Last Tuesday was the day of the Pennsylvania primary. I was driving home Tuesday night when my street was filled with media cars and police: Hillary decided to stay in a hotel which was around the corner of my apartment building! This is where she gave her 'winner’s speech' Tuesday night.
The opinion of the media has changed completely: before Tuesday, they wondered if Hillary should quit the race if she didn´t win big. After Tuesday, Obama is a big loser because he didn´t win PA while he spend much more money here, and Hillary is back in the race after raising $ 10 million Wednesday. After starting her winner´s speech with ´Thank you, please send us money!´
Traffic in the US is relaxed. Speed limits are low, people don’t clip your bumper, there are many wide trafficlanes, and people accelerate slowly. (That last one is probably because most American cars are, despite their 4.8 liter V8 engine in the average ford or chevy, not very fast.) The fact that you only have to drive for one block to get your driver’s license on the age of 16 is not really an issue here: traffic isn’t that difficult.
American drivers might not be the best drivers, but they are relaxed drivers. So, what would be more fun that racing around with 11 Dutchies? On the go-kart track, of course!
Thursday night. I’m home, eating and watching a sports game on TV, when the fire alarm goes off in my apartment building. I wait for a while to see if some idiot hit the alarm just for fun, but when a fire truck arrives and people start walking outside, I decide that it might be a good idea to go leave the building. With my passport, of course. After about 20 minutes in the rain, the firemen realize that there isn’t a problem and allows us back inside again.
An hour later. I’m ironing my shirt and the sports game is getting more and more exciting, when the alarm goes off again! No way that I’m going to stand in the rain again; I’ll stay here to iron my shirts, and before I know it, I don’t even hear the alarm anymore. No problem for 30 minutes, until it started smelling bad in my apartment. Oh, the alarm is still on! In the meantime, seven fire trucks arrived and two police cars had shut down the street on both sides. Thank god it was only a small fire on the 6th floor, and the bad smell disappeared soon… Lesson learned: Americans are able to overreact very well!
When ING Direct started in the US in 2000, many banks laughed about its concept: • Encourage people to save money, instead of spend money, and give them a free savings account with a high interest rate; • Don´t give customers a credit card; give them a debit card instead, so that they only spend the money that they have. Instead of (expensive and unsecure) checks, we can also e-mail money to each other; • Offer customers an attractive mortgage, that fits their salary – without giving them a mortgage that would not fit their needs but would be more profitable, or charge hidden fee´s without the borrower knowing about it.
This low-cost business model is made possible by avoiding expensive branch offices, and offer banking services over the phone and internet. To keep in touch with (potential) clients, ING Direct cafe’s were opened in large cities; customers can drink a latte, and ask the barista something about saving accounts or mortgages. (The coffee served here is Peet’s Coffee; founded by the Dutch entrepreneur Alfred Peet, who moved to San Francisco in 1966 to use his coffee-brewing experience with California – it turned out to be the inspiration for Starbucks. Just to let you know!)
After 8 years, other banks started recognizing and respecting ING Direct´s values. News shows wonder how ING Direct US is the only survivor of the subprime mortgage crisis: while Countrywide had 94.000 foreclosures in 2007, ING Direct US only had 15! The world now realized that a lot of Americans are financially illiterate. The economical consequences are still unknwon. Anyhow, it feels good to work for a company that tries to help people to get into a better, more stabilized financial situation, while at the same time it is a very successful lender. And if people still don´t trust the internet as a medium to use all their banking services: ING Direct was the safest bank in the US in 2007!
Here is a recent news video about ING Direct US surviving the subprime mortgage crisis:
And some pictures of the ING Direct café in Philly:
What should you do if you're a man, and you've slept with a woman, but you are sure that the baby she got 9 months after you slept together isn't yours? Or if you're a woman, and you don't exactly know who the father of your child is, but you would really like for someone to pay the child support? A common problem in the US! Until now, people had two options. The most obvious one is going to the hospital. Unfortunately, most people that would need such a test don't have enough money to go there, so they would go to The Maury Povich Show where they would be faced with the paternity on TV: “You aaaaaaaaare…………… NOT the father!” after which the man stands up and makes a winners-dance move.
Until last week this was the situation. Now, you can buy an at-home paternity test for $29 at Rite-Aid. This kit contains three swabs, which you should use inside the mouth of the mother, the father and the baby to gain a DNA sample. You can then return these swaps (just place them in the postage-paid return envelope), after which the DNA is being analyzed and you will receive the result in 3-5 business days via mail, e-mail or a secured internet connection. Finally - people don't have to go to expensive hospitals or go to embarrassing TV shows anymore (like this one below)!
Last Saturday, I visited Washington DC with my parents. A short history of the US: Philadelphia became the capital in 1790 because it was the largest city at that time. Many states disagreed with this, so a new district was born: the District of Columbia, existing of only one city (Washington DC). Locals call it simply DC to avoid confusion with the State of Washington in the Northwest. In 1800, DC became the capitol of the US.
Over 200 years later: DC is a huge metropolitan area (nr. 8 in the US – see a list of the largest metropolitan areas in the US ). If DC were to be a State, it would be the smallest state in the US by far, with the highest population density! I noticed that DC, compared to other cities in the US, misses a nice skyline, but the city is very clean. The heart of the city is the National Mall: the area of the Washington Monument, Capitol, Lincoln Memorial, Reflecting Pool and of course the White House, surrounded by many government buildings. It is unique to walk around here and think about all the movies that were recorded here, especially when we came home in the evening and the protest-scene from Forrest Gump was on TV (which was recorded at the Lincoln Memorial, while his girlfriend jumps into the reflecting pool)!
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