Sitting in my dorm room, laptop in its rightful place on my lap and a bag of cherries from Walmart - it seems this blog is ready to be written. It may become like an insight into my non-existent diary, or a detailed collage of my thoughts and photos over the year - who knows? For now, I can only welcome you to the first post of my US* blog and then begin writing. So welcome!
__________
It always seems when living in a new country that the first couple of weeks are full of one particular moment: the "that is so..." moments. For example, when living in France, it wasn't long before I saw hunched old men balancing cigarettes between their lips as they played petanque. Then, my thoughts were immediately, "that is so French". In the UK, red buses and rolling green hills provided a similar exclamation.
These moments occur at the precise point in time when a stereotype of a country suddenly appears before your eyes. They provide a short burst of glee, before (hopefully) you go on to appreciate the people and the culture of where you are in more depth. I hope in future posts to go beyond this superficial point of view, but for now let's have some fun.
Stereotype no. 1
Arriving in Dallas, it seemed that the tyres of the plane didn't even have to touch the ground before I uttered the phrase "that is so American" to the Queensland couple seated beside me. Sweeping around the airport was a tangle of raised concrete highways towering over the plains of the Midwest countryside. Right from the beginning, it appeared as though Texas was going to start fulfilling stereotype after stereotype.
Stereotype no. 2
Not too long after, and after passing immigration and the endless line at customs, I made it through the sliding doors to officially arrive in Texas. My new cycling coach, made himself known to me and we walked out into the intense heat.
I'm not sure if it truly counts as a stereotype because there are many places in the world where it gets hot - my hometown of Adelaide, for example. But, having anticipated this heat since making the decision to go to this part of the US, it certainly did fulfil some part of mental picture I had created of Texas in my mind.
However, no amount of studying of The Weather Channel was ever going to prepare me for the intense heat of constantly close to 110F. It wasn't long before I was on a bike in this heat, thinking of the times I had avoided going out in the cold and decided to use the trainer instead.
Texas is hot. Hotter than Adelaide - even during that awful heatwave of 2008.
Stereotype no.3
After loading my oversized bike box into the cycling van, coach and I were in for the two hour drive north-west to the not so little town of Wichita Falls. It wasn't long before I was on one of those weaving highways I mentioned and encountering stereotype number three.
I'm not sure whether I am surprised by this or not, but an insanely high proportion of Texans drive pick-ups (oversized utes).
While I would like to believe, every pick-up driver here needs their oversized vehicle, I think this phenomenon is more closely comparable to the Australian upper-middle-class-stay-at-home mums who drive their children to school in BMW four-wheel drives.
Stereotype no.4
Back to the stereotypes and away from unrelated rants, and while still on the drive to Wichita Falls, I saw ranches with white fences and red, arched-roof barns. I don't think it's necessary to elaborate any further on that.
Stereotype no.5
The next stereotype has kind of crept up on me since arriving. I noticed it on the drive in to Wichita Falls, I was aware of it over the next few days driving around town, but it wasn't until I walked to the shops in the heat that it really smacked me in the face.
It is perhaps one of the biggest stereotypes of America in general.
FAST FOOD IS EVERYWHERE!!
To illustrate my point for those back home, I will compare Australia and America by using the analogy of a recurring decimal and pi.
In Australia, we have a few different fast food outlets that repeat, generally in clusters, every few kilometres depending on your location. McDonalds, Hungry Jacks, KFC, McDonalds, Hungry Jacks, KFC.
Here in Wichita Falls, a town of 100,000 people, there a hundreds of different fast food restaurants of every type you can imagine (I have only seen 1.5 McDonalds) lined up one after the other on endless strips of junk food.
But, I believe the reason it stood out to me so much on that hot walk to the shops is that while these fast food restaurants are all right next to each other, they also seem so far apart. Many are stand along buildings with their own carpark, a drive through and of course the mandatory towering sign that tries to be taller and brighter than the next.
With all that said, I do hope (while still strictly maintain a healthy diet???) to try at least a few of the delicacies they offer. I believe it would be a crime not too. Right?
Stereotype no.6
The final stereotype I have for you today is all about Texas. If you had to create a mental image of a typical Texan in your head, what would they look like?
A rodeo clown? A red-neck? If you thought like I did, there would at least have been an element of a cowboy in that picture.
Of all the stereotypes, this is perhaps the one that you hope desperately that you will see but that you don't really believe you will. To my disbelief, it took less than 48hrs to spy my first cowboy-dressed young man.
On my second night, the loveliest of my new team-mates took me out to perhaps Wichita Falls' favourite bar, Denim and Diamonds. For the women, cowboy boots don't form part of a costume, they are a fashion statement. Meanwhile, the men recognise their roots with checked shirts and cowboy hats.
Truthfully, not every girl was in boots, and only a few guys braved the famous hats, but I did notice all of this from the middle of a line-dancing line, still puffing from just having done a two-step.
It was an amazing night, one that I hope gets repeated. But, I don't think I will ever be able to recreate that moment of shock when I spied my first cowboy hat across the dance floor.
__________
That seems enough for now. Next post, I hope to update you a little more on my new life as a US College cyclist. With all the residents moving into my dorm over the weekend and next week, I have been assured I am about to be baptized into the culture of the US college dorms.
Excuse me, while I go and help decorate level 3 of McCullough-Trigg Hall in a sailor theme.
*If you are confused as to why I'm writing about Texas, US College and cycling please refer to the "a little context..." section to the right.
