So what you mean is, America runs on crap, erm, Dunkin?

Am I the only person who thinks there's something wrong with the new Dunkin Donuts advertisements? Sure, Dunkin Donuts is well known for there coffee-based beverages, but they also donuts, pastries and other super sugary confections that can cause one to gain weight just by mere eye contact. Could America's obesity problem be partly due to the apparent fact that "America Runs on Dunkin"?

I'm sorry, no wait a minute, I'm not sorry, but do anyone really need to have a coffee and a pastry for breakfast? Some people say they can't stomach breakfast in the morning so they either skip it (because they somehow believe that they'll eat less during the day) or have something like like a cup of caffeine and a 20 grams of sugar draped over a sugary confeccion, such as a muffin or a danish. This leads to another discussion on what people are really eating for breakfast.

In my opinion if you stuff your face at an early lunch because you skipped breakfast and then at dinner because you had an early lunch, then no, you are going to be hungry in the morning. You might not even be able to think about eating or drinking anything besides coffee and perhaps a piece of toast. Research shows that breakfast is, in fact, the most important meal of the day because it gives you energy for the rest of the day. If you want to pig out, pig out at breakfast when you have all day to burn it off.

If America runs on Dunkin, then no wonder...

Back in America: Part 2 of 3

I now find myself in Seekonk, Massachusetts—Will's hometown. We are down to the last 2 days before we depart on our Peace Corps El Salvador adventure. Our time here so far has been filled with packing, shopping for Peace Corps necessities, organising our student loan finances and other seemingly uninteresting things like making comparisons between the America I left almost 2 years ago with the America of now and Australia. I’ve come across square bagels, more weight-loss guides that one can imagine (including the Da Vinci Code guide to weight loss), wine for sale at 24 hour chemists and shopping centres that stay open past 6pm. Is bigger better? Is more better? I’m not so sure, but in a matter of just a few days I will find myself waking up under a mosquito net to the sound of rooster crowing and telenovelas blasting from televisions bought with remittances sent by relatives living abroad.

Today is our sending off party. Potato salad. Pasta salad. Hamburgers and Hotdogs. A good old fashioned family get-together complete with cake. Hmm.

Back in America: Part 3 of 3

But I definitely digress! Upon my arrival at the Miami International Airport, not only did I not encounter any familiar faces that belong to anyone resembling my mother or my brother, my most important piece of luggage did not arrive with me. They say that one should always pack prescription medicine and an extra change of undergarments in their carry on bag in the event of such occurrences, but I did quit the opposite and packed ALL of my undergarments and ALL of my prescription medicine in the one bag that did not arrive. I also happened to arrive on Memorial Day Weekend so the airport couriers service was quite slow in reuniting me with my lost baggage. As I stood in the line to claim my lost bag surrounded my passengers elated to be reunited with their friends and others extremely upset with the fact that the lost baggage was not going to materialise at the exact moment they wanted it (which just so happened to be RIGHT NOW for one particular guy) I found myself fighting with all of my might to hold back the tears that were whirling around inside because of the absence of my beloved partner Will, the absence of my mother who said would collect me from the airport and the absence of my bag containing my prescription medicine and every single pair of undergarments I own. I found a Chupa Chup in my bag and that magically helped me continue fighting the good fight until it was my turn at the baggage counter and my mother appeared. Despite these initial shortcomings, I spent 5 days visiting my mother and brothers in Miami, melting in the sun walking 5 meters from the footpath to the car park, sunbathing on the famous South Beach (which resulting in zero tan due to the massive clouding effect in the sky), fearing for my life as I attempted to cross the main street devoid of proper zebra crossings en route to the non-pedestrian-friendly American phenomenon that is the strip mall and figuring out how to rid myself of Australian dollars – apparently “banks don’t accept foreign currency” now. I met up with a friend whom I had not seen since my platform shoe days in year 11 and had some good heart to heart talks with my mother about “life” and my brothers about going to Cuba, aboriginal Australians in the state of Illinois, racism in middle America (One shopkeeper reportedly said this to my brother and his Belizean friend, “ We don’t serve ‘spics here!”) and the alternative-world-saving-globe-trotting path I’ve taken with my life. Miami was great.

Back in America: Part 1 of 3

Greetings from the land of plenty and more!

Yes, after over 24 hours of air travel Will and I have made it back to America! Some of you may remember our somewhat fanciful plans of having lunch in Auckland during our 5 hour stop-over in there on the way to Los Angeles because it “seemed like the most logical thing to do”. Well, after our “luggage” fiasco at the Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne we decided that we’d better not challenge destiny and stay within the confinements of the transit lounge. You can imagine the challenges that one is presented with when attempting to pack ones life belongings into a hiking pack and a suitcase (plus one carry on and a “personal item”). We thought we had the situation under control when we arrived at the airport with 1 and a half hours to spare at 5:30 in the morning, we had planned on having a leisurely breakfast that morning. However, upon stepping up to the check-in counter of the oh-so-not-as-luxurious-as-we-had-imagined of Emirates Air our sugar plum visions of such a breakfast were shattered instantly. Because our journey back to America included travelling on three different airlines, we were subject to the stingiest baggage regulations of the three. Not only were we not permitted to have a personal item as most airlines allow, which required disposing of a newly acquired suitcase, but we were 22 kilos over the permitted baggage allowance. The day before I had spent a good hour on the internet scouring over the baggage regulations of the airlines we were flying with and weighing our bags on our bathroom scale to make sure we did not surpass the 32 kilo per-bag-allowance...despite my efforts everything ended up being overweight and taking my newly acquired $20 suitcase on the flight would have cost $345. So, out with the books, the martini shaker, the jumpers, the Chinese chopsticks and everything else that wasn’t absolutely necessary to begin a new life in El Salvador that would amount to 22 kilos. Somehow during the process of purging and repacking my toiletry kit containing my toothbrush, mascara, SPF face lotion and other necessities, which was apparently worth US$87 after I replaced everything, was “lost” in the shuffle. You can imagine the shock I received in the store when the cashier rang up the last item of my so-called “necessities” and the total amount flashed in red before my eyes. I hadn’t any choice but to hand over my bank card and mutter “That’ll be from the savings account...please”.