Initial takes
Having been in Texas for not even a week, I feel well-qualified to discourse about it knowledgeably. Here we go...
* Everything is bigger in Texas. Including my ass, if I keep on eating like this. But it's so hard, what with Jack-in-the-Box, Chick-fil-A, and Taco Cabana on every corner.
* Goods are about two-thirds what they cost in DC. I drove The Texan nuts during our first visit to the grocery store - which is HEB, a chain that apparently has San Antonio in an iron vice clamp - by constantly exclaiming when espying some familiar product, "Do you KNOW how much this cost back home?" And when we went to SuperTarget, I about had a heart attack.
* People really are friendlier here. Of course, I'm coming from a city that has notoriously surly inhabitants. But still, it's nice. The Texan and I were out at a wine bar on Friday night (yes, they have those here). He forgot something in the car and went back to get it. Within two minutes, the people next to me had informed me of an annual wine festival the city holds and were comparing notes on our bottles of vino.
* Texans worship at the altar of air-conditioning. I have been FREEZING since I've been here. Which is odd, because normally I like things to be a bit cooler and often got in turf battles with roommates over the thermostat. But my god, I haven't been able to defrost since landing in San Antonio's airport. They are serious about wanting to be cool.
* The local paper - San Antonio News-Express - mostly runs wire stories but covers Mexico and the Americas very well. While they only have two pages of comics (as compared to the Washington Post's mighty three pages), they do have a solid page dedicated to advice columns. I think Billy Graham's has replaced Hints from Heloise as my favorite WTF column.
* Hot sauce really *is* on every table. And there is a beautiful thing known as the breakfast taco here. Not that crap breafast burrito you get at McDonald's. Basically they're small, cheap tacos that you eat at breakfast time, something I can truly get behind. They're so ubiquitous that in an article in yesterday's paper about obesity, they had a medical expert give the hint to skip the breakfast taco every once in a while and instead have oatmeal. As if.
* Everything is bigger in Texas. Including my ass, if I keep on eating like this. But it's so hard, what with Jack-in-the-Box, Chick-fil-A, and Taco Cabana on every corner.
* Goods are about two-thirds what they cost in DC. I drove The Texan nuts during our first visit to the grocery store - which is HEB, a chain that apparently has San Antonio in an iron vice clamp - by constantly exclaiming when espying some familiar product, "Do you KNOW how much this cost back home?" And when we went to SuperTarget, I about had a heart attack.
* People really are friendlier here. Of course, I'm coming from a city that has notoriously surly inhabitants. But still, it's nice. The Texan and I were out at a wine bar on Friday night (yes, they have those here). He forgot something in the car and went back to get it. Within two minutes, the people next to me had informed me of an annual wine festival the city holds and were comparing notes on our bottles of vino.
* Texans worship at the altar of air-conditioning. I have been FREEZING since I've been here. Which is odd, because normally I like things to be a bit cooler and often got in turf battles with roommates over the thermostat. But my god, I haven't been able to defrost since landing in San Antonio's airport. They are serious about wanting to be cool.
* The local paper - San Antonio News-Express - mostly runs wire stories but covers Mexico and the Americas very well. While they only have two pages of comics (as compared to the Washington Post's mighty three pages), they do have a solid page dedicated to advice columns. I think Billy Graham's has replaced Hints from Heloise as my favorite WTF column.
* Hot sauce really *is* on every table. And there is a beautiful thing known as the breakfast taco here. Not that crap breafast burrito you get at McDonald's. Basically they're small, cheap tacos that you eat at breakfast time, something I can truly get behind. They're so ubiquitous that in an article in yesterday's paper about obesity, they had a medical expert give the hint to skip the breakfast taco every once in a while and instead have oatmeal. As if.
posted by Her Ladyship @ 12:33 PM
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