A few things I've learnt already

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. 

We are the ones we've been waiting for. 

We are the change that we seek
Barack Obama

And so, here I am. Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. The US of A. Fairfax, Virginia to be precise - suburban through and through. Think Desperate Housewives, but without a beautiful topless Jesse Metcalfe walking around and you'd be on the right track for my neighbourhood of Mantua. I thought I'd begin my postings with a few of the things I've learnt in my first 48 hours in the country.

1. If you want to get in to the country without a lengthy interview and bag search, remember the address you're going to. I didn't. This resulted in me having to sit in line for half an hour, have a ten minute chat with THE DULLEST HUMAN BEING ALIVE (what is it with immigration officials and a serious sense of humour failure?), proceed to watch as he emptied my wonderfully packed bag and had to call the airline to make sure I had a return flight. I'm sorry, but what is there about me that looks like I'm coming into the country illegally and not going to go home? I had my bloody Team GB wristbands on - I'm pretty likely to go home.

2. Now, I know this is a massive cliché (although, whats the problem with a cliché - if people say it a lot, then its probably good) but the people are just so friendly. I've had the standard 'welcome to America' from pretty much everyone, a lot of 'thank you for coming and giving your time', so many offers of tour guides and homes to stay in and even more. I even went for a bit of a walk today and, without fail, I got a 'how are ya' from everyone. Lovely.

3. Conversely, there's a lot of very angry people who hate President Obama. Seriously. I know, UK people, its hard to believe but wow. So much hate. From TV ads to radio shows his name is slung around in the mud by a lot of people. Telephoning people yesterday to get them to vote, a few told me things like 'Obama hates retired people', 'I should be ashamed of myself for supporting him' and that I should get a real job. Luckily, there's also a lot of love for him too...

4. Politics in this country is about real people and real issues. Campaigning, at least for Obama, is led from the ground. Never in the UK could I imagine seeing perhaps 20 people come into the office on a Thursday evening to give over some time to make calls or enter data - but this is what happened to us yesterday. I'll blog about this in more detail, but if we had half the passion in the UK that people do here you'd never hear of people being 'disengaged'.

5. 70s decor is still in fashion. The house I live in (with the ever friendly, adorable and wonderful Ann Tyson) is decorated wonderfully with floral wallpaper, green carpets and all kinds of 70s fittings. And this actually appeals to me. It feels so homely and comfortable (Ann's lived here for 46 years!!) that I just feel so at home. Its great. 

That's probably enough for now. There's plenty more (such as Supermarkets are terrifying, Stop means Stop and columns really are the in thing). Just know this, I'm going to be working at least 10 hours a day, 6 days a week to re-elect the President. So I hope it's bloody worth it.