Day at the Rodeo

To the right, you can see a photograph of my ticket to the San Antonio Rodeo. On February 6th, I spent the day at the rodeo for the first time. I was really excited because I like to watch the events on television, but I didn’t know very much about them. Although we have rodeos in California, I have never been to one, so I while there I was constantly comparing it to the fairs and sporting events we have.
When we first arrived, we walked through the fair. I saw the piglet races, which we have back home. Afterwards, they brought out a 3 ½ week-old piglet that was just adorable. We also walked through one of the expos where there were many vendors selling their products. While the expo was similar to the ones I’ve been to in California, there were some key differences. At the San Antonio rodeo, there was a huge emphasis on cowboy hats, belts, and belt buckles. I don’t know a lot about typical cowboy fashion, and this ignorance caused me to really embarrass myself at one point. We were at a booth selling belts, and I noticed a rack of what looked like little belts next to the cash register. I walked over towards the rack and said, “Oh, look. Mini belts!” My friend laughed a little bat, saying “Lauren, those aren’t mini belts. They’re hat bands.” Fortunately they weren’t a lot of people around, so no one else heard me!
The next thing I found to be very different was when the rodeo started. The first thing they did, even before the national anthem, was to have someone say a prayer. I thought it was very nice, and the crowd seemed to really appreciate the freedom to start off a sporting event with prayer. But it really surprised me because I had never seen that happen before.
I really enjoyed all of the riding events. It was so much different to watch it from the stands than on television. I also thought the tie-down roping was very impressive, although it seemed a little unfair to the calf being tied down. The Mutton Bustin’ was hilarious.
After the rodeo, the fun continued with a Tim McGraw concert. They set up his stage in about thirty minutes. While watching the process, I thought how it would be very Texan if Tim McGraw either rode in on a horse or a Ford truck. Just five minutes later, the lights went down, and in came the star, standing in the bed of a pick-up truck. I was so excited that I had guessed his entrance. The concert was great, and he was very entertaining.
I had a great day at the rodeo, and I hope to go back next year!

Culture Shock

Never in my life have I had such a unique day that I felt the need to write down its events, until October 31st, 2009. That day, my friends and I decided to get up early, dress in our Halloween costumes, and go out to eat at a restaurant in Canyon Lake, which is about 45 minutes out of San Antonio. Appropriately named Flapjacks, this restaurant has about 30 different “flavors” of pancakes on its menu—from apple, to cinnamon roll, to s’mores. However, there was more in store for me on this trip than just a scrumptious breakfast; I also received a decent dose of culture shock.
Before I moved to Texas, I always thought that the rest of the United States was socially similar to California. And even now that I live in another state, I still think that our cultures our relatively uniform. However, I saw two things on my drive to Canyon Lake, what I would call the “country,” that surprised me, to say the least. First of all, I saw the corpse of an adult deer on the side of the freeway. We weren’t surrounded by fields or wilderness; no, we were still in the city, surrounded by shopping centers, and there was a deer who had been hit by a car. The first thing I thought was “How did the deer get out here?” So, I asked someone in the car, who was a native Texan, if this type of road kill was a common occurrence. He told me it was, especially further out in the country. I was blown away. My hometown is a busy area, but there are deer living on the outskirts. However, I have never seen anything bigger than an opossum in the street. I felt sorry for the poor deer.
However, the most shocking thing I saw was a few minutes later. There was a billboard encouraging passerby to keep an eye out for poachers. I could not believe my eyes. Call me naïve, but I didn’t even think poachers existed in the U.S., much less that Texas had a problem with them. Whenever I learned about poachers in school, they were always portrayed as the exotic bad guys. So, I figured if I ever ran into a poacher, it would be while on a safari or jungle trek. I never guessed I’d have to worry about them in Southern Texas.
Well, y’all sure did surprise me.