[ Posted by Rebecca
Thu, 23 Aug 2007 19:56:29 GMT ]
I have been in my current position for a year now, and I keep finding myself surprised by how nice and happy most people here are.
This is a first for me.
Every other place I worked, workers were exploited, looked down upon, etc. The politics were ridiculous and there was little room for self expression.
But here, after a year, I find that even the accountants who sit in windowless cubicles in the basement are happy.
Crazy.
I’m not head-over-heels-in-love with my job, but I certainly don’t loathe it by any means. I don’t dread getting up in the morning, and I don’t harbor any negative feelings for anyone here. There are aspects of my job that I love, like helping new students get into their classes, or like the other day when I found a cricket club at UT for a new student from Bangalore who is in the U.S. for the first time and has been here less than a week.
Everyone here is laid back and friendly, fun and respectful, and far from helpless. I am not micromanaged, and I typically get help from people when I need it.
For an admin job, I think I have one of the best ones possible, and I’m very thankful for it.
Posted in Various and Sundry | no comments
[ Posted by Rebecca
Fri, 17 Aug 2007 18:29:13 GMT ]
Hi.
Please go here and choose five or six words that you think best describe me.
Thanks!
Posted in Various and Sundry | no comments
[ Posted by Rebecca
Wed, 08 Aug 2007 18:08:50 GMT ]
After our favorite deli was sold to a new owner and began consistently producing low-quality sandwiches, Dominic and I kept a lookout for a new deli to frequent.
We may have found one today.
We tried the sandwiches at Avenue B Grocery and I must say, the turkey one I had was good. Dominic was not too crazy about his roast beef, but said it was good enough to come back to try the other sandwiches.
The grocery store is certifiably at least 100 years old this year. And it still sells groceries at a fantastic price.
The atmosphere is great if you do not require heat/air-conditioning, because the seating is all outside on weathered picnic tables. It was hot today, but the tables are all shaded, so we were not uncomfortable.
If you’re near campus or just looking to try out a true Austin original, head down to Avenue B Grocery, exchange a few words with the owner, take in some Austin culture and tuck in a good sandwich, which you may want to wash down with any one of their glass-bottled root beers or sodas.
It’ll make you feel like you’re nowhere near downtown in a city. I think it’s an excellent getaway.
Posted in Various and Sundry | 1 comment
[ Posted by Rebecca
Mon, 06 Aug 2007 15:33:35 GMT ]
Dominic managed to rescue a number of my blog entries from his Google reader account. I have everything back to just before the Norway trip. Today I entered everything from February and March. I can only do a little at a time because it’s all cut-and-paste.
What’s sad is that the comments were not preserved, nor the links that were embedded in some of the posts. So, once I get all the posts added, I have to go back and try to figure out what I linked to, so the posts make sense. There’s nothing I can do, however, to recover the comments that you guys left me. Sniff sniff.
Fixing stuff that broken technology destroyed is so.much.fun!
Posted in Various and Sundry | no comments
[ Posted by Rebecca
Wed, 01 Aug 2007 13:00:02 GMT ]
On Friday, July 20, my mother and I drove to this town in Georgia
where this house can be found.
This house is important because it is the home of my grandmother,
who now looks like this,
and my grandfather,
who now looks like this
because apparently, headstones are expensive.
I did a lot of fun things while I was visiting the cradle of my maternal family.
For one, I fed chickens, and this one in particular would not.stop.crowing. even though the sun had been up all morning and afternoon.
I saw a goat give birth to two billies, who are super duper cute.
I also picked a lot of figs
and ate a lot of peaches.
When I wasn’t busy eating, doing farm work, or learning the finer points of mammalian biology, I made sure to stop and smell the roses
and take in the local sights.
It was a fantastic vacation.
Posted in Various and Sundry | 2 comments
[ Posted by Rebecca
Sat, 28 Jul 2007 04:14:04 GMT ]
So for those of you who thought I stopped blogging, I’m sorry to break it to you, but I haven’t stopped.
I’ve just been on vacation for a week in a place that had no internet access and no cell signal.
It was glorious!
I meant to leave a post announcing this vacation, you know, before I left, but I ran out of time.
