Tuesday, November 2nd
Rode my bike out to Mozart's, a coffee shop located right on Lake Austin. The lake is actually part of the Colorado River - they classify sections of the Colorado as lakes if there is a dam on both sides. So in Austin there are the Lady Bird Lake, Lake Austin, and farther out Travis Lake. It's about a 5 mile bike ride from our home to Mozart's - but a pretty nice trip if you take the roads with a bike lane, the only struggle is to make it up the steep hills. Mozart's has a dangerous system of offering a bottomless cup of coffee; I sat there and drank three cups of coffee when I posted my previous entry especially for someone easy effected by caffeine. It was a rainy Austin day and the first day I got to ride my bike in the rain.
On the way home from the coffee shop I stopped by CVS and got my flu shot. Now I'm prepared for when I return in a week to Michigan to jump back into the classroom and hopefully be less susceptible to getting sick. Working in a different classroom around lots of children everyday had already given me a cold for a good two weeks right before I came down to Austin; hoping to return full energy to Michigan and keep my immune system healthy.
It was still raining when I left CVS and I was quite hungry so I took myself out to dinner. I've gotten food to go by myself before or eaten at Cosi/Panera types of places solo before but this was the first time that I can recall ever going to a nicer place and eating by myself. Considering I'm planning on traveling half way across the world and living over in Zambia for the next 27 months I figured eating by myself while everyone else was eating with family or friends is something I should get used to. So I sat down by myself at Maudie's Tex-Mex restaurant and enjoyed some lovely cheese enchiladas. I have to say my spice tolerance is increasing, although I still need a fair amount of water to keep my mouth from overheating. Sitting by yourself gives you more time to people watch and take in the scenes around you, I even did a little journaling while eating. One problem with dining by yourself though is you can't blame anyone else when the entire basket of chips and salsa ends up demolished.
Great things about Texas:
* Outdoor seating everywhere
* Free chips and salsa with almost every meal
Wednesday, November 3rd
Emily got a job working for an advertising company! The first and only company she had applied to; so we went shopping at the Barton Creek Mall to celebrate. Emily looking for professional clothes and me looking for Peace Corps appropriate clothes. And low and behold I found my professional outfit for Zambia! Women are expected to wear only dresses and skirts in professional settings; so for important events I need to take it a step up from my casual skirt/dress attire that I'll be wearing in the schools. I found a black dress that was long enough, below my knees, had short sleeves, and was even on clearance! It was the first dress that I found and tried on. Following this event Emily and I decided that life is just easier in Austin. Emily gets her first job, the first dress I find is perfect, it's warm, sunny, and people spend more time outdoors.
When we finished up at the mall we headed over to Chuy's, a famous Tex-Mex restaurant, to meet up with an old friend of Emily's that also recently moved to Austin. Chuy's has multiple locations but the one on Barton Springs is the original and I must say it's my favorite sit-down restaurant in Austin to date.
Thursday, November 4th
Let's see here. On Thursday I broke out the yoga again. I took a Hatha Yoga course through Washtenaw Community College last winter and have been thinking about how yoga would be a great activity to get into the routine of doing while I'm in Africa. A friend of mine who is over in Africa doing Peace Corps right now had blogged about starting yoga with some other Peace Corps Volunteers. I feel like doing Hatha Yoga is a good way to remember to live a balanced lifestyle and to take the time to take care of yourself. I always feel refreshed and stretched out and it should be something I can do without needed any additional resources. Materials wise I think I should either download some audio of different sequences or just write several different series in my journal before departing because I'll be more likely to do it if I have something to follow.
In the evening Emily and I attended a Dwali celebration on UT's campus. I was not familiar with the festival before we attended and feel like there is still much to learn as we were not with someone who could provide us with insight into their holiday. It's a Hindi holiday celebrating the triumph of good over evil. There was candle lighting, Indian food, and fireworks to end the night!
