Well I've been in Austin three full days and I've already noticed some really odd things about the place:
- Half and Half - it's an abomination and wrong on so many levels. I was told "we have 10 different kinds of milk" in the Wholefoods store and they still didn't know what I meant by a normal white coffee with full fat milk or just with regular full fat cream. The food in the 'health' store was not particularly healthy when you read the label, and they had help-yourself breakfast buffets that looked like seven shades of E.coli were residing on it.
- The food and people come in sizes large, massive and wow. It's nearly impossible to get a mini tub of ice cream or a pint of milk but I can buy most things in a size that is larger than my head if I so wish.
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| Massive Yoghurts, milks & some 'real' food |
- They have super sucky toilets and no hand dryers. All the toilets in Austin are like airplane ones that suck away really fast rather than flush. Plus I've not seen one Dyson airdryer or any other hand dryer since I arrived - they're all paper towels here.
- Petrol is a third of the price it is in the UK. The equivalent of 50p a litre in fact (it's around £1.30-£1.40 in the UK). Which I guess is why people drive everywhere.
- They have little TVs in the back of taxis. They are not interesting to watch - the same as the TV in my hotel room.
- The food is pretty full-on. I already feel larded out and am craving something that isn't fried, full of sugar, covered in weird stuff, or an odd mix of lots of things I'm not used to seeing on the same plate.
- The price you see isn't the price you pay. They have state taxes or something which means that you have no idea how much money to get out of your purse and feel that you're being conned and the cashier is just randomly deciding on a figure.
- The service is very good in restaurants - they check back on you around 600 times whilst you're eating but once you have ordered or refused dessert the bill is bought immediately even if you haven't asked for it. There are no 2-3 hour leisurely meals like on the continent here.
- They say flaaaaaarn and not flan - it's mesmerising.
- They also 'reach out' to people quite a lot here instead of just contacting them.
- The coffee is very different to European coffee... and I love my US readers so that's all I'm saying on that one.
I know it does sound like a huge complaint but I'm British and that's what we do. Austin is not a place I would want to live but I have bought a cowboy hat which I'm refusing to take off.
The competition hasn't kicked off yet but the US team we're working with are pretty incompetent and every day is a bit of a struggle. Some of the people are fantastic but others are woefully unprepared for the task at hand. This is not because they're American of course, but because they're just not very good at their jobs.
I shall of course give you more info about my stay when I get more time - I'm here for 18 days altogether and I move to the Four Seasons on Thursday (L'occitane products in the bathroom!). I miss my cats A LOT but I don't miss the crappy English weather. I half expect the UK to have blown away by the time I get back actually.
Funny post! ;0)
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha! When I arrived in New York, I couldn't for the life of me figure out why my host was so eager to point out where the tea and milk were in her kitchen. "Yeah thanks, I get that at home", I thought to myself. Oh my hat, did I learn the meaning of her actions over the week to come!
ReplyDeleteIf I never see half & half again it will be too soon. Stop fucking with the stuff people - leave it as it is!
DeleteLooking forward to those L'Occitane product samples.....
ReplyDeleteYou won't be disappointed. I may have gone over my weight allowance...
Deletei can't imagine going from your home to the US...let alone austin...but I've never been, but I've seen it on TV.... yes, we have state taxes over here, so you always pay more! where i live, there are no taxes on food at the grocery store, but on everything else. and restaurants...it's their business to get in as many paying customers as possible, so they politely check on you a million times to guilt you into leaving! Great post!
ReplyDeleteThey also leap on you as soon as you walk into a store which is a new one. They ask you how your day is going & everything - but I don't think they really care too much! They lurk around every corner, trying to find anyone to help you in the UK is a task in itself but I'm unused to the over-interest!
DeleteForget your Englishness - don't compare - embrace the different.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, Wholefoods - they have a couple in Vegas - I went in once and would never go back - it's a rip off owned by a right-wing nutjob. But it's a supermarket and you're in Texas. Of course the sizes are going to be nothing but big - why would you even expect them to carry small stuff? Distances are enormous, people make a shopping trip once a month, they want to stock up. If you want a smaller size, try a 7-11 type convenience store.
As for the food - why not have steak and salad or a Cobb salad? Salad is the operative word here.
Look, if Texans come to England, they're more shocked than you are - dinky little place, old buildings, awful food and not much of it.
And, of course, they wouldn't know what white coffee is - we have different terminology - it's your job to learn it, not theirs. Need I remind you that until 25 years ago or so, England had the worst coffee.
I see you're in the downtown business district - you need to go visit the prettier areas with the happening music scene - maybe they'll even have better coffee.
Some of these huge sizes were in small convenience stores! Surely the stuff would go off unless you had a massive family perhaps - it's just an observation cos I am so unused to seeing anything this large in the UK.
ReplyDeleteI thought I would be eating meat and veg/salad all the time but it's not that easy. Although pretty much every single store sells food (I looked for a shoe shop yesterday & locals said there wasn't one) getting some basic food without crap or cheese chucked all over it is pretty hard. I've lost weight which is quite something.
They have good coffee in the Four Seasons (Illy) apart from that I have not been impressed one bit. It's not my job to do anything and Americans are welcome to think and comment on anything they see in the UK. At least everything is covered by something passing itself off as cheese. I'd like to visit New York one day but so far America isn't doing it for me. x
I, for one, have had the most marvellous adventures in the US, but I arrived under different circumstances - not on business trips in chain hotels, but with a comedy troupe - right away I was with comedians, actors, musicians, creative types - never really noticed or cared about the food.
DeleteBut everything changes - all the industrialized nations are being stomped on by the corporate jackboot. The Manhattan I adored is no more - just a gated community for the rich now. Vegas is not half the fun it used to be. The middle class is being eliminated - just the wealthy and their managers and serfs remain.
Still, I had the best of it. Don't know what young people who don't wish to be corporate drones will do, but I was here when it was one big blast.