You can look forward to a vacation recap and lots of pretty and fun and strange photos in the coming week.
Posted in Various and Sundry | 2 comments
[ Posted by Rebecca
Mon, 16 Jul 2007 14:05:56 GMT ]
Saturday night was very international for me.
Evan and Amy invited Dominic and myself to a cricket match - where we would be involved in the game.
Their friend, Govardhan, who is from India, is a cricket buff and has been coaching a small group of Texans on how to play.
We went to the cricket pitch at Old Settlers Park to play the game. Those of us who got there early fired up one side of a grill that was near a Pavilion and cooked our hotdogs, which paled in comparison to the fajitas that were cooking on the other side. A hispanic family was there, hosting a birthday party for their now-17-year-old son. They were very friendly and even offered us food, which we politely turned down.
They also offered us beer and margaritas, and we all turned down the drinks except Govardhan, who wanted a margarita. Apparently margaritas are his favorite American thing. He once made some margaritas for his upper-echelon brother and friends in India, and he was the hit of the party because of this.
Tequila, it is world-class!
Anyway, after we supped, we played cricket for about 2 hours and then it got dark. I’d love to explain the game to you, and I actually understand it now, but I think any attempt to explain it would be in vain. So, I’ll let you read about it here.
After we played cricket we headed back to the pavilion to clean up. When we got there, the birthday party was in full swing, with all participants downing bud light like there’s no tomorrow.
They were dancing to the typical tejano-style music that you can find on the radio anywhere in Texas, and they were having a great time. They invited us to have some of their delicious tres-leches birthday cake, which we did. Then they attempted to teach us how to dance, except most of us were white, and the Indian gentlemen were not too interested in dancing, although by the end of the evening even their heads were bobbing to the happy rhythms of the mexican music.
I didn’t dance too much, because I am shy and don’t really like to dance with people I don’t know, but I enjoyed watching the white people try to dance with the hispanic people. Evan, who dance like your typical white guy, paled in comparison to the prominent hispanic guy who was so fluid in his dancing that Amy described him as being like Gumby.. He was entertaining to watch because he put his entire self into every move and never stopped to take a rest until the party ended. Those people have crazy amounts of energy. Not like us fat white American couch potatoes.
Most of the time, I’m very jaded about American race relations, because racism still runs VERY deep in this country (it is just more subtle than it used to be) and it runs in every direction between every race. But it’s experiences like these that give me hope for the nation and for the world. These experiences demonstrate that we are all the same - all humans, with souls and reasons to celebrate, and with a desire to connect with other individuals and share ourselves with them.
Posted in Various and Sundry | no comments
[ Posted by Rebecca
Fri, 13 Jul 2007 14:18:28 GMT ]
In case none of you have noticed, it’s cricket season here in Austin, Texas.
When I say cricket season, I mean it. They’re everywhere, and they’ve been everywhere for a few weeks now.
Every morning when I walk from my car to my office, I see them hopping all over the pavement, and I see numerous cricket-carcasses of those brave crickets who did not make it out from underneath someone’s shoe.
Throughout the day, at least on campus, I can hear them chirping.
Never anywhere else have I heard crickets chirping, collectively and loudly, during the day, when the sun is up.
And in the last week, I’ve had two of them in my office, both of them under my desk.
Coincidentally, I’m going to play a game of Cricket on Saturday evening. We’ll see how it goes.
Posted in Various and Sundry | no comments
[ Posted by Rebecca
Mon, 09 Jul 2007 20:36:02 GMT ]
It feels REALLY FREAKIN’ GOOD to get a 100% on a final exam.
I’ve never had that happen before.
BOOYAH!
Posted in Various and Sundry | 3 comments
[ Posted by Rebecca
Sat, 07 Jul 2007 04:05:24 GMT ]
I tend to blink when people take pictures of me, so I always look like I’m squinting, or like I’m stoned.
Dominic got tired of it and decided to take matters into his own hands.
Photo taken by Daniel at The Ginger Man on Anna’s birthday.
Posted in Oh, the silliness of me!, Various and Sundry, Morbidly Strange | 4 comments