Friday, November 5th
One of my favorite days in Austin so far! Hiked at the Pedernales Falls State Park with a group of fifteen other hikers organized through the online organization meetup. Got picked up for the hike by a girl that lives a couple of blocks away, met another girl that lives less than a block away, and that was all before we even got to the meetup location! There was a wide variety of people out for the hike, everyone from the recently relocated graduate student to retired austinites. We completed a 7.5 mile loop at the Pedernales Falls State Park, enjoyed a lunch picnic on the trail with a view and then headed over to the Real Ale Brewery.
At the brewery we sampled five of their different beers: oktoberfest, full moon, mysterium, fireman #4, and coffee porter; my favorites were the full moon rye ale and mysterium because it was such an unique beer. Although I must also say that the coffee porter paired quite well with the halloween candy left out in a basket.
And because we were having so much fun we decided to hit up the Salt Lick, the famous BBQ restaurant that I mentioned in a previous post. The Salt Lick is a fair bit removed from central Austin and I must say they don't have very many vegetarian options, enjoyed some great bread and butter with my sides of coleslaw and potato salad. But the atmosphere is great and everyone seems to love the BBQ - it's definitely a must visit for those new or traveling through Austin.
Saturday, November 6th
The best part of Austin's food scene are their trailer food. It doesn't get any better than the Gypsy Festival where thirty plus trailers from all around Austin gathered at a park by the Colorado River for a day of good food, live music, and great people watching. I had some fun looking at their website beforehand and reading about how different trailers got started anywhere from creating food that all comes in a cone to one business that started just because there were so many people in the extended family to feed. The only problem with the Gypsy Festival was that it was such a great idea everybody came out so the lines were incredibly long and it took forever to get any food. I biked down there in the morning and got an iced mocha (my coffee of choice in the warm climate) and then visited the Conscious Cravings trailer, a completely vegetarian venture, where I enjoyed a sample sized chimmichuri seitan. I definitely want to visit their trailer on the UT campus sometime in the next week to enjoy more of their menu. After that the lines defeated me and I was on the move again.
There's this outdoor store down here called Whole Earth Provisions, which I LOVE! It's similar to REI in the outdoor gear and clothes that they carry but they also have a random stock of childrens toys, lots of hammocks hanging outside, and I even found a new Kavu bag/purse to replace my old one! The reason I biked over to Whole Earth Provisions was because Backpacker's Magazine's was touring the country and stopping in their Austin store, talking about backpacking gear and giving away free things. I won a quick dry American Hiking Association shirt, but it's a large so need to make friends with someone that likes outdoor activities and wears a large shirt...
While I was sitting by the river at the Gypsy Festival I made a list of aspects that would make my ideal town/city:
- Bike paths and bike culture
- Water source: river, lake, etc...
- Locally brewed beer
- Outdoor culture: hiking nearby, camping available
- Soccer team to play on (really miss playing right now)
- Focus on local and/or organic farming and potentially humane meat practices
- Four seasons (love fall too much)
- Dog friendly
... basically if it wasn't for Austin's really hot summers that I would never survive and the fact they do not have the four seasons going for them then I could relocate down the road to Austin... never thought I'd hear myself say that one.
So the day wasn't done yet after the backpacking event I met back up with Emily and Katelynn and we headed over to the Home Slice, a great pizza place on Southern Congress. To finish off a great Saturday, Emily and I made an appearance on 6th street, the place to go out in Austin. I must say they take their bars and clubs to a different level down here.
Sunday, November 7th
Mosey day. Biked into town after a pit stop at Kirby Lane for some sweet potato fries. Yes I have found my sweet potato location down in Texas (I've rated all the sweet potato/yam fry locations in Ann Arbor based on their taste and the sauce they serve). Then it was to Book People for some more Zambia research and journaling. While there I made an amazing discovery! I had assumed that Book People was a chain, it's similar in size to most Borders or Barnes and Nobles; turns out I should have done more investigating. Turns out it was started by UT students, turned over to a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV), and then grew in size to what it is today. The name Book People comes from Ray Bradbury's
Fahrenheit 451 where the book people from his novel hid away in the woods to memorize the information in the books before they could be burned. I love it when I discover places have more meaning behind then than just being another part of a chain.
