Stranger in a Strange Land

Don't panic when you first see an American toilet (saying "toilet" is almost as crude as talking about sex here). It's not actually flooded, despite the fact that its at high tide. Still, it's somewhat unnerving.

I said that I didn't have jet lag, but I think I was wrong. I'm still very tired (I woke up at 2am this morning) which makes communication even more difficult.

Today I went along to church. It was quite empty due to Labour Day Weekend. Hmm, some parts of the service made me cringe, and I wanted to say "yes, but no" at lots of points in the sermon.

I don't want to say too much about the church because perhaps some of my readers may misinterpret my criticisms as ungratefulness and an implicit rejection of my brothers and sisters. But not the case. All I'll say for now is that the focus of the church seemed to be a bit off, the emphasis a bit askew. Too much talk of "purpose" and "what you need for your life", rather than laying out the facts of the matter, that Jesus Christ is Lord and he demands repentence and obedience, irregardless of what our psychological longings may be.

There was also a bit of a plug for the Promise Keepers rally. They had snippets, and I was dissapointed that there seemed to be no speakers stirring up the men into spiritual leadership, to take their rightful Biblical role. A missed oppurtunity, with so many men in one place, ready to listen. Something to pray about.

I went to the local Safeway and made a few observations. Food is actually not that cheap, although this may have to do with the fact that serving sizes are frick'n huge. Even the trolleys are jumbo-sized. Half the "store" is junk food, with every possible permutation and combination of chocolate, biscuit, cream, nut, caramel and ice cream imaginable.

Apart from the home cooked food my kind (non-fat and non-loud) relatives have "fixed", the food generally tastes medicore, with the flavour of preservatives and sweetner dominating. I withold my judgment about whether this is a feature of America, since no doubt there are places that cook damn fine food. America is the land of extremes after all.

Oh, and everyone has great teeth here. I don't know how that is compatiable with excessive sugar consumption, but hey, this is a strange place.

Tommorow, God willing, we shall go into San Fransisco proper. I'm looking forward to this. Looks like we'll have a gay time.