Words, Words, Words

As my friend Genevieve commented on my last post, there are many cultural differences between Australia and North America. But I also discovered instances where the culture is the same... but the vocabulary is different.

Most of these came up in everyday conversation with my cousins. Putting things in the back of the car, they were surprised to hear that I refer to the 'trunk' as the 'boot'. They had never heard 'bonnet' for the 'hood' either.

Lemon bar, photo by Artizone, CC by 2.0

We spent a lot of time just sitting at home catching up on each other's news.
"I found a great recipe for lemon bars the other day," my aunt tells me.
"Um, that's great," I reply. "What's a lemon bar?"
Everyone looks at me.
"It's... like..."
The urge to use Google overpowers the search for words, and someone shows me a photo of a lemon bar on their mobile phone.
"We call that a slice," I explained. "Australians have caramel slice in every cafe, ever."

Caramel slice, photo by rore, CC by 2.0

My cousin Francis couldn't get his head around it. ("A slice of what?" "No, it's called a slice." "But a slice of what? Pizza?" "No, it's just called a slice.")

The funniest incident, though was when I mentioned that I had eaten the grape PBJ on bananas that morning in my rental room as I had run out of bread. I would have added sultanas, too, if I had any.
"What are sultanas?" one cousin asked.
I looked around the room. No one had heard of sultanas -- not my Hong Kong family. Not my East or West USA coast relatives. Not my Canadian-Chinese cousin or my Anglophile uncle.
"Are they... something Turkish?"
When I explained that they were dried grapes, my cousin spotted a bucket of raisins on the counter and handed it to me.

Tomayto, tomahto, raisin, sultana

I ate one and confirmed, yup, they taste just like the sultanas in Sultana Bran cereal.
"Sulta- wait, you mean Raisin Bran?" everyone asked.
It appears so!

Sure enough, I saw loads of Raisin Bran in Costco in Sacramento

Why in Australia we have sultanas in snack boxes and sultanas in cereal but then raisin toast in cafes and in loaves, though, I have no idea.

All these inconsistencies is enough to give one a headache, isn't it? Better take some paracetamol... wait, they don't have that here. Or so I thought.

North Americans are particularly fond of using genericised trademarks, like Kleenex (tissue) and Hoover (vacuum). Not that we don't do that, just not as much.

But we do say "Pop a Panadol". Similarly, North Americans say "Take a Tylenol". They're just brand names, of course. So when I wanted to grab a painkiller I checked the labels... no paracetamol. Just ibuprofen and acetaminophen.

It turns out acetaminophen, also known as Tylenol, is also known as... paracetamol. Why we even use different names for the active ingredient, I have no idea. Anyone able to enlighten me on this?

Edited: A friend answered this for me! "Paracetamol and acetaminophen are both derivatives of one of the old chemical names for the substance (n-para-acetylaminophenol). It's just that no one could agree on which letters to keep." Thank you Norman!

The food post: California edition

As much eating as I do when I travel, it would be remiss of me not to talk about the food.
Again -- this leg of the trip is for visiting family, not for sightseeing or pleasure, so my cultural experience is rather limited. But here goes.

Breakfast at Vic’s Café (next to Vic’s Ice Cream) proved pretty good.

Breakfast at Vic's Cafe

The waffle may draw eyes, but the bagel in the background is the real star. It’s an everything bagel with egg, bacon and cheese.

Everything bagel with egg, bacon & cheese, 2018

(For the uninitiated, an ‘everything’ bagel has poppy, sesame and caraway seeds on it, and often salt, garlic and onion. Yum.)

Everything bagel with cream cheese, 2016

For coffee, I ordered an ‘Americano without room’, which is Americanese for a long black without milk. Huh.

Note the writing on my cup: nothing like an A- first thing in the morning

My American cousins arrived to join the reunion the next day, and I swear their eyes bugged out of their heads when I said that I’ve never eaten grape jelly. So after a rather good yum cha with family, it was off to Target we went.

Note: ‘Jelly’ is American English for ‘jam’. They call the wobbly stuff 'jell-o'.

I eat PBJ (peanut butter and jam sandwiches) at home all the time, but usually with apricot conserve, because that’s how I ate it growing up. My cousins explained to me that there are two camps: the PBJ with strawberry jelly camp, and the PBJ with grape jelly camp. They are both in the strawberry jelly camp, but grape jelly is still a quintessential American food, so I had to try it. You can buy it in jars on its own, but I opted for the 2-in-1 for travel convenience.

