What's in a name?

The Big Report
As Shakespeare once wrote, "What's in a name!" The longer we spend in Texas the more it is becoming evident, that our names are really somewhat of a novelty. Now naively we never really expected it to be such a difficult concept for those we encounter, however it dawned on us last weekend in Oklahoma when we were regularly asked to demonstrate how we would pronounce our names differently. Our names were a Big Problem!
To get you all in the picture on what we are talking about and for those random readers from Russia and abroad who don't know us, our names are Aaron and Erin. Since we have been together it has become apparent that in some parts of the world such as Germany, Japan and the USA our names are pronounced the same "Earin" and "Earin". When we are not together people appear comfortable and manage to communicate without issue or concern, but when we are together there is considerable confusion. We watch and listen, waiting in anticipation as people try to pronounce our names differently. Attempting to communicate with either the boy Earin or girl Earin. Those we have met so far practice and try but it is becoming apparent that it is something we will just have to get use too. Alternatively we could do as Erin jokingly suggested prior to leaving Australia and use my middle name Bobby!!! Our big dilemma - To change or not to change, that is the question!

The week past

Not a great deal to report this week, Erin got sick, Aaron gave himself a stylish haircut (not quite as cool as Bobby's above), and the weather started to change! Brrr!
We ventured out in the windy, bitter weather of Friday night to explore one of the local restaurants/bars "The Gin Mill"! We had walked past this place a number of times as it is on the way to our local fruit and vege shop, so we were both eager to try it out. From the street there is an outside area which is enclosed by a bamboo fence and a water feature along one wall, there is just something about water features that draws me in (actually it's just water). We arrived about 6:45pm, just in time for the end of happy hour, half price appetizers and cheaper drinks. So we indulged and ordered a delicious starter as well as our mains. I would have to say that this is the first time we have truly been challenged by the quantity of food we have ordered. The appetizer was hummus, olives, grilled capsicum, fetta and flat bread. Instead of getting the typical amount of bread you would expect in Australia we had half a plate full, very generous! In addition to this we also were given side salads with our main which were more like a typical sized salad in Australia, with 15 types of dressings to choose from, I chose a sherry vinegarette (not great) and Aaron a blue cheese. Our mains arrived and were generous and delicious as well. This place is certainly a winner in our book and I am sure we will be back again!

On Saturday night Aaron went to a friends engagement party, whilst Erin lounged around at home coughing up a storm. At the party A met more nice friendly Texans and got an offer to learn how to dance country style "the 2 step". In future blogs I am sure this will be an entertaining feature when we hit the country dance scene. Oh and we also got our dose of surf as we watched "Chasing Mavericks" at the cinema.

Well that's about all, hope you are all well!

 - Our Apartment Block

-Date night and Erin working her way through the boutique beers.

An uptown fancy bar, displaying the Texan dream - "Fired Chicken and Champagne". Living the dream

Big Cars, Bright Orange and Masses of Tissue Paper

The Big Report
Over the weekend we got to experience another BIG American tradition - Homecoming! For those of you who are ignorant about this tradition like Erin and I were just last week, it is huge University celebration around a home game of American Football, against a team that they have a high chance of beating.  As we have seen in American movies there is also a homecoming king and queen, marching band, tailgating and a walk through the night prior. So whats big about homecoming, EVERYTHING! The big band, big footballers, big cars, big TV's and satellite dishes.The most unusual thing though is the decoration of the sorority and frat houses. For months leading up to the big event the boys and girls team up with thousands of dollars, hopefully some cold beverages, chicken wire, graph paper, tissue paper and a simple pen. A scale picture is drawn on graph paper, including numbers to signify colours and then the students go to work on creating their vision. For hours the boys and girls fraternize using the humble pen risking RSI and arthritis to push coloured tissue paper into the chicken wires holes creating something that is quite spectacular, yet in a bizarre, time consuming sort of way. These things have moving parts, 3 dimensions and thousands of people filling the streets the night before the game to look at the splendor.

The week past!
A little late on getting to the blog this week, a little tired after the weekend and my slack husband, had his cleaning to do first :). Apologies! Another week down with a few milestones. I received my social security number which allows us now to open up a bank account and a number of other luxuries like a electricity account (don't worry we haven't been without power for the past 4 weeks). It does allow you to build a credit history, however this is not achieved easily as we have also discovered. First you must find someone willing to give you credit (i.e. a credit card, we were suggested a particular company who is generous towards those without a history - based on our current situation they have allowed us $300!) So we are building a credit history! Small steps...

