But seriously, Austin is one cool city! Of course its major charm at the moment is being the dwelling-place of my significant other, but it's also pretty awesome on its own merits. Coming into the airport and being greeted by country music, barbeque shops, and giant decorated guitars definitely was a big ol' "Welcome to Texas", and it was nice to be somewhere where I could go outside and want to take off my sweatshirt instead of wanting to put three more on. They call it the "live music capital of the world", I think, and I do feel rather bad that I'll be living there next year completely unappreciative of all this amazing music, while hundreds of hipsters are writhing in their skinny jeans with envy. But it sounds like there's also a thriving theater scene, many yoga studios, and enough folks with similar sensibilities to mine that I should be able to find a crowd to hang with.
But that's all in the future. Cool things we did on this particular visit included:
-Seeing thousands upon thousands of bats streaming out from under a particularly stinky bridge in central Austin as though fired by a giant inexhaustible bat-gun.
-Seeing Master Pancake Theater at the Alamo Drafthouse: basically, a live version of Mystery Science Theater 3000, with awesome food and booze.
-Going out to eat at various wonderful places, including the cheapest and best Mexican place ever, Amy's ice cream, where I swear they screen for insanity and only hire the crazy people, some great pho places, and one of my favorites, a barbeque place where the soundtrack in the bathroom was "How to speak Southern".
The inhabitants of the city also seem to be a really nice and diverse mix who somehow live in relative harmony without killing each other: we saw plenty of "Texans for Obama" bumper stickers as well as some folks at the university who displayed a sandwich board with an Obama-Hitler image, and then asked us how we'd like to go to Mars (...?). There's yoga studios next to Whattaburgers, and everyone seems to come together and bring their kids to see those famous bats. Basically, I'm really excited that this is the city I'll be living in for the foreseeable future after LISPA.
And speaking of LISPA, due to various administrative things (accreditation, visas, etc.) school got pushed back a week, which means that we don't start until... November. Which is insane. So we all still have two weeks to try to earn (and put on) those last few pounds before we get swept up in the exhausting, exhilarating, frustrating, wonderful whirlwind that the second year promises to be. Until then! :)
1 comment:
Hey, Joanna - I didn't know that's where he is. Austin's great! We have a very good friend who lives there; when you go, we'll try to get you together with her.
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