Listening and learning from Americans

This just sucks, I had a nice post ready to go and I managed to lose it, damn. Oh well I guess I will try this over again, though it's going to be a bit shorter since I'm tired of writing this already.

So in the listening to Americans I came across this jem the other day at lunch:

"How would you know if 15 C was warm or cold?" This was a comment made in relation to my mentioning that I was still unfamiliar with how warm the Fahrenheit scale was in comparison to the Celsius scale to which I am accustomed. Obviously this person forgets that both scales are relative in terms or warmth/cold and one has to learn them as they go. He wasn't born knowing that 30 F was cold and 85 F is hot.

Then again I haven't been to impressed by this guy so far anyway. Earlier on in the conversation he asked me to repeat how far I had biked three times before I realized that he was condescendingly telling me to convert it to miles for him. Though what should one expect from a Chemistry PhD student? An ability to adapt to others (using a nearly universal measurement system), or perhaps even the ability to be polite among supposed peers. Nah, that's too much to ask for, the best one can hope for is pig-headedness.

And a few things that I forgot in my list of things I've learned:

1. The best post Sept. 11th investment (other than Halliburton) would have been any company that makes American flags - these things are everywhere, there is a bridge in St Paul which has one every 50 ft on both sides of the superstructure
2. Americans, particularly those in the service industry, cannot (or maybe will not) pronounce foreign words properly - the most typical examples are espresso (eXpresso) and croissant (cross-ANT), surprisingly enough they can pronounce Cappuccino?
3. Weather in the Midwest apparently must containing a warning for either thunderstorms or tornados - I literally doubt that a day has gone by that I have not heard a warning for either one, and I've only seen about 3 thunderstorms and heard of one tornado touching down

And to keep people updated on my life a bit more, last night I was out mountain biking for the first time this season. I went out with a number of the riders from the University team to a place called Lebanon hills. It's really nice singletrack trails that are super smooth and really fast. There were almost no roots across the trails (something not seen in Edmonton) and most of the bigger obstacles were man-made (log piles for the most part). But the riding was great, it was neat to ride with a few people on single speeds with no suspension, they were so quiet. I may have to get the cyclocross bike out there sometime, it would be supper fast and fun.

So that's it for now from Minneapolis. I hope everyone is doing well. For all of you who have e-mailed me and I have yet to respond, I apologize and I will try to catch up on that by the end of the week. I miss you all.