:Burning Burrito

One of the things I still can’t get over is how big all of the cars are here. The average family car would be the equivalent of some sort of monster lorry truck thing in England or most of Europe I suppose. The roads are also bigger in proportion so that all the car/truck things will fit on them.

But what I find strange is that whilst they have these big vehicles with big engines and massive roads with 4 lanes as standard, everyone drives really slowly. The speed limit on the motorways is 65 and most people actually stick to this or even drive slower. It might be something to do with the police being alot stricter on it than they are in England.. they actually hide to try and catch people with radar guns rather than putting up big signs warning people to slow down temporarily because there is a speed camera coming up.

So it’s even more suprising that all Americans seem to drink and drive. And they find it funny that I’m suprised and think it’s bad. It’s like the equivalent of speeding for us - it’s not actually legal but everyone does it and if you get caught it’s not usually a big deal. People say that there isn’t any other option because theres very little public transport and everything is so spread out.. cabs would cost too much. So I guess the only option is to take it in turns to be the driver.. I’ve actually met a lot of foreign placement students at IBM (which they call ‘co-ops’.. like the supermarkets.. pretty dumb) from places like Germany and New Zeland.. and at least they don’t drink and drive.

Anyway seeing as the summer has pretty much finished now and there isn’t gonna be much more hot sun even here, I thought I’d make the most of it and the big roads and pay to upgrade my hire car to a convertible for a month. I’m driving a big black 2006 Mustang with a 4 litre engine(see pic) and it kicks ass… especially in the sun with all the mountains around, music on loud, with 3 hot chicks in the back. Ok I made up the chicks but still a week til I have it back so will try and fit them in at some point…

Oh last night I found out something I didn’t know before.. the word ‘whilst’ isn’t part of the American vocabulary. None of them have heard of it or actually know what it means. Thats almost as stupid as saying math instead of maths..