I arrived here last Sunday after a day and a half of driving from Tallahassee.
So far this week I have...
-Slept on the floor for 7 days.
I am pretty cheap, so I have debated on whether to even get a mattress. I went to 4 mattress stores this week and found out that just a mattress costs $150 or more new. So... I think I may continue to sleep on my sleeping bag until I find a used or new mattress for cheaper. Or, since I've been sleeping well on just a sleeping bag, I may go without a mattress until I get married. Girls... is it a turn off if your boyfriend/husband sleeps on the floor? OR... is it more of a turn ON if your boyfriend/husband buys you a $150 ring? 150 dollars... that would be a really nice ring.
-Fixed my bike.
I took my poor excuse for a road bike to the community bike shop just up the street from my house. I am so lucky as to live about a mile from Austin's equivalent of Krank It Up. The community bike shop is called the Yellow Bike Project. So I took it there and got some new wheels and a new chain for $10. She rides like new. I am very happy about it because I can now ride most places I need to go. In my excitement of fixing my bike, I timed myself from my house to my job on bike. 13 minutes 30 seconds. Speaking of bikes... supposedly Lance Armstrong lives in Austin.
-Took the dogs to the park.
Each of my roommates own a dog.
Dustin owns a rotweiler named Abyla. She is very friendly and in constant need of physical affection. When I sit on the couch, she'll sit next to me and slowly sneak her way over to me. After about a minute, she'll be in my lap, hitting me with her legs insisting that I rub her. Cute but annoying.
Trevor owns a black lab named Dignan, or Diggs. He is a fairly calm dog inside the house. The only time he'll get rowdy is when Abyla knocks him off his back feet and wrestles him. However, Diggs LOVES the outside. And I learned the hard way by taking him to the park. I should have known, though. If you even say the word or motion towards outside he'll start jumping on you. Yesterday, I decided I would take the dogs to Lady Bird Lake Park for a walk. On the ride, they were well behaved in my car. Abyla laid in the back, while Diggs refused to sit but stand in the back. He was too excited to sit I guess.
After a few minutes of walking with the dogs on leashes, we approached an area of the park where there were no families or little kids. So I decided to let them off, assuming they would stay nearby and we'd play Fetch or something. However, Diggs TOOK OFF. And Abyla, after a moment of hesitation - being torn between me calling her and Diggs running off, took off after him. Within a minute, they were hardly visible. After about 10 minutes of walking and various picnic'ers warning me to keep my dogs on leashes, I caught up to the two dogs. They probably sniffed and marked every tree in the park. I don't think I will take Diggs for a walk again. Especially because on the way home, he hawked and slobbered and walked all over my car.
-Found a good coffee shop.
After surviving college by spending most week nights studying in a coffee shop, I have certain things I look for in a coffee shop:
1. Comfortable chairs.
2. Plenty of chairs/tables.
3. Late hours/24 hours.
4. Multicultural crowd.
5. Awfully loud, awfully awful music.
And I found it all at Epoch Coffeehouse. Its very similar to All Saints... except minus the asbestos... and the pretentious barristas. It has outlets and extension cords all over the place. Atheist graffiti quotes in the bathrooms. Loud, strange music. (Right now it is a mix of Latin polka, Indian trance, and Eastern European gypsy songs) Free internet. Toilets that face away from their bathroom doors (Heather, you would like this... haha.) Lots of loiterers/studiers.
The only bad thing is that its a decent bike ride from my house.
As for my next week...
-On Tuesday, I am going to a UT Spanish conversation group. I am excited. I signed up for a weekly 5-person Spanish conversation practice group through UT. I hope it goes bien.
-On Saturday, I am helping out with Spanish and Health-related things at a community festival. My friend Lindsey told me about Hope Fest. Hope Fest is a multi-church, multi-organization festival with the intention of helping out the St Johns community. I think the community is predominately poor and predominately Hispanic. I am not sure exactly what I will be doing, but the volunteer sign up form asked if I was in a health-related career and if I knew Spanish. So, if I am lucky, I will be doing something related to the two.
