End of Austin

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I am writing this very retrospectively, but I realise that there is no better way that I am going to remember the things I did in my time in Austin than by writing them down.

So, based on what I was up to in my last blog, and a look through my daily planner, I can ascertain that I did some of the following things in my last stretch in Austin:

I went camping with the exchange student society, Planet Longhorn, at a place called Krause Springs. This place had a natural spring with a waterfall and tyre swing which would have been fantastic to swim in in the middle of summer, but given the freezing temperature of the water and my epic failure at tyre swings was not really my cup of tea. Luckily, camping in general is, and I had a great time hanging out with friends, drinking beers in front of a campfire and making s'mores American style (I reckon Australian Girl Guides make them infinitely better).

I mentioned in my last blog that Labour Holiday was coming up, and it certainly was a fantastic weekend! I got all my labour done in the first 4 hours of the weekend, and spent the rest of the time partying with the co-op (with my German friend, Georg's, birthday celebrations in the middle of the two days). My labour was pretty easy too: for my last 2 hours I was helping to make posters to decorate the kitchen- but we didn't have most of the materials yet so there was pretty much nothing to do. For the first 2 hours I helping plow the dirt out the front of the co-op so that we could plant a garden there (a garden which I have noticed has so far failed to flourish)- but it doesn't matter. There was a huge wake up parade with people barging into people's rooms banging pots and pans, announcing wake up time, where we were met with a breakfast of donuts. There was someone who's job it was to keep everyone's beer topped up, which made the work go faster. And I was feeling patriotic that day and bought a big bottle of Sprite and introduced everyone to shandies (which i described as being the drink that Australian grandmothers drink).

That next week I went to an Interpol concert with my friend Steve. Interpol were OK (I do love the lead singer's voice), and I was really glad that I got to saw a gig at Stubbs before I left Austin. That said, the supporting act were phenomenal, they were called White Rabbits and I immediately bought their album at the merch table. That was also the night I tried Fosters for the first time. It actually wasn't as bad as I suspected it would be (though it certainly wasn't good).

That weekend was Halloween, and it was certainly a crazy couple of days! I went out to a party at one of the ex-co-oper's house, which was excellent. I met a guy there who told me about an activity called hashing which is basically an orienteering game with beer (Americans sure do love their beer) which runs every Sunday in Austin. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to try it out while I was in Austin, but luckily there are hashing clubs in Sydney, and I can't wait to try it out when I get home!

The next day was my friend Zoe's regatta, which was a lot of fun, followed by a tailgating party for the football. I spent that night in one of the suites of the co-op that got a keg. I really enjoyed those nights with smaller parties where you could really talk one on one with people. I was also very impressed that the trustee of the co-op, Brett, recognised my Halloween costume straight away. I was dressed as Linka- one of the planeteers from Captain Planet, a bit of an obscure reference.

The following night it was finally ACTUAL halloween, but being sunday night after a party-filled weekend, not many people were keen to celebrate. So the internationals and I headed down to 6th St to see the Halloween phenomenon where apparently 10,000s of people come in costume to wander around the streets to celebrate halloween. There certainly were a lot of great costumes, and we ended up in a piano bar that took requests for tips, which was a lot of fun.

That Monday was the Melbourne Cup, and all the Australians at the co-op, and a few from the co-op down the road got together, and convinced a couple of Americans to get in on our sweeps. I got pretty dud horses, but it was still fun to keep the tradition alive as we listened to the race live.

That weekend (we're at about the 6th November now) was Fun Fun Fun Fest, the second major music festival I attended in Austin. It was fantastic fun!! I managed to wing a ticket into the VIP area which meant free food and drink all weekend, as well as a great vantage point to see the bands. MGMT was fantastic, as were pretty much every band I saw. One of the highlights of the weekend was a comedy show which was effectively a poor man's Jackass; and also going into the mosh pit of a punk band.

The weekend after that was the MF 100- and amazing bike race held at the co-op every year. Basically every building (e.g. suit 1A + suite 1B) designated 2 bike riders who together had to ride around the co-op 100 times. But there were obstacles such as a popcorn filled wrestling pit, stones scattered everywhere, and tricky things like every 25th lap having to complete a jigsaw puzzle. There was also audience participation as things supporters did could gain short cuts for their riders. My team came second, and it was certainly A LOT of fun. Sometimes I don't know how the co-op comes up with all these cool events.

The weekend after that was the co-op's birthday, which is one of the biggest events of the year. Basically we start cooking a huge feast 24 hours in advance, a theme is chosen and every window of the co-op painted according to that theme (this year's theme was video games- there were some great mario and pacman painted windows for example), and then everyone dresses up really nicely (or to the theme), and all ex-members of the co-op are invited to come back and tell stories of when they were there. I met a guy who lived in the co-op in the 1970s, and he was telling all about what it was like back then. Then I found out that his girlfriend that he met there (who he was still with) lived in one of my friend's room in the 1970s. It was crazy!

After that was the long weekend for Thanksgiving. Jonathan (the Kiwi) and I cooked all the remaining co-opers (most of them had gone home to their family) a great Thanksgiving lunch including turkey, candied yam, pumpkin pie and cool whip. That night we had a bonfire and listened to christmas carols.

Finally it was my last week of class. My laptop had been stolen the week before when I went on a shopping trip to South Congress, so I was a bit stressed out having lost all my study notes and a lot of the work I had done for my essay. But I put my head down and got through it, and I actually got decent marks in the end- nothing below a B-. Seeing as I was busy studying on my birthday, celebrations for birthday occurred on the last day of semester. My international friends pitched in and bought me a watch (which I desperately needed) and it was a great night all round. I also kept getting packages from people back home, so I was feeling very loved.

The next 2 weeks were a blur of packing and running errands. Included in this time was a trip to Putt Putt with some co-op friends, my last lunch clean up with Adam and Dominic (Wednesday clean up dream team) which we celebrated by going to a Mexican bakery and then to try sausage rolls at the 'Australian bakery' (they were pretty good but nothing like back home). Also, we had a going away party for the Australians (and Kiwi). Thanks to Bindy's package of decorations for suite-to-suite arriving a bit too late, we had a lot of Australian flags to decorate the common room with. It was a fantastic night.

I'm writing this blog 2 weeks after leaving Austin and I think I recognise now that these were probably some of the best days of my life. I will certainly get back to Austin some day, but in the meantime- Austin, I miss you!

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Photos

Labour Holiday
Co-op photo from labour holiday weekend

MF100
Green= Building #1!!

My Birthday
Birthday donuts instead of cake

Georg's Birthday
Me with Steve and Louise on the German's birthday

Me with the Kiwis
Jonathan and Ashleigh

Halloween
Linka, yeah!