Dorm life.

I live in one of the smallest dorms on campus (and cheapest but still expensive) and as I told you already, everyone shares a room and a bathroom with the room next door. The building does not really look that pretty but the rooms are pretty decent. Sadly the grass on campus is not green at all yet, I am so excited when it will look all lush and even more beautiful!

Our friend gave us a couple of posters to make the room prettier and I think they do a pretty good job.
Sorry (not sorry) about the mess, we are just way too busy to clean. Kidding, we just really don't care and love our mess.

#what I love about my life here

 

# DENISE! I really couldn't imagine having someone else as a roommate

# racketball at the gym- nothing is better for anger management than hitting that ball really hard

# Tex-Mex food- going out to eat is one of my favorite things here, I just love the margaritas and the free tortilla chips you get, makes everything more fun

# the people- love my people here, I am so lucky!

this is my life now.

There are moments I think when it just hits you- "this is my life now".
These last two weeks were super intense, always out and about, catching every event, trying not to miss anything, making friends, going out... which is stressful, as y'all (haha) probably know.

Today, we were sitting in one of the boys room and they were playing guitar, singing songs.
And it just hit me.
Instead of a city centre located flat in the UK with my own room and bathroom, I now share a room with someone in Texas. We share a bathroom with four people. These people are my new friends now, this is becoming my everyday life! Crazy.

Something that just adds to this craziness is the fact that I am sharing a room- You are never really by yourself. No "me time". The times where I wouldn't leave my flat for days are gone. I enjoy time by myself, not being around anyone. But here you are always sociable, always talking, always around other people.
So far I do love it, but I already feel that I am not getting anything done here. Whenever we plan to do homework, we end up hanging out with everyone else until 2 in the morning.
 And now it is almost 3am, I NEED TO SLEEP! Something I really don't do that much here (and that says something, cause I LOVE SLEEPING!)

Processing college life.

The last week has been kind of cazy with so many new things going on, I just wanted to wait until I was properly settled in and things have calmed down before I wrote new posts.
That still hasn't really happened but oh well.

It is FINALLY Friday, thank gooooood!
Classes have started and I properly feel the difference from my Scottish Uni to this one- so much more work! Homeworks, quizzes, presentations...aaah!!!!! At least my classes start at 11am, so that is a nice time. I have four classes and they are all sort of cool: one research class with Denise in preparation for the bachelor thesis, one media communication class about media reforms, violence, advertising... all things I have done already but still very exciting to do it here- the classes are quite different in their structure, but I think I will like it. Oh and then there is a class called French Cinema, and one about Social Media in PR. The class size is very small here, so the teachers already know my name- which is something I do like and very similar to Scotland.

In terms of social life- us internationals are still pretty close, we have lunch and dinner together, go out to town, all of that... we are 3 Germans (me and Denise included), a handful of French people, then Argentina, Chile, Italy... pretty fun group. Our dorm is also pretty social and known as the party dorm, but its mostly reaaally young freshmen.
I love going out to 6th Street, I think it's just great because they shut off the traffic and the whole street is just one long party mile, bar next to bar. It's really pretty and there are so many roof top bars as well- love love love it! Austin itself is such a great city with a cool vibe- a lot of young people, fit and sporty people, sort of cowboyish but at the same time really hip.

I have had a couple of freak outs this week because I just wanted to cook something, anything! But the kitchen here is shared by around 100 people, no real pots and pans are available, I don't have a car to go shopping... I love cooking and just being able to make something. Here they are so dependent on the cafeterias on campus. The last one closes at 10pm and that's it. I feel like a baby here that's not allowed to use a knife. Food on campus is quite nice though, always a salad bar, variety of stuff... and I have a "meal plan", so a big chunk of money on my student ID, so paying is easy and it feels like it's for free, which is dangerous as well. 

I feel pretty much settled in so far, I even have a MINI FRIDGE in my room!! Haha, good to have friends that don't need their fridges. Finding the balance between always hanging out with people and doing homework feels hard though. The campus is beautiful, and the weather is WARM!!! around 20 degrees, which just feels amazing. I have managed to escape the cold winter and I am so so happy about that. Not worrying about wearing a coat is heaven for me. Compared to QMU, the campus here is massive with so many different buildings. It's so greeen though and because it is located on a hill (that's why it's also called the hilltop), you can see the Austin skyline. DID I ALREADY MENTION HOW BEAUTIFUL IT IS HERE?
Ah Texas, I love you.

 

(this is the campus with the main building that looks like a castle, and then you see downtown in the back)

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texas #2

Today has been the best day so far. It was warm (!!!!!!!!!!!!), the sun was actually shining, we met so many new people and spent all day with them. My highlight was being invited to dinner (with Denise, that's her in the middle there) by a girl we met today. We went to a great Tex Mex place, there was a proper Mariachi band, margaritas and we seriously had the best time.
I know I already mentioned that everyone is so lovely here but I really cannot say this enough.
Texas and especially my University here has been so accommodating, so amazingly warm and welcoming. I gossiped about Pinterest with my wonderful academic advisor, the guy from the international office just gave me his own usb charger so I don't have to buy one, - and even people often criticise the superficial way of making small talk here, but this is nothing like it. This is a niceness that comes from deep within, a pure goodness in all these people we met so far and it has been incredible.

Texas update #1

Let's start with the fact that I got here fine, KLM is acually pretty neat and had an amazing variety of movies to watch. Kelsey picked me up and I fell asleep in her snuggly bed after playing with her roommate's dog. Perfect ending to the day.
The next day started amazingly with lunch at her favorite place Magnolia (which I can only recommend) and at the end of the day I had a sim card, bedding and a key to my room.
Sadly Denise's flight got cancelled and she was stuck in New York and I had to deal with the fact that I had to go to orientation by myself. Urgh.
But because she is a little mental and very sociable, she somehow ended up coming in to the room at 6 in the morning after a crazy trip, without her suitcase and and a endless rage against her airline United.
By the end of today though, she has gotten her suitcase back due to amazing selfless Austinites.
I am serious, so far we have ONLY met super nice people. Everyone here is ridiculously lovely!!!!
In a way I am not that surprised, but this has really been my number one observation.

and to finish this random diary entry, some lovely random facts
# Austin has banned plastic bags from all shops- love it!
# something in our room is cursed and sounds like the ghoul in Ron Weasly's house - god I hate this noise!
# the campus is FULL of squirrels- a dream come true, let me tell ya
#  my shared bathroom cannot be locked and the toilet is "hidden" behind those cowboy saloon doors- oh joys of Texas

Hopes and dreams #2014

Oh, Austin.

All I can think about is Texas- when I think about the next 4/5 months, I have this fuzzy nervous exciting giddy tickle in my tummy- I imagine crazy cowboy hats, a contagious love for music, flashing neon signs on 6th Street, BBQ food, warm air, cold drinks on patios, charming American accents, football games, iced coffees, red cups, sugary cereal and horrible bread, endless refills on soda, new friendships and hopefully everlasting memories.

Ah please 2014, be good.

SXSW

I have the luxury of going with a girl from my Uni who is accidently also German. By now I am actually so so excited to be there with her and also share a room with her. The awkwardness of going to lunch by myself is something I hopefully won't experience and yes, that does make me happy.

BBQ

 And not just that. I already have someone picking me up from the airport, a place to stay the first night, someone to drive me to campus and so on. I couldn't be happier that Kelsey is there for me to show me around after I showed her a little bit of Edinburgh.

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