Peanut butter and grape jelly spread on toast

Grape jelly turns out to be quite nice, milder than I expected. Strawberry jam is sweeter, so I can understand why it is preferred by my cousins on bread/toast, to balance out the richness of peanut butter.

Now, I know long-time readers are waiting for the junk food update. Honestly, the must-eat list is getting shorter after a few trips to the States. But there's always room for a few more...

All purchased at Target

Special mention goes to the Hawaiian kettle sweet maui onion chips and the Tate's choc chip cookies. Yum.

Next post should be on differences in language and conventions in the USA compared to Australia. I've collected a fair few so far, but if you have any questions, just comment below and I'll see if I can answer or investigate for you!

5 things I've learned about Sacramento

Honestly, this week has been family time, and I've been to Sacramento a couple of times before and done my sightseeing. So this time I don't have any history or museum stories to share, nor any entertaining exploits painting the town red. But I'm always keeping my eyes peeled for interesting things to share...

Mural showing Sacramento's highlights (click to enlarge)

Sacramento is the City of Trees. This one was obvious as soon as I arrived. Of course, it's a big city so I'm sure that not every neighbourhood looks the same, but I'm staying in a very nice one and its tree-lined streets are lovely.

The tree-lined streets are lovely.

Sacramento is the spiritual home of tribbles. I was puzzled when I found a tribble in the park, until I learned that Sacramento is the home of three different Star Trek bands (No Kill I, Warp 11 and No Kill I: The Next Generation). No wonder tribbles roam free in the parks...

Living among squirrels is no tribble at all

'Undulations' is not just a fancy word for speed bumps. Sacramento has speed humps, speed lumps, speed tables, and yes, undulations.

Hmm.

Central Public Radio has an article and awesome infographic explaining the difference between the different traffic calming devices.

The suburbs are great for dogspotting. I've seen soo many dogs out for walks -- a Boston terrier, a husky, a German shepherd, three basset hounds, a Cavalier, many small fluffies. A Frenchie out training with its human. A Golden sticking its head out of the the window of the car in front. A Weimaraner and its hound friend waiting outside the farmers' market because 'NO DOGS ALLOWED'.

Even Bullseye the Target dog

Sacramento is not just the state capital of California -- it's an agricultural region too. I haven't eaten out a lot, so I couldn't tell you how many of the restaurants are supplied with local food, but I have been to two of their many farmers' markets and seen the vegetables, fruit and bread.

America's Farm-to-Fork Capital

Sacramento is for quiet time

These few days have been relatively quiet ones for me, which is great. I get to settle in before the hordes of family arrive (only for a day or two), so it'll just be a whirlwind and then quiet again. I like busy, generally, but while the primary purpose of these trips is to accompany my mother, they are also a much-needed break from reality. So a few quiet days isn't bad.

Click any picture to embiggen it

And what a place to do it -- every time I visit I am struck by the beauty in my Californian uncle's neighbourhood. Sure, the weather's beautiful right now -- sunny, warm but not hot -- but that's not why I enjoy the walk to his house each morning. The thing is, in this area, every house looks very different from its neighbour. (Well, neighbor, I suppose!)

I wrote about American flags on my first trip to the States.
I marvelled at the American patriotism;
my Ohioan friend suggested it's simply jingoism.

Some houses have red brick, some blue panels, some white slates. Some have roses out front, some have conifers, some maples, tulips, bluebells and so on. I have to say that most of them are well-maintained with flowers pruned and lawn neatly mowed. And all the lawns are so incredibly green!

I count the political signs as I walk to uncle's: 'Make American Great Again', 'Love Wins',
'Stop the Tunnels'. Are all residents this political?

As I walked over yesterday morning, I mused that it was because people in this area pay gardeners to mow their lawn. But as I walked past, a worker carrying rolls of turf nodded to me, and I nodded back.

I know the secret to the green lawns now -- they must get the turf replaced weekly! I was so impressed last time I visited in autu- uh, fall -- that alongside the council rubbish/recycling/green waste collection, the council also provides collection for the fallen leaves. Just sweep them into a pile and leave by the kerbside and the truck will come and collect it. So why not weekly turf replacement, huh?

Chapter 2018 begins

Well, hello there.

It looks like I left off in Boston in 2016. Well, after Boston I went to Sacramento, California, to visit my uncle before heading back home to Australia.

It's two years later, but I'm once again in Sacramento, CA. I flew in yesterday, but had family obligations after the long trip, so I've just sat down to open this new chapter of the blog.

