Games that kids don't play

Tomorrow marks the end of week one. What a week it's been! Lot's of learning and high stress but overall a very successful first trip. Here's my final thoughts on Texas:

If any of you ever plan to go to Austin, plan ahead of traffic. I know I discuss it in about every blog, but the amount of cars on these roads is unimaginable. I drive at 7am, traffic. 11am, traffic, 2pm traffic, 9pm traffic. Don't these people work or sleep?! Every where I go takes about 10-20 extra minutes just because of the traffic, though today I started using the access roads (or I think that's what they are called). Basically there's 3 or 4 main highways, all way up in the air. Below them/a little off to the side is a road that runs exactly the same way as the highway. If you follow the low road and put up with some street lights, it's quicker than sitting in traffic up in the sun. I hear that everything is worse on game day. That would be football for UT (University of Texas) which has the biggest football stadium in the whole state. It's massive. Quite a sight from the highway. Someone told me it holds over 100,000 people. Though UT has 52,000 undergrads, so clearly it's a big place. Lots and LOTS of UT pride around here. Everyone either went to UT or wants to go there. Almost every young counselor I met here is a UT alum. One (rather adorable) counselor I met today was shocked to hear that we even sell UT shirts in New England at random stores like Walmart and Kohls.

Austin definitely has more hills that San Antonio. Still no where as many as New England, but it's not flat. The highway ramps still amaze me. I've taken so many pictures just because I am so in awe of the infrastructure. I know, nerd. The cars are so high up in the air! And these huge overpasses are every where. Like every 5 minutes on the highway is another giant overpass system. Texas is not for the faint of heart.

On a slightly related note, it has occurred to me that Texas is a massive state (duh) and it takes along time to get to the other surrounding states, unlike New England. This is obvious, but driving around for 6 days, I think I have only seen 2 cars with non-Texas license plates. Both of these have been in Austin, but I saw New Mexico and Kansas plates. Kansas' plate is actually really pretty. I'd never seen one before. I guess little Texans on a road trip don't try to see how many states they can find. Sad. That was always a favorite of mine.


Today I saw my first fight at a high school. I've decided to keep a fight count on the main page of this blog. We didn't really have fights at my high school so this was something new to me. Two boys, both about 5ft 3inches were pinning one another to the wall. Apparently thinking they could choke each other to death. Fortunately, a teacher was near by and stopped it, but had someone not showed up before I got there, I was prepared do something. Regardless of if it's my current job or not, I'll always be an RA!

After a full week on my own, eating alone is still the strangest thing. I don't ever feel lonely, though I keep busy, unless it's dinner time. It's just something I may never get used to. Breakfast and lunch are fine, but sitting alone at a booth is sure to make you feel awkward. In an effort to ease my worries and occupy my solo self, I googled "eating alone" while I was waiting for my food to come. To my absolute surprise, almost every hit was about the joys of eating alone. People love it! More people than I thought like to go out alone and people watch, try out a new restaurant, read the paper, etc. Most found is stress relieving. There were lots of people who wanted to try it but never got around to it. Who knew solitary eating had such a draw? The search results were almost a support group for unaccompanied eaters and it made me feel a little more optimistic on the situation. Here's my favorite post:

You just must remember that anyone that would judge a person for eating alone at a restaurant must be lonely and pitiful enough themselves that they need to seek out others to judge to feel better about their own sordid lives. And just because someone is looking at you as you sit by yourself certainly doesn't mean they are judging you. Perhaps it's someone wondering why such an attractive individual is sitting all alone, and they are pondering how they might approach you to join you for a moment.
And if that's not enough, eating alone announces, perhaps, that you are so terribly popular, that you need a break from all of your social engagements to meet your caloric quota for the day, less you starve to death :-) If anything, it illuminates a beautiful degree of self confidence-- that you know that you are so wonderful, you don't need a "shield" of friends around you to make apparent what a fantastic person you are.

Adios and vaya con dios!