To understand our initial trepidation at heading to Texas it’s necessary to explain the reaction of many of those we had met in our preceding travels. Upon informing our generous hosts that we were to spend 14 days in Texas some gave a look of horror but most were content to respond as if they had heard we were suffering from a terminal disease. Suffice to say Texas is an amazingly diverse place which we only wish we could have spent more time in.
Our first stop in Texas took us to Dallas, home of the Cowboys, the eponymous 1980s drama of the same name and of course our generous hosts the good people of the University of North Texas (UNT). Before our eyes could adjust to the glare of the Texan sun we were whisked away by Colin and Grant to lunch on tempura shrimp burritos (absolutely outstanding) and introduced to the Beer-garita (a vast margarita garnished with an upended full bottle of Mexico’s finest Corona beer – similarly outstanding). From our Mexican feast we were driven to our first college American (an important addition)Football game, where our hosts UNT annihilated their opponents from Florida. The first thing to understand about the college ‘football’ is that it’s not akin to university sport in the UK where teams are lucky to get a handful of dragooned girlfriends/ boyfriends to come and watch. UNT’s comparatively modest stadium can seat 20,000 fans and boasts a 300 piece (national championship winning) marching band complete with canon to entertain the crowd. Our day was rounded off by a fantastic home cooked dinner at Louis’ house where we gained our title as undefeated beer pong champions in Texas.
Sunday brought the extravaganza of the Texas State Fair, a huge 300 acre plot devoted to rides, trucks and about ten times the variety of deep fried food than even the Scottish can muster. Amidst an admittedly drizzly day (the first in months) we were shown around by Alyssa, Megan, Searles and Brian along with his wonderful family. In Texas it seems acceptable to fry almost anything, bubble gum, corn, lemonade, oreos, butter, peanut butter and jelly (jam for those of you from Mud Island) sandwiches and… (wait for it) beer. In what can only be described as a ravioli like substance filled with cold beer we all universally agreed it was the worst thing we had ever tasted. After a day of calorific assault, fairground attractions and prize winning cattle we ended up at Babe’s probably one of the best fried chicken restaurants in the US. Where along with fine company we spent considerable time convincing our dumfounded waitress that in Britain we do indeed have straws, and by extension other forms of plastics.
Monday finally saw some downtime to do some much needed laundry and provided the opportunity to take a tour with Brian and Louis around the fantastically green and sumptuous campus at UNT, meet the student union president and get involved in some speech and debate classes. The day was rounded off by an amazing meal at a restaurant called Hannah’s with Brian, Louis and his fiancée proving that Texas really can offer more than just deep fried food. The night was rounded off in a faux British pub where we got to know a little more about Texas politics. In particular we were horrified that some of the schools had to endure huge funding cuts leaving teaching ratios at a frankly developing world standard of 50:1. Perhaps a sample of what might come under a Perry presidency.
Our final full day in Dallas was devoted to a range of classroom debates and practice debates where we helped prepare some of the younger students at UNT. We both really relished the opportunity to debate with the students and had an excellent day of it. The main event in the evening was the big public debate, this time on campaign finance, with us bravely taking the side of the opposition against the fantastic Brett and Alyssa. Somehow, despite some rather close to the mark quips about Texan beer from Ben, we managed to convince at least some of the audience that corporations, lobbyists and the top 1% should control elections and that any cap on finance would increase inequality. It must have only been our accents which prevented us from being ejected from the room of around 300 attendees.
Perhaps the highlight of the night was the chance to meet a veteran of a US-UK debate held in 1962 to a prime time US audience of 11 million viewers. Ann, had us falling over in stiches with recollections from the unfortunately snooty team from Oxford who, she and her partner had valiantly defeated almost 50 years before. The night ended in an Irish themed bar called Hooligans and we were entertained by Louis’ constant attacks on the declining quality of the establishment, which were met with equally barbed but good humoured comments from the fun filled staff. After a great night out we headed back to the hotel, were sad to leave such fantastic hosts and prepared to travel to Texas’ liberal paradise in an otherwise conservative sea, Austin.
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