'Tis a strange place

I've had 12 hours of excitement and discovery since I arrived. (Let's not mention the more than 24 hours it took to get here, shall we?)

For instance, did you know:

1. American Airlines don't feed you? I didn't realise this til I was safely strapped in for my 3 hour flight from LA to Dallas and looking forward to lunch. I could have bought a snack box for $4 but it sounded completely unappetising and had turkey in it. So I arrived in Dallas starving. And Texas isn't the best place for a vegetarian to be looking for a little something healthy to eat... Got a great postcard of the airport, though (that last comment is loaded with sarcasm, by the way)

2. There really is a man on the moon? We flew into Philadelphia in a massive storm last night (which caused the captain to go for a bit of a joy ride for 40 minutes before deciding to actually land) and at one stage the clouds cleared and there was definitely a face on the moon. Or maybe I was in advanced stages of hallucination...

3. In America, you flick the lightswith up to turn on the light and down to turn it off.4. And in the bathroom you pull the tap up to turn it on.

5. Don't ask me how to turn the lamp off - my brain had gone into overload by the time it was explained to me.

6. Hours of fun can be had by reading the labels on the food and trying to work out what the heck all the ingredients actually are and, more importantly, why someone felt it was necessary to add whatever it is to, for instance, a pottle of yoghurt.

7. You can buy red bananas!8. Everything really is bigger here - the food packages, the shopping trolleys and even the fruit and vege bags at the supermarket.

9. Hours of entertainment can be had by noticing such differences and commenting on them . Cries of "really?!" and "Get outta here!" have been regularly heard this morning. Also fun is teaching Americans new words. So far we've done taradiddle (to get completely sidetracked on the way from point A to point B) and plonker (an idiot).

So what did we do on my first day in the USA? Went frugalling, of course!First stop in the morning was The Beehive Thrift Store where I bought some craft fabric for $4.50 total and a pile of Osh Gosh and Baby Gap clothes which I plan to sell on eBay upon my return to hopefully cover the cost of my cruise.Then we popped into The Lighthouse Thrift Shop up the road, dodging a crocodile of little people tied together by their wrists and going for a walk. "Hello Mum! Hello Mum!" they all chorused as we went past which was very very cute but a little disconcerting as I don't remember giving birth to a gaggle of little black babies 4 years ago.

Anyway, into the shop and we discover it is Bag Day. Which means you buy a large paper grocery bag off them for $5 and stuff it with as many clothes as you can. So with my canny packing methods we managed to fit almost a garbage bag full of designer babywear in the bag (plus a grey hooded sweatshirt for me as the forecast for sailing day is cold) for that price.

Plus I bought 4 pairs of baby sneakers for $2 each: Adidas, Nike, New Balance and Chuck Taylors.Final stop for the morning was the Salvation Army where we cleared them out of designer baby duds before heading off to lunch...

(There's more but I've had the internet hang on me twice and reboot once while I was writing this so I will take it as a sign and tell you about our adventures at Target next post - Nancy sure knows how to show a visitor a good time!)