Really our week was spent anticipating our first weekend away to another state and the opportunity to experience an American tradition a college football homecoming game at Oklahoma State University. We were hosted by an ex-homecoming princess, her soon to be prince, and family for the weekend. It was a loooonng drive to Stillwater, Oklahoma but totally worth it. The end of the drive culminated in a creative display of the local Fraternity and Sorority community passion. Termed "walkaround" we were met at (9:30pm) with hundreds of ex-alumni and tissue paper displays of all kinds. We were hosted by the wonderful Radka family, who welcomed us in to their house despite the strangers arriving almost at midnight!

Saturday morning arrived a little to quickly for our liking, we were out of the house by 8am with the game due to start at 11am, there was tailgaiting to be had!. We headed to Stillwater for the much anticipated spectacle. Now unfortunately for us the game was an early one, meaning that the famous festivities were a lot tamer than we were expecting. We did however observe some impressive set-ups as seen in this picture, it is not uncommon to bring along your portable satellite dish and flatscreen television so you can view the game from the comfort of your "tailgaiting" spot or venture in to the large stadium for more upclose viewing and action. Our plan was to enjoy the game from a local institution - "Eskimo Joes". The expectation was that we would have to "stalk" a table to get one for the game. We arrived just prior to the game kicking off - the bar was already packed and no tables available, luck was on our side, or maybe the fact that most of the people at the bar early were heading in to the game so we ended up with the best seats in the house to watch the game and sink a few beverages whilst eating a Joes tradition, cheese fires.

Prior to kick-off Aaron and I explored a bit of the campus and purchased ourselves some mementos, an orange t-shirt for A and shirt for me. We had now evolved into the orange coloured OSU Alumni. Game on! Aaron then spent the entire game asking a thousand questions learning the ins and outs of the game (poor Jacob), drinks were sunk, food consumed and fun was had.

What a small world it is. Not only do we have a firend that went to OSU but my Aunt, Uncle and Cousin also went to OSU. So before heading to Oklahoma we got in contact with Aunt Tami in Brisbane in hope of catching up with her cousin Shemarr at the game. I had thought that we had missed the opportunity to catch up, but at 9am I received a text from my "cuz" to say he and his son were heading to the game. Aaron and I met up with Shemarr and his son Scott and their tailgaiting crew at halftime. It was soooooooo nice to see a familiar face, my first since being in the US.

So thats about all for now. Keep in touch!

Evolution...

Prior to moving onto this weeks big report I once again need to give credit to the humble pickle. From its simple beginnings as a cucumber, to its time spent fermenting in vinegar, brine or ?? to become a household favourite in the US. Who could of thought life for a pickle and a pickle eater could get any better. But the next evolution has arrived!! Saving the consumer from getting pickled fingers, providing the grip you need to stop that slippery sucker from getting away, making consumption a sheer pleasure; its "the pickle on a stick".Could life be any better?

The Big Report - The average Texan Family Car 

For those of you who have traveled to the US you would of noticed that the car spaces in all the car parks are huge. You could fit 2 average European cars in each! Now there is a very simple reason for this phenomena, that is the average Texan family car. The Chevrolet started off as a basic pickup and served the generations for years but as all things Texan it was too small and simple to survive the Texans pride in being the biggest and best. Over the years the wheels got bigger, trays grew larger and were soon big enough to carry one of those toy like European cars with an engine big enough to tow a truck and rattle your bones as it passes. As with the pickles the next evolution of vehicles has emerged. The average (not even the biggest) Texan family car pictured below populates the streets. Should these vehicles become an Australian dream as well?

The Week Passed

The weekend started with dreary weather again and I started to wonder if we were really just weather jinxed! We bravely attempted a Saturday morning bike ride despite the temperature being around 10 degrees, a temperature we are not used to unless visiting family and friends outside of the Sunshine state. After 5kms we decided that it was best to turn around and head home, my ears were hurting, fingers were blue, it was that cold.

Sunday was not much better but we had planned to check out the Texas State Fair and thought the cooler conditions may actually make for a more favourable experience due to smaller crowds. The Texas State Fair is famous for displaying all things Texas. In particular for frying everything and anything, so we were both keen to see what there was to offer. On arrival  we were screened for any concealed weapons by two guards along with all the other patrons, it was pleasing to note that weapons were not allowed in to the fair. If carrying they could be checked in, you were given a ticket like we get in a cloak room and collect it upon departure. WOW that's different!

