So, I've been in Texas for a few weeks, and I thought I'd reflect on some of my experiences thus far...
Driving
Seriously, the biggest thing I've noticed about Texas is how driving is approached differently. At first, I thought people were just bad drivers. After seeing a few near-accidents and almost being hit a few times myself, I have finally learned the secret to Texas driving. The secret is... you have to drive like you're the only person on the road and just hope for the best. Poof! You're now a Texas driver! Changing lanes? No need to check if there is anyone in your way. They will move if they don't want to die. Want to get around someone but there isn't enough room? Just cut in with inches to spare. They will brake. Trying to make a right turn, but traffic is too heavy and fast to let you in? Who needs an opening? Just turn. People will slam on their brakes, and you will make it... probably.
This same concept applies to parking. I have seen, hands-down, the worst parking jobs in history in Texas parking lots. Especially my apartment complex parking lot. Rule of thumb for parking: assume you are the most important car on the lot, or perhaps the only car. Park however you want, and if you take up two spaces, bonus points. People don't even try to hide the fact that they are parking like jerks. They just completely straddle a line and take two spots. Or park almost completely diagonal in a spot, making it impossible to park next to them without risking being stuck in your car, or getting door-dinged. I almost had to resort to crawling in through my backseat the other day when I returned to my car and discovered I had about 6 inches to open my door and get in. Luckily, just sucking in helped me wiggle through.
And, it's not even just Texans... the license plates are from everywhere. It's like people get here and just adapt this Texas-sized attitude about driving and parking. I'm learning to stop considering others and just do it. Whatever it is, just do it. Who cares?
Weather
I read somewhere that there are two seasons in Austin: summer and not-summer. It was an account of a Northeasterner's first year in Austin, and they wrote that they kept thinking it would cool down "in the fall"... only to realize that fall wasn't coming. There is summer, when it is ridiculously hot. Then there is the rest of the year, when it's not. So far, of course, I'm only getting summer, but boy is it a doozy. I've experienced heat living in Missouri. It gets hot in the summer... miserably hot. But, it's one thing to experience a heat wave in Missouri and another to realize it's going to be like that for 4 months straight in Texas. Granted, the heat is a bit drier, and we get more of a breeze here... so it's not as miserable. But, 100 degrees every day is still 100 degrees every day! I'm adjusting and learning how to cope with the heat.
But, the thing is... the heat doesn't shut down the city like it does in most normal cities. People are still out and about in 100+ degree weather - running, eating outside, just sitting outside reading, whatever. It doesn't faze them. I went for a walk the other day when it was 100 degrees. It wasn't awful, really. So, perhaps my body is adjusting already. Everyone says I'll get used to it... to an extent. I think they're right... but for now, 100 degrees still feels really freaking hot.
Orange
Ok, I know, I am attending UT in the fall. UT's color is orange. Out of all of the colors in the world, orange is the color I absolutely do not like. I do not own a single piece of orange clothing... well, until I moved here, when my mom got me a UT shirt. But, the proliferation of burnt orange in this city is insane. Everyone of all ages is wearing orange, it's in the stores everywhere, even people's cars are orange. Yes, I saw a nice luxury car the other day... that was burnt orange. And, the orange longhorn symbols are everywhere. Austin is definitely a college town. I think this is a bit new to me because Northwestern wasn't really in a college town. Evanston was very separate from Northwestern... and while you'd see purple close to campus, NU grads, for the most part, moved away after graduation. Evanston wasn't just full of NU grads like Austin is of UT grads. So there was never this culture of the whole town being about the university... but it feels a lot more like that here. I am interested to see just how much that explodes when the undergrads come back in the fall. Yikes!
Food
Before moving here, if you asked me what my favorite foods are, I would consistently rank three things at the top of my list: french fries, barbecue, and tex-mex. And, now I am in a mecca for two of those three foods! (And, they still have french fries in Austin, too... lol.) I have to avoid eating out so I don't gain 100 pounds in my first year here. I would like to thank the hipsters for the insane array of food in Austin. I think hipsters attract awesome food places for some reason. Now, they aren't responsible for the barbecue and the tex-mex, but they probably account for just about everything else... and I have seen a ton of restaurants I want to try! Good thing I am living like a poor grad student now and can't afford to eat out every night... or I would totally eat my way through Austin in a year...
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