Goodbye Austin

This is my last post and I want to dedicate it to the best thing I found through these weeks in the United States. The following are some of the activities and places that I have enjoyed during this time: the Martin Luther King March, Longhorns Women Basketball Game, Longhorns Ice hockey Game, Mozart’s Cafe, Zilker Park, the Capitol, the Bullock Texas State History Museum, Downtown Austin, 6^th Street, Rainey Street, Lady Bird Lake, go kayaking, San Antonio, Riverwalk, Spurs Game, Houston, the NASA, the Museum of Natural Science, the LBJ Library and Museum, UT classes, ESL classes, the Benson Latin American collection, the malls, shopping, bowling, host families, and the list goes on and on.

All these things have been incredible; however, they can’t be compared with something I will never forget. Actually, it’s not only one thing. They are 24 amazing people who have made of this trip one of the most rewarding experiences in my life. Two months ago, I didn’t even know the name of these people. Now, I not only know their names, but I also know about their lives and they have become my friends. If I hadn’t won the scholarship for this program and I had had the money to do the same trip, I would probably have visited the places I mentioned before, but the trip wouldn’t have been so fulfilling.

I don’t want to talk about anyone in particular, because it would be an unfair and arbitrary decision and everyone deserves to be mentioned. For obvious reasons, I have built a closer relationship with some of these people (we share the room, attend the same classes or share the same interests). However, I have talked with the 24, and I have learned something from each one. In this heterogeneous group I could see different thoughts, ideologies and human qualities, but if I had to name a characteristic that everyone has in this group it would be the solidarity. Whenever someone feels sick, has a problem or needs something, there is a person to help him.

Before finishing this wonderful trip I want to thank y’all for being so kind and friendly with me. I never thought that in such a short time I could feel so comfortable living with so many people from different places and families. This trip will finish in a few days, but I hope that the friendship we have created in these six weeks will last forever.

I also want to thank you, Rachelle and Katie, for organizing this program for us. Everything has been excellent and I’m delighted with Austin. But the most important is that you love what you do, and that is reflected in each activity you have planned for us. I’m not sure if I will visit Austin again, but you can be sure I will have the best memories of the city and its people. 

Sing a song Austin

Today is 15 February and it has been a month since I left my country. So well has treated me the city of Austin during this month that I can’t believe I have to come back to Argentina in just two weeks. Austin is a place full of surprises and I don’t know how many of them I’ll see in the remaining time here. I, for one, will dedicate this post to tell you about something I could appreciate from the culture of the United States. It’s quite different in Argentina, everybody likes it, and begins with the letter “M”. What is it?  You guessed it, MUSIC.

As I mentioned in other of my posts, I want to use this blog to talk about myself, so you will know me a bit more, week after week. Therefore, before writing about Austin and his music, I’ll tell you what the music means to me and the role that has in my life. I’m not passionate about music, I don’t have any favorite band and I don’t play any musical instrument. Even so, I enjoy listening to music and I do it in different moments during the day. For example, when I go running or to the gym I like listening to some music that motivate me to do exercise. In the same way, while I’m studying I usually play relaxing music to be more concentrated. And of course I enjoy music at nights, especially if there is a band live. Regarding the different music genres, I’m not particularly interested in a specific kind of music. On the contrary, I like any music style.

What did I know about the music in the United States before this trip? The truth is that there weren’t many surprises when I arrived at Austin, because being the US a huge culture exporter, much of the music that sounds in the US is also popular in many countries around the world, included Argentina. On the other hand, it is rare to hear foreign music in the US.

Speaking specifically about Austin and Texas, I’ve heard and read that this city and this state were famous for their musical innovation. When I arrived in Austin I expected to hear a lot of country music and Texas blues. However, the only place in which I could listen to some country music was in a traditional restaurant in Austin, called Broken Spoke, where I also tried to learn the “Texas two-step” dance; and with regards to the Texas blues, I’ve barely seen the statue of Stevie Ray Vaughan in Lady Bird Lake.

Considering that Austin’s official slogan is “The Live Music Capital of the World”, I haven’t seen many live shows since I came to Austin. Probably, I haven’t done my best searching for places with live bands. Thus, my personal goal for the next and last two weeks is try to find places in Austin where I can watch local bands playing some Texas music.        

Next step: The city and its buildings

This is my third post, and I'm anxious to tell you about another fact that I has discovered in this wonderful trip in Austin. Now is the turn of the city planning. Before coming to the United States, I had an image on my mind of how the cities in the US look like. After three weeks living in Austin, I could see that some of the things are very similar to what I had imagined, but some others have amazed me.

