This week, The Cougar looks into the lives of out-of-town students.
[tabgroup][tab title=”Raegan Cook”]
Her shirt is from Marshalls; her skirt is from The Limited; her glasses are Warby Parker; and her shoes are from Dillard’s.
Raegan Cook: I moved here five years ago from Louisiana. Now, I live in Pearland with my mom, dad and brother. Me and my brother are really close. We hang out a lot when he’s not at work and just have fun together. He buys a lot of my clothes. He bought me my shirt. Recently he bought me a dress from Free People that I’ve really been wanting. I think I’ve worn it three times since he got it for me. He works off shore with my dad. My dad is superintendent of one of the companies and my brother is an assistant driller. He oversees the drilling into the ocean floor.
TC: How did you like living in Louisiana?
RC: I liked it. I lived in a really small town. The population was about 3,000 people. Everyone knew everyone. It’s just a little backroad town called Many, I don’t even know if it’s on the map. Moving to Houston has been a complete culture shock. There’s a ton of people everywhere. In Many, the population was white, Native American, a few African Americans, not really any diversity. Here, there’s so many cultures (and) so many cool things to learn from all the different cultures.
TC: What’s your favorite thing about Houston?
RC: The food. I’m a foodie. I will try anything.
TC: What’s your favorite food?
RC: My favorite food is probably sushi. We did not have any sushi in Many. I’ve never even heard about sushi until I moved here!
TC: Wow, that’s crazy! You never knew about sushi? What kind of food did you have there?
RC: Never heard about it! We had steak houses, barbecue, just McDonald’s or Sonic’s. A lot of Cajun food. Not really any Indian or Japanese or Chinese food. Nothing like that.
TC: Did your fashion change once you moved here?
RC: Yes, definitely. Really the only thing I did in Louisiana was go to school and church and maybe to the movies on the weekends. But here, I got so many new things to do and try. It’s really opened up my mind.
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[tab title=”JP Montgomery”]
JP Montgomery: I’m from San Antonio. I’m here for school but I think I’m going to live here permanently. I’m actually a black belt martial arts. I’ve been doing it for ten years. I’m also an ordained minister. If someone wanted to get married on the street right now, I could be like ‘Okay, well let me just get some papers and I’ll come back to you in a week.’ I’m one of the people who can do that. I saw that I could do that on TV.
The Cougar: Do you have any brothers or sisters? Do you live here on your own and your family is back in San Antonio?
JM: Yes they are. I have one brother and he’s working on becoming an Olympic weight lifter. He’s not quite junior Olympics yet but he went to a competition this past summer where he was gold medal. He’s getting there.
TC: Do you bond with your brother a lot? Do you guys do things together?
JM: We did karate together for a long time. Actually, me, my brother and my mom tried to get our black belts at the same time. My mom and I graduated in the same black belt class and my brother got his black belt two years later. It’s something we did together as a family.
TC: That’s really cool. What about your dad?
JM: Not as close. He’s in the military so he’s always traveling. Right now he’s getting his PhD in bio-med at UTSA. So there’s a lot of family rivalry between UH and UTSA. Especially when we have games. He’ll come up for our games and he’ll be like “Go Roadrunners!” and we’ll be like “No! Co Coogs!’
TC: That’s hilarious. Your dad of all people.
JM: Yeah it’s so funny. Actually, my mom was a Longhorn too. We got a lot of different school spirit.
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