Blog! Whoop I'm in America. Now I have been to every continent (apart from the Arctic and the Antarctic, but I can hold off on those for now). I don't have much to do today other than hang around the hotel until it's time to go to the wedding, so I thought I may as well go back to my blogging-on-the-go. I miss it!

So, I jollied off on National Express to the airport; had a bit of drama where I almost didn't have a seat on the plane (this would have worked out, I'd have got on a flight 3 hours later and 600 euros in cash!!) but they squeezed me on. I amused myself on the flight by watching Iron Man 2 (crap) and Shrek 4 (funny, especially fat Puss-in-Boots, I did get a mini fit of hysterics on the plane). Landed in Philly, followed Steph's very detailed directions to her crib (got a bit confused by the subway, but found it's impossible to get lost when the streets are numbered 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc). Rang Steph's doorbell and a mini blonde whirlwind appeared, ensued much hugging, jumping, squealing and grinning. I haven't seen Steph in over a year, having left her jumping in the river at Vang Vieng in Laos last April. Good times. Anyway, the intervening time fell away and within ten minutes we were gossiping in her kitchen as if I lived around the corner. A few hours later Tim and Lara arrived from Australia (Tim had met Steph and Genny on the same trip as me, but our paths hadn't crossed, and Lara is his girlfriend). I was really tired by this point as I'd been up for 24 hours (unusually not involving alcohol) so pretty much passed out for the next 12 hours.

Oh, Steph's house is really amazing. It's a loft conversion, and it's all open plan and so nice. Old fashioned but in a good way. It helps that her and her room-mate are quite arty, so they've decorated and designed it really well. And they have the exact same Audrey Hepburn poster as me, which is weird. I could so live there. They have two cats as well. And the area of Philly they live in is full of renovated warehouses and little independent shops and coffee shops. It doesn't feel like the centre of a city. Downtown Philly is a whole other story!

The next day Steph went to work, and myself, Tim and Lara went sightseeing. We went to see the Liberty Bell, which is apparently really important to American history and independence, but we basically queued for thirty minutes to see a not very impressive and fairly small bell. After this we just went for a general wander. We found a shopping mall called the Gallery which had this food court with no less than 15 similar but different fast food joints. We have since been there every day and Steph told us it is the most ghetto place in Philly (kind of like the Pallasades)...you know, we want to see everything! There are some interesting characters walking around...including some fairly large people!

After this we went to South Street which had loads of art-work, wall murals, independent shops. We liked it there. And they had a WholeFoods. Oh my god! I love this shop! They have loads of healthy food, but it's nice and exciting healthy food. Not only this, they have dairy free ice cream! And cakes! I got so excited. Oh, and they have soy frapuccinos here. Amazing. I'm moving here just for the food. It is weird here though, everything is either super-sized-deep-fried or healthy no-trans-fats-soy. And everything has the calorie count on it. So a meal from McDonalds actually says 1500 calories on the board.

Starbucks has proved somewhat entertaining since I've been here. Firstly, they literally have one on every street corner. And there are no other coffee chains. They definitely monopolise the market. Not that I care, I love Starbucks, especially when they do soy frapuccinos.

Starbucks incident #1: Experienced by Tim. Tim told me this before I had had a Starbucks experience myself, and I laughed at him. I have learnt better since.

Tim: "Can I have an equal?" (my response upon hearing this story was, "what's an equal?" but I was informed it is a brand of sweetener readily available in America)

Starbucks person: (incredulously) "A what?"

Tim: (embarrassed) "Oh, it's fine, just the coffee"

Starbucks person: (very slowly and patronisingly) "No, no. Let's just slow down here. We're going to get you what you need"

Starbucks incident #2: Experienced by me

Jane: "Could I get a soy mocha?"

Starbucks: "What?"

Jane "A soy mocha"

Starbucks: "Sorry I don't understand you. What do you want?"

Jane: "A...soy.....mocha....coffee with chocolate"

Starbucks: "Oh! You want a MO-cha"

Stupid Jane!

Starbucks incident #3: My favourite

Jane: "Could I get a soy latte"

Starbucks: "Do you want a hat?"

Jane: "What?"

Starbucks: "Hat"

Jane: (pause) "huh?"

Starbucks: (annoyed) "Hat! You wanna hat?!"

Jane: (assuming hat means lid, but thinking this is a strange question) "Uh, yeah?"

Starbucks: (realising comprehension has not dawned) "Do you want hat? Or ice?"

Jane: (further pause -queue is building) "Oh!!! Yes, hot please!"

I'm getting better now though, the last few experiences have been incident-free. Or perhaps I'm just developing a thicker skin.

Other than exploring Philly, we went to Atlantic City for Genny's bachelorette party. Atlantic city is like a miniature Vegas. So lots of casinos filled with pensioners. It was fun. Oh, incident whilst chatting to weird man in bus station.

Man: "So are you going to Atlantic city?"

Jane: "Yeah, are you?"

Man: "Yeah. You been before?"

Jane: "No, it's my first time here."

Man: "Oh it's amazing. I try and get down once every couple of weeks. What you doing there?"

Jane: "It's my friend's hen do (blank look) uh, bachelorette party. We're going to have dinner, party, maybe do some gambling"

Man: "You gonna do slots?"

Jane: "Uh, maybe"

Man: "I do slots. I go on slots at Ballys. Then I go on slots at Hilton. I go on these slots, and then these slots, but these are my favourites. I go on 7 and 11. But I don't know which. I always go on 7 and 11. They're my slots. I think I'm gonna go with 7. I can't decide. But it'll be 7 or 11"

Jane: (pause) "Well, it was nice to meet you, I'm going to find my friends now"

Man: "You have friends?!"

Atlantic City was cool. Fun to experience. We did some gambling. I lost $20. Steph won $200. It was really good to see Genny again. And I met some nice girls there. Oh, we went to a strip-club. It was fun!

I'm hitting a wall. Maybe I need a Starbucks experience :)

Will update later!