San Antonio

I know it's almost a month ago, but I couldn't not tell you about my trip to San Antonio together with a whole bunch of international exchange students. It was soo much fun. To be honest, I was a little scared that the weather would suck totally and turn this trip into a wet and rainy horror, as it has been raining the day before from morning all through the night. Yet, we were lucky and the sun actually came out for a while when we were in San Antonio, whereas it has been raining all day in Austin.
San Antonio is very touristy and I have to admit that I like Austin better.
First, we went to the Museum fof Texas History. Since the 1830s there have been a lot of Germans immigrating to the US and starting a new life in Texas. Mostly, they were given land for free and did not have to pay taxes for the first couple of years. Texas wanted to create a state of its own, build up an army and have its land settled, and the Germans wanted to escape hunger and poverty in Germany, create a new community in a better environment, promising a healthy climate, good farming conditions and a lot of fellow Germans.
What I didn't know was, that there were also alot of other nationalities who came to settle in Texas over time. Texas thus pretty much represents a concentrated image of the American melting pot.
After that we went to a Mexican market. I honestly expected something authentic. Real Mexican culture, I guess, whatever that might be. What we got was again the tourist-version of a Mexican market. Every souvenir shop had the same things. Brightly colored dishes and figurines, cheap jewelry and decorations. Very weird. :) Finally, we went to the Alamo. There, the Texans faught for their independence in 1836, won, and since then Texas has been independent from Mexico. It's a nice little fort/chapel. Even though it's a lot younger than most of the European ruins of churches, castles and convents, it looks exactly the same. The tiles at the wall are covered by a glass plate, so you can see the brightly colored decorations but not touch and - please forbid - destroy them. They were also evry serious about taking pictures but I guess that's just normal. It was very interesting, though. But again, the souvenior shop seemed to be much bigger than the chapel itself.

MY NEW HOME

My apartment house. It's nice, isn't it? Behind me would be the street and to my right (wayyyy to my right) the main office and the pool.

That's our living room. My roomie Brittany decorated all that by herself. I just picked out the red vases... to my left is the front door and my room, to my right is Brittany's room and pretty much behind me is the kitchen....

...which looks like this.

This is....wait.....no.....

....THIS is where the magic happens. :)

And my dresser. Outside of the window is our front door. Every one coming to visit us has to pay toll to be allowed to pass. Noooo, just kidding :)

You're never alone in Texas

Do you know those moments in which you feel watched? Those moments in which you are absolutely positive that someone - or something for that matter - is watching you, observing you and following your every move? And then, when you turn around, you have to admit that it was probably only wishful thinking or a trace of paranoia?

Well, something similar happened to me this morning. Just the other way around. I didn't feel watched at all.

I went to take a shower before school. And when I lifted my bottle of shampoo I saw it. And what's worse: it saw me, too! So we stared at each other. I lost the staring contest; I had to blink. IT didn't. It was a gecko. A little pinkish, naked-looking fella with a kind of tiger-like striped tail. Kind of cute, I thought for a second. But then I remembered he was in my shower.

So I finished showering (he didn't seem to mind), and then put him out the front door. I really have nothing against geckos. I am just wondering how he got into my bathroom. And: if he could get into my bathroom, what else can?

Now I am thinking if I should put up a sign on my bathroom door, saying: "All creatures with less than 2 and more than 4 legs STAY OUT", big enough, so everyone can read it. Spiders have enough eyes to see it, right? I just hope they know how to read...

American Food 2

How do you tell, that Texan's are a people that tend to eat a lot? I went to the supermarket to get ziploc-bags to freeze something. And I guess people buy the big ones more often than they buy smaller ones: The ones that fit 1 gallon (3.786 Liters) are much cheaper than the small ones. I couldn't even find small ones at first! That is soo weird.

The other night, I watched the movie "Supersize Me". Mainly to get so disgusted that I don't even like to think about fast food. You know I like to eat and I just needed some kind of insurance that I don't eat fast food all the time.
Here are my "favorite" trivia about fast food in this culture:

1. McDonald's even admitts that their food is processed in a way that can hardly be healthy and that naturally makes it more harmful than unprocessed food. If you think about it, that makes perfect sense! But I guess not every consumer knows that...

2. Texas has five out of the 15 fattest cities in the United States. Austin isn't one of them, but that's still a lot of fat cities! Houston is #2.

3. And here my favorite: McDonald's even puts sugar in their salads to make them more appealing to their customers. The Premium Chicken Ranch salad with dressing contains more calories than a BigMac. That's 51 grams of fat which is almost 80% of your daily fat intake. So not even salads are healthy in fast food places.

Well, what do ya know, this shocking movie worked out just fine. Tomorrow I'll buy some fresh fruit and vegetables...

Keep Walkin'

I am walking to my apartment on the complex ground. To my left: cars and parking spots, to my right: apartment houses. And suddenly the sidewalk just ends. Because there are no more parking spots. Of course the sidewalk is supposed to literally clear the way from your car to your doorstep. Yet, people who don't own a car - pedestrians like me - are screwed/ can walk on grass/ fly/ buy a car.
This really is a country where no one walks.

Everything's bigger in America!

I know that's probably just one of those uncritical and naive stereotypes used by Europeans who are used to everything that's small. (My favorite example: the Mercedes Smart vs. the HUMMER!! works every time...)

I was walking across campus today (yes, people, pictures will follow) and I saw: grass! The grass is not only greener on the other side of the Atlantic, it's also bigger. I know, the cynics among you might now say: "But Jessi, you have such tiny feet, of course the grass seems huge compared to your tiny doll's feet" and I would thank you for the nice comparison because I take tiny doll's feet as a compliment. And the biologists among you might say: "But Jessi, in a climate as hot as in Austin, plants have to have considerably big leaves to prevent from heating up in highly sunlit areas! The bigger the surface of the leaf, the better does the water evaporate and cool the plant down." Yes, thanks, I new that. But still, I'm impressed. Take it or leaf it (haha, get it?) :)