I suppose the most obvious question that comes to mind as I'm on this 15 hour train journey from New Orleans to Greenville, South Carolina is "can I handle any more smoked ham and sliced muenster cheese rolls?". I'm not sure of the answer, but I've had half a dozen already and I have just over five hours of this journey left.

Earlier, the train went directly through the destruction zones of some of the multiple tornadoes to hit the states of Mississippi and Alabama. Houses lay flattened, whole trees ripped apart or pulled clean out of the ground. Even brick buildings were damaged as entire communities were destroyed. It was a very sobering sight and I spoke to a local who said that debris from the damage was found up to 70 miles away. I'll think twice before ever complaining about British weather again. I think I've said that before...

And now let us segway into the world of American currency, or coinage, or lack thereof. This is possibly the first thing I might think of if I am given the chance to move to America at any point. Let's get one thing straight: I HATE change. Not Obama change. I mean coins. I can't stand going around with lots of coins in my wallet. You'd think then that the American system of dollar bills and upward would be good for someone like me. And you'd be right. To a point.

Two things stand between me and monetary bliss in the USA. I challenge anyone with American money in their wallet to open it, glance at its contents and tell me how much money you actually have. It's impossible. Why? Because all the notes look the same! However the real one that gets me, bearing in mind my general hatred of coins, is that the amount advertised is almost never what you actually pay! Argh! Picture this: I'm in the queue to by, oh I don't know, a creme soda for $1.60. Perfect; I have some dimes and nickels (10c and 5c) to remove from my sagging wallet pocket, so I have the change lined up when BOOM, the real price is actually $1.82 or some random number. I don't have that change so I hastily pull out what looks like another dollar which is actually a twenty, so I end up with a handful of notes I can't distinguish and EVEN MORE CHANGE. Here's a novel idea: advertise the amount that the item costs. Wow, how simple! Or would the removal of one form of taxing prevent you from adding other more random taxes like "enjoyment tax" or whatever I had to pay to watch baseball? Thoughts on a postcard.

Luckily Amtrak do advertise the full price of their coffee at least, so I have relieved some stress by removing lots of coins from my wallet. Not the quarters though, as they're the only ones that are actually useful. As long as you own sixteen of them to do your laundry. In English money that's about £2.50. Three coins. Go figure...

For the second part of this blog entry, let's describe what actually happened in Greenville. Allison picked me up at the station and took me downtown where some of her friends were having a few drinks - quite a few - and I met her boyfriend Ramsey (awesome guy), Kristen and Josh among others. My bed is a giant inflatable double in the middle of Allison's kitchenette. It's so comfy!

On the Saturday, Allison, Ramsey, Kristen, Josh and I went for bagels and then all went to Spartanburg for Upstate Pride. With not much support going on in this area for homosexuality, this was not like most gay pride events I've seen. There was a certain grit and steely determination that is not usually required in the more liberal areas. This is a place where hate crimes happen around this very point. Josh and I watched the others do some hula hooping and we eventually left the sweltering heat, then hit the pool at Allison's. Did I mention she has a pool? Yeah baby! That night we went for Mexican food with more of Allison's friends and onwards to a hookah bar for mellow times. A few drinks later we were on our way home.

On Sunday we grabbed breakfast with Josh and Kristen, went to the cinema for Pirates 4. I went to the pool again before prepping for hot yoga, which I'd been invited to by Allison et al. Julie the instructor gave me a free pass, so how could I refuse? I didn't really know what to expect, and what I got was a heavy workout with a lot of sweat. So much that I was sweating into my eyes, up my nose, and by the time we'd finished there was not a dry part of any of my clothes. Amazing. I'll probably do it again as it's great for core work and general fitness. The rest of the night we had pizza and watched Fantastic Mr Fox. Lovely.

On Monday I met up with Josh and we cruised around picking up Kristen, letting dogs out to poo, and having gelato in town. I was chatted up by some fifteen year olds who were besotted with my accent. When I asked where they thought I was from, their second guess was "Britain" but they couldn't name anything more specific than that. Not even England. Wow.

In the evening Allison had people over and Josh, Kristen and I brought wine, including chocolate wine! Kristen introduced me to the game "Apples to Apples" which is great fun.

On Tuesday I didn't do much except laundry and lounge by the pool. In the evening we went to Julie's and had some gorgeous peach pie. I've had a great time here and I've met some lovely people who seemed like a mini family. Thank you all for making me so welcome!

So, to the train out. This should really belong in a different blog but I'll mention here that it was late and I've some failed attempts at sleep so far. It's now 6:30am and I'm in Charlotte waiting for a train to Raleigh. I've been here since 3:30am!