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!