OK by me in America

Well, I said I'd do it and eventually I've got round to setting it up: here is my America blog. For anyone who hasn't heard me go on about it already, myself and four other Imperial students (Priyan, Cecilia, Adam and Matt) are spending the Summer doing research at the University of Delaware. It's in...um...Delaware, in a town called Newark. That is most definitely not Newark, New Jersey (which apparently should not contain any vowels. Nwrk, the noise a parrot makes when you step on it), it's NewArk (what we'll have to build when the ice caps have melted). I'll be updating every so often with stuff that we've been doing, photos and anything else I can think of that other people may be vaguely interested in.

It's late now, and I'm tired. I shall leave you with my very immediate first impressions of America:

• There appear to be ad breaks on TV every 5 mins, although whether this actually encourages anyone to buy anything is debateable.
• Everyone is very friendly and seems genuinely interested in helping. And everyone seems to be either very extroverted or very shy. This may just be a feature of the people here, I don't know. I have managed to have a number of sci-fi/fantasy related converstations though, so all is not lost.
• Americans do not appear to believe in kettles. Microwaved tea: a travesty. More on this later.
• Tins of tomatoes appear to be a luxury commodity: $1.99 a can. Ice cream does not: $5.99 for 15 quarts