The fair grounds itself was BIG, you got a big welcome from the big cowboy and consisted of all the apparent best Texas has to offer, including a big car exhibit with all the national dealers, big sideshow alley, local producer exhibits and big deep fryers. My favourite experience was the only small thing we noticed all day. the miniature donkey show that we randomly stumbled across in the search for the longhorns, they were adorable and definitely not big. The highlight for A was seeing the famous Texas Longhorn, he was so excited! After enjoying the exhibits and checking out all the food options A settled on some Alligator for lunch and I had some fried chicken and waffle, washed down with fried chocolate cake for dessert. These were just some of the delights on offer, for those more adventurous there were things like chicken fried steak, fried watermelon, fried peach cobbler and a Fannie Flagg favourite "Fried Green Tomatoes". Our hearts did flutter with nerves of an sustaining a heart attack on entering this place.

The working week began with more induction for me and essay writing and job hunting for A. And how could I forget A's birthday! We had a delicious dinner at a local restaurant (no fried food).

Back to work talk I am not the only newby at the IEEM, meaning most people are needing to practice particular aspects of the testing we perform. Both A and I had the pleasure of doing VO2 max tests this week, A's first one and my first one with this system. As well as measuring your oxygen consumption during exercise we also measure cardiac output which is pretty cool (I think), but makes the test more challenging. The final measure of cardiac output is made at the end of the test, whilst you are still running meaning you need to have at least seven breaths to inhale some gas and then breath it out over seven breaths before the treadmill stops. It's also more technical for the person controlling the test (hence why we were practicing). I am guessing due to his brilliance that A performed significantly better then me in the test. His wedding vow promise to beat me one day is starting to become a reality :) unfortunately I missed his test due to more induction...

 The rest of the week was pretty stock standard. I worked, A cleaned the house, cooked the meals and met me at the train each afternoon to walk me home. We found a good way to ride to my work avoiding the crack houses and enjoyed an afternoon riding around the Art district and Uptown in the sun checking out all the trendy people and their dogs, whilst turning heads by riding bikes on the roads and wearing helmets. Happy Days!!!

Pickles

The BIG report 1
Each week prior to blogging whats been happening we are going to provide the BIG report. Our goal over the next 2 years is to answer the question with your help does BIG = Better? We are certainly in the country where things are generally big but in Texas things are even BIGGER. They take pride in being bigger! So this weeks big report is on the humble pickle. To the rest of us its that little thing we get on a burger that as a child we watch slide down the window of McDonalds. To the Texan its part of the staple diet. Pickles come with everything, on burgers, salads, you can even get a side of pickles. So why are pickles part of the big report? They are BIG! and sold in a family size container.
Your thoughts - are big Pickles in big containers an Australian dream?

WEEK ONE

 Moving in! We got the keys for our place last Tuesday and started the process of moving everything in. The flat tyre the previous day actually proved to be quite fortuitous as the rental place gave us a bigger car, a much BIGGER car which meant we could move all our 120kg of luggage from the hotel in one trip rather than many.

Our furniture was delivered, which was very exciting! And I even managed to convince Aaron that Ikea is OK - see our pretty shower curtain! We were making the most of the facilities early on, as we didn't have any cooking utensil and our first meal was cooked on the "grill" in the pool area.

Downtown Dallas - we brought the rain!


TWO WEEKS, TWO WEEKS!
It's hard to know whether we feel like we've been here much longer or a much shorter time at present. Big things have happened this week, including my second week of work which has included learning some new imaging techniques and more importantly for the house husband, the connection of the internet and arrival of 300 TV channels!

We seem to have settled in to a nice little routine, which does involve A cooking and cleaning - heaven! Not ironing my clothes yet, or making my lunch, disappointing. But he does escort me to the train in the dark each morning. Unlike Queensland, the Texans do have day light savings so at present it doesn't get dark until after 7, but likewise it doesn't get light until after 7am. I expect this will change sometime in the next few weeks. The weather has also started to change, it was 30degrees yesterday, today it is 11! A cold front came through from Canada apparently.

The immigration officer at UT Southwestern kindly took us out to meet some people the other night. It was great to get out and socialise. It is so much cheaper to eat out than Australia. Mains were about $13, craft beers $4 and delicious Jameson and Dry for $5. A also managed to get a little work from the evening looking after one of those photo booths people hire for parties and functions every now and then.

Well that's the first 2 weeks down, how time flies! Keep in touch.