3 days in austin

safe and sound back in austin. that was a lot of traveling and a lot of fun! i'm between laptops right now so i wont have any pictures to share for another week or so, but thats alright as i need to get back in the swing of working!

i'm furiously looking for a place to live in austin so hopefully i can move before i start teaching next week. i'm borrowing my friend's scooter for a few days so i can search the neighborhoods where i want to live and check places out. wow, i missed driving a scooter! they're so much fun!! i dont think i have enough money saved up to buy a car right now, but i may invest in a scooter!


my first day back in austin was fantastic... went to one of my favorite spots on the greenbelt that runs right through the center of town. you enter a trail in one of several neighborhoods and then walk for 10 minutes or so to an isolated area with big rocks to jump off of into the clear green warm water. amazing! i forgot how nice it is just to sit in warm water. and i forgot the feel of slimy moss on my fingers. this is definitely one of my favorite places in the world! i took these pictures several years ago when i first arrived in austin.


on day 2, i went to campus and back to work to sift thru my gigantic pile of snail mail and to say hola to old familiar faces. its amazing how i havent thought about the little things, like going up the elevator in RLM to the 16th floor. i stood in the elevator realizing that it hadnt changed a single bit and it felt just as familiar as ever eventhough it hadnt passed through my mind in almost a year.

after work i drove thru the sunny neighborhoods looking for "for rent" signs. i eventually got bored and headed off to a friends house.... just at the moment that the sky darkened and a wall of rain fell on my exposed body! i quickly turned off the road and drove the scooter under a tree. too late... i was already pretty wet. the feel of rain was nice though.... it rained twice that i saw the whole time i was in chile!! after a few minutes, the rain slowed so i got back out on the street again. within three blocks, a strong and painful burst of heavy raindrops fell, so i pulled off the road again and under some trees. i sat there for about 15 minutes, waiting and watching as the raindrops from the tree fell and soaked me completely! i enjoyed watching the wind patterns via the gushes of rain that fell over the parking lot. eventually, i made it back on the road and to my friend's house! dry drivers inside their cars were as friendly as possible to my soaking wet frame as i cautiously turned on my turn signal to switch lanes!!

DAY 2 UPDATE: i forgot to mention that the moon was bright and near jupiter this night. a beautiful sight.

today is day 3. i'm back on the scooter again and it will probably rain at some point, but oh well... i'll get a little wet again in the warm rain!

DAY 3 UPATE: i think i found a cool place to live. details later!

as i drove the scooter home excited that i found a potential place, i looked east and saw dark rain clouds with visible streams of rain falling to the ground. i thought... mierda... vamos!!! i still had to drive thru downtown to get to casa de garret. i made it all the way to south congress and mary before the looming clouds dropped their first drops. i was going strong towards home but then caught the light at oltorf! as i sat there, a heavy wall of rain fell on me. i noticed the dry patches of road beneath the cars around me. i shrugged at the driver next to me as water drops fell from my helmet. three blocks later i rushed the corner and pulled into the garage... soaking wet... again... just as the next burst of storm fell to the ground.

damn beautiful refreshing wet rainy season!