Back in the USA

Annnnnnnnd, I'm home. Actually, I got home Friday afternoon, but I've been pretty busy up until right this moment so I hadn't had a chance to update the ole' blog. In any case, England was pretty much the same as everytime- just another business trip, only with massive jet lag. And there was a lot more driving since now the government contract flights are direct to Heathrow (London) instead of Manchester, making the drive to Wolverhampton 2.5 hours instead of 1, but whatever. We could still fly to Manchester if we wanted to, but we'd have to connect in Chicago. Somehow I refuse to fly 2 hours in the wrong direction only to make an 8-hour flight a 10-hour flight when I can just drive another hour, but that's just me.

Speaking of driving, we had a pretty sweet Peugeot this time, and it had one of those computers that told you your fuel economy all the time. Get this: it told you in miles per gallon, even though they sell gas in liters. How did that happen? I was talking with the British guys about this, and they said what's weirder is that in France, they measure fuel economy in liters per kilometer. So instead of 30 mpg, a car has 0.0784 l/km. I'm sure it's just upbringing, but that seems like a much less useful number to know. Other different things I noticed on this trip:

Live Free or Die Hard is called "Die Hard 4.0" over there. Not just Die Hard 4- apparently they use 2 significant digits at the cinema.

I saw an add for a brand of potato chips (crisps) called Man Crisps. Previously I've seen man-oriented marketing on the Yorkie candy bar, which proudly proclaims "It's Not For Girls!" right on the wrapper, but it still seems a little funny to me. This article refers to these kind of campaigns as "jumping on the mandwagon," and I think that's funny!

We were fairly unadventurous this time food-wise, opting to eat at KFC and Subway instead of local pubs, and though I always have trouble understanding people with accents other than Midwestern, the girl at Subway was something new. I can usually understand British people, but this was the first time I spoke to one who couldn't understand me at all. She would ask "What type of crisps do you want?" I'd say "the baked walkers, please." She'd say "Sorry?" I'd repeat myself. She'd look confused, say "What type of walkers?" I'd say "Baked, please?" and so on, until I ended up with the cheddar and onion variety. It's not what I wanted, but I already had a bottle of Diet Coke when I wanted a fountain Sprite so I let it go. Anyway, the point of this story is that we can sit over here in the United States, fat, dumb and happy thinking we have the most powerful onion flavored potato chips, but dear lord- the United Kingdom clearly has the advantage. I think I could take a bite out of a raw onion and it wouldn't have been as oniony as those crisps. Once I got used to them (or my taste buds burned away) they weren't bad, but I'm sure I had some killer breath thereafter.

And finally, I'll admit that I have trouble with British currency. It's still a handy base-10 system, but I don't recognize any of the coins and I always end up feeling like I'm in a Harry Potter book (how many knuts in a galleon?). But I'm a little confused by the 2 pence coin. It's like a 2 cent coin, and what's the point of that? Is it really worth manufacturing a whole separate coin for 2 cents, when we don't even have a 2 dollar bill anymore (really)? You change would have to end in 4 or 9 pretty often to make it work, and it doesn't because tax is always already included in the price, and they all end in 0 or 5 as it is. I'm sure they have it all worked out.

Plus, there was actually one day that it was sunny, which was the first time I've ever seen the sun in Wolverhampton. It was a nice change of pace. Oh, for another fun note, we took the train from the hotel to the airport, and I woke up at 4:30 a.m. (11:30 p.m. EST) to make the 5:30 train. When I finally laid down in bed Friday night it was 11:30, marking an even 24 hours awake. Woo-hoo! Of course the only reason I was up that late is because my buddy Eric was in town for a visit and we got stuck playing Donkey Konga, but whatever. It was all good. Now I'm here for a week, then it's off to Texas for a week. It's like that Jet Set game show I saw on the BBC, but for places no one really wants to go. And I get a lot less money. But I'm not complaining.