We have just got back from a very enjoyable two hour reception, in our honour, given by the chair of the oceanography department and his wife, with the assistance of their two daughters.
Lots to drink and eat and people to meet. Our hosts' next door neighbours were included and they brought us a bottle of wine from a local winery, beautifully gift wrapped. What's noticeable here is that when you throw an assortment of people together on an occasion like this they go round and introduce themselves to each other. They make a decided effort to be sociable. It makes it easy to throw this kind of party...a few introductions at the beginning and then let everyone sort themselves out. We were asked to invite any people we have met since we arrived so we invited 5 people and they immediately blended. Every time I looked around everyone had recombined in different groupings. Of course this happens at home in many settings, but not quite so comprehensively. There were no cliques of friends sticking together for example.
Standing in the garden in a temperature of 28 degrees and looking wistfully at the pool, I was amused to learn that Texans think it's much too cold for swimming yet, even though the water temperature is about 20 degrees. Texans don't need to heat their pools, they just wait for the sun to do the work for them.
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