A Thankful Holiday?

The Big Report

JUMBOTRON! What an earth is a "jumbotron"? It is a new word for our vocabulary, and to be honest I initially thought it was made up by some super nerds who dream of making things bigger and better. Perhaps our readers are more familiar with this new over-sized technology than we are and now salivating in ore of our encounter. We have now become 2 of a select group of thousands who have heard and experienced the JUMBOTRON! Now for the uneducated like ourselves, the jumbotron is a large, well a jumbo screen at the new Cowboys stadium which we visited last weekend. Some stats on this screen: a couple of years ago it was the largest high definition TV in the world at a staggering 72 feet tall (22m) and 160 feet (49m) wide, 30 million light bulbs, it hangs 90 feet above the field and has 80 000 seats....the stadium cost $1.1 Billion to make! So yes another great example of something that Texas does bigger and better than anywhere else?

The last 2 weeks.

So last weekend we headed to a football game at the new Cowboys Stadium. This involved a long train ride and then a lift at the end to the game with Kristen and Jacob (looking forward to getting our own wheels next week!). Coppell High School were playing their first playoff match against another local Dallas High School, this was a great opportunity for us to go to the stadium for the bargin price of $10 instead of the regular/ludicrous tickets from $150 (nosebleed)-$14 000 to see the pro teams play. The stadium itself is very impressive at first look, as I mentioned earlier it was only finished a couple of years ago - 2009. Well actually everything about it was impressive. They even had padded seats unlike the typical seats we have in our stadiums, so that was nice. The game was a good contest between the two teams, but the real entertainment happens at half time. Coppell is a large high school in the Dallas area, and at half time provide some lively entertainment, there marching band (who is apparently one of the best in the WORLD), Lariette drill team, Cheer leaders and the Spirit Squad all perform short routines. Fair to say there was lots going on and it was a sight to be seen. The teams all spend hours practicing, the band spends even more and the result are some very slick performances.The opposing school also performed, however there band was a quarter of the size of the Coppell team.

We weren't brave enough to sample any of the football food. A hot dog covered in smushed chilli looking stuff was not very appealing. So by the time we got on a train and headed back to downtown Dallas we were both pretty hungry (especially after missing one train by a seconds, giving us a 20min wait!). Anyway we ended up picking a very touristy spot for a late lunch in the middle of downtown. This was our first time in the middle of the city when there were actually people around, our previous visit had been hampered by torrential rain. So it was much nicer to see people out and about enjoying the nice autumn weather. The restaurant was called Smokey Bryans and the menu was crazy, meat, meat and more meat! I ordered a pulled chicken, pulled pork and cheese sandwich with sides of macaroni and cheese and coleslaw, Aaron ordered hot barbecue wings, yes we shared. Check out the pics of our delightful lunch and Az's inability to keep all the food in his mouth, he is a grub. It was actually good, despite the scary look!

 

The past week at work was fairly unremarkable for me. We have started recruiting more participants for our study and I have been learning other new techniques. Aaron has landed himself a casual retail job for the holiday period which is going to really help us. So far the job hunt has been frustrating, and getting passed the initial application seems to be very challenging. Whilst Dallas certainly has a lot more jobs available than other parts of the US, there is still a lot of competition! So keep your fingers crossed Az can get some interviews soon.

This week at work was a short week. For those of you who are interested a couple of astronauts landed in Kazakstan on Monday and were flown in to Houston for testing on Monday night, our boss headed down to conduct testing on them here is a cool link if you are interested in life on the International Space Station












http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doN4t5NKW-k&list=PL2aBZuCeDwlR6Qzc29uzmOApP0A9Tu4QF&index=1&feature=plpp_video

