USA - Prepare

Bring a surfboard for Hawaii, a husky for Alaska, a screenplay for Hollywood, spurs for Montana, a ten-gallon hat for Texas and a congressional kick-back for Washington DC.

Feel the déjà vu on Groundhog Day in February – a day that supposedly determines when spring will begin. Don your most dazzling outfit for the Oscars, as the eyes of the world turn to Hollywood in February/March. Join the USA's biggest party for Independence Day on the 4th of July. Keep some candy handy for trick-or-treaters during October's Halloween. Count your blessings with an American family in November over Thanksgiving, and wind up with an unbelievable shopping spree at Christmas.

New Year's Day (Jan), Martin Luther King's Day (Jan), Presidents' Day (Feb), Memorial Day (May), Independence Day (Jul), Labor Day (Sep), Columbus Day (Oct), Veterans' Day (Nov), Thanksgiving (Nov), Christmas Day (Dec).

The USA consists of many climates, large and small. The East Coast and Mid-West have icy winters and hot, often humid summers. The Deep South's climate is subtropical, and late summer's heat is as intense as the humidity is heavy. Most of the West Coast has a dry, temperate climate, Alaska's weather verges on the Arctic, while Hawaii is tropical.

110V AC, 60Hz, two-pin flat-bladed pins are standard.

+1 (USA).

The dollar (US$) is the currency.

From GMT -10 in Hawaii, to GMT -5 on the East Coast (GMT -4 in summertime).

The USA is such a hybrid of different societies that it's sometimes hard to believe it's a single country. Compare an Amish farmer with the Hollywood jet-set, or Wall Street bankers with backwoods bayou fingerpickers. Contrast tribal Native Americans with a Harlem gospel choir, or a southern Baptist minister and a Silicon Valley dotcom millionaire, and you begin to understand why, in the US, sometimes the only way to fit in is to stand out.