This trip will consist of a 10-day stop in Sacramento for a birthday celebration and family visit, then -- guess what? A week in Vancouver, BC, Canada! Yes, Donzerly Light now includes bonus Canada! 2 for the price of one! Get yours now at...

The 13-hour flight was smooth. Ordinarily I would read a book, or get out my laptop and write, but owing to some significant sleep deprivation I mainly watched movies.

The recommended list:

Frozen (five years late to the party; I'm sure you've all seen this one)

Murder on the Orient Express

Year Million (Nat Geo documentary series on the future of the world thanks to science/tech)

The not-recommended list:

StarTalk (hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson)

Puppy Dog Pals from Disney Jr. 

I got stopped by security at SFO and had to have a quick pat-down and the 10-sec explosive-testing because I left my Opal transport smartcard in my back pocket, oops!

Sniffer beagles are just as cute as normal beagles but probably just as evil inside. 

The animal relief area at the domestic terminal looked tiny to me, but it's good they've got one. I notice these things now that I'm in the dog training field.

When we reach the US the major cities will be labelled and I will wish I could visit all of them

Whenever I see the flight map over the US, I wish I actually planned for my trips and not just tagged-along or jabbed a finger at a random city that I've heard of. Don't get me wrong, I love every place I've been to so far in the US, but I could probably make better use of my time by choosing carefully.

An already long (planned) stopover at SFO turned into a 10-hour one thanks to delays (the captain was AWOL, apparently... Dammit, Jim!). Ordinarily not an issue, but I was unable to contact my uncle, who had offered to pick us up. It was a comedy of errors -- my SIM card hadn't activated as requested, so I didn't have mobile service, only airport WiFi. For a lot of people data is enough to get in touch... but my uncle doesn't have a mobile phone. Never mind, that's what the courtesy phone at the airport is for, right? ... Except when you get a disconnected tone on dialing his landline!

10 hrs at SFO: Desperate times call for desperate measures

I later found out that the night before, his landline and internet (which are connected) had suddenly stopped working. They did, of course, resume normal service once we contacted a bunch of other family members who finally got a message across so we were eventually picked us up from the airport. Hah!

Anyway, with that all done -- time to get onto the visiting and seeing part!

The universities of Boston

So, about the universities in Boston's northern region -- Cambridge.

Harvard's buildings are not particularly impressive from the exterior. I only saw the inside of the Memorial Hall, built to honour the Harvard students who fought in the American Civil War, and it was nice, but not particularly large.

Glimpse of the Memorial Hall interior

So the site itself isn't particularly worth visiting, to be honest, BUT I joined an official historical tour of Harvard Yard, led by an inexplicably endearing recent graduate (he graduated last week) who told the folklore of Harvard in a simultaneously dramatic and deadpan manner. He was from the Boston area, and unmistakably had its ubiquitous accent, and yet the only adjective I can think of to describe him is "droll" (a word which most Americans are unlikely to know the meaning of, I'll bet)!

This is the nicest photo I have of Harvard Yard. Seriously.

The Harvard museums, though, which are on the campus as well, are well-worth the visit. The Harvard Museum of Natural History was particularly impressive, with its Glass Flowers collection -- and I personally enjoy evolution exhibits every time I see them, even if they are often pretty similar.

Not only scientifically accurate but incredibly realistic glass models of flowers

My look at MIT was even briefer, actually, but I had a fun moment when a distinctive-looking building caught my eye. It was designed by architect Frank Gehry. who recently designed one for my little university back home, too. Had I time I would have definitely visited MIT's Science Museum for its AI displays. Maybe not its sole campus tour though, which is aimed at prospective students. I think that ship has sailed...

On Privilege: There But for the Grace...

Amongst all this frivolity I have to mention that I haven't forgotten how lucky I am to have the freedom to walk down the street, to travel, to study and to basically do as I please, free from oppression, prejudice and violence.

I am having a wonderful time travelling the world, with the money, privilege and opportunity to do so, and be cared for by family and friends, judged neither for my choices nor who I am. Not everyone does.

Makes me sad to think this mode of expression isn't just art, but necessary

I am not religious but I think I will be forgiven for borrowing an expression I really believe in -- there but for the grace of God, go I. And whatever you believe or don't believe in, whoever you are, whatever you have or don't have, it is up to all of us to recognise our own privilege and stand up for those who don't have that privilege.

Gadsden flag at the USS Constitution at half-mast

Orlando, FL, and everyone with less privilege than I, I'm thinking of you.