You know you're in Brownsville, TX when:

1. You never know what language you will use at the grocery store check out, maybe Spanish, maybe English, yet probably Spanglish
2. All the local restaurants serve tacos.
3. Another country is closer than another state.
4. You can only drive one way on the highway (North).
5. You live one mile from four different border crossings.
6. You drive past multiple “you may not bring firearms into Mexico” signs while only trying to drive home.
7. There are both “hump”s and “dip”s in the road, some are marked... most are not.
8. Border Patrol vehicles are more common than Police vehicles.
9. The Texas flag is flown at the same level as both the USA and Mexico flags.
10. People have fence sales instead of garage sales.
11. Going to “the island” means going to the beach at South Padre Island.
12. You can pay in pesos or dollars at the grocery store.
13. 100+ degree, 99% humidity weather is normal.
14. Most radio stations are in Spanish, and even if it’s an English station, they still play Spanish music.

Country Dancing, Texas style

This past Friday I went with a group of friends to a Country Bar "in the boonies" outside of Brownsville, it's called Winks. I'd been told that Texas had a bunch of cowboys, but had thus far only seen one, but this is where all of the cowboys hang out. The culture at this bar was really different than much of the culture in Brownsville. I guess this is Texas culture in comparison to Border culture (a strong mix of Mexican and Texan culture). I love dancing, I do ballroom dancing, salsa, meringue, bachata, cumbia, and every once and a while I even do a couple of line dances, but country dancing is way more than line dancing!!

They do the 2 step, the 16 step, the country cha cha, the country polka, the east coast swing (jitterbug), the west coast swing, and then line dances on top of that!! I had such a fun time learning a couple of new dances and even got to show off my swing dancing skills on a relatively empty floor, because it's one of the least known dances among people at Winks. Too bad I didn't find out about this place a couple of months ago, I would have been able to return to Michigan as a Cowgirl country dancer :)