On my travels...: Through American Cuisine

Time: 2:02pm
Temperature: 13F (much much warmer than it was before!)
Location: On my bed at Joanne's house, snuggled up in 4 blankets
Emotion: Elated by the fact I bought a massive tub of Dunkin' Doughnuts this morning.

Buongiorno, persone... sono inglese ma impero Italiano. Sono felice in Americano!

Hi everyone, sorry for the Italian; I'm trying to teach myself a bit before I go to Italy in a month or so.
The good news:

My rhetorical/lawyerly hand gestures are completely compatible with modern Italian.
If you speak English and use said hand gestures, you automatically slip into an Italian accent.
Super Mario Bros has improved my pronunciation and emphasis of many Italian words, such as 'Mario' or 'Luigi'

The bad news:

Not being able to roll my 'r's is giving me the Italian equivalent of a lisp
The sudden realization that no how much you wave your arms about whilst saying 'molto bene', you won't convince anyone you're Italian with skin paler than a vampire

Right, let's skip over a continent back to America. So, what's been happening over here? To sum it up; a lot more attorney-related chat, a lot more 'oh my gaad'ing about my accent (this is really starting to grow on me) and a lot more experiencing American cuisine. The snow has been pretty bad the past week and it's really slippy on the ground; I've spent 95% of the time as a metaphorical Bambi. You know that one scene where he can't walk across a lake without slipping? The americans are the metaphorical Thumper, who slides on the ice with complete ease.

Watch from about 1:10 in the video...

It doesn't help that I'm walking in 4 inch heeled boots, but even so. I intended to look confident and sophisticated as I power-walked down the pavement but ended up tottering like a little old lady.

Rotary Presentation

Like every other Tuesday, I went to the Rotary meeting at lunch time (I say lunchtime, but for some reason, lunch in America falls at about 11:30am...). This week was different however; normally, a guest

speaker from an organisation/charity is brought in to talk for 15 minutes about their work. This week, I was given the task to give a presentation about myself, my life and the Rotary back home. I am a very confident public speaker when it comes to talking about classics, world politics or even cute little puppies, but I always feel a bit self-absorbed talking about myself for too long. I get a sick feeling in my stomach when someone asks for my full name, let alone when someone asks me about my life!

But, my time to speak arrived and I gave my presentation, showing a multitude of pictures of my house, Stratford-Upon-Avon, my family/dog, my favourite foods (this took up a good 6 slides, four pictures a slide), classic english things, the Banbury Rotary etc. To be frank, I'm not sure if they were actually interested in my talk or just fascinated by my accent. Either way, they looked intrigued and I really enjoyed myself.

I must be quite vain because what was supposed to be a 15 minute talk turned into a half hour talk. It was really fun though and I loved explaining the English way of things and linking in my Scottish heritage. Throughout the talk, I was expecting to be asked deep questions about my life/my future. Instead, when I showed a picture of a scottish man in full garb (kilt, bagpipes, ginger hair etc), I was immediately asked the question of whether Scottish men wore underwear underneath their kilts. Ah well, c'est la vie. At least they were showing interest!

Seneca Falls Court

This is Watertown courthouse (NOT seneca falls)
I forgot to put a picture in last week

Sorry, did I say Seneca Falls? I meant Seneca Fails, because that's what Wednesday morning was; a big fail. We drove at least half an hour to get to Seneca Falls for a court case. I discovered that the Court buildings in Seneca used to be an Elementary school and the main court room was a refurbished basketball court. I was fairly nonplussed by this knowledge but was eager to see what an elementary school looked like.
We arrived, got out the car and, as many an attorney in the US does, we swaggered into the court buildings. When we went to sign in, we discovered that there had been some miscommunication and the case was on the 26th February, not the 29th January.
:-/ was my expression in response to this information.
So I got a small glimpse of the main court room and it was absolutely bizarre seeing court tables and chairs surrounded by bleachers and a basketball hoop at each end of the room. Maybe it was a slightly wasted morning... but, like so many other days, the sky was completely blue, everyone covered in snow. It's pretty difficult to be annoyed for long in a place like this!

Attorney Battle
All the other weeks, the cases I have seen in court have been fairly civilised. Not this week! I had the immense pleasure of seeing a murder hearing on Tuesday. Well, actually, maybe "immense pleasure" is the wrong sentiment. "Immense satisfaction" would probably be more appropriate! To say that a few sparks flew would be a gross understatement. The judge looked less pleased to be there than the criminal! The two attorneys were at eachother's throats and every other sentence was greeted by an "Objection!" from the opposition. Honestly, the Hunger Games had less fighting! I found it very amusing to watch grown men bickering over semantics (which sounds a little petty, but the arguments were really starting to get personal between the attorneys!). I was sitting on the edge of my seat for the whole hearing, eagerly awaiting the outcome.

Eating out...
This week, I had the pleasure of eating out in 4 separate locations. I'll try to be fairly brief about this...
Underground Cafe:
The Underground Cafe has fantastic cookies and I was taught a number of card games there with Tim Donovan and the other Drug Court assistants

Diner:

My only reference to an American diner up until this trip was the movie "A Cinderella story" (favourite quote: Sam, there's something I've always wanted to tell you and I think you're ready to hear it. You're not very pretty, and you're not very bright! I'm so glad we had that talk...). Like most diners, this diner was designed and made out of a train carriage. It amused me no end to see you could buy a 'FREEDOM SANDWICHES' on the menu. All I can say is: thank you, America, for realising the growing international problem of sandwiches being
enslaved. It makes my heart soar with pride to know that if the fate of the world crumbles, at least our sandwiches will be free.

Mesa Grande

Mexican fast food place on the main street.
I have never tried quesadilla or tacos up until this point and I'm so glad I have now - chicken quesadilla is unbeliavable tasty/non-spicy

Mexican restaurant

Since I enjoyed Mexican fast food so much, Rome treated me to a genuine Mexican restaurant (complete with Mexican waiters, sombreros covering the walls, etc) and I had proper quesadilla. Sadly I didn't read the menu properly and ordered a spicy quesadilla. My tongue has never experienced more pain.