i was in the US last week and honestly it was very annoying. why must everything be SO large? the cars, not cars in effect, are gigantic, even the reasonably sized accords have grown. come on america, you don’t need those giant suv’s and you are only making yourselvesmore dependent on foreign oil. then there was the portions. everything was huge. i only finished one meal (a chicken bowl) the entire time. just because it is a good deal financially doesn’t mean you must order the extra large! at vons there was entire sections of oversized product. gallon jugs of peanut butter, pillow sized bags of Lays’ potato chips. unbelievable! at costco yes, but vons? and then there were the people. the very large people. familied of large people. come on people, it is SO unhealthy not to mention rather unattractive. it pained me to see people huffing at going up a few stairs! yes, the customer service was wonderful and it is always nice to speak the language but other than that, for the first time, i was happy to return to germany.

while driving in la we noticed something…

‘so what do you do?’

‘i drive around around la while taking on my cell phone’

seriously, there were more people driving while talking on the phone than driving.

have i mentioned how wonderful the security enhancements at us airports are? they seriously piss me off. 8 people on one scanning machine, most of those ‘supervising’. as a process expert and efficiency obsessive/compulsive, i have a really hard time with the inefficiency and blantent insecurity of the security. and all with MY tax dollars! ok, sure, i may have a little spendiing problem but i expect more of the us gov’t since they are spending the tax payers dollars. i am very tight with hp’s money being that it effects so many people. when will the madness stop?

there was a section of highway on 99 that has a sign which says:

‘this section of highway cleaned by atheists and other free thinkers’. there were, in fact, two people cleaning even!

i realize that i complain about my country a lot but it greatly saddens me that americans squander the benfits and opportunities they are granted by being in the us. you have food on your table, why not make it good food. you have your own transportation, why not be economical with it? i am not perfect but i try and i don’t see that with a lot of americans. and the way they just let dubya et al. steal and destroy their rights and safeguards. they almost deserve it, except it effects me too. oh well. cheers.