America, the beautiful

Well, I am well and truly in America, where petrol is $2.00 a gallon (cheap!) and cars are unbelievably ginormous! I have the use of Grandpa and Grandmalou's 'van' -which is a huge, 8 seater plus boot red vehicle. The best things about it is that it has a) heated seats b) I would win if I was on the wrong side of the road, which judging from yesterday, might just be important!

I have been given a lovely office -about 10miles from their house, and have re-located my books there, a computer, a whiteboard and some of my favourite quotes, which makes it seem like I mean business (which I do).

Andrew arrived last night, and we are doing nothing today but being together, I'll show him the office, and see where we end up - then tomorrow we leave for California -where we are meeting up with a couple of our best friends -the kind of friends you never have to 'keep up with' because as soon as we get together is it just natural...

Umm. Here are the things that I'm finding interesting so far:

• It is hard not to be a consumer here.
• The main news is only about Kansas City and Missouri (each the size of a small European country so maybe that makes sense) so I am relying heavily on the 6.00am BBC world
• The food portions are enormous. And I was taught to clear my plate. Oh dear.
• The work-day in the office I have been loaned is from 7.00am to 4.00/4.30pm [which means I will be leaving home at 6. As I've aged I've become a morning person, but still...]. That is normal. My aunt (a teacher) starts at 7.30 and ends at 3.30. So, people here have spare time, but they're knackered.
• I can imagine that given time I will manage to offend almost everyone. I've already had various discussions (and I've only been here since Monday!) re. consumerism; altar calls; homosexuality; denominationalism; post-modernity; marketing and faith where, shall we say, my views are in the minority (of one).
• There are rules here on everything - it seems that there is a sense that if you were here from birth, you would be generally unquestioning, or convinced that things are dangerous and so you must trust and obey those in authority (Crossing the road 'jay-walking' is illegal). It takes courage to be different. (There are many who are, but it is a huge challenge I think)

I'm reading (for pleasure) Annie Lammots' latest, and looking for others to feast on. Any suggestions?