We had a Thanksgiving Lunch on Tuesday at work, the IEEM provided ham, turkey and the trimmings, and all the staff brought along a side. I made my staple pumpkin, pear, spinach and feta salad it was very popular. There was so much food left over, despite everyone over indulging. In true American style nothing went to waste with most people taking a plate back to there office big enough to feed the average family. Crazy. For actual Thanksgiving day we entered a local fun run called the Turkey Trot. The distances for the run were either 5km or 8mi, I was a little hesitant at attempting an 8 mile with my current fitness but we had agreed to give it ago. Aaron got called in to work on Wednesday night and didn't finish until 11pm, so we dragged ourselves of bed early Thursday morning to head off for our fun run with 40,000 other people. It was perfect weather for the run, sunny with a small amount of cloud cover. Once the race kicked of at 9am, it took us 23 minutes to actually cross the start line and we couldn't really run until the 3km mark. It always amazes me in fun runs why the walkers all want to be at the front. This fun run also had a lot of prams and dogs, so there was plenty of dodging and leaping over the poo. By the time the two distances split we were in space and able to keep a nice rhythm. We finished the race together, Aaron definitely could have beaten me on the day but he ran with me and held my hand over the line, so I better start working a bit harder!! The remainder of our first thanksgiving involved making home pizzas and chilling out watching the Dallas Cowboys. They lost, but the other team were really good!

We got to experience our first Black Friday, well Aaron got experience first hand, it kind of passed me by... This is another American tradition that is hard to comprehend. Starting the evening of Thanks Giving (8pm for some, midnight for most) shops open up, signifying the start of Christmas shopping with what people consider, specials to die for! I was asleep Az had the pleasure of experiencing this phenomena in his new retail role. So let him paint this picture!

It was a cool Autumn night, the stars were shining and at 11:20pm, I cruised along the darkened, rough road towards the unknown, expecting nothing but the quiet night and clear entry through the front door of his work. Still half asleep and approaching the shops I could not believe his eyes! It was as if it was the 1970's and tickets to the "Beatles" were on sale. There was a cue about 200m long of people waiting to enter the store. Sneaking through the back door, trying to hide the fear in my eyes I got set for the unexpected. A slow 15 mins passed when the doors opened and about 1000 people came running into the store (literally running). For the next 4.5hrs the till which I was manning was running red hot, with a cue circled around the store of people waiting to pay. It was not until 4:30am that things started to get quiet and I served the last person in the cue who had been waiting about 1.5hrs. From speaking to the customers their goal was to complete all their Christmas shopping in this one day and that this was only their first stop. Luckily for all the customers, we were sponsored by Red Bull and they all left with a 4 pack to keep them going! At this time I had a chance to look up from the till, to see the bedlam, there was clothing and stuff everywhere!!!!!!  Now this was only a quiet store when it comes to Black Friday. There are 2 stores "Walmart" kind of like Kmart, Woolworths and Big W combined and "Best Buys" (JB Hifi on Steroids) feel the brunt of the customers as, people camp out for days to ensure they were the first to get through the doors. In the past people have been trampled to death at these sales, CRAZY!

And as a closing remark I would like to point out how ungrateful Ez is with having a full head of hair. Some of us less fortunate people have what is commonly called thinning hair, and we try to hold onto every strand, we cherish it like a fine wine! The other day when cleaning I had to clean out the vacuum, and what did I find? A collection of hair, simply discarded by Ez like it was worth nothing. I almost shed a tear at the sight, the sheer quantity!

Halloween, Burgers & Pomegranates

The Big Report

Now as we have been reporting things in Texas are generally big. You would think one exception would be the groceries, those everyday items we all purchase wherever we are in the world. A potato is a potato, an onion is always an onion and the humble pomegranate is a pomegranate no matter where you purchase it from. But yet again Texans take the previously standardised fruit and veg to a new level. I am not sure what creates this phenomena, if it is artificial or simply an evolutionary adaptation on behalf of the fruit and veg, so they don't feel inadequate in a place where everything else is big, but even these simple items are double the size of those produced anywhere else I have been. Initially we were hesitant and fearful of these giant abominations but as with all others things we have grown to accept their difference and consume with vigor.  Even sausages take the eater to a new dimension here!

The Weeks Past
We are back! A week off, with not too much happening we thought one action packed and mind boggling blog would be more fun!