The picture that came to my mind when I tried to imagine a standard city in the US involved high buildings, big shopping malls and wide urban roads. In these weeks in Austin, I could confirm that. In downtown Austin, I could observe many fancy, modern and large edifices. I have also gone to some shopping malls in the suburbs of the city, where I could buy a new cell phone and some clothes at a good price. In the same way, touring around the city and going to Houston and San Antonio, I enjoyed the well-designed highways and infrastructure of Texas.

Besides these three coincidences, my idea of the US contained cities full of buildings, very few houses and no green spaces. However, that's not what I found in Austin. There are several buildings in the city, of course, but most of them are concentrated in the city center. If you move to the suburbs, high constructions become unusual and the houses start to dominate the area. Finally, parks and squares are much more common than I had thought. Hippie Hollow Park and Zilker Park are two good examples of that. 

I'm not sure if Austin is the perfect example of a city in the US, but from now on, this is how I will consider medium-size towns in the US. Then, considering that the city where I live, Rosario, has similar size to Austin, I would like to compare the differences and similarities between the two cities. 

In general, both cities have the same structure. In downtown there are many nice stores, skyscrapers, luxurious towers and hotels. The difference could be that in Rosario the buildings aren’t as tall and gorgeous as in Austin. As a result, many people can live in downtown Rosario, even several students. In contrast, it’s impossible to live in downtown in Austin, unless you are an affluent person. In regards to the suburbs, the main difference I could observe is the distance between the houses. While in Rosario houses stand side by side, in Austin the houses have a lot of land, and are separated by 10-20 meter spaces.

To finish, I don’t want to leave it unmentioned the incredible growth of Austin. Wherever I have gone, I have seen a crane and a new building being constructed. It’s so noteworthy the number of cranes in the city that a woman said me the crane should be named the official bird of Austin.

Episode 2: Sports

Howdy! How are y'all? Last week I started to write a blog for the first in my life. I'd never done something similar. Expressing myself through weekly publications and sharing some of the sensations I'm living in this wonderful trip in Austin. In the previous post, I introduced myself and I told you about the crazy weather in Austin, that, by the way, I'm getting used to it. Personally, I'm really enjoying this new experience, and I hope you have had a nice time reading as well as I had it writing. 

 

Apart from showing you the surprises I'm finding in Austin, I want to use this blog to write about me. So, in each post, you will know me a bit more. In this occasion, I'm going to tell you about my relation with sports and the relevance that they have had and they have in my life. I'm a fan of sports. I love play them as well as watch them on TV. And I like different sports, from soccer to tennis, including hockey, rugby and many more. However, if there is one sport which has had a big impact in my life, it's the basketball. I started to practice it when I was a child, and for many years it was an important part of my life. Playing basketball I made some of my best friends,  I could travel along my country and I learnt about the meanings of "compete", "win", "lose", "be part of a team" and many other things.

 

What about Austin? Which sports could I see and play in my first two weeks in Austin? Fortunately, more than one, and in each of them I had a new experience that I had not lived until now. The first opportunity to see something new happened coincidently the same day I arrived at Austin. That day, I went to the women's basketball game of the Texas Longhorns against the Baylor Bears, in the UT Erwin Center. I had been in hundreds of basketball games in my life, but they had always been men's games. And that wasn't the only new thing I could live in the game. The stadium, called "The Superdrum" because of its round, drum-like appearance . What can I say of it? Amazing, huge, imposing, extraordinary, gorgeous, and any other adjective that you can imagine. I've never felt so small. And the show, how many things can happen during a basketball game! That day I learnt that in the United States a basketball game doesn't mean just men or women playing basketball. That's just a tiny part of the show. You can also see a band, a DJ, cheerleaders, gymnasts, the team's mascot and many more things. And that was just a college's game. I can't imagine how will be a professional game.

In my second week in Austin, I had the opportunity of watching a sport which I had never seen in my life, not even on TV. Ice hockey is that sport. And the occasion was in another game of the Texas Longhorns. This time versus the Texas State Bobcats. It was a great game and, to do it better, we won 3-2 (I've already become a longhorn fan).

These are just two of the sports which I could enjoy during my first two weeks in Austin. But, I've also played soccer in the Barton Stadium with other students of the UT, I went kayaking in the Colorado River, I ran around the town, and I hope this list gets longer. So, if there is a conclusion I can draw in my short stay in Austin, it's that Austin is excellent place to practicing sports, doing some exercise and seeing Longhorns' matches live.