TEXAS!

i kicked off my travels around the States with a two-week stint in Texas, which could well be the greatest place on earth!

Dallas/Fort-Worth
Texas is culturally-rich with a multitude of art galleries all over the place. the main reason i travelled to Dallas/Fort-Worth was to visit two world renowned buildings (both art galleries) i had studied in architecture school - the Modern, by Tadao Ando, and the Kimbell, by Lois Kahn. it was one thing to study a building, but to actually experience the architecture is something else. the Modern was pretty amazing, but i was underwhelmed by the Kimbell which has received so much attention.

THE MODERN

i also visited the Texas School Book Depository, where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, which i thought was pretty special.

VIEW FROM THE WINDOW WHICH LEE HARVEY OSWALD SHOT JFK FROM

i had no plans for Christmas except that i'd be staying in a hostel, but a family friend hooked me up with a Parsi (Zoroastrian) family who where kind enough to take me in for a few nights and show me a really fun time. they were so welcoming, i felt like one of the family. it was here that i learnt of the 'Invisible Parsi Passport' (IPP) - whereby anywhere in the world the kindness and generosity shown to you by a fellow Parsi can make you feel right back at home. shout out to the Balsara's from Dallas!

Houston - NAZC
i travelled to Houston for the North American Zoroastrian Congress, from the 29th - 31st of december. i didn't know anyone going, and am not entirely sure why i went besides it being on my travel route, but i came away with so many good friends, i feel like i have known them for ages. the Zoro population in Houston is quite big, and there was a strong youth contingent (~25%) which was heartening.

we partied up for 4 nights straight and regularly missed the talks, but i feel the value was in meeting new people and developing contacts. it's so easy making Zoro friends because we have that strong cultural heritage, almost an innate connection, and once again i came away with so many close friends, it was most definitely worth it! my aim of finding a wife there was unsuccessful :( but i am sold on the World Zoroastrian Youth Congress in Vancouver in july this year which i really hope i can make!

SOOO MANY GOOD LOOKERS!

Austin

i had originally put the University of Texas, Austin down as my first preference for exchange as i had heard great things about it, especially for architecture. having not been successful, i still wanted to check out Austin and see what the buzz was all about. i went there with a French buddy from KU and a couple of his mates.

SOME RANDOM CAVE WITH THREE RANDOM FRENCH DUDES

Austin is unique to Texas in that it has a young population with very liberal, non-Texas values and a bohemian vibe. it has a pretty happening nightlife with a shit-ton of bars, and is known as the music capital of the world. we watched a few crappy live acts (if you're not into that music) and went bar hopping on our few nights there, had a good time!

the university is intense! it has a student population of around 50,000, and is the 4th largest campus in the nation - as the saying goes, everything is bigger in Texas! the football stadium has a capacity of 100,000, the same as the biggest in Australia! i was luck enough to score a touchdown there one night which is no doubt one of my trip highlights!!

LONGHORN STADIUM, TOUCHDOWN!

leaving KU

one semester had come and gone super fast. academically i had had one of my best semesters, but i was not at all ready to leave!

my time at KU only strengthened the notion i had that it's not only the places you visit that make the experience, but the people you meet. i threw myself into exchange not knowing anyone at KU, and hardly knowing anyone in the US. i come away from exchange with some of the closest friendships and greatest memories i've had, which i'm sure will last a lifetime.

i think it was so easy to make friends with the international students because we were all in the same situation - everything was foreign. i now have contacts all over the world that i can't wait to hit up, to reminisce about perhaps the only thing we have in common, our time at KU. the exchange experience was invaluable!

LEFT MY MARK!

sin city!

in october we had like 5 days off for Thanksgiving break, so me and 5 other european dudes decided to go to Las Vegas!! although it wasn't the most sensible option, driving turned out to be the most economical, and wanting to gamble as much as we could afford, this is what we went with. in hindsight however, the 22 hour, 1200 mile (pretty much half way across the country) drive was probably the best part of the whole trip! we did the drive in 24 hours with minimal breaks which was pretty tiring, but we were just so amped for Vegas!!

road tripping is super sweet. unlike Australia urbanity is so vast in the US that there's a lot to see in-between all the big cities. the highway system is impeccable and gas is cheap (almost half price compared to Australia), making road tripping an atypically American thing to do.

