Thinking about Texas and all.

Right now, everywhere I go is Texas. Or Austin.
Either in the location of the films I watched (Something, Anything or We gotta get out of this place), when talking about SXSW with Film Festival delegates, or in the TV show that was recommended to me (Friday Night Lights) or when Elijah Wood mentioned that he recently bought a house in Austin because he loves that city so much.
It makes my heart feel heavy and tight.

I love Austin. I love Texas.

Before going there, I was not really sure what to expect of Texas. Yes I know all the stereotypes, good and bad. Yes I was worried about crazy gun people, rednecks and those right wing conservatives I definitely cannot empathize with. And on top of that I am at a catholic school, where I am anything but religious.

But all of this does not matter.

It doesn't change the fact that the people there are by far the nicest I have EVER met. This so called Southern Hospitality is something I really really miss.

Let aside the politics and all that stuff, Texas is really such a fun place. It has crazy weather where you experience all 4 season within one day, but at its best, it has the bluest skies and warmest days that will just warm your heart and make you so so happy. I have no clue how I survived the long Scottish winter, with no sun for such a long time.

Austin is an amazing city, so healthy and so fit, trying to be environmentally friendly, so beautiful, loads of things to do in warm weather, great bars, restaurants, FOOD TRUCKS, a huge student city... it feels exciting and new to walk these streets but also like home.

Feeling numb.

The days are just flying by, everyone is counting the days. Some of us because they really want to go home, but most of us shush each other when we talk about how little time is left.
I know I feel so sad about leaving this place, but not really. I feel numb above all.
Right now all I do is live day by day, trying not to stress about the massive presentations and papers I have due pretty much tomorrow. Every day I check off another presentation, another assignment, another last class. This is all great, but at the same time I am just rushing through these last precious days, just trying to make it.

Also my body just sort of decided to give up which means I am on antibiotics and steroids right now (haha I love saying that) because of a strep throat. arghh!!!!!! There could not have been a worse time for this. Anyways.
See you on the other side, when life is full of good stuff again.
That will be on Monday by 7.15pm.
fingers crossed.

Water fun in Gruene

I finally picked up the pictures from our Sunday in Gruene. We initially wanted to rent tubes and float down the river, but there wasn't that much water at that time plus the wind was blowing in the wrong direction- so we rented to little boats.
It was amazing.

Everything will be different.

And another week went by with me ignoring this blog.

I feel this quote is so appropriate- the reason I feel I can't blog is because it's so hard for me to keep track of what is happening. I think the first weeks back in Germany/Scotland will probably be really sad and annoying, trying to process what happened these last months.

What I am missing here.

I am really looking forward to Einburgh and living there again this summer, but most of all I miss this:

1. A proper cup of tea.
2. The freedom to take busses everywhere.
3. My own kitchen, my own fridge. COOKING!
4. Going grocery shopping.
5. Opening a window (we can't open the window in our room. don't ask)


At the same time, I am terrified for this semester to end. A month is left, then school is over. I will never be here again with the same people, living just down the hall from everyone, going out to 6th Street like it's nobody's business, always craving Tex Mex and Margaritas.
Makes me so so sad to think about this.

Texas Hill Country Roadtrip

Texas Hill Country Roadtrip | My new trip on Roadtrippers.com!



This was our route for our road trip through the Hill Country. It was beautiful and especially during Spring all the flowers are starting to blossom all over the area.  
For the first time ever I properly used the Lonely Planet guide for Texas (this one, the new one just came out this January)- we even used all their restaurant recommendations, which is something I never do. I always want to find my own places and don't rely on the 'hype' of the travel guides. Anyway, it was just easy to figure out dinner plans and it worked out really nicely- all the restaurants were pretty good and met our expectations.
My favorite little towns were Boerne and Gruene.
I don't have pictures of it because we bought a little waterproof throw away camera and I haven't developed them yet , but we went river rafting/tubing on the Guadelupe River in Gruene/New Braunfels and it was a.m.a.z.i.n.g.
It was super hot, a little bit windy and the river was beautiful. We rented equipment from Rockin R and it was just the perfect day for it. We took beers and snacks, tanned, watched those ugly turtles on the river, got stuck on rocks and swam. It was like a dream, let me tell ya.

