Welcome to Shreveport.

AT LAST! I'M HERE!!

Finally, after months and months of anticipation, the Brit is at last in the USA (in the likely case some of you didn't get it, my URL address is a play on the Bruce Springsteen song- BORN in the USA, funny right? Right? Aahhh never mind).
So I'm finally here in Bossier City (which it turns out I've been pronouncing wrong- it's actually pronounced 'Boushia' as opposed to 'Boss- ia' which is what I've been calling it). My connecting flight from Dallas Fort Worth (which is a cool-as-hell name for an airport) got in at roughly 19:10 local time- which is about 3 in the morning back in Blighty, so I was crazy tired. The Piraino's were waiting for me at the airport, and gave me an awesome welcoming! I even had my own sign!

(that photo was so hard to take!! I gave up trying to hold the sign with both hands and pressing the button with my foot as my knee kept blocking the sign! >.<)

I was somewhat worried on the plane that, because I was so tired, I would lack the energy to be my usual chatty self, and the conversation would often enter an awkward lull. But this wasn't the case! The Piraino's are such friendly people that we were talking constantly, and I seemed to almost forget about my very long, busy day and I was very excited when they said we were going to a restaurant called 'iHop' to meet Rick Gates from the Benton Rotary club. iHop stands for 'International House of Pancakes' and it seems to be a chain of restaurants across the US that specialise in, well, pancakes (shocker, right?) Rick told me a bit more about my first placement at Allegra Marketing- and it's sounding more and more awesome by the minute! Rick also told me to expect to put on at least 20lbs while I was there, and I could see why! Chocolate chip pancakes?!?! That's crazy. Delicious- sounding, but crazy (in a good way). Putting on weight back home isn't exactly the hardest thing to do- just have a kebab and a beer every night, but over here it's on a whole other level. The amount of awesome food that would make Jamie Oliver cry in a corner is insane. But don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, this morning I had peanut butter and chocolate cereal for crying out loud! I'm loving it! (to quote the slogan of a company that has quite a lot of relevance to this). Louisiana is famous for it's food- especially it's sea food, and my mouth was watering all Pavlov's dog style when Rick, Krista, and Steve were telling me about the BBQ ribs and cray fish meals I'd be having over the coming weeks- I cannot wait to wholeheartedly indulge my taste buds while I'm here.

 

Speaking of food, isn't it normal for food on planes to suck? Like, it's tradition, right? Well, I thought that was the case up until my British Airways flight yesterday- they served a delicious chicken tikka masala and an AMAZING chicken coronation sandwich. I was in two minds while eating that food: on one hand, I was in love with the food itself, but on the other, it was so out of the ordinary for me to enjoy the food on the plane, that I thought it was an omen for the plane to crash! So I was terrified when we went into some heavy turbulence over the south of Greenland, so terrified in fact, that I actually 'went to my happy place'- something I then realised I hadn't yet decided on- so my mind darted from one though to the other, and the technique failed. Oh well, I'm still here, so I didn't need it anyway.

Upon entry to the Piraino's home, the main thought going through my mind was: 'size'. Their house is huge, they don't have an upstairs, so I guess the house compensates by making all the rooms gigantic- and Krista said that their house is actually kinda average compared to some of the houses here!

I got very excited about two things my first night here, the first was that Ross was a fan of one of my favourite Animes- Shingeki no Kyojin (or Attack on Titan, as it is sometimes called). I found this out when he was showing me his bedroom and I spotted his rucksack, which had the scouting legion (something from the anime) logo on it. I then proceeded to jump around in sheer elation- I never would have thought that Ross would be a fan of Anime- I thought that I'd be alone in my sad, loserness and get funny looks if I was open about it. BUT IT WASN'T SO! How cool.
The second thing was quite simply- M&M's ice cream. It's ice cream (awesome), with M&M's in it. What does the scooter say about it's tastiness levels, Vegeta?

Soooo....
My work experience doesn't start until next week, so this first week is just for hanging out with my host family- which is great! Today Krista was at work and Ross was at school and Steve was on the phone a lot, so I took the opportunity to... well.. do what I usually do at home; browse the web, watch anime and listen to nightcore. But all the time I'm thinking:
'This is America'
'I'm sitting on an American chair'
'I'm using American Wi- fi'
I still find it too cool to believe. But I'd better start believing it soon- cos it's REAL :D

Anyways, look at the time!

I've been at this blog for a while now, so I'd better sign off, or 'power down' as they say over here.
I'll be updating the blog weekly- although I haven't decided on a day yet....

Jya ne
James x