Random Things I've Noticed Here in the US of A

Random things I’ve noticed here in the US of A

• Driving through the “mountains” of Vermont the snow drifts are strange and beautiful.  The snow swirls up and around on the sides of the highway in the oddest places one wouldn’t think the wind would even be blowing.  And the snow looks lovely swirling in the wind, making circles in the air along the road, not like at home where the wind will just blow the snow straight across the highway.  Also, the weather changed so quickly up there.  One minute we’d be up high and the snow would be raging down in a blizzard, the skies all gray and forboding.  Then we’d dip into a valley and the snow disappeared and the sun would be shining and the skies all clear and blue!

• They have pretty much the same kid shows down here as they do at home.  However, watching a couple of the shows I noticed something rather weird.  One of the shows, Little Robots, had all new music for the intro and all the characters sounded different.  I thought it odd that they would have all different voices but thought nothing else of it.  Then Peppa Pig came on and it hit me what the difference was in the shows from back home.  These americans have redone all the voices so none of the characters have accents!  Both Little Robots and Peppa Pig are Brit shows and have all been re-dubbed for viewing here.  What the…?  How ridiculous…  It’s not as if the accents would render the characters unintelligible.  Why do they do that?

• I believe New Hampshire has only one liquor store in the entire state.  Either that or the powers that be in that state have one strange sense of location when it comes to liquor stores.  So the winks and I are tooting along Hwy 93 and there’s a sign for a Rest Area coming up.  You know, it’s one of those stops along the highway that cars can drive off.  Sometimes they have facilities, other times it’s only just a place that people can go to stretch their legs or take a snooze.  Anyway, this rest area is special because along with the sign for the Rest Area is also a sign for an N.H. Liquor Store.  Now I don’t know about you, but my first thought at reading the 2 signs together was that they just seemed so at odds with each other.  It’s like a welcome sign for drivers to come and take a rest and have a little nip of something while you’re at it!  Definitely another “What the…?” moment.  Then as we drove past the rest area/liquor store I was even more surprised to see that the liquor store was huge!  It’s like a warehouse just off the highway!  So so odd…  and funny…  and just a little disturbing.

• It doesn’t matter how far away you get from home you’ll always find things that are exactly like home.  For instance, people who work at Wendy’s don’t really want to be working there.  Also, people curse at their cellphones here the same as they do at home.  (I know I curse at my cellphone all the time and I giggled when I saw a woman doing exactly the same thing as I drove by her the other day.)  And I’ve found that I can spend just as much time shopping in Linens ‘N Things, Michael’s and Barnes&Noble here as I do at home (though it’s Chapters at home).

• Avoid traffic in the big cities here as you would back home.  I got stuck in Montreal traffic on Tuesday.  Then I got stuck in Boston traffic on Wednesday.  Note to self:  find another way home next week that does not involve driving anywhere near big cities, regardless of the time of day, but definitely during rush hour.

I’m sure there’s more that I’ve noticed but I’ve forgotten for now…