Proud to be an American (August 10th, 2006)

When I first came down here I was half expecting and half hoping to pick up a little kiwi accent, or at least a few choice words. But being in a course with people from all over the world I've realized how much fun the language differences are. And as the only American in my course it's my patriotic duty to promote the true english accent and word usage. I've been sticking to American words as much as possible, including an occasional "howdy."

I've been given the most grief over the use of jelly as in "peanut butter and jelly." Apparently I should be saying "peanut butter and jam", since jelly means jello to everyone else. I tried explaining that jelly and jam are actually slightly different spreads, but quickly realized that I don't really know the difference myself. When I made my first sandwich one of the english women looked at it in amazement and said "wow I only thought you people did that in TV shows!" She was very excited to see a real American sandwich. But I've been better off than the irish smoker who calls cigarettes "fags." Telling a group of twenty-somethings that you're "looking for a fag" isn't going to go over well anywhere (except in Ireland, I suppose).