So Long

Well, for my last entry, I would like to talk about Texans and Californians and their mannerisms.
When I first came to Texas, I was worried that I would really offend someone. In California, it is perfectly normal to walk past someone without even making eye contact. Here, though, people not only make eye contact, they smile and say “Hello,” too! After realizing this, I was worried that I might accidentally snub someone just because I was not used to paying attention to people across the street. But, as far as I know, I haven’t ignored anyone. Although, I suppose I wouldn’t know if I had.
Another clear difference for me is some aspects of speech. For example, Texans use “yes sir,” “no ma’am” much more often than Californians, which is nice, I think. It was a little strange to me at first, but I adapted. Also, of course: y’all. All my family told me I would come back saying it, but I told them I wouldn’t, and I didn’t. But it is so hard not to use it. It’s so much more convenient than “you guys” or “all of you.” I am determined to hold out though, for now. Even better than y’all, is the plural form of it: y’all’s. Two apostrophes in one word!
Anyway, this is the end of my blog entries, at least for now. I hope you have enjoyed them!

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Weather

Unfortunately I did not get this post in before midnight…
One of the main differences between San Antonio and my hometown is the weather. The humidity in San Antonio is oppressive, whereas humidity is almost nonexistent in Southern California. The heat is also stronger and amplified further by the humidity. There were a lot of things I noticed when I first got here that showcase the differences in the weather. For example, at home, when we open the windows in the summer, we do so to let in the breeze and cool down the house. Here, my roommate and I would open our window in the summer to make our room warmer, to let the heat in because our room was too cold. However, sometimes we would leave the window open for too long, and the humidity would take over our room. Our mirror, which is located on the opposite side of our room, would fog up like a bathroom mirror does when you take a shower (the photograph is of this phenomenon). So, our room would even be humid. Indoor humidity--a very new concept to me.
However, I was also amazed by how cold it gets in San Antonio. I thought I knew what winter clothes were. I thought I had jackets and warm clothes, but I was wrong. I froze before Christmas break and then returned in January with a heavy coat and snow boots. The snow boots might have been a little much, but, hey, they were useful.
So, although the weather is certainly more severe than it is back home, it’s also much more exciting.

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.

Pondering Patriotism

My first trip to San Antonio was in March of last year, when I came to visit Trinity with my dad. Along with visiting the school, we also had about a day and a half to tour the city, and in that short amount of time one of the Texan stereotypes became quite apparent to me: Texans are very proud of their state. This loyal attitude struck me when we were walking around an old neighborhood just south of the downtown area. This neighborhood was lined with old but mainly well-kept mansions from the Civil War era. But more than the stunning architecture, what really intrigued me were the displays of the Texan state flag. It surprised me that people even owned their state’s flag, much less decorated the exterior of their homes with it. No one hangs the state flag on their private property in California. In fact, I have lived there all my life, and I couldn’t even draw a picture of my state flag if you asked me—I only know that a bear is depicted on it. The more I think about it, the Texan flag is the only one out of all the other states that I would recognize. Why shouldn’t the flag be hung proudly? It is, after all, a very nice-looking flag.

The Texas bumper sticker is another phenomenon that indicated patriotism in this state to me. There’s the conservative “Texas is bigger than France” sticker, the proud “American by birth, Texan by the grace of God” sticker, and, my personal favorite, the “I wasn’t born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could” sticker. If I ever get my car out here, the third bumper sticker will be a necessary addition to it. In contrast, I’ve never had a patriotic Californian bumper sticker on my car; I’ve never even seen a patriotic Californian bumper sticker. Are you noticing a theme here?

My next encounter with Texan patriotism was during my first week at Trinity. During New Student Orientation, we attended an event where we played games to meet new people. In one of the games, we were told to start an argument with another person. Knowing my opponent was a Texan, I decided to have some fun and argued, “California is better that Texas.” He must not have realized that I was kidding, because I could tell by the look on his face that he strongly disagreed with me. The ensuing argument was really pretty funny.

Now, I’m not implying that Californians don’t love their home (I think California is a beautiful, opportune place to live), nor am I meaning that all Texans are patriotic. But from my short experience, I’ve seen a lot more state pride in my past few months in San Antonio than I have in 18 years in southern California. I think the reasons for this difference are largely political, but since this isn’t a political blog, I’m not going to delve into that subject. My goal is to record my observations of the new culture I’m living in and compare them to the way of life back home.