Monday, November 8th
Emily's first day of work! Saw her off to work; it's so very great that everything seems to be working out with her move down to Austin, that she's already started a new job, and moving up in the world in a direction she's interested. And with Emily busy with work I took off to visit Houston. My dad's in Houston this week for a business trip, he comes down to Houston a fair bit for the job he's been working. Being a great dad :) he came and picked me up in Austin and together we headed back to Houston. Then we quickly hit up happy hour at a sushi/grill place in the mall that's attached to the hotel. Got to love discounted food and drinks. We strolled around town a little and then called it a night.
Tuesday, November 9th
Feeling a bit lost finding myself in a city quite a bit larger than Austin and exponentially larger than Ann Arbor, I headed to the street to explore a bit! There's something of the sort of 650,000 people Austin and just shy of 2 million people in Houston according to the census in 2000. Crazy to think about, Ann Arbor had a population around 114,000 according to that same census in 2000. Experimenting with different population sizes and then to think that in 80 days (yes I have started a countdown to help me grasp my timeline here) I will be in Lusaka where there are 3 million people and then find myself in a remote village with a very small group of people.
Traveling around Houston I decided to get out of the Galleria area where we were staying. I wanted to see if I could get a different feel for the city besides the business and shopping side of things. I went out to the Montrose area which is known for their thrift stores and being a more chill section of Houston. I thrifted a bit searching for skirts to complete my Peace Corps packing list and found a fun one - need to get some feedback if it'll work in Zambia or just be a fun teaching/wearing around skirt. Also visited Brasil, a local coffeeshop/bistro that had the best iced mocha I've ever had, complete with melted chocolate. And also enjoyed a beet and goat cheese sandwich; yes my sister heather is rubbing off on me in more ways than one. She makes an amazing beet and goat cheese tart which is the reason I started eating beets in the first place. Then returned home to the hotel to meet up with my dad and get some food at another place in the mall, traffic is crazy here at rush hour so we stay put. And since I'm going to be non-vegetarian when i go to Zambia, I relaxed my vegetarian morals a bit and tried some crab and ate some raw Ahi tuna. Then we headed into downtown and checked out the Flying Saucer, a pub that has more beers on tap than I've ever seen!
Wednesday, November 10th
I miss riding my bike so to continue my goal of getting in shape while I'm down in Texas I went for a run following the suggestion 3 mile hike the hotel had printed on a handy little running card. So of course I went in the wrong direction right off the bat! But eventually got myself all figured out and onto the suggested course. If I lived in Houston I could never be a runner, the air here is quite humid and there's a lot of pollution in the air from all the cars and commercialism, the air just smells like city. After the run I wandered around the mall next door some as it was raining outside and managed to get quite turned about. I think I'll need to have Heather, my sister, somehow contact me every once in a while when I'm in Zambia to motivate me to post on my blog. I get it written down roughly in my journal and then just don't put fingers to keys to post online. I think I'll be better at it when I'm blogging is my main way of contact with everyone at home. I also introduced my dad to Chuy's Tex-Mex restaurant at their Houston location.
They have large portions and I eat too many free chips and salsa so I had leftovers but then this brought me to this new realization. So we don't have a refrigerator here in the hotel room so I didn't have anywhere to store my leftovers and wasn't sure how long it would last (yes as my dad later mentioned I could have put it on ice) so I decided just to eat them a couple hours after dinner. I will not have a refrigerator or ice when I'm in rural Zambia so if I cook food how long will it last until it becomes dangerous to eat? Is there a specific way I can store prepared food so it will last longer/not grow bacteria? I need to do more research on that one... And on that note need to head to bed so I can wake up in a couple of hours and start my travels back to Austin.
