I was laughing myself silly over this:
"And if you ask for the bathroom, people are going to think you want to take a shower."
"What should I ask for then? Restrooms? Washrooms?"
"Toilets."
"Toilets?"
Lois grinned at his tone. "We say it as it is around here. If you want to use the toilet, just say so."
That was going to take some getting used to.
Just a few weeks ago, my best friend and I were talking about the fact that different cultures have different taboos, and I noted that the word "toilet" is all but unmentionable in the United States. My friend then told me about a colleague of hers, now a woman in her fifties, who went to the United States in the seventies, when she was just a girl. Upon arriving at the American airport the girl was amazed to see that the place was full of "restrooms", as if newly arrived passengers like herself were supposed to be so tired after their flight that they needed to lie down for a while and rest. Well, soon afterwards her host family came to pick her up, and they immediately brought her to a restaurant, where there were more restrooms. The girl was even more astonished. Did Americans need to take a nap after they had eaten, too? She expressed her amazement at these incredibly strange American facilities to her American hosts.
'We don't have anything like that in Sweden," she told her horrified hosts.
'But what if you
have to...?' her hostess objected weakly.
'We don't!' the girl said firmly, bursting with patriotic pride. 'We wait until we get home!'
Well, in Australia the girl would not have mistaken a public toilet for anything else! And I noticed another similarity between Sweden and Australia, too:
The traffic lights - not hung overhead, but on poles on the sides of the road -
Yes, of course, where else would you have them?
Otherwise, I loved seeing the interplay between Clark and Lois. You really managed to show how Lois appreciated Clark's help and friendliness and his willingness to practice "footy" with her. (Clark, of course, was heads over heels in love, and that was wonderful to see, too!)
But I really think that Lois could use a friend, because she seems to be even lonelier and without any support here than she is usually seen to be in canon LnC, even if it is set in the first season. Perry always supported Lois and Jimmy was always her friend, but even though this Banjo guy seems nice enough, he doesn't exactly seem to be Lois's friend. And her boss doesn't seem to take any particular interest in her. And there are pictures of half-naked girls in the bullpen - I bet Perry wouldn't allow that sort of thing at the Daily Planet.
Well, I'm really looking forward to part three of this!
Ann
