Random thoughts...

Washing Machines
Relieve youself of the bother of dropping your laundry into the giant top-loading washing machine and dump it straight into the dustbin instead - saving yourself minutes. Nothing of any quality whatsoever survives the infernal machinations within.

Ben and Jerry's
A comfortingly wide selection awaits me at the local supermarket. This is an enormous boon.

Papa
Rachel's paternal grandfather aka Jack or - oddly - Ritchie. A disconcerting combination of the grandpa from the Simpsons meets Jo Pesci from Goodfellas, he'll buttonhole you at any opportunity with an irrelevant, non-linear 'tale' from the old days and / or expound on the virtues of Republicanism - which you too would embrace if only you had an 'open mind' like what he has. Best value: get him to talk about his childhood in the South Bronx. Eye opening.

Ali G in Da USA
The second series is now here on HBO. Went down surprsingly well with Rachel's family - Borat and "Funkyzeit mit Bruno" considered the better segements.

Size matters
Everything really is bigger here. The houses, the cars, the portions, the cartons of Orange Juice, the roads, parking spaces and sky. Smaller versions of anything are unavailable - and the very idea that you might want anything smaller is considered perverse. The smallest car I've seen here is a VW Golf; sporty little numbers aside, everything is big - the new mini and the Ford Focus are considered miniature. I have yet to see a French car...

After even a short while you begin to adjust. Why would you want a small car?

A bumper sticker: "Freedom isn't free"
...Indeed, it's very expensive. Given how rarely it's exercised, you begin to wonder if it's actually worth it.