Howdy

My trip through Texas this week has certainly been interesting. I flew into Austin on Tuesday afternoon and drove 30 minutes south to TX State University where we had a few meetings and got stuck in the middle of a severe weather warning. Overall it didn't seem to be that 'severe' but for the middle of August while it was 103 degrees outside it was definitely bizarre (at least to us Californians). Around 5:15pm the sky went completely black, rain started coming down in sideways sheets, winds were expected to reach up to 55mph and the thunder and lightning was incredible. The storm only lasted for about 15 minutes but we (me and my other CA co-worker) were really caught off guard. More so because we were trying to leave the school and drive over 2 hours north to Texas A&M where we were to stay the night and have meetings the next morning. After the storm and before heading to A&M, we swung through Austin and picked up an Austin co-worker who was going to attend the meetings with us the following day. For the duration of the drive he educated us on the traditions and culture of A&M (he used to work with them for several years). He told us that everyone would say "Howdy" and call us Ma'am and being from California, we thought he was trying to pull one over on us and we laughed. As promised, the school reps greeted us with a warm and friendly "Howdy" and called us Ma'am throughout our meeting. As part of our meetings with new schools we ask for a tour of some of the facilities on campus. My favorite part of the tour was when we entered the elevator, went to the second floor and as the elevator doors dinged opened the elevator said "Howdy... second floor".