Going Native

I think that I remain essentially British in my outlook, but I have detected a few worrying signs of going native since my arrival in the US.

I now regularly drink an “Arnold Palmer”, this is a non-alcoholic mixture of iced tea and lemonade. All but impossible to obtain in the UK, as iced-tea is not available and lemonade is a very different drink. The drink gets its name because it was the favoured beverage of the golfer Arnold Palmer. In common with most soft drinks in bars and restaurants it is served as a “bottomless” drink. This means that your server will continue to bring you endless refills as long as you are at the table.

I am starting to use words like server and beverage when I mean waiter and drink.

If I am driving out before I have finished drinking my coffee I pour the rest into a commuter mug, place it in one of the car’s cup holders and drink on the go.

Yesterday, I felt it noteworthy enough to comment that the people across the street were washing their own car.

However, I still would not talk to a stranger on a bus, train, or plane. I continue to put a U in words such as favoured. I still refer to “The Beautiful Game” as football and not soccer.

Christmas Lights

I wrote a few weeks back on the start of the “holiday” decorations, but the season of commercial exploitation moved into top gear once Thanksgiving had passed. On the evening of thanksgiving the first houses started hanging lights outside and placing animated illuminated reindeer in their front yards. Every shop is now playing nothing but Christmas music, the only exception was a rendition of “The Red Flag” in a Marshall’s stored last week. (For the irony deficient among you, I know the tune is shared by a German Carol “O Tannenbaum”)

In the UK there has been an increasing tendency to add to drape once house in lights, but here in the US it seems that at least half of the houses are ablaze with festive contributions to climate change. I do see some beautifully decorated and illuminated houses as I drive around the local streets, but all too often I feel the need to travel with a thesaurus to supply me with synonyms for the word tacky.