The Sunday Mok - South Dakota Edition

On Tuesday, Deb and I got up at 05:00 to get a ride to the airport and the first leg of our journey. The six-hour flight brought us to Japan for an overnight stay. I didn't get to see much of it, but I noticed beautiful gardens everywhere, a few vending machines in odd places, and traditional architecture covered in power lines.

Our Wednesday was 36 hours long, thanks to crossing the International Date Line on our Pacific passage. We took a look at the Mall of America in Minneapolis, an enormous square structure dedicated to fashion, LEGO and Nickelodeon. I was tickled by the sign explicitly banning guns from the premises. From there we caught a late two-hop flight on a double-propeller plane to Pierre, South Dakota and slept until morning.

From then, we've mostly been catching up with family, relaxing and getting over our jet-lag.

A few observations so far:

1. Cars are big. I was intellectually aware of this American fondness for big cars, but seeing three out of four vehicles on the road being tall, wide GMC pickups is another thing. A man's gotta have his truck, apparently.

2. American television is full of medical ads. This might just be the Fox News channel, though.

3. "Pierre" might be spelled French, but it's pronounced "Pier" by the locals. They'll look at you funny if you say it differently.

4. I asked for lemonade on the plane, which means lemon juice with sugar in it. That's not what I meant. Fortunately for me, they didn't have any.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - So I committed my first language gaffe before even setting foot in the country.
PPS - Off to a good start.