stress point about moving here has been what car to drive. Essentially anything that’s fun to drive will be undrivable in the snow, anything that will cope with weather will be a dog to drive.
The other issue is that I just LOVED my Lotus – it was the ultimate car to drive – perfect in any way. So anything after that is going to be a disappointment.
I’ve done lots of research and have been driving many, many dreadful hire cars. I thought I’d cracked it. I was definitely going to buy a Mini. Only thing is it a) had to be a CooperS (rest too slow), had to not be a stupid colour and c) had to be a second hand one that cost less than the new ones! For some reason this made it really trickey to find.
Then I realised that Audis depreciate like mad from new and you can buy a good high spec Audi for way less than a Mini of equivalent age.
So here’s my new car: 
Yes it IS another 2 seater, but I figured that it IS all wheel drive so that’s pretty sensible isn’t it? It is very grown up – the roof is automatic and it has bottom warmers. Nice. And yes it is the 225 (of course!)
Supermarket madness
Posted by Anya in Stuff that's different and weird on March 5, 2008
I’m struggling a bit with the supermarkets here. Firstly because on the whole you can’t buy ingredients – you can just buy ready made things with added lard and sugar. Secondly because everything comes in HUGE quantities – I mean why would I want to buy 12 eggs at a time? Lastly because the logic of the supermarket layout isn’t the same as the logic of UK supermarkets.
Why is that important? Well because I hate supermarkets and usually run in, get what I need, then run out. I can’t do that here because stuff isn’t where you’d expect. For example the other day I was looking for blue cheese. I didn’t find it along the whole wall of the store marked “Cheese is good” which more accurately should have been “Cheese wrapped in plastic/ Plastic Cheese”. I didn’t find it in the deli section which only had rectangular cheese. I finally found it in the “exotic mostly foreign cheeses” section hidden behind the fruit and veg.
Same with rice. Every sort of rice known to man, except for the Arborio I was looking for was in the same area…..postponing any risotto making for at least a fortnight.
Driving Licence
Just achieved another major milestone here – I got a Pennsylvania driving licence! All very exciting. I’ve been the proud holder of a learner’s permit since I successfully took my theory test yesterday (quite astonishingly easy touchscreen multi choice).
Today I showed up at the test centre with my designated driver (I had to bring someone over 18 with a PA licence), drove some fat chap in a checked shirt around a car park for 5 mins and they gave me a licence. Marvellous. I feel so safe driving around the roads knowing how rigorous the testing process is. I even managed to parallel park the SUV I’d borrowed 5 mins before the test started (you can’t take the test in a hire car!).
“Can I have some moon rocks please?”
Posted by Anya in Two nations divided by a common language, Uncategorized on February 16, 2008
We’ve been putting pictures up. Inevitably there’s the odd hole that needs filling so off to Home Depot I went to buy some Polyfiller. No luck finding it so I asked. The conversation went something like this:
“Hello, I’m looking for Polyfiller.”
“Grunt. Eh? What’s that?”
“It’s what you use to fill small holes in walls.”
“You want a drill? They’re in Aisle 14”
“No I’ve drilled a hole in a wall in the wrong place. Now I want to fill it.”
Blank Stare. Then sound of penny dropping. He hands me something.
“That’s almost right but that’s for filling metal….”
(Go to beginning of conversation and repeat several times)
Needless to say we never gor there but I eventually found it myself. You’d have thought I just asked for moon rocks.
Turns out the stuff is called Spackle here. Who knew that?
My stuff finally arrived
Posted by Anya in Uncategorized on February 16, 2008
My stuff arrived – it is great to be reunited with it all but most exciting is that my pictures arrived. I bought myself a moving present of two paintings from the fabulously talented Alex Baraitser. They are just perfect.