It was a perfect weekend getaway and I'm still dreaming about it.

road trip #3 Bandera

Bandera is the so called "Cowboy Capital" of the World and because some of our friends already went I kind of knew what to expect. We just spend the afternoon there, browsing the shops and having a beer in the bar with the red door, the Silver Dollar Saloon.
We all danced two step with a Cowboy and then left for Boerne, the town where we stayed over.

road trip #2 Fredericksburg

On Friday we drove in to Fredericksburg, checked in to our not spectacular Motel 6 and had dinner at

Buffalo Nickel Bar & Grill (105 S Llano St, Fredericksburg, TX 78624). It was so so good, because almost all of their food is homegrown and homemade, they grow their own herbs and their raspberry margaritas are to die for. 

So we rolled out the door and tried to dance a little bit in the dance hall in Luckenbach, but sadly they were already closing. Really really cute though, absolutely worth a visit.

 

On Saturday we had breakfast at a very cute cafe called Mahaley's Cafe, nommy cinnamon rolls! Wish I could eat one now. We wandered through the shops, bought cute postcards and other souvenirs and then left for Bandera.
So more in the next post!

lovelovelove

Gosh, today was/is such a good day!

My social media class was great today, we did a sort of scavenger hunt which is all about St. Ed's! Click on the hashtags to see the tweets or just see this post, I stole some of the prettiest.

#JRLWeb or #COMM3309

Also can I just mention how good I got at YOGAAAAAA??????? My favorite part of the day- walking back from Yoga across the most beautiful campus. 

SO MUCH LOVE AND SUNSHINE!

so see ya'll on Monday, I am off to New Orleans tomorrow!

Spring Break!

via x

Jesus, do you guys know how hard it is to organise a vacation with 10 people? OMG don't tell me about it. I still don't know exactly how we finally managed, but for 5 days in March, we are gonna rent a beautiful apartment in South Padre Island. It's in the very south of Texas, almost in Mexico. You can only reach it via a long bridge, it has beaches to either side, dolphins, and of course... spring break parties! The first plan was actually Cancun, but sadly that was too expensive. How cool would that have been though?! Anyway, this is great too.
Our view is of the Gulf of Mexico, we have a pool, are at the beach... what more do we want?
5 girls, 5 boys, spring break people!

Randoms.

 

1# Super Bowl Sunday
To be honest, the only move I understand is a touchdown. Everything else is just weird to me- we watched it in the lounge with everyone, eating pizza and wings. Fun! And how cute is Bruno Mars?

2# Philip Seymour Hoffman
I am so so sad and shocked about this. He wasn't my favorite actor or anything, but it just makes me sad to see such talented people die for such stupid reasons.

3# New Orleans
On the weekend of Valentine's Day we are going to New Orleans. SO excited! Mardi Gras is in the beginning of March but apparently the parades are starting earlier than that. Woohoo!

4# Oscars
I am so so happy that I can watch the Oscars here, on Tv, at a reasonable time. So I got around a month to watch ALL of the nominated movies. HERE WE GO!

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!)

New design!

After a whole lot of nothing on here, I felt I should just start fresh with a new design. It looks all glittery and exciting, just how I feel right now. I am so so so excited about Texas- just one week left!

A little update. {with an unrelated picture}

 

I cannot believe we are already in the sixth week of this semester and bla bla, it's almost winter. To be honest, I am ready to skip this so called "fall" and go right in to Christmas mode. Just bring it on and get it over with. Anyway, I feel like I haven't done a proper update since America so here we go:

• Starting 7th January 2014 this will all turn a little Texan over here. I cannot wait for a little less winter and all of the other adventures waiting for me!
• I have a new job! You might remember how I worked in a call centre last year during the semester. It is a tough job because people yell at you and thinking that you are selling hoovers to them or something like that (the fact you are not doesn't even matter to them). So I was looking for other jobs but it's really hard to find a job here when you haven't got experience in retail or waitressing... And then all of a sudden this job at a dentist fell in to my lap. I was supposed to do secretary work but when they saw my CV, I was suddenly promoted to their sort of PR and Marketing advisor. Haha, can you believe it?
• Julia and I are doing a video for a hotel here in Edinburgh and they give us free nights and whatnot as a 'reward'. I am super excited when it's finally finished!
• Speaking of making videos, I am very much in the mood for making something cool about our life here, so me and my flatmates are going to do a sort of 30 day video challenge. We will see how that's gonna turn out, but I am very very very eager to do it!

 

My top 3 travel destinations during my semester abroad

So I seem to finally be an official student at St. Edward's University, yibbie! Now all the hassle starts with lovely bafög, visa procedures, booking flights, I even need to get a vaccination for Texas! 

