Rockport

After the Turkey Trot, we headed down to Rockport, a small town on the coast of Texas. While many Texans claim that Texas beaches are unimpressive, I on the other hand, think Texas beaches are pretty great. (When you come from the Pacific NW and must bring a winter coat on every beach trip [including those in the summer], a beach where you can wear a t-shirt & possibly even get a sunburn in November seems pretty darn awesome.) Funny how pretty much everything in life is relative, yeah?

On a vaguely related topic, although I’ve been here a few years, our proximity to Mexico still blows my mind. The thing I find most interesting is that although we’re so close to Mexico, culture/society/life in Austin feels like we’re a world away. I guess you could also say the culture/society/life in Austin feels like we’re a world away from Texas!

With this all said…enjoy the following photos from my Rockport venture:

What Makes A Good Airport

Airports. Where do I begin? I guess I can start by saying: I know them well. There are some I enjoy (Phoenix Sky Harbor), some I dislike (Kansas City), and others that just give me the creeps (Memphis).

So, what makes a “good” airport?

• Electrical outlets. Akin to libraries, airports always seems to have a shortage of plugs. Perhaps this is because when libraries/airports were built, not everyone had a iPhone, iPad, iPod, MacBook, Kindle, Blackberry and/or blueberry to plug in. Regardless, electrical outlets (more specifically, electrical outlets that WORK) are a rare commodity in airports. I think O’Hare has given me the worst luck on this front.

• Good signage. Some airports have excellent signage that make it super easy to find the car rental location, ticketing counter, gates, terminals, etc. Denver, Houston and Salt Lake, for example, have excellent signage. Kansas City, Lexington, Kentucky & Saginaw, on the other hand, do not.

• Clean bathrooms. Once you have spend 496 hours in one week in various airports, things like this stick out. A la the glamor of airport travel, it’s fairly natural to feel 300% disgusting after a day of travel. It’s nice to have a clean bathroom that at least FEELS like it’s not covered in germs. Denver and PDX have nice bathrooms. (:

• Car rental location. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I love love love loooooove airports that have the car rental area within the main airport building. Shoutout to Austin, Saginaw & Greensboro on this front. BWI, Denver, KCI…ugh! These airports do have shuttle systems to transport passengers to the car rental facilities, but when we’re talking efficiency…well, it isn’t. At ABIA, I know I can park my car/drop off rental car and be at the check in counter within 10 minutes. Denver, Kansas City, or Baltimore on the other hand? I’ve got to add another 30-45 minutes to airport arrival time.

• Food. Well…beggers can’t be choosers. But, beggers also appreciate options that involve fresh, healthy, organic, non-processed/fried foods. I’ve had good luck with food in Denver & Phoenix. Worst airports for food? Pretty much all airports smaller than ABIA and/or located in the mid-west.

• Internet. I don’t mind (AS MUCH) paying for internet if I have a longer layover. However, it’s hard to justify paying $10 for internet for an hour layover. Oh how I enjoy airports with free wifi, especially during short layovers. Best: Denver, Phoenix. Worst: Austin. On this note, I will also state that I have an epic love/hate relationship with Boingo. I must also give a special shoutout to KCI. Not only do they have free wifi, but a super awesome/responsive person(s) running their Twitter.

• Ambient music. When you’re sitting in an airport for a 3.5 hour layover, it’s nice to have some good ambient noise when walking from point A to B. Especially when you’re in an airport like Houston or Newark, that could take about 36 hours to get from one side to the other. I give the Greensboro airport a gold star on this front – they had Jamie Cullum playing…and I was happy.

• CARPET! And by carpet, I mean, no carpet. I was at…the Pittsburgh airport I believe? Don’t quote me. Anyway, I went to claim my suitcase and was pleasantly surprised to see the car rental kiosk was right next to the baggage claim – score! However, I also quickly realized that the entire ground was covered in carpet. #Firstworldproblems, I know, but I’ve come to quickly appreciate the airports with floor sans carpet – makes dragging a 35 pound suitcase so much easier. O’Hare gets points for good flooring. Pittsburgh and PDX on the other hand…not so much.