HEADING OFF!

Las Vegas is the shit! as i have mentioned before, everything in America is done to the extreme, and Vegas epitomises this. it is extreme excess. literally all your fantasies can come true there. we did what any other bunch of young blokes would do in Vegas, drink up, party hard and lose money gambling.

everything is open 24 hours, so we got into the routine of heading out at around 10, getting back around 7, waking up in the late afternoon and then doing it all again. 4 nights of this is all you really need. drinks are around $13 in the clubs, but as long as you gamble at any casino you get free drinks. there was a lot of male bonding going on in the hotel room also, fueled by the drink 4 Loco, man's greatest invention since sliced bread, but now illegal in the US :((( which was.... memorable.

all in all it was a great trip. got to foster real good friendships with the mates i went with, and i think we all lived out our fantasies from the Hangover. everyone lost money, (i lost $80, i think) and we were happy to head home to nurse our broken bodies and tainted souls.

Americans just wanna have fun!

Jackass 3D
it was sometime during this movie, between Chris Pontius playing baseball with his penis, and Steve-O undertaking a "poo cocktail", that the notion i had been developing earlier fully revealed itself - Americans just wanna have fun! Jackass is an atypical American phenomenon, and undoubtedly one of the stupidest pieces of work ever conceived, appealing to the very base levels of humour, yet you can't help but kack yourself laughing!! such a great movie!

Americans are a happy people, and they live life to the fullest!! let's take two examples: halloween, and college football games. halloween is next weekend however decorations have been out for weeks, and there is so much hype leading up to it that it's no doubt gonna be a buzz. it just seems like an awesome excuse for everyone to get a bit crazy and party hard - i love that! i'm sure that's the way all festivities are celebrated here, extremely!

similarly, whenever there's a KU football game on people will "tailgate" - literally put the tailgate down on their trucks/utes amongst hundreds of others, set up a bbq, eat, drink and be merry - anywhere from 11 in the morning till kick off at 6pm. the game is the feature, but they make a whole (really long) day out of it!

TAILGATING WITH TENTS

Americans are no doubt hard-working, but they know how to party! in other words, when the working day is done ohhhh Americans just wanna haaave fun!

college sports

American sports, and especially college sports, is a HUGE deal over here. everyone identifies themselves with a team, and they are literally DIE HARD fans. i've been to a few college games, and i will share my experiences...

American football

quite boring actually. although there's only 45mins of actual game time, they usually go for around 3 hours with stoppages (sometimes just to accommodate TV ad breaks) and timeouts. there's a lot of entertainment to fill in the lull periods, and people are swimming in beers, so the game soothes over them like a satisfying summer swell.

KU!

OOOHH AAAHHH....

i've developed a pretty good understanding of the game, and at times it can be exciting, but the lack of continuity really hurts the game i feel. you just get sooo bored! there are a lot of big hits (keeping in mind that they're padded to the hilt) and the dudes are monstrous! there's usually around 45 guys in a squad, with only 11 players on the field, which according to my calculations means that some players are only on for around 10 minutes. nevertheless, they are all beastly athletes. hope to get into it a bit more in time...

KU basketball
my "school" Kansas University (KU) is renowned for basketball (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_Jayhawks_men's_basketball), winning THE national championship in 2008! interestingly enough, our first coach was the inventor of the game, James Naismith! needless to say KU has a long and proud legacy, and everyone in town is fanatical about the Kansas Jayhawks!

we dominate on the court, usually making it to the top 4 in our division, and having a 59 game home court winning streak! there have been a number of famous players produced here, including Paul Pierce (the only name that i recognize)! i got a random photo with one of the big name players at a bar one night, Travis Releford (http://www.kuathletics.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/releford_travis00.html), which i'll no doubt be bragging about when he gets drafted to the NBA in a few years time.

the season proper starts in a few weeks, and there are rules as to when the team can start formal training. the first session is traditionally celebrated with a gala event at KU called "Late Night in the Phog". you can tell everyone is fanatical about Jayhawk basketball when in a town of 80,000 people, 16,000 show up to the season's first event! the atmosphere was amazing!! everyone got so riled up, chanting and cheering all night, it was hard not to get caught up in the emotion!



