San Antonio

Howdy! Greetings from Texas! So much has happened in the last 48 hours, I’m not sure I can remember all of it! Currently, I’m sitting in a Starbucks, drinking and Naked orange juice (That’s the brand name, I’m clothed of course). The OJ is actually really really good, maybe some of the best I have ever had. As a non-coffee drinker, Starbucks isn’t my usual place of choice in the hot weather, but now they offer free wi-fi and this delicious juice! I feel super trendy to be blogging from Starbucks, especially since I am wearing nice clothes, heels, and pearls. Very legit. Why am at Starbucks you may ask? Shouldn’t I be working? I went to my first school this morning and checked in, only then did the secretary tell me that the principal scheduled a last minute senior assembly and I couldn’t meet with students during my time slot. And so I left, with an hour and 15 minutes to kill and I found myself at this lovely location.

Starting from the beginning – My flights went well. The second one was long, in an uncomfortable seat, with a screaming child. But I put on my headphones and fell asleep for at least an hour of it. When I woke up and looked out the window, I could see a lot of farm land and rivers. I really wanted to know what some of the things I saw were, but even as we got closer, there was no way to tell. I decided I have Google Map Syndrome (GMS). Normally, the only time I see things from that high up is on a computer screen and I can click it and find out what it was. I really wanted to click something in the plane and just have giant letters that say TEXAS pop up over the land. How awesome would that be? Maybe one day the TVs in the seatbacks onboard will be able to do that. Despite obnoxious passengers and cramped seats, I really like flying, especially the take off part on the plane. If it was socially acceptable, I’d throw my hands up in the air and scream “WOOOOO!!” the whole way up. I try to silence these urges and scream in my head with a smile on my face.

Today is day 2 of work and my last day in San Antonio before I change locations. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time here and I would definitely love to come back in the future, though I’d rather come with another person. San Antonio is a little city that was shockingly quiet and impeccably clean. I stayed right down town and never saw so much as a piece of trash on the ground, broken bench, or graffiti on a wall. There was no gross city smell (yuck, Manhattan) and really no traffic at all. It’s almost like there were no people in the city. That’s my kind of city! As a small town girl, I’m pretty much terrified of cities and all the people in them. I’ll own up to my naivety and ignorance as I just don’t have much city experience. Despite my worries, I ventured out alone for dinner and some sightseeing both nights. At first, walking alone was a little unnerving and weird. No one to take pictures with! But I just took a bunch of photos of things and sites and architecture and eventually got used to being alone. Eating breakfast and lunch alone doesn’t bother me, but sitting alone at a booth is weird. Eventually, I plan to go eat at the bar with the bartender, but talking to strangers AND eating alone is too big of a step for now. So I just bring a book or newspaper or play on my cell phone while I eat. Last night the owner at a Mexican restaurant felt bad for me and sent me free nachos. How nice! In fact, everyone I have met has been really nice to me. I met a nice couple from Chicago who were lost in San Antonio. They loved to travel and had been to 45 states but never New England! Who goes to see Nebraska before going to New York?!

A special thank you to all of my friends and family who get constant texts, g-hats, and phone calls from me. I promise I won’t call you all 4x per day for the next 10 weeks. Being alone will get better, but it’s taking some adjustment. Everything here is so gorgeous, I can only imagine how much more fun it would be with a companion!

Since I’ve been here I’ve noticed a few things – the accents are not nearly as strong as I was hoping for. I really wanted to come back with an adorable southern accent. People actually do wear cowboy hats around , though not as much as I was expecting. I’ve maybe seen 10 guys in 2 days, most of which were driving in their cars. In general, people here are just like people at home. People are people, I guess!

They do have some really different restaurants from us though. Of course there are McDonalds, Burger Kings and Wendy’s, but they also have the following. I hope to check them all out before I leave, but we’ll see what I have time for:

· Jack in the Box

· Sonic

· Whatabuger

· Church’s chicken

· Taco Cabana

· CiCi’s Pizza (which we get ads for and don’t have any!)

I went to Whataburger yesterday for lunch. The burger was massive, as was my soda. When you order inside they give you table tent with your number on it. You go pick your seat and they bring you your food. So I got my food, took a bite of the burger (pretty good) and then reached for my massive diet coke, only to spill all 44oz all over my tray, completely drowning the burger and saturating some fries, not to mention getting it all over my blazer and dress pants. By some random chance, I was wearing clothes that are stain resistant or something magical because the soda just stayed on top and beaded up, allowing me to wipe it off and carry on with my school visits.

School visits have been interesting. I definitely have high school envy. I’ve been inside 4 schools so far; 1 private and 3 publics, all of which were nicer than my high school. One was on a military base and the students were kids of active service members. I’d never been around so many military brats (though I don’t like that term. They weren’t bratty at all) before! It was cool because everyone I spoke to had lived all over the country. Selling a school in chilly New England wasn’t that hard. (It got to 98 degrees yesterday at 4pm. HOT!) Two schools have cancelled visits on me and at one no one showed up so I left early. In reality, I’ve only spoke to 2 students who actually wanted to talk to me and weren’t being bribed by a teacher. Oh well. You cant win them all!

Driving around San Antonio has been quite an experience. The highway speed limits are 70 (cool!) during the day and 65mph at night. They don’t have any HOV lanes and people actually slow down to 20mph when they go through school zones. Every single car. I was shocked! The roads themselves are really confusing. There isn’t always lines so I never know if it’s two lanes or one. They have little bumps in the road instead of double yellow lines diving up the two directions. Sometimes there’s yellow, but it’s tricky. There’s also a lot of weird merges and yields. One 3-way intersection had no stop signs or yield signs! Lots of crazy zig zag roads that all overlap and merge all over the place, making weird shapes of road designs. I’ve taken the wrong road many of times. What was wrong with two parallel roads and intersections with perpendicular roads?! Makes me appreciate local driving at home much more. On the upside, I have only gone over 3 hills in 3 days. Yes, I am counting. It’s a rarity. There’s not a lot of trees on the roadsides either, so you can see everything, unlike those crazy winding, hilly, New England back roads.

I totally love my rental car – a 2011 Ford Focus, gray. Leather seats and satellite radio. It has a moon roof but it’s too hot here to open it, even if you kept the A/C on. There’s also heated seats, which seems a little ridiculous to me in Texas!