Rodeo! (day 4)

Morning ya'll,

Firstly.
I have come to realise something about the way I approach things.

Now, a lot of things here are amazing and new to me and I love to revel in the differences around me. It appears however that in comparing like "oh, in NZ we do it like this.." can sound as if I think we do it better in NZ(regardless of if that is true).
That's not what I'm meaning at all, I just love to compare things.
I think I have to figure out how to compare in a better way. I mean although I was highly amused by how the waiter said "yes ma'am" to everything, even when it didn't makes sense (eg. "yes ma'am no we don't"), mentioning the difference aloud probably wasn't the best way to do it.

I know in NZ everything's pretty open and not PC in casual situations (ie. when you aren't a politican hehe), and we joke around a lot. I think here though you just have to be a lot more careful of what you say and how you say it.
So if I were to re-run that situation, I would either take note of the difference in my head and not say it aloud, or I'd say it through a compliment. eg. "I love the way he's so polite and says "yes ma'am", as I'm not used to it"

Anyway, so now that I've found the error of my ways, onto yesterday!

Yesterday started with a parade at 9am.
I put the pieces together to figure out that: the parade was today becuase tomorrow is sunday, therefore people go to church instead, so that's why the parade was the day before. The world makes sense onc again! haha

The parade was like a small town gathering. The kids were funny. People even dress up their dogs. I have put pics up. :) [from
image 181 page 8] You guys know you can make the pic larger by cliking on "
Get Original Uploaded Photo", right? (once you've clicked on a pic you get more options, it's slightly confusing but once you've figured it out it's easy)

Then we relaxed here for a while, had a yummy home-made lunch (Linda, you're an awesome cook :) ). Around 3 we drove the 1hour 40ish mins to Bolton where the rodeo was. When we got there we found out the festivals had been moved and the rodeo didn't start till 7. So we drove to this carnival thing.

Then we went to this BBQ place(the ultimate manly caveman place, pretty much). I was like...ok well I guess I'll try ribs. My brother seems to think they're pretty awesome so maybe I'll like them too.
You then got to choose your sides. I got 'wheat' bread (which I hoped was brown bread, you had to make such fast decisions and I didn't really know what anything was so it was kind of like, uh.. "that"), pinto beans, cheesy potatoes and my ribs.
I'd have to say they were impressive ribs!!! They had lots of meat and the seasoning was super yummy!
The decorations, I might add, were also awesome. I ran out of time to take pics though sorry.


THE rodeo.
It was amazing!

There was a show at the beginning. It spoke about the cowboys and native americans. It was July 4 themed and then their national anthem (star spangled banner) was sung and there was fire and colour and light... It was very well done.

The rodeo itself was intriguing. I found it quite eye opening.
Only one person got hurt, which I thought was pretty impressive.
I didn't know everythig was so gender separated though. Like the girls did the more show-y things and the guys tried to stay on the scary animals. Prolly something to do with morals and values, but I thought you could possibly analyze that? Uni paper, anyone? hehe

Anyway..
I never knew there was such a thing as a 'rodeo clown'. They are like circus clowns dress wise, but pretty much the guy acted as a co-commentator to the main announcer. He tried to make jokes and such.

I have put pics up and little explainations attached so you can see the sorts of events that occured and I don't have to repeat myself. haha.


I fit right in my my cowgirl stuff, that's for sure. So I was happy. ;)

After, there was a big backlog with the cars, so we got home at around midnight.

Other random observations:

I find a lot of people don't understand me. I have to learn to speak SLOW and CLEAR. It's hard because, like my fast walking, it's a habit!!!


I'm in love with Texas soul, vibe and country music! Woo!

Talk to ya'll later
xx