I’ve just got back from a business trip to Texas. It was over 100°F (38°C) most of the time I was there. I’ve never experienced a day to day existence of moving from one air conditioned environment to another whilst feeling like you’re in an oven walking to the car from the hotel, from the car park to the office, and so on. Every other car on the road seemed to be a gas guzzling SUV, and everything felt like it was in the middle of nowhere because there’s just so much space and everyone drives everywhere. Every few miles there were a couple of restaurants or a shopping complex. There is no way I could live there.
Whilst I was there I managed to take in the Rangers baseball game against the Seattle Mariners. It’s the first time I’ve ever been to a ballpark and it was pretty awesome. I don’t follow baseball at all but I know the basic rules from when I played softball most Sundays living in Morocco. Texas won 8-1, and I gained firsthand experience of the American sports culture. Corny music snippets, crazy commentary, and lots of hotdogs and soft drinks, it’s all true.
Right now I feel like I’ve stayed up all night : going from GMT-5 to GMT+2 is ripe for a major case of jet lag. It’s not too bad on the way out, but coming back – even if you get some sleep on the ‘plane – is exhausting. I’ve been battling all day to not fall asleep so that I can go to bed tonight and wake up at a reasonable hour tomorrow morning. Maybe I can sum up something more coherent in a later post.
27/8/2005 at 6:32 pm
lol yeah it IS pretty bad during the summer .The spring and winter are awesome though 🙂
31/8/2005 at 9:02 am
No doubt I may end up back there in the winter. Perhaps I might spend a bit more time there too, so that I can check out the real Texas and not just an office, a hotel, a couple of chain restaurants and the airport ;-).
Thanks for commenting Presentstorm.