Wednesday, February 04, 2015

26 Things I've Learned About Texas

We've been living in Texas for a couple months, now. I love moving to a new place and finding certain specific things that are unique to that area. I love talking to people that move to the Midwest and tell me something is weird that I never noticed because I grew up there, and I didn't know anything else.

I started making a list of things in Texas that crack us up...


1. MUMS

Seriously. This is a real thing. GUYS. Do you see this? People take things like THIS seriously here.
Confused? I was too. Read up on it here



2. FOOTBALL


People love football here. like L.O.V.E. I get the sports thing. But this is like...religious. The craziest thing to me is the love of high school football. High. School. Football. haha. They have these huge football fields (stadiums? what is the terminology here?) for HIGH SCHOOL GAMES. I'm in shock over this culture--but this is coming from the girl that would sit in the back with her chinese food when she had to go to a game in high school.


3. Texas winters.
This is a funny one. We knew winters here would be AWESOME. They totally are. But the surprising thing? When we moved here, people kept saying things like "oh my gosh just wait for the ice storms in the winter they are awful. terrible. You won't leave your house for days"
...huh..what?! hahahah HYSTERICAL. It is my favorite when a Texan starts warning us about driving on ice. Guys. Do you realize what my hometown looks like right now?!


4. People have legitimate accents. They are real and awesome.


5. People really say y'all...but they don't always spell it right (ya'll haha...seriously)

6. I now want to say y'all as much as possible. All times.


7. Chicken. It's everywhere. The only fried chicken place I ever knew growing up was KFC. Apparently I was missing out on a world of fried chicken options. There are, seriously, 6 or 7 DIFFERENT fried chicken fast food places within a mile of our apartment. It is so strange.


8. People are hecka nice here. (Some Mormon CA slang in there for ya). No really, people are way nice. (Some Mormon UT slang there for ya). Seriously, though, people are real nice here. (Some Mormon TX slang in there for ya)

9. The roads are totally slanted. They make an upside down U shape. Totally threw me off for a good month.


10. Okay speaking of roads--their highways are giant, intricate, and TALL.


11. People don't do Halloween decorations. Very minimal skeletons and cobwebs around here.

12. The libraries are extremely intense with their fees. I learned the hard way.

13. It is over 100 degrees in October. Yeah.

14. The Texas Pledge. There is something about this that really makes Reilly and I laugh. Well, actually, it is the fact that we don't know the Texas pledge and try to recite it as often as possible making up different versions that make us laugh. Every time we observe something about Texas, we add it into The Texas Pledge. We also think it's funny that the word Texas sticks out so much in the pledge that we will randomly say "Texas" in inappropriate parts of our conversations.

15. They love their state, and I like that.

16. People saying hi in public places. Hi! ...uh hi? Me? Is that me you're saying hi to?

17. The female population at TCU all wear the same outfit...every single day. Walking on campus is like being in an episode of The Twilight Zone--totally freaked me out for a while. It is a weird thing to try to describe--they wear these giant old looking pastel tshirts and really short gym shorts so that (if you've really mastered the look) it looks like you aren't wearing any pants...just an old big Tshirt and gym shoes. Why? Whyyyyyyy

18. I haven't seen a cowboy yet... ;)

19. We drive for 8 hours...and we are still. here. This thing is big.

20. Churches are everywhere. And people go to them. (I love this part)

21. Blue Bell... really is as good as they say. I am converted. I've started having distracting thoughts about Pecan Pralines 'n Cream on the daily.



22. Unhealthy addiction, thy name is HALF. PRICE. BOOKS.

23. People leave HUGE gaps between cars when they're stopped at lights. Its incredible. Whole legions of children could fit in between the cars driving on the road.

24. Everything is in Arlington.

25. Whataburger fancy ketchup. We had no idea that this was a thing haha. We tried Whataburger because that is what everybody talks about, and I turn to RBH like "hey. I feel like their ketchup is better than other ketchups." We just laughed it off like hmm must be a good ketchup crop day. Later, we found out it is A THING. hahaha




26. They are SO nice that they don't even put your weight on your driver's license haha.





Sigh. We are really loving this cooky state. Teach us more, Tx. Teach us more.