October 31st was our first authentic experience of Halloween! Now I understand that in some areas of Australia, Halloween has recently grown in popularity, but Az and I had not experienced this in Brisbane. I arrived home on Halloween eve, with Az excitedly wanting to take me on a sunset bike ride. It was close to 6.30pm so I was less enthused, it took some convincing, but I put some bike shorts on and off we pedaled into the sunset! Az can be such a romantic :)  The suburbs close by to us are a real mix. To our east is a large Latino community with some interesting characters, whilst to our North it is a new/old area, new as people are buying older houses, knocking them down and building giant new houses that look like old house and castles. These streets are very similar to those that we grew up seeing on American television shows and movies, big elaborate houses. Earlier in the day Az went riding to get himself into shape so he can beat me one day in the future around Whiterock Lake and noticed that some of the really giant houses close to the lake were setting up there decorations for Halloween. The sun was slowly setting, we casually peddled towards the lake, as the night started to light up with vibrant decorations at the eve of Halloween. The sun was still on its way down so Az lead me to the lake to watch the moon rise over the water.

What we next experienced was an unexpected bonus. The moon was creeping over the horizon, we excitedly tried to capture this spectacular scene with our fancy camera but found it difficult to do the scene justice... We will let you be the judge of how you think we did?

Halloween at IEEM continued the experience for Ez as it meant large supplies of "candy and chips", which allowed plenty of opportunity to sample different types of American chocolate, to be honest it would of been rude not to try them all. That evening we were invited to a Halloween Party so after Ez got home from work, we jumped back on our bikes and pedaled over to nearby Marquita St. for a gathering with local families. The party was hosted by the same people who has held the engagement party Az attended previously. They are lovely people and we met some more great people, in particular we met a rugby coach called Ren and his hilarious wife Paula. Apparently there is a large Union competition in the US and we had just met the local coach for Dallas. We ended up chatting away and finished with an invite to "Thanksgiving" at there place after the local "Turkey Trot". We will tell you about this in the future.

There is a local burger bar near by to us and it seems to be the easiest place to reference when telling people where we live. So last Saturday night we set out to find out what all the fuss was about. Az's new favourite football team was playing so this made the trip to the bar even more exciting, burgers, drinks and football, wow! The bar is called Jakes, and the burgers were ridiculous, as were the beer glasses! We enjoyed our first experience but not sure we will be making it a regular thing, I don't think our hearts/waistline would appreciate it! If you can read the menu check out the heart attack that is burger number 5!


Az the dork that he is has finally had his working rights approved, we say finally but really it took a lot less time than we were told which is great. Also on the positive I have found a new hairdresser who is just around the corner!

Whilst I was at the hairdresser, Az was making new friends at a nearby bar. Angela and DW were interesting, fun characters who are also descendants of "swamp people" from Mississippi. One of them grew up with a huge gator regularly hanging out in their back yard that they would hand feed, just like in that movie Lake Placid. Well they decided that they wanted to show us more of Dallas and asked if we would like to join them in an area full of live music called Deep Ellum, it was an interesting place. First we parked behind a bikie bar as it is the cheapest and safest parking. Then we wove our way through some streets to arrive outside a place called TREE which had a que 100m long of kiddie boppers waiting to get in. Apparently they get some top acts there, DW saw Vanilla Ice there once. We were definitely too old to go in there this time and we needed food so we went next door to the pizza place and had a brush with a TV celebrity!!

Well she was not really a celebrity but featured on the national geographic taboo series called "Bizarre Bodies" Some of you might have watched the show 60mins when they had the lizard man, cat woman and those other people who do bizarre things to their bodies. The girl that sold us Pizza was one of those people, with horns inserted under the skin in her head, covered in tattoo's, and all those other scary things some people decide to do to their bodies. Ez wanted a photo but was a bit scared to ask. For those of you who want to see what I mean there is a link below to the episode, she is featured at about the 4min mark. Now if you decide to watch this please don't do it whilst eating, or when children are around or if you don't like the sight of blood. It is quite disturbing! So the night finished by watching some live music in a venue called "The prophet"....

 Local Shopping centre "North Park" has ducks and turtles, inside playing in their pond. They were pretty cool!

Az fitting into his new role as homemaker, baker and cleaner.









That's about all for the last couple of weeks, I do warn you only watch the episode if you are not easily disturbed.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/taboo/videos/bizarre-bodies/