Beverage

Told myself that I'll write down all my observations on the US while it's still slightly novel. I've found that I've started to forget many of the things that I found so bazaar when we first arrived. Here is my latest observation... Was at Starbucks yesterday afternoon to grab a quick coffee while waiting for Janelle and her Dad to drop off a rental car. The line was really slow, so by the time you got to the front the cashier had forgotten the order. So he started asking people "What was your beverage?". I think this is a good reflection of American culture. Instead of saying toilet here, they say bathroom, as if the daily necessities of life are somehow a bad thing. I see this as an example of the effect of nice-ening up everyday experiences to the point of nausea. So instead of using the word drink or even coffee (for what was plainly a coffee), he chose to sugar coat the word to make it (subjectively) more palatable.