01/10/00
What are these tales from Texas?
Having just moved halfway across the country, we ought to be surprised by some cultural changes, right? Let's try to capture some of the surprises before they become familiar. Record those "Wait a minute! That's not right." moments that might be interesting to those back home.
Some years ago, a friend moved from the US to Hong Kong for a three-year expatriate stint. He found the culture shockingly different and unfamiliar at first. He had the good sense to record his early impressions in his Hong Kong Diary, which was fascinating to read. It described what it feels like to be a stranger in a new culture, to be immersed in an alien society.
Texas isn't all that different -- from Hong Kong, that is -- relative to where we had lived for the last twenty-five years. So here are impressions of our new home in Austin, Texas, before they become too familiar.
