Arriving in Texas

Well, my roommate Dinnah had her wedding and I said good bye to all of my friends in France. It was really sad leaving because I felt like my life had just set up really well there: great friends and roommates, nice job with extra side jobs, my own hang out places with sentimental value, and I just had gotten to know the city really well. But I came into this thing knowing it was temporary and unfortunately it was time to leave.

I feel lately as if my life has been in a constant state of flux this past year. First it was about saying good bye to UCLA. Then I focused on settling in San Francisco, making new friends there only to yet again say good bye. And finally, hardest of all, adjusting to France only to again say good bye.

okay enough of this sentimental cheesy crap. For I soon had a gross - and I mean gross in the sense of disgusting not big -- awakening: America is so freakin' fat.

My plane lands in Dallas for a layover and while waiting in the terminal for my connnecting flight, I walk past a McDonald's where it is literally packed. Every table has some fat ass scarfing down big macs and supersized french fries. I guess everything really is much bigger in Texas, not always a good thing.

Once I arrive back in LA, I hear about a movie called "Supersize Me" that's about some guy who goes on a 30-day all-McDonald diet. My friends and I went to the movie expecting to be a bit shocked. But we were appalled (I think that's misspelled) by what we saw. The guy in the movie put on 25 pounds in 30 days and he was on the verge of a heart attack and liver failure. Granted you don't always have to eat the crap he ate in the movie everytime you go to McDonald, but it's true that some people actually do. I mean when you see fat people here, they can be REALLY fat. Those kind of people hardly exist in Paris. When you walk down the street or are even sitting in a McDo there, if you look around you might at the most see maybe 20% of the people there are overweight and of teh people who are overweight usually not a single one of them would be "obese." I mean either they're so shunned that they don't leave their homes or obese people just don't exist there all that much.

Anyways, the French eating habits have become a part of my routine and I've actually found myself much leaner lately. But next time you see obese people scarfing down big mac's just remember, this is a product of our fast-food culture.

If anyone would like to explore this subject in greater detail, I highly recommend reading "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schloeser and watching "Supersize Me" by Morgan Sperlman.