The first thing that was noticed was the temperature - arriving in from cold rainy Blighty into 40 degree humid heat was definitely a shock, but thankfully absolutely everything had air conditioning! There was still a bit of a trek to get from Houston Airport to Austin - to start with I had to get a bus from the airport into Houston central. The fare would have been $1.25, but only in change, and as the smallest note I had was a $10, and so the driver shook his head with pity and jerked his thumb to the back of the bus. On the road I marvelled at the expansive concrete freeways, which at points looked more like rollercoasters than roads, swooping and ducking and diving in order to connect the various routes to each other.
They say everything is bigger in Texas, and they don't lie. The cars there are mostly Ford, Chevrolet or Dodge trucks, twice as long as your average British motor vehicle, and pretty much twice as high. The malls on the side of the road seemed to go on forever, with megastore after megastore. The people weren't too small either - some of them tall enough to reach the roof whilst sitting down, others of them wide enough to take up most of their neighbor's seat as well as their own.
I then had to take a Greyhound from Houston to Austin, and it was quite an experience. The man sitting in front of me had a 3 hour long conversation with himself, pausing only to protest the alleged crushing of his knees inflicted by another passenger, who was told in no uncertain terms that he was to cease his 'bouncing' on his chair or else. Needless to say the bouncing was not mentioned again (although whether it had happened in the first place was debatable) and so the conversation with himself about the weather and the fishing conditions for the coming week continued.
I arrived into Austin at 9 that evening to be met by a wonderful UT girl who kindly took me to my apartment, where I was united with my fellow travelers from Nottingham, who had arrived in earlier that day. By this time jet lag had taken its toll, and after attempting to make conversation and failing miserably, we decided sleep was a good option and hit the hay.
The next morning we were fully awake by about 6AM, our brains telling us that it was now the afternoon and time to get up, and so we got up and started to sort through the items left behind by the previous Nottingham UT colleagues, and there were various things of use under piles of Law notes and countless saucepans. We then met our landlord Bill - a very pleasant man with a ponytail and numerous cowboy hats in his office. He gave us an introduction to Texas property Law, and then set us on our way to get our electricity, banking and other essential things sorted out.
We caused a stir in Bank of America - 5 Brits all crowded into a small-drive through bank to open new accounts was a very exciting prospect apparently! Many gifts were lavished upon us, and photographs were taken to record the moment. Our banker was extremely friendly, and doubled as a tour guide answering endless questions about the best place to... and the cheapest place to find... We spent the rest of the day sorting out various things, and enjoying American norms of 24-7 shopping and free refills on drinks - luxuries we were unaccustomed to back home. Everyone was we met was friendly and happy to meet us, as far as we were aware anyway.
Texas is a very new experience for all of us, and we look forward to the things to come!
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