The Lone Star State

Today has been my first full day in Arlington. I'm staying in the Marriott TownePlace Suites, right opposite Hurricane Harbor - the water park version of Six Flags. So far I've been airport, work, pub, hotel, work, hotel, and heavily chaperoned - I think the Americans don't trust me to be alone yet.  However, so far it's been awesome driving (NEVER WALKING - the people here seem to be worried about me walking even a block or two!) around and seeing all of the brands from TV spread out all along the giant roads.

I'm 4 meals into American eating, and looking at the options and ads on TV, I'm really a little disgusted with the food. Last night I tried my first American beer - a Texan craft brew that has pretty wide distribution, called Shiner Bock. It was a decent dark beer - Dad would definitely like it. It was good paired with my first American burger, a cheeseburger from a pub called J.R. Bentley's - a "British" bar near the UTA campus. They have trivia on Tuesday nights, might have to get some people rounded up one week to go along.

You can almost see that this is a beer, right?

Things really are spread out here! Roads are wide, and everything is set back, and there is a lot of parking. Of course, there needs to be a lot of parking, because there is no way to get anywhere but driving.

Tonight I'm experiencing my first American TV - Honey Boo Boo is currently sniffing the breath of her redneck family to identify which ones they are. Weird, and I don't quite get it - decent analogy for my first 30ish hours of being here.

Last note: I've been pretty lucky with jet lag (knockonwood) - getting up this morning (my first morning) was a little difficult, but I got through my first day (and first big dissection) fine, and feel like I'll be able to sleep tonight, even if a bit late. Didn't take any proper photos today, except for a photo of two of the items available from the salad bar of the cafeteria buffet - healthy AND delicious :P

That colourful thing was like spherical fruit loops covered in melted marshmallows. I could only take one bite.