I’m always rambling on about things that I miss about England and things that I don’t like about America so I thought it might be a nice change if I did the opposite – after all there has to be some aspects of American life I love, something that makes me think that’s such a good idea….
Well one thing that struck me during our recent trip to the Hollywood Bowl was how lovely it was that a performer wouldn’t be able to see the rows of empty seats because they were hidden behind rows of trees. I thought that was very inventive. Americans just hate having to be the bearers of bad news: Don’t tell the artist the seats haven’t sold, just keep them out of view.
They really don't want to let you down - one of my favourite American phrases is “I’m working on it”. This is the standard answer Americans will give you if you ever need to chase them up about anything. It basically means - thank you for reminding me what it was you asked me to do because I had actually completely forgotten. I’ll get started on it straight away, well tomorrow anyway…. But at least it sounds like they’ve been busy doing something on your behalf.
Another similar phrase I like is “we’ll see what we can do” – we had a lot of that when we first arrived and were trying to buy furniture and large items including the teenager’s dentistry without any credit history. At the end of the day the answer was still a no you can’t have any finance but at least they made you feel as if they had tried – even if they just slipped out of the room for a few minutes, pretended to make a couple of phone calls and came back in sadly shaking their heads. (You’ll also get this one a lot when it comes to negotiating the price of your new car.)
Most Americans appear to have been born with a natural politeness gene - they really do want to be helpful. I’m sure it stems back to this child-like myth of the “American Dream”, only good can happen here. To say I don’t like it would make me sound like a right killjoy – but it does get a bit ingratiating after a while. Sometimes people just need to be honest and tell it like it is. After all I do!!
What else do I like?
Well I can’t say shopping because that makes me sound incredibly shallow and my husband says I do far much of it anyway. Obviously the weather but that doesn’t count because good weather isn’t exclusive to California. I could go and live in Sydney and have the same climate just at the opposite time of the year.
So what exclusively American thing do I like so much I can’t imagine returning to the UK without it? Is there a product that has jumped off the supermarket shelf into my basket that I find so innovative, so original that I will want to take packets of it home stashed in my suitcase? Well I do like my dried cranberry and toasted almond salad toppers from Ralphs but as I can buy both dried cranberries and toasted almonds back home I could easily make that myself, it just wouldn’t be so convenient. I have also become particularly partial to raspberry vinaigrette salad dressing but again I’m pretty sure I could find that in Waitrose…
(I’ve just asked my daughter this question and her reply was “Lucky Charms” which is a fluorescent children’s breakfast cereal probably containing every additive and food colouring known to man. I think we might actually struggle to get this one through customs and accepted into the EEC).
The trouble with America is that it is everywhere; there isn’t anything here that I couldn’t get anywhere else in the world – apart from Lucky Charms of course. America has globalised the globe. When I want to take presents home I desperately search for something that is “traditionally” American; something unique and exclusive because rather surprisingly, an "I love Hollywood" T-shirt is not the perfect gift for everyone. I search in vain.
I think this is one I might be working on for some time.
Meanwhile it’s going to be a couple of quiet weeks in the Bubble because I am off doing what I really do like best about living in America – exploring.
Back in a few weeks!
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