Blogs from Texas, United States, North America - page 261

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North America » United States » Texas » Houston September 1st 2005

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, I can only think about how similar the pictures look of the the Indonesian Tsunami. Utter destruction, helpless families with no food or water...and this is only 250 miles away from me. After my interview with Babbin's Fish Restaurant (it went well...I'm supposed to be called this weekend) I made up my mind to do my part to help the victims of this massive storm. Come Tuesday morning, (after the Labor Day Lake House weekend) I decided to commit myself to helping in any way possible. My dad got an email today saying that they were paying people $9/hour to help out at the Astrodome. If its serving food or making some kind of financial decisions, I would like to do my part. For those of you who would like ... read more

North America » United States » Texas » Houston August 31st 2005

With a couple interviews scheduled for Thursday, today was more of a catch up day for the family and I. I installed a really cool curvy shower rod that gives me 3 feet of more room in my shower. I also installed two new faucets in the kitchen for my mother. God, she was happy...I've never been much of a plumber, but we all think I did a pretty good job. I got a little help from Riley, who happens to be pretty handy with a wrench! I had a couple problems with my deposit for my class in Prague. My bank won't authorize payment because its from a different country. I will have to wire the funds over to Prague tomorrow. What a hassle... ... read more

North America » United States » Texas » Houston August 29th 2005

What to do, what to do? Between now and November 14th, I have to make as much money as possible in the shortest amount of time. Anyone have any ideas? For now, I have come up with the following ideas: 1. The obvious: Get a job...I went to Babin's Fish Restaurant, Salt Grass Steakhouse, and a small bistro today and dropped off applications for serving or bussing. Another opportunity was mentioned earlier. Since my mother is a speech pathologist, she gave me the idea of substitute teaching. The pay is good, and the hours are resonable. Its likely I could do both of these jobs simutaneously...That'll get the ball rolling! 2. Ebay: I found a bunch of old stuff in my room that I plan on taking pictures of and auctioning them off on ebay. I ... read more

North America » United States » Texas » Houston August 28th 2005

It starts...at 9:14PM CST in Katy, TX, right outside of Houston. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, I write this with hopes that the morning will not bring mass desctruction and devistation in one of my favorite cities in New Orleans. My adventure begins with a brief description of what lies ahead of me. Earlier this month I decided my so called life needed a so called change. Knowing that it involved some major changes, I decided to get a teaching certification in Prague, Czech Republic that will let me teach English anywhere in the world after its completion. I leave in November, and I will going through a 4 week, intensive training program that will leave me with all the resources to sufficently teach after completion. Find out more at INTESOL.COM So...I'm biding my time. ... read more

North America » United States » Texas » Austin August 24th 2005

Many have asked me why I would take off a year to go to Europe on a mission trip. People have asked what I hope to achieve by doing this, or aren't I already close to God. So here is my reply: First I don't think during my life I will ever have such a close relationship with God that I can stop trying to get to know Him (I have found you are either constantly trying to achieve something greater or you are falling backward - there is really no way to just stand still in your walk with God). As for my reason for leaving Texas to seek Him, my desire for this year is that the person who boarded the plane for Oslo is not the person who returns. I want to surrender ... read more

North America » United States » Texas » Austin August 19th 2005

Can you believe that this trip is only just half over? The first half went very slowly and it has taken me some time to adjust to the life of travel, but I am sure you all believe me, when I say that it is not all that hard. With a little bit of time and money I could really achieve anything I wanted here. There is still a full month left, but I already feel like time is running out. Things are moving much faster now and over the next few weeks I will be going to Boston, Toronto and San Francisco (at the very least). For those that have noted that my original intention was to spend a large amount of time in Toronto and the wilderness of Canada, this is still my intention. ... read more

North America » United States » Texas » Big Bend August 15th 2005

The destination for this trip was Big Bend National Park, Texas. Located right on the border with Mexico its landscape is a mixture of mountain, extinct volcanoes and desert and low semi arid vegetation. To my surprise the park has recently enjoyed significant rains, so much so, that the landscape appeared to be changing. The national park is a good eight hour drive from Austin, probably too long for anyone to do on their own, but in the end we made it. To share in this trip I had a local friend who was looking forward to going back to the park after almost ten years. It took us more than one hour to drive through the park to the motel. The last several hours of the drive were dominated by larger and larger mountains and ... read more
Open  Road
Mountains amidst the clouds
Storm clears

North America » United States » Texas » Austin August 13th 2005

So I'm heading off to Houston today and to Peter Island tomorrow. When I woke up this morning I had a 102 degree fever, but I think I'm doing O.K. My fever broke about thirty minutes ago, so I'm sweating like a pig. Rocky seems convinced that I have malaria since I have similar symptoms to what he had when he first got malaria, so I may go to the doctor in Houston to get tested for malaria. I will be sure to let everyone know what I find out (but I'm pretty sure I don't have malaria). ... read more

North America » United States » Texas » Austin August 12th 2005

So we caught a plane from New Orleans to Austin, TX which went via Houston. Our 28 minute flight from Houston to Austin was VERY bumpy, like being on a rollercoaster! We were both quite glad when we were bak on terra ferme. Austin is a fantastic place, really laid back and quite different to anywhere we've been to so far. Found a fantastic vegetarian restaurant called Veggie Heaven - Rachel enjoyed her favourite meal of our trip so far! (Guy was reasonably impressed by his tofu dish - good job they had some chili sauce!) Austin is home to the University of Texas which is the largest Uni in the US. There are loads of good bars and cheap eats here, and planty of live music to boot. Austin has the self-proclaimed title 'Live Music ... read more
The Texas Two
Street Sign
6th Street

North America » United States » Texas » Austin August 11th 2005

Well, I've made it home. It was quite a journey. I left VKV at 11 a.m. on Tuesday afternoon and arrived in Austin forty-eight hours later. I took a rickshaw to the train station. From the train stationI took a two hour train to Trivandrum. From there it got really complicated. I took a taxi to the airport in the hopes that I could check my two gigantic bags in early so I wouldn't have to haul them around Trivandrum. No such luck. So I got a really crummy hotel room for $3 to store my bags. Then I took a taxi back into the city center. The two high points of Trivandrum are the royal palace and a 5000 year old temple (yes, that's five thousand). Being non-Hindu (and not having the foresight of wearing ... read more
Traditional Keralan Architecture
The Main Junction
Tharayil House




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