Austin, Texas

Yeeeeeeeeeehawwwwwwwwww!! I just got back from Austin, Texas, where I enjoyed a nice seventy degree weathered weekend. Friday morning (near the crack of dawn) I made my way to the train station to catch a train to the airport. Seven of us were traveling to a conference. Our first flight took us to Detroit, Michigan. I had never been to Detroit before but I didn't get to leave the gate so I didn't see too much. From Detroit we left for Austin. Once we landed in Austin we took a shuttle to our hotel and proceeded to settle in. We didn't fly all the way to Austin to unpack so it wasn't soon after that we made our way out. We stayed at the Radisson Hotel by Congress and Cesar Chavez Streets (I have no problem giving details AFTER the fact, for those crazy stalkers out there). We were in the heart of downtown. We walked around in awe of all the things Austinite. The hot spot appeared to be Sixth Street where there were a lot of shops and bars and clubs. We found a place to eat that looked local (we didn't fly all the way to Austin to eat at a chain restaurant). I think it was called Paradise. I had the bbq chicken taco. Let me just say - yummmmmm. So we had good food. And now for the night life. We packed so much into three days that it is all being merged but I think I'm remembering it correctly.

One of us knew some people from the other school (am I being suble in leaving out names?) and we met up with them. We all went out to a bar (minus one who wasn't feeling well and two underage ppl). Jess and I aren't into the bar scene too much so we chilled with the crew for about an hour and then were on our way to shake our grooves in Austin. We had asked around earlier in the day of places to go. We found this club called Paradox on 5th and Trinity. They played hip-hop music. There was no cover until 11pm so we had about an hour before then to roam. We went to Exodus on 6th street but it was kinda lame because no one was dancing. We had a blast taking up the whole dance floor, figuring - we are in Austin, we don't know these people, we'll probably never see them again, we can have a blast. So around 10:45pm we head back to Paradox and stay there for the rest of the night. The rest of our crew went bar hopping. We get a call from the bar hoppers at like 12:30am saying they were back at the hotel. I was surprised that they beat us home. After that we had like two more dances and walked back to the hotel.

Saturday morning at about 9am (yeah this may be a long entry) we had to register for the conferece. We got there and there is a welcoming ceremony at 10am. During the ceremony they give us bingo cards that we are supposed to fill out with student signatures from other schools (forcing us to network). Later, they would have a drawing at the party that night. We had a "break" and we went out on the town just checking it out some more and findind a local lunch place. I forget the name of the place but they have this huge buffet for a really high price; and if you look towards your left, all the way in the corner, there was the salad buffet with a variety of lettuces and topping to choose from. Don't mind my sarcasm, it was actually good. We met up with those people from the other school again. They were funny. Break over, we headed back to the conference to attend some workshops. I went to the "Tips after graduation sucess" and "Graduate School" workshops. I thought the workshops were very informative and I met some other students with the same goals in mind. I had a good time meeting lots of people from around the country. After the workshops we were all pretty beat and headed back to the hotel for a nap.

Around 6pm there was a Bash sponsored by the conference at Buffolo Billiard's on sixth street. They fed us fajitas and opened the place up for pool playing, darts, and what have you. I played pool with another member of our group against guys from the University of Alabama. Boy did we suck. They were holding back laughter. After the game was over I wanted to play again but I didn't want to make them endure us playing. So went over to the other side. We found an empty table and played there. Around 9pm Jess and I headed back to the hotel to change and check out the club arena again.

We sure looked cute - me in my red pants ( I love those pants) and brown boots, Jess in her sparkly top and earings. We tried this place called Cuba Libre but it was an older crowd and the dance floor was all of two inches. Treasure Island, the Vibe, Spills, and all the other places did not meet up on our clubmeter. We ended back up at Exodus. We met some guys from Waco, Texas who danced with us. The guy told me he was a truck driver. His best friend was crazy with the dance moves. But they were a lot of fun (very polite; he didn't get mad when I moved his hands off {I like my space}). After dancing the night away we decided to meet back up with the crew. I called the one guy and I couldn't hear a word he said. Then I called the other guy and I heard "blah blah blah billard place blah blah" and so we went back to Buffalo Billiard's. They were on top of the balcony. One member of our crew was at some goth place. The rest were here with us. They were definitely out of it. I keenly remembering Mr. I don't dance "Leaning back" a few times. Haha (inside joke). And the two underagers had stayed there since the bash and so they got to have fun too.

So we were maddddddd tired when we had to wake up for the competition. We raced our car against other schools in the nation. The first run wasn't so bad, but our propeller got stuck and hit the floor (otherwise, it would have gone further). The second run, the reactor blew out for some reason. It's a longer story but I don't feel like writing about it. It's a shame that we didn't get to show our full potential of the car but I'm proud of our team. Good job!!

Oh and Luly came down to Austin to see us. It was great because Jess and I hadn't seen here in like 4 months. Thanks for coming Luly, hope you had a blast. And we (us, her, and her parents) drove around Austin sightseeing. We got to see the University of Texas for a couple of minutes.

The most exciting thing on Sunday was the competition. I got some souvenoirs and there was a networking night as the last event. We hung out with those people from the other school at the Friday's below the hotel (we were the last people before the kitchen closed - thanks Lenny) and of course, most of us had bbq ribs. LOL. The late dinner was fun and I got to know some more of the people from that group.

Monday morning we pretty much just checked out and went to the airport. We flew from Ausitn to Houston then back here. The plane got back at around 8:45pm and we ran to catch the train. Obviously we made it back safely. So this will probably be all that I write for a while. I am busy making up work that I missed. But I had a good time in Texas, as always.

Goodnight ya'll. Yehaww! :)