Day 215
New Jersey, USA
Some other things about here...
Behind me, for instance, is the reception. And last night when i was on here (the net doing the blog) all sorts of odd bods were coming in and out...and since i was sitting here quietly, i was catching all sorts of things..and i reckon...there is something going on here..some sort of dealing. Don't know...
And this morning..it was weird. A knock came at our door at 9am, just after we'd had our showers and when we opened the door there was a big black guy and a girl asking if she could change our towels. I thought it was weird because i mean, we've been to a lot of hotels, and they don't usually ask that before breakfast. Breakfast finished at 10am. Anyway, we gave her our towels and went to breakfast.
At breakfast we were sitting at one of the two tables that are set up for hotel guests (another weird thing since there are hundreds of rooms and breakfast is included and there were only two tables and only us there! We thought maybe being a hotel for the airpot that people probably check in and out really quickly!
There did seem to be a lot of people checking in and out at weird hours while i was on here last night!
Anyway, as we were eating...a guy came in with a large bag...and filled it up with all the breakfast stuff...which included a drink bottle to fill with milk. It was so weird...when we watched him disappear the hotel staff didn't batter an eyelid..and yet on the wall was a big sign saying, 'no breakfast food is to be taken out of the breakfast area'.
It just seemed weird!
We decided it was a bit of a thing they 'do'.....maybe in return for favours or something. Hmm.
When we got back to the room, the towels still weren't replaced..and so we wondered why they knocked for them. Could be simple. But we thought maybe we were just being told to have breakfast before the 'raider' came in and cleared it all out!!
Today we've been watching the tv...getting our kicks. And there are so many ads for lawyers on there!! SO MANY. Every second ad is a lawyer advertising how much cash he can get for people!!! Weirdest thing.
And the chat shows had us in absolute stitches! If we thought they were rubbish back home..they are absolutel TRASH here. Fighting, yelling, squabbling..with the host taking the perpetual mickey out of the 'characters' and the audience, including us, in stitches at the hilarity of it all!
The language is so unsual. The people we're dealing with anyway..which is mostly in teh service industry. Yesterday when we ordered two muffins..a blueberry one and an apple one..she came out with two chocolate chip biscuits and a apple cake!!! She didn't understand a word we said. Is Australian that hard to understand? It must be!
Also..on the train, twice, we asked directions..and the respose we got to the question, 'How do we catch the airport shuttle?" was, 'Look here - you GO TO THE AIRPORT!" Also, at the train, we asked, 'Is this the right train to the airport?' and she said, "Look at the number of the station, it's numberrrrr 11....it's the airport one!!" Did we ask the wrong question or were we too specific?
At both of these answers we must have given quizzical looks because we felt we didn't even get an answer..so the first person actually did go and find out how we specifically caught the shuttle once we got there..and the second one decided to tell us, yes the train is the right one.
It's like they are hostile before they even think about the question they've been asked and once they realise we're not just asking for no reason, they do help and then become friendly.
It's strange anyway.
Since i've been on here..people have been in dealing about things. It just seems strange. You know when you get a sense about a place. Weird.
But anyway, the room has got a microwave (what's that for anyway..to heat up take aways?) and a coffee maker..
Oh yeah, the coffee maker. We think it's in the room for show. When we got back we asked the girl for the towels as she was just standing in the hall with the trolley and Greg asked for coffee for the coffee maker. She had no idea what he was talking about! He asked for the coffee as it was a filter machine and there were no coffee sachets there..and she thought he wanted a new filter. I think they must think we speak double dutch!
And we really can't understand a lot of what they say either.
The annoncements on the subway are just strange. We certainly can not understand what they're saying there. Must be the colloquial language like we aussies have slang. Not sure. But we can't understand it. It's not like the American language on the tv either. Or what my friend Kate from Chicago speaks. It's something entirely different. Another language?
Talk about having intensive linguistic training in multiple languages since we've been away! Our hearing has become very acute. But here in the US..where we thought it'd be easy, it's actually harder to understand! At least the computer is in English language! hahaha That's really good - the commands are finally in computer language i understand!
But that's just a few things we've noticed.
Mostly, America is BIG. All is big. Pizza's are big. They have the biggest of everything. And the most strange!
GOTTA LOVE AMERICA!!!
And that's what we've been thinking about today....
Oh, and Chris Mainwaring. Elise send us a newspaper article in email..which told us a bit more about what happened. I didn't know he was separated (as if i would know that anyway!) but that seems to have been the trigger point for his weekend binge. It's all very sad.
I used to see him at the local shops as he lived in the same suburb..and we went to the same high school. Of course on the powerball and channel 7 so he was an extremely familiar face to us all. I felt like he was a good solid guy..a role model for the kids in Gero that's for sure. Gee, this is such a terrible way for a star to end his life.
Not that i knew him personally..just on a hello basis. Which i imagine he would have been on with anyone that acknowledged him. He was a 'Gero Boy'! I feel awful about what happened. We all do from the reports i've read. Such a shock. And such a waste of a talented man. I'll read more from the website that Y sent me (thanks for that, you're wonderful!).
Okies..just raving here...going to go and look up some news and read my emails..
xx
