Rodeo
My host family and I went to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. It took place at this gigantic and new Reliant Stadium.
When we arrived we parked our car among the thousands of other cars in the huge parking lots. We then got on a tram or whatever it's called. Like some passenger wagons pulled by a tractor.
First we all went to the big livestock show in the conference center. Holy crap, that was really farmers' heaven. There were tractors, pick-up trucks, cows, and every other country thing you can possibly think of. It was crazy... the hall that all this was in was simply enormous.
Another very funny, but obvious thing was everyone was wearing cowboy hats and cowboy boots.
After walking around at the livestock show, we went into the stadium itself to watch the rodeo and the following concert.
Like half a year ago I was in Minute Maid Park with Monte to watch a baseball game. That was a really big stadium, but Reliant Stadium surely was bigger. In the middle of the stadium, hanging from the roof, were giant TV screens placed in a circle. When you're sitting at the top corner of the stadium (as we were) those TV screens are pretty nice.
The rodeo competition that was going on when we came is called steer wrestling I think. A guy on a horse is riding very fast besides a young bull, and then he jumps off the horse down on the steer/bull/whatever and tries to keep it to the ground. It was pretty cool to watch, and I'm sure it was dangerous as hell.
The second competition was barrel racing. There's like three barrels in a triangle shape, and then the cowgirls' horses have to ride as fast as they can to go through the course in the shortest time possible. It was cool to watch, but not very dramatic.
The third thing was the classical bull riding. That was so awesome to watch - men jumping up in the air and falling to the ground. I think one of the cowboys actually got hurt. And there were clowns to attract the attention of the bull so the cowboy could get away when he had fallen off.
The fourth competition was chuck wagon racing. 3 very ligt wagons dragged by horses had to go through some very tight curves as fast as they could and so on.
In the next activity, calfs were let out, and then school kids would have to capture them and bring them to the middle of the stadium. It was really funny... some of the calfs just stood there and didn't feel like being dragged into the white square.
After that, the most beatiful cow was selected (raised and nurtured by school kids). I don't really know how a cow can look beatiful, but apparently it can.
Then it was time for a celebration of the US military. I don't know what that has to do with a rodeo, but I guess Americans love their military very much. That also gave the highest applause from the 62.000 people in the stadium.
The last thing on the program was the concert by a singer named Pat Green. It wasn't really my style of music, but it was kind of cool anyway. Specially the club-style ligt during the concert. Another funny thing was that the platform Pat Green stood on was turning around all the time, so he didn't always face the same direction.
I also gotta remember the girls who were dancing in front of us, on the next row of seats. And all the screams that hurt my ears. And all the happy and very drunk people.
Yeah the rodeo was awesome, that's for sure. I wanna come back when I'm 21, so I can make myself drunk like all the others.
When we arrived we parked our car among the thousands of other cars in the huge parking lots. We then got on a tram or whatever it's called. Like some passenger wagons pulled by a tractor.
First we all went to the big livestock show in the conference center. Holy crap, that was really farmers' heaven. There were tractors, pick-up trucks, cows, and every other country thing you can possibly think of. It was crazy... the hall that all this was in was simply enormous.
Another very funny, but obvious thing was everyone was wearing cowboy hats and cowboy boots.
After walking around at the livestock show, we went into the stadium itself to watch the rodeo and the following concert.
Like half a year ago I was in Minute Maid Park with Monte to watch a baseball game. That was a really big stadium, but Reliant Stadium surely was bigger. In the middle of the stadium, hanging from the roof, were giant TV screens placed in a circle. When you're sitting at the top corner of the stadium (as we were) those TV screens are pretty nice.
The rodeo competition that was going on when we came is called steer wrestling I think. A guy on a horse is riding very fast besides a young bull, and then he jumps off the horse down on the steer/bull/whatever and tries to keep it to the ground. It was pretty cool to watch, and I'm sure it was dangerous as hell.
The second competition was barrel racing. There's like three barrels in a triangle shape, and then the cowgirls' horses have to ride as fast as they can to go through the course in the shortest time possible. It was cool to watch, but not very dramatic.
The third thing was the classical bull riding. That was so awesome to watch - men jumping up in the air and falling to the ground. I think one of the cowboys actually got hurt. And there were clowns to attract the attention of the bull so the cowboy could get away when he had fallen off.
The fourth competition was chuck wagon racing. 3 very ligt wagons dragged by horses had to go through some very tight curves as fast as they could and so on.
In the next activity, calfs were let out, and then school kids would have to capture them and bring them to the middle of the stadium. It was really funny... some of the calfs just stood there and didn't feel like being dragged into the white square.
After that, the most beatiful cow was selected (raised and nurtured by school kids). I don't really know how a cow can look beatiful, but apparently it can.
Then it was time for a celebration of the US military. I don't know what that has to do with a rodeo, but I guess Americans love their military very much. That also gave the highest applause from the 62.000 people in the stadium.
The last thing on the program was the concert by a singer named Pat Green. It wasn't really my style of music, but it was kind of cool anyway. Specially the club-style ligt during the concert. Another funny thing was that the platform Pat Green stood on was turning around all the time, so he didn't always face the same direction.
I also gotta remember the girls who were dancing in front of us, on the next row of seats. And all the screams that hurt my ears. And all the happy and very drunk people.
Yeah the rodeo was awesome, that's for sure. I wanna come back when I'm 21, so I can make myself drunk like all the others.