IT WENT OFF!!!

the highlight of the night were the men's and women's teams playing separate warm up games, complete with crazy ass trick shots! i've never been a big fan of basketball, but after that display, i was sold. definitely going to make it to as many games as i can whilst i'm here! the KU spirit is nuts!!

aspen, colorado

last weekend i played in a rugby tournament in aspen with the university team - Ruggerfest - supposedly the biggest rugby tournament in the world. it was kick-ass fun!

we left on wednesday night for the 12 hour car ride. driving through kansas was hella boring as it's all flat, but coming up to the rocky mountains in colorado was something else! the mountainscapes we're breath-taking!

KANSAS.

VS. COLORADO!!!

not only were the views breath-taking, but the women and the mountain air were just as much so. aspen is realllly expensive, so everyone living there is super loaded, making them, by default, pretty damn good looking! and the mountain air - because we were 7500ft up, it was difficult just walking up stairs let alone running around, until you kind of adjusted.

we weren't to play until saturday, so instead spent our time watching other grades play, and partying it up!! there was some good quality rugby played, and there were teams from all over the US, and even europe. i got to play in all three games on saturday, but sadly, we lost all three. this didn't dampen our drinking spirit however, and i had no idea what i was in for that night...

BEST RUGBY PITCH I HAVE EVER PLAYED ON

rugby dudes
probably the greatest bunch of blokes out. saturday night was one of the best nights EVER! without going in to too much detail (as is the rugby dudes code of conduct), there were about 30 of us plus two kegs, equalling a lot of male nudity and some of the funniest shit i have ever seen!!!

all the rookies had to put on individual shows for the seniors, and this commonly appealed to the lowest of low forms of entertainment. there was also a "kangaroo court" session where grievances were aired and punishments/embarrassing forms of ridicule were handed out. once again, funniest shit i have ever seen!

great team bonding weekend away, no doubt to be continued throughout the season...

home sick? hell no!

it's been just over two months since i left home, but i can't say i've been homesick any time yet. time has flown, i haven't even had time to think about home! although i am kinda craving mum's cooking...

class

i am really only taking two required subjects, the other two are free electives, these are:

architectural design studio 6
practices in sustainability design
intro to philosophy
general psychology

design studio is 4 hours a day, 3 days a week, as opposed to one 6 hour class a week back home. we have a work shop, and each student has their very own workspace in the studio - the facilities are great!

it is a design/build studio which means the designs won't remain on paper, but we'll be building them! we will be building furniture e.g desks and chairs for a studio space, i.e kick-ass fun! so far we've had to model a human joint, and i've also learnt to weld, by making a gun.



SIX ITERATIONS OF AN ELBOW

GOT MYSELF A GUN... HOW AMERICAN OF ME!

the other three electives are very interesting, making studying for them not so arduous. there are a lot of weekly readings, and i've already had two tests, three weeks into semester.

frats/sororities

so pretty much it's just like in the movies. all the frat dudes are in polos, khakis, and boat shoes, and the sorority chicks are banging! they're cut copies of each other and at the "rush" they're all wearing the same clothes, so it's like an army of good-looking girls!! i've heard about some pretty strange initiation rituals, and i've heard the sororities have really strict rules also, like they can't drink together, or have a boyfriend during certain stages of initiation, but i will investigate further to bring YOU the facts!

drinking

waaaay too much drinking going on!! alcohol is at least half price here compared to back home! you can buy a keg with 150 schooners for $100! $1 drinks nights!! MADNESS!!! needless to say the nightlife is wicked here - the strip of bars on the main street or house parties, it's all good.