The sun was going to set. In Oasis, my sister’s family and I were watching the sunset over Lake Travis with other guests. “Fabulous.” “Fantastic.” “It’s so beautiful.” I heard many people marveling at the sunset. Then, the sun disappeared, leaving an orange radiance at the horizon, which was really fascinating. I heard someone clapping his hands, and then everybody started clapping. I couldn’t help but chuckled, for I had expected it. I learned that Americans would marvel and applaud when seeing sunrise and sunset because of my experience of watching sunrise at the Grand Canyon.

That was interesting to me. In my culture, people tend to hide their emotion and feelings. We don’t expect people to be too emotional. People might even regard a man who reveals his emotion easily as a weak man. As a result, most people in my country would have kept silence under such condition. At most, someone might have said that it was beautiful in a calm manner, and others would have agreed with him by nodding. In contract, Americans showed their feeling directly. They didn’t hesitate to marvel and to applaud. Although doing that would be hard for me, I appreciated their being straight.

Why did they applaud? I don’t know. Nevertheless, I probably would clap my hands next time.

It took about 50 minutes from Austin to New Braunfels; however, it took another 40 minutes from I35 to downtown. Just after entering the city, we saw a lot of cars stuck on the way to downtown, and then we knew that we were going to the right place.

When we entered the Landa Park, where the festival was held, it was already full of people. Most of the people had cups and pitchers on their hands while some people also had sausages. The performances were in the tents, which were crowded with people. The music could be heard outdoors, so most people just stood outdoors talking, drinking, and eating.

The festival was for sausage and beer, so we didn’t hesitate to get them. A lot of people were in the line for beer, but they served in a very fast speed. As a result, we got our beer quickly. Since sausage could be found everywhere, I wanted to find the pig knuckle first. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find it on the menus. Just before I was going to give up, I saw a man had a plate on which was something like what I was looking for. I asked him what it was and where to get it. He told me that it was ham and that it was available at the Smoked House. I managed to get it. However, I was disappointed for it was too salty and the taste was not like what I had in Germany. Despite of that, it was a good match of beer.

Although the park was so crowded that we couldn’t find places to sit, standing outdoors, talking, drinking, eating, and seeing people around was fun. The German music as well as joy spread around the park. Everybody was soaking in the atmosphere of the festival.

After having enough foods, we left at 8:30. When we left the park, we found that more people were coming to the park, which was already so crowded. I doubted that the park was big enough for people.

It was a pity to have left early. Nevertheless, we had a good time. I had expected German stuff in the festival. It was. It wasn’t. The music seemed like German style, and the beer and the sausage were representativeness of German foods. Anything else was American. Even the sausage and the beer were more American style than German style. I think that the culture had already become a culture of America while people who came from Germany had become Americans.

Waiting at the traffic light, my wife and I saw a man coming along the street with two children, one of whom was a five-year-old boy while the other was a four-year-old girl. Walking, singing, the children were happy. We watched at the children because they were so cute. Then, the little girl fell down. She sat on the ground and seemed to start crying. I felt like wanting to comfort the little poor girl by holding her. To our surprise, the man, who seemed like her father, didn’t pull her up. He just stood by her and said to the little girl, “you will be fine.” Knowing it was no use crying, the little girl stood up. She walked and soon laughed as if she had never fallen down.

Watching the scene, an awful lot of thoughts came to me. If it had happened in Taiwan, it would have been a totally different story. The parent would have pulled up and held the child, and the child would have cried for a while.

It reminded me of the child I saw in Yosemite who was a little boy about four or five years old. On a cut-down tree trunk, the boy was trying to cross the stream. The cut-down tree trunk was taller than the boy, so the boy could not went down. Seeing the little cute boy having difficulty going down, I wondered where his parents were. Then I saw two adults sitting at the side of the stream, watching the boy exploring the stream. I helped the boy go down, and then I found his parents smiled at me. That wasn’t the only case. I saw some children climbing rocks that were bigger than them at the Yosemite Fall.

From my point of view, it was dangerous for the little boy to play around the stream alone. It was beyond my comprehension that the parents let their children play in a potentially dangerous place like that.

Parents in Taiwan tend to protect their children as far as they can while western parents usually let their children explore the world by themselves. Do parents in Taiwan over-protect their children? I am not sure about it; however, I think that the western people tend to have more spirit of adventure and be more independent because of the way they are raised up.

I never knew Halloween is such big deal in the United States before coming to Austin. It's just a common holiday which is even not known in some countries. However, I now learned how it goes on Halloween in the United States.

One month before Halloween, I could feel it coming by the decorations of stores and sales of pumpkins. Moreover, some people started to decorate their hourses by Jack O Latins, witches, ghosts, tombs, and etc.. Everyboy was talking about Halloween, costumes, and parties. Americans love parties, so in a holiday like Halloween, they surely have a lot of paties, like parites of neighborhoods, friends, schools, and etc.. The parties for Halloween are costume parties, sometimes there were people in customes on the streets or buses, which was anouncing the coming of Halloween.

Then, Halloween came. Kids were in costumes to play trik or treat games with their parents. Not only kids but also adults had a good time on Halloween. A lot of people in costumes gathered on the sixth street in Austin. Everybody wore different costume to amuse others and himself or herself.

It was the first time for me to stay in the U.S. on Halloween. It was fun, and I think I had learned more about American life.