Oh the things you learn from spending hours at airports.

Pittsburgh

I must note, I was visiting Pittsburgh in September, as in, during a time that isn’t the bitter cold of winter (snow/cold is the bane of my existence). My thoughts on Pittsburgh might be a little different if I were there…oh I don’t know…like right now, for example. However, in September? It’s pleasant.

I’d never visited Pittsburgh before so I wasn’t sure what to expect. However, one thing I was looking forward to was attempting to pick up on Pittsburghese (This is one of those random topics I’ve done more than necessary research about).

In my four days there, I determined that Pittsburgh could be a nice place to go to school. Not too huge of a city that you get lost, but not to small of a city where you go stir crazy.

One thing I immediately realized? People of Pittsburgh LOVE the Steelers. Love love love love LOVE THEM! I’m not sure I thought there could be bigger superfans than what I’ve experienced in Austin with the Longhorns (people here go crazy when the Longhorns are actually not that great of a team…I’m scared to see what life is like in Austin during football season when they are actually good).

Anyway, my trips usually last about 2 – 3 days. This trip, however, lasted 3 weeks (not all in Pittsburgh – I was also in Baltimore, Virginia, W. Virginia a few other cities in Pennsylvania, then Portland, OR for a week). Although these trips are for work and not leisure, I appreciate the opportunities I’ve had/have to see parts of the country/world I wouldn’t otherwise have.  I’m pretty lucky.

With this said, I must admit that these trips can be lonely at times. However, it’s also all about attitude and perspective. I frequently find myself wondering how I would feel on these trips if social media were not around? Although we all know the stuff people post on Facebook only represents a part of a whole, it somehow doesn’t change the psychological factor that makes us think that everyone else is always doing something fun, with friends, and not alone in the middle of nowhere, driving past corn fields for 3.5 hours. So interesting.

Anyway, point being, I enjoyed my time in Pittsburgh. Lucky for me and my somewhat alarming sense of direction deficiency, I got lost. ALOT. But you know what? It’s not so bad. I give myself far more time that I need to get places, expect that I’ll probably get lost at least twice between point A and B, and just take this time enjoying the stuff I stumble upon.

In the great words of Ray Bradbury: “Half the fun of travel is the aesthetic of lostness.”

So there’s that.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the trip:

Two Weeks In Kansas

I never thought I’d visit Kansas, much less visit Kansas two times in two weeks. …but I did. And this is what I experienced:

Alot of flat land. However, I must say that overall, I saw quite a bit more greenery during my two Kansas trips than expected.

The schools I visited in Kansas have beautiful architecture. Who knows why, but when I was younger, I always pitied kids who had to go to school on a campus with those ugly industrial looking buildings, rather than buildings like these, with the beautiful ornate design.

So, this was the hotel where I stayed during the 2nd Kansas trip. It was a super nice hotel that A. seemed too nice of a hotel to be right off of a college campus for the price and B. also doubled as a: tanning salon, had terrance bars, observation decks, and last but not least, a subterranean night club, AKA “The Cave”.

A view from one of the observation decks:

Traveling is wonderful, unless you’re talking about maintaining a workout routine. I’m not one of those hardcore people that MUST workout every day…but after sitting on a plane all day or not really moving much during my work day there…I feel antsy and know I won’t sleep well if I don’t get some sort of physical activity in. So, on my trip to Lawrence, I decided to walk to dinner rather than drive.

The walk between the hotel and the downtown area was quite pleasant. I walked through a neighborhood full of old houses with so much character. I presume this was now housing for college students. It reminded me very much of the neighborhoods around UO.

The downtown is very cute…quaint I might even say. Lots of old little stores and restaurants, lots to look at and observe