America. Heck yeah.

Ahoj. So, for my first new Czech Republic-based blog entry in about a year, I'd thought I'd write about ... the U.S. Doesn't make sense until you hear this twist: today's thoughts come from the Special Assistant to the Blogger, who a little over a week ago completed her first trip to the States.

There, she enjoyed many firsts: first steps in the U.S., first visits to New York and Boston, first view of Lady Liberty, first kids' baseball game, first professional baseball game, first hike up an American mountain (which would not be a mountain by European standards), first dip in the Atlantic ocean, first No. 9 pokket (her request before I sprinted across the road during a bus rest stop to get mine: "Something American"), first time meeting Your Humble Blogger's family and close friends, and first time in Jack's Hardware. The latter is not really a big deal, but the SAB chose one sunny day to walk roughly 3 miles from our apartment to the Colonial Theater in Keene (coming soon: Gregg Allman) in a country where most people use a scooter to meet the neighbors. And she passed Jack's Hardware, which admittedly has a small town U.S. homey-hunky-dory feel to it.

Special Assistant to the Blogger in Hampton, N.H.,
touching the Atlantic for the first time.

Anyway, I posed five (often multiple-part) questions for her to answer about the trip. And here are her answers.

1. What three things impressed you the most?

• New York.
• People – their welcoming behaviour to each other when they don’t know each other, especially the well-balanced one when you don’t feel too much pressure.
• How much sports mean to people and its connection to school, kids, later life.

2. What three things didn't you like?

• Too big a difference between outside and inside temperature, too much use of air conditioning in the shops, trains.
• Quite high tipping if I don’t feel any reason to (comes with a limited budget of a non-American).
• If I should find the third, I had an impression that people tend to be lazier because of the cars that they are using all the time. Not proved. Just a suspicion. [Editor's note: Suspicion confirmed while telling everyone about Jack's Hardware.]

3. What was the most pleasant surprise?

Kids baseball game. Because it was a family event and everybody took it seriously, but probably not too much seriously so that the little ones feel bad if they lose (I hope).

4. What was the least pleasant surprise?

Hard to find – maybe a certain bus driver in New York with whom I would feel desperate for a moment if I was on my own. [Editor's note: Take the subway and AirTrain to NYC airports from now on.]

5. Please describe each of these using three words or less:

a. Walking in New York. Life, Stalls. Smells.

b. The Manhattan skyline. It’s real. Tall.

c. Boston. Bricks. Park. Clean.

d. The Red Sox game. Rules. Stretching. Jonny.

e. The small towns you saw. Beautiful. Proud. Convenient.

Main Street, Keene, New Hampshire

f. Supermarkets. Very wide choice.

g. The driving experience. Smooth, safe. Easy. [Editor's note: Your Humble Blogger's driver's license expired long ago, so the SAB took us to the New Hampshire seacoast.]

h. The bus trips. Waiting. Expectation fulfilled.

i. NYC and Boston's subway/train system. Hot, loud. Threatening.