More and more people are starting to think I'm American from my accent. It, um, annoys me. Not as much as people thinking I'm English, but still. I'm from a tiny country! Gotta represent!

I'm loving the foreign foods discussion, because American food is my foreign food. Every time we go over I try to eat new foods I haven't had before. Usually it's chains that I've heard about on tv. I still haven't had a twinkie (Greg won't let me, as he says that he's never had one so it's not actually part of the American experience). I also still haven't had Outback, which always has dishes on that 'worst foods' list so I'd like to go there. Most of the actual food I've eaten over there is Boston specific, so lots of lobster and steamers and clam chowder. Also pumpkin pie. I don't eat red meat so burgers are out, unfortunately. Maybe one day I'll try one anyway.

Candy corn is probably the most disappointing of all the things I've eaten.

I don't eat red meat so burgers are out, unfortunately. Maybe one day I'll try one anyway.

There are turkey burgers and veggie burgers. For the most part these items are merely excuses for transporting condiments such as ketchup and mustard to one's mouth. I am capable of making a turkey burger such that I would be willing to offer it to you as representative of the joy that is American burgers, but I haven't run across any in a restaurant that I would trust as anything better than a hockey puck. You might have better luck with veggie burgers, but I'm not sure.

Computer remains dead. Computer fixit chappie couldn't get any data off the hard disk because I don't have a desktop to put the HD in. Waiting on a reboot CD in the post and very much hoping my backups include my EndNote library. It's going to be weeks of copying and pasting from documents if they don't, and still stuff will be missing. Wah.

I'm loving the foreign foods discussion, because American food is my foreign food.

I have a very tragic addiction to Kraft Mac & Cheese, from when I spent a year in the States. The Girl brings about fifteen packets of it back every time she goes to visit family in Houston. I have two packets left from her last trip. I should make them last, but I'll probably eat them both in one evening.

Hey Jars, weren't we going to have a tiny London F2F? Will drop you an e-mail.

I haven't run across any in a restaurant that I would trust as anything better than a hockey puck. You might have better luck with veggie burgers, but I'm not sure.

This is my problem! I've tried! I think American restaurants are just so very sure about their beef burgers that they don't feel the need to put much effort into any other kind. I would totally eat your turkey burger, though. And not even in a euphemistic sense!

I have a very tragic addiction to Kraft Mac & Cheese

I tried it and it just tasted like chemicals to me! And fake cheese flavour is basically my favourite flavour. Maybe I got a bad batch.

Also, hells yeah for London f2f.

I recommend Chili's among American burger chains. Both they and Outback do remarkable things to onions. I'm especially fond of the fries at Chili's. They used to do superb vegetables too, with a balsamic glaze or something; but before I left they'd changedit to an insipid, watery offering, presumably as a cost-cutting exercise. 

I don't know if they're actually part of a chain, but there was a Belgian burger place in Philly called Monk's. Aside from an eight-page beer menu (including some beers that would set you back $70 or more), they did a heavenly bourbon mayonnaise that was like unto crack to me. 

Oh, and concerning Outback, although the understanding of Aussie slang embodied in their menu occasionally made me wince, I did not find their decor to be terminally mortifying.

I don't eat red meat so burgers are out, unfortunately. Maybe one day I'll try one anyway.

If you don't eat products derived from red meat, either, then Twinkies are out, too -- they're made with lard.

Ow. I've been hurting more and more joints in the past few days, and right now, I'm awake in the middle of the night with pretty much everything hurting. I would stay home from the office today, except that I have to turn in the final version of my dissertation. (Yay!)

Go, Hil! May turning in your dissertation lift a burden from your shoulders and help ease some of the pain.

My poor jetlagged brain has no idea what to think right now. I'm heading to the ship shortly. Wish me luck getting on board. At least check no one seemed to know if I was on the passenger list or the crew list.

Ok, so last semester here I had this awful, awful, awful roommate, who was awful for a wide variety of reasons, but one of them includes McDonalds in a foreign location so I thought I'd share this particular story:

If I am in a country for a short trip, I'm obviously going to try all their foods and do all those cultural touristy things, because that's, well.... why you are there. But I got to China in August, and about mid-October I was talking to my really good friend and one of us mentioned McDonalds, and we both got really excited and decided to go. My roommate pipes up that we shouldn't go. Because McDonalds is American food, and we were in China. (she was the kind of person who wanted everything to be Authentically Chinese All The Time, to the point where she thought Harbin wasn't "real China" because there's a lot of Russian influence and architecture) She then proceeded to say that only weak foreigners who couldn't get used to Chinese food "resorted" to eating McDonalds. We were like "Umm, and what about that entire McDonalds full of Chinese people? Are we supposed to go tell them they aren't being Chinese enough?"

I was annoyed. I eat Chinese food every day and I really like it, and her implication that I had failed because we, after months, wanted to go to McDonalds made me want to punch her.

And back to the original post on this subject, if I were sitting at a coffee shop in Italy and someone asked me directions to the Starbucks, I'd probably die,

I tried it and it just tasted like chemicals to me! And fake cheese flavour is basically my favourite flavour. Maybe I got a bad batch.

No, that sounds about right. (It's an addiction. It makes no sense.)

Less-pain~ma, Hil, and yay for being able to turn in dissertation! When do you defend it?

Wishing you a good cruise, and someone with a crew list and a clue, ND. (Southampton in England? Did you get to see any of it? There's not much there, of course. I spent a depressing part of my teen years in Hampshire, of which Southampton is the county town. It's a bit rubbish. The New Forest is beautiful though.)

ETA: Insent, Jars.