The many things I am looking forward to is being super in the centre of the States and being so conveniently located! Here are my three top places I wanna go to during my semester abroad:

via x

 Meeeeexicoooo!!!! Ooooh yes, so exciting!!!!

via x

Vancouver- mostly to visit some special people, but also because it just looks amazing!

via x

And Cuba. Right now there are only a few airports that are allowed to fly in to Cuba (from the US) and Dallas is one of them, so yay!

On campus vs. off campus housing {living in Austin?}

via flickr

On Monday, we had a meeting about our exchange. We got the meet everyone who is going abroad next year, who is going to the same uni as us and also meet the people already on exchange who came to QMU! First of all, I met the girl who is going to Texas with me. And she is German. How weird is that? Then, we got to talk to the two girls who are from St. Edwards but currently at my uni. They are super lovely and I have no clue why I ever worried about not being catholic (St. Edwards is a private catholic university). They took all my worries away that I had and I am so so so excited for the weather, the food, Austin and everything!!!

However, there is the issue with accommodation.

Of course there is on campus housing, meaning you live in a dorm, share your room (ugh) and your bathroom (urghsghsgh) and everything.  

And yes, I have prejudices. It is just that mostly freshmen live on campus and I am going to be 23 when I am there, not 19 anymore. It also costs around 700$, which is so expensive! 

The girls I met recommended us to live on campus, just because it is easier and all the internationals live there. MH

Then there is off campus housing. 

My idea is to live in walking distance to campus, have my own room and pay less than 700 bucks a month.

But what if am totally excluded from stuff going on, what if I am not going to find anything short term, what if I am just being difficult with not wanting to live on campus?

It is just for 4-5 months. 

Last year, I have shared a cabin with a girl all summer long. I survived.

But do I want to do that in Texas?

I don't know.

Help!

Dreaming of Austin... {travel inspiration}

I found these fantastic pictures when I was looking at Airbnb. Recently they started doing Neighborhood guides and they are absolutely brilliant. There are only a few cities so far and Austin is one of them. I CANNOT WAIT to walk through these streets and live in this super cool city.

all these pictures are from airbnb

          

Check the Austin guide out over here and to view the neighborhood that my University is in, click here.

HAPPY NEWS! {Texas, here I come}

sharing my good news

So yesterday was finally the day that certain e-mail came. The email said this:

Dear Joyce

Thank you for your exchange programme application. I am pleased to inform you that you have been successful in gaining a place and you have been selected to apply to St Edward’s University.

This email is not an automatic acceptance to your exchange institution. In order to make your application to St Edward’s please see the attached information.

As soon as I read the word pleased my heart stopped for a bit. I was in my pyjamas, about to make my breakfast. All alone in the flat. It felt just like when I read the email saying I got accepted at Queen Margaret. My first reaction always seems to be... 'wait what?'. Then I might have screamed and danced a bit. And then I called Julia, haha (who is going to New Zealand btw, saay what).

Because sharing these news is the best part!

I am so so so lucky- I know I still need to apply directly to the University, buuuuut my lecturer already kind of assured me that they 'owe' us. I hope this certainty won't kick my ass in the end, we will see. But for now:

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY TIMES!!!

Texas ...?

via  x

I think we all know my obsession with finding things out about places I am going to. Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter- I am looking at every website to try and get insider information (that this task sometimes takes up my whole afternoon is a bit embarassing to admit).  Now that I submitted my application for the semester abroad (1st choice. St Edwards, 2nd choice Slippery Rock), I looked a bit for more information about St. Edwards from actual students. And I found this book: xxx
It is perfeeeect! It told me a lot of stuff I wanted to know and so nooow I am thinking of actually not living on campus (if I should be able to go) but instead live in an apartment somewhere close to Uni, maybe even IN AUSTIN!
How cool would that be?

semester abroad ³³²³

(blue pins is where I have been)

Another update regarding my semester abroad. There are 3 universities in the States that I am considering (also because we can nominate up to three choices on our application) The uni with the free accommodation (Slippery Rock) is still in the game somehow, but I think I might have set my heart on Texas. It is a privat catholic university and I did a looooot of research and came to the conclusion that the whole catholic thing is not that big of a deal (I am not catholic). Nothing is being forced on students anyway and it seems to be a lovely university that also looks like modern Hogwarts (score!).
Now there are obviously still so many steps to take until this thing becomes reality, but I am psyched!
Fingers crossed xxx