Thoughts on Texas

Texas is starting to feel more and more like home.

This week has been the start of many changes for us. For me, it marked the first week of classes. I'm very excited about this semester -- but man will I be busy! Dan, on the other hand, spent the week diligently apply to jobs. He has well over a dozen applications out for some really promising jobs -- so keep your fingers crossed and send him some good vibes!

We are also starting to make friends with the people within are living complex, and from the university. Even a few who wanted to accompany us on a mini-roadtrip to Dallas to catch a few hockey games this fall =)

Many of you have been asking us to write down some thoughts about the differences we are noticing between Minnesota and Waco, Texas. So this list is for you!


-We have been really suprised by the complete lack of green or undeveloped space within this town. Dan likes to jokingly refer to Waco as a large, slightly more classy Superior, Wisconsin. We are really going to have to hunt to find areas within Waco to get our weekly outdoor fix.

-I know this may sound a little bit obvious.. but MAN is it HOT outside! We have been doing our best to be naive to the real temperature -- like Minnesota winters, if you don't know its -10 out, you don't feel *that* bad being outside. (And like Minnesota winters, that positive attitude can only do so much..) On the bright side, I think we are finally starting to acclimatize. Yesterday, Waco was only in the min-90s. And it felt SO GOOD outside!

-Dan and I are still trying to figure out the local accents. Everyone seems have at least a very mild drawl -- but if you have paid for a local radio or TV commercial, you apparently need to have an accent so thick, that neither Dan nor I can rightfully say what company you are representing or what it is you are trying to sell. One TV commerical especially has a rolling with laughter everytime we hear it. Even more strange -- employees from nerdy stores (like Barnes and Noble or Gamestop), have no accents. Not even drawls. They are like little slices of home!

-We are still amazed with how incredibly friendly everyone is. Every person, women especially, are extremely bubbly and engaging. Whether you are talking to the shelf-stocker at the grocery store, the waitstaff at a resturant, or the stranger you are in line with -- everyone is sugar sweet. And not in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable, either. It's very strange. Stranger yet -- it's really the only emotion we have seen. No one is anything except friendly. Never excited or frustrated, or upset or disinterested.. nothing. Just friendly and engaging. And on that note, everyone loves a good handshake too. I've never (awkwardly) shook so many hands in my life!

-Even drivers have their own brand of friendliness. If you are driving less than 40 mph, nearly every road manuever you make involves some sort of hand waving gesture. 4-way stops, even if everyone knows the order they arrived in, involves everyone waving on each car as it goes. Same goes for pedestrians. They simply won't walk without a good hearty wave. As for the roads themselves --- the frontage roads are absolutely ridiculous! Once you are stuck on one, you can't get off of it and back on to the freeway for several miles. And when a frontage road meets a round-a-bout, don't even get me started. If you visit, let Dan drive. =)

-We have found a few funny Texas idiosyncracies. For starters, there seems to be a love affair with plastic bags. They are much smaller down here, and can fit all of one box of Kleenex and maybe a bottle of dish soap. Worse, there is absolutely no attempt to maximize packing space within each bag. If you are buying 7 small items, you will walk away with at LEAST 4 plastic bags -- 5 bags if you don't argue for your toothpaste to please be included with the paper towels, because really, they both don't need their own bag....

I got into an interesting discussion with a the grocery store attendant the other day over plastic bags. I had brought my own canvas bag from home as well as a plastic bag from WalMart to wrap my raw meat in -- this way I could carry everything home together without contaminating my veggies. She just couldn't understand why I didn't want her to throw away my WalMart plastic bag, and get a *new* grocery store plastic bag instead. I tried to explain to her that giving me another bag would defeat the purpose of me reusing one from home. But I think she thought I was from another planet. They will love me when I start bringing my produce bags back into the store so I can reuse those too.

-Speaking of grocery stores -- over 1/3rd of the store is.. plasma screen tv's, clothing, dvds and assorted dollar store items... I know, I don't get it either. But, they have CRAZY cheap food prices! While the choices for non-packaged or non-processed foods are extremely limited, what they do have available is exceptionally cheap. Meat and produce are also much fresher and cheaper than we are used to. Unfortuantely, it looks like we will have to be making trips to Austin to get gluten-free noodles, crackers and flours. Oh darn ;)

-We are also very aware that we are within the Bible belt. You don't say 'Have a good day!' -- it's 'Have a Bless'd day!'. Don't 'Have a safe trip'; instead 'Have to Lord see you home safely'. It's not 'Just my luck'; it's 'As the Lord sees it'. Small religious references and phrases are everywhere. The circumstances and contexts in which everyone mentions God, religion and the Lord are still quite suprising to us. While Christanity is definitely the norm, we haven't felt out of place or looked down on for not participating in casual religious references. I'm not quite sure how everyone would react to differing religious or political views -- it will be interesting to find out.

-There is also a huge socioeconomic divide within Waco. Everything around and near Baylor University looks extremely well manicured and high-class. However, just a few blocks away is total poverty. It's very strange living amongst such a large divide.

-On a final note, everyone is a bit more restrained when it comes to nature. We have both received strange looks for taking off our sandals and enjoying the fresh grass between our toes. (Oh, and don't take off your shoes when you visit other people's homes.. they will think you are strange!). We have also been inundated with dozens of large black, flying crickets. They warned us everything was bigger in Texas -- it just didn't think it would apply to the bugs too!

Hope all is well on the homefront. Don't be a stranger!

-K