A pleasant culture shock.

Howdy y'all!!
...
Nope, even after a week of being here, I still sound inexcusably white and English saying that...
Nevertheless... Hello!!!.

This, I imagine, will be when these blogs will start getting remotely interesting- as I have come to the end of my first week in Louisiana (or as the natives pronounce it; Loosiana), and have real, "different cultural experience" stuff to report on! Hooray!

Around the time of year I got here, in this part of the world, they celebrate something called 'Mardis Gras'. As far as I can understand, it is a final "let's get stupidly drunk" festival before Lent- that they only seem to celebrate in Louisiana (I expect they do mark it in other parts of the States, but it's no where near as big as it is down here in the Bayous). The main activity that people partake in (besides excessive alcohol consumption and dramatic lowering of standards) is catching beaded necklaces that people throw at you from floats (the floats being the main bulk of any parade), and as trivial as it may sound, it is actually incredibly enjoyable. The seemingly trademark phrase of this activity is "Throw me some beads, Mister!", a tradition I honoured for a while, before resorting to "THROW US SOME BEADS, MATE!", which, in my strong English accent, attracted a fair bit of bead throwing. I find it very interesting how people can go crazy trying to get some plastic beads (Steve actually got into a bit of a tug-of-war match with some woman trying to get the same set of beads), which they're only going to throw away in a couple of weeks time. Funny how people get carried away in an atmosphere of joy.
Of course, with the festival being as big as it is, not only beads are thrown. Oh no, the mighty talon of American commercialism has a firm hold of these parades and the items thrown, with many of them being simple toys with the name of a company on them. I, for example, caught a stress relief ball with the phone company, Metro PCS's logo on it, and a foam finger with " Number 1 healthcare fan" written on it- an item I immediately used to crudely imitate Miley Cyrus.











^A truly 'sophisticated' Englishman.

In total, I went to two Mardis Gras parades. The first was in the area just outside of Shreveport, and is considered the main parade of the Shreveport/ Bossier City area. This is the one that attracts an older population, as opposed to the second one I attended (based in the Shreveport suburbs) which is more for children. One also gets WAY more beads from the second one, perhaps because there are less people to throw beads to.

^A VERY small part of the collection of beads I obtained

A few hours before the first parade started, I got my first true experience of the incredibly notorious; American fast food. I experienced Wendy's; a fast food chain that is very popular here in the states, but one that we do not have back home in Blighty.
So this was some pure American fast food.
Straight up.
We went there after Ross and his friend, Hunter, exclaimed great shock at the fact that I'd never had Wendy's before, and thus concluded that I had to try it.
Getting dragged to a place that sells cheap burgers and chips?


Looking at the menu, I once again resorted to my Pavlov's dog state, with a side of utter amazement.
The Baconator.
The Son of Baconator.
Wow.




















^See that one at the top with three burgers in it? Yeah. America.

Something else I discovered in Wendy's which got hammered home the more fast food places I visited, is that most sodas have unlimited refills. That's right. Unlimited.
I know, in England, Nando's do unlimited refills, but they're pretty much the only place.
In America, almost every place does them. It's awesome.
This, for me, really demonstrated how much lower the cost of living is in America, compared to the UK. This point was further demonstrated when I visited Hollister.

Now, a few of my friends may describe me a a bit of a Hollisterite- I have been known to wear outfits comprised entirely of apparel from Hollister, often without me realising it. I have been trying to reduce the frequency of Hollister clothing appearing on my body, but I'm afraid that this effort may soon cease, due to the prices of Hollister clothing in America.
At home, a hoodie from Hollister is about £40.
Here in America, I bought a hoodie and a denim shirt for $38.
38 DOLLARS.
That's about £22. So I'm getting double the number of items of clothing, for almost half the price.
That makes me very happy.

Unfortunately, when I jokingly warned my beloved Father that I may require additional funds to replace those that will probably be spent in Hollister, I (quite rightly) received a less than positive response.
James: "Daddy- kins, I may require more $$$$"
Daddy- kins: "The bloody 'ell you will"
James:

*runs away*

ANY HOOOOOO

In order, to continue my guitar practice while I am here, I bought an acoustic guitar.
For $70.
Again, ridiculously cheap considering it's surprisingly good build quality and play-ability. The one downside to it is that some of the fret posts had quite sharp edges, so when I was practicing Andy McKee's 'Drifting', I ended up doing one of my fingers a bit of damage.

Other than playing the guitar, I've spent my first week here doing a variety of things in my down time, including: being introduced to Minecraft (which is so addictive), and playing kinect golf with the Piraino's (which as incredibly fun).
On Friday, I spent the day with Rick Gates at his office, and running errands with him- job- shadowing really, kinda in preparation for next week. Aside from an awesome double cheeseburger, the stand out moment of that day was as we were driving through a somewhat down- trodden area of Shreveport. I joked that this would not be an area to leave one's car unlocked, and Mr Gates, with a smile on his face that soon spread to mine, said "That's why I have this" and brandished a large handgun. This was my first real encounter with the gun culture here, as when I told the story to Krista, she showed me her concealed weapon license and one of her guns, and then promised that we'd go shooting sometime.
Now that I'm looking forward to.
On the whole, stereotypes are inaccurate, and should be dismissed. But since I've got here, I have come to understand where they come from, for example, Louisiana is in the "Deep South" of the USA, and one of the main stereotypes of this area is Redneck culture. Now, NONE of the people I've met here are what most people would consider "Rednecks", but I did see quite a few people at the first Mardis Gras parade who were wearing sleeveless shirts and cap hats, driving sand buggies and quad bikes, and listening to loud country music where the only two audible words were "Beer" and "Gun". But, I never interacted with any of these people (luckily?). So, perhaps this stereotype has some truth to it, but, the term "southern hospitality" is nothing but the truth. Every single person I have met has been incredibly friendly and accommodating. I am so lucky to be staying with the Piraino's- they've made me feel truly at home and I look forward to the next two months staying here.

Anyways, this has been going on for a while now! You're initial interest (if it existed at all) as probably drained away by now, and you're probably impatiently skim reading like:

So without further ado, I shall cease this post. I've chosen Sunday as my blogging day, so y'all can expect the next one then!

Jya ne!

James x