My first experience in America was of a overly aggressive guy working on immigration yelling at people who clearly didn't understand english and thus shouting at them whilst madly waving his arms about didn't seem like the best way to help. Despite the fact that there was absolutely no reason why I shouldn't be "let in", all the shouting and the questionning i could hear actually made me feel a little nervous. But after spending a minute or two being fingerprinted and photographed I was through to be reunited with dino at the baggage reclaim. Despite spending the first 5 minutes talking about rude americans, I can honestly say this was really the only time I encountered "american idiots".
I think my most used phrase in California was "It's soooooo big". I couldn't finish a single meal, the roads are gigantic, too many people drive big cars, you can get drinks that would be enough for a whole family, the trolleys in supermarkets are bigger, the supermarkets are bigger, the fridges are HUGE (and dispense ice - wow), and even the escalators are bigger!!! I'm not really sure why everything has to be so big. I guess it's a case of "why not?". If you can, you should. This is certainly different to both Japan and England. I read a story in the "culture corner" of one of my Japanese language textbooks where an American ALT and his Japanese friend stopped at a vending machine to buy a drink. In the machine were 3 different sized bottles of coke but all for the same price. The American guy buys the biggest size and his Japanese friend buys the smallest, to which the American remarks "but why buy the smallest, you are wasting your money when you could have more for the same price". His friend stops to think and then responds "but I am not that thirsty, would it be better that I wasted the coke?". OK so the story is a little cheesy, but i think it illustrates the point well and I could definately feel the "big coke" metality whilst in California.
So when Dino and I were talking about the holiday whilst still in Japan he asked me if there was anything i really wanted to do. Well I definately wanted to stay in a motel. This request seemed to be funny to dino, who mainly just laughed a lot everytime I mentioned it. "Why?" was his next reaction. It was not as if it was a long held dream of mine to stay in a motel, I certainly wouldn't compare it to wanting to walk the Great Wall of China or climb Mt Everest but upon being asked what do you want to do in America it genuinely was the 1st thing that came to mind. I think it's because you always see motels in American films, and like Hamburgers and French fries it just seems 100% American. We don't have Motels in England and neither do they have them in Japan. I wanted to stay in one in the middle of nowhere, that wasn't a chain and that had those balconies that go round the outside ( the bits where in a film someone usually gets shot). Oh and it HAD to have a lit up "MOTEL" sign. I'm fussy about my motels, you see! Dino assured me that we wouldn't leave without staying in a motel. And here, in all it's glory, is our very special motel......
It didn't have a lit up sign or balconies but it was DEFINATELY in the middle of nowhere. With San Francisco a long way in one direction and Vegas the nearest place in the other direction, it was us, the rattlesnakes and the tallest thermometer in the world. What a great thing to be able to claim. So was the Motel the highlight of my trip? not exactly. I was excited at 1st and impressed at how nice it was inside despite the smell of stagnant water outside. However, after our (amazing!) time in Vegas I simply could not sleep. I got bit by what i can only presume were bed bugs and then "waking up" to get into the shower involved lots of cursing as the warm water didn't decide to come through untill it was Dino's turn to shower. I was in a sulk. Maybe that's how a motel experience should be! The "wow" factor of driving on roads that went super straight through nothing but desert soon sorted my sulk out and then I was just happy that I could now say that I have stayed in a motel. Because of course that's something people are always interested to know.
I seemed to find myself having to repeat myself quite a bit whilst in America. Speaking the same language does not automatically = understanding. Realising that people had to listen that bit harder to hear me we thought we would try to have some fun with it. Didn't think it would be so easy. Without even having to throw in a "can't" to the conversation i managed to have this wonderful conversation. ME "hi , could i have a table for 3?" WAITER "sure, whats the name?" ME "Natalie" WAITER "did you say Smith?". The jump is to big for me to even guess where smith came from. It seems strange to me that some Americans find my accent hard to understand when i can understand their's fine, but then i guess that's what happens when the world media and film industry is dominated by the US. Since being in Japan and having made many American friends (and being forced to listen to american english cds at school!) can really hear my accent for the first time. I see where the "posh" comment comes from now, because comparatively it does sound so prim and proper.
Aside from things being big, being bitten by bed begs in a motel and realising I have an accent I also did/saw some other things! Such as ....... Wine testing in Napa Valley, Playing in the snow by Lake Tahoe (with Dino's overly excited but adorable cousins who had never seen snow before!), Taking too many photos of the golden gate bridge (it's a good job we didn't make it Hollywood), Drove (well Dino drove - thanku!!) 8hrs to go to Vegas for 3 hours, Won 10 Dollars in Vegas, tried to sleep for 2hrs before driving to LA for breakfast then San Diego for lunch.
....... A Month and a bit later......ok so I have been bad at writing in this! TO summarise my trip to America, it was crazy busy, massively fun, really cheap and full of cute kids and lovely people! I was surprised at how different the US is to England, just in people's day to day behaviour and the way things are done. I would actually go as far as to say that Japan is more like England than America is. Before coming to Japan and meeting so many American friends I never really had a great desire to travel to the US but now i have been I definately want to go back! If anyone fancies paying for me to go to law school in the US....gimme a shout!
Onto the "changing the weather" half of the post. In January Sasebo was having a bit of a water shortage and for a while everyone was all very serious about water! One afternoon I am sitting in the staffroom minding my own business when my JTE (Japanese teacher of english) comes rushing up to me..."natalie sensei have you seen this?.." - drags me outside and points at a rainbow..... "look at the amazing rainbow, we did it!!" (me thinking ......has she lost it...did what??) ...me "did what?" JTE - "haven't you heard, we did it, we changed the weather" .... me "what?".....JTE - "we, etoh, sento men to the clouds to spray, etoh...gas?"..me - "Really?" JTE "yes, big experiment" , me - "ahh i see" (but i don't really "see" at all!). An hour or so later I am at the busstop waiting to get the bus home when at 5pm instead of the little "hey everyone it's 5" jingle there was an announcement ...of which i understood the words "water" and "test". Trying to figure out what was going on I asked a Japanese friend who confirmed that yes it was true....we really did change the weather. With money from local taxes the government had paid a Kyushu Uni to make it rain! Three cheers for playing god!
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