alexist

I got to Newark slightly late (delays going into the Holland Tunnel), my suitcase weighed 97 lbs, I had to get a box, repack in the middle of the airport, and pay excess baggage (my garment bag was 52 lbs, so I couldn't just shift it).

(FYI, I did not do THAT much shopping, though I brought back some American goodies. I had some extra things at home I needed to bring back.)

They didn't ask me what seat I wanted, I got seat 42D (aisle, middle section.. i suppose it's the better aisle seat, only 1 person trying to get past you to go to the toilets), Newark Terminal B sucks but at least I didn't have to spend long there and it's a short walk to the gates.

The meal had sweetcorn in both the main AND the salad. Not only annoying but odd--the meal was all American, but sweetcorn in pasta salad is not a very American thing in my experience.

We had the full on-demand entertainment system but I couldn't settle on anything to watch. I did finish 2 books though, including the new George Carlin one I got in the airport. I love George Carlin: humor for pedants.

Neil's eyes bulged when he saw how much stuff I had ;)

And now I shall have a nap, since of course I only fell asleep 45 minutes before we landed.

When I arrived at Heathrow last Wednesday, I was having some trouble getting my bags onto a cart (it's difficult to keep the cart in place and lift a heavy suitcase at the same time). Several men saw me struggling and made no move to help.

At JFK, when I was getting my bags off the carousel, 2 men immediately offered to help and put my bags on the cart.

At Heathrow today, I had trouble again. Someone did offer to help--an American.

Hmm.

There was a whole fuss in the UK about people giving up tube/bus seats for others, particularly pregnant women, and TfL proposed giving out pregnancy badges. This started a whole sexism/PC argument (the Monochrome one got particularly tedious).

I ride the bus and tube regularly and I hardly ever see people give up their seats for others. I DO see quite a lot of obnoxious behavior, particularly people sitting in the aisle seat making the window one unreachable, and not moving when someone else comes onto the bus. What makes this behavior even worse is that (in my experience) the British are very reluctant to ask someone to move and give them access, and the people taking the outside seat know this.

When I was in New York this week, I regularly noticed people getting up and giving their seats to the pregnant and elderly, and even men giving them up for women. And I didn't see any women yelling at men for doing it--if they didn't want the seat they simply said "no thanks, I'm fine" or "No, it's OK, I'm getting off in 2 blocks anyway".

I'd never really noticed this difference before and I find it interesting and puzzling. New Yorkers don't have a reputation for politeness (though I find the rudeness thing to be exaggerated; New Yorkers can be very helpful) and America is often regarded as the PC capital of the world. Yet Americans seem to be less likely to use "equality" as an excuse for rude behavior. Now, my UK experience is mainly London and I'm very ready to accept that the rest of the UK is better, but I've seen comments on the "equality" issue from Britons from all over.

(And no, I'm not suggesting that Americans are universally superior or better behaved, but they do seem to have an edge in this area. It's funny, because Americans tend to have this impression of the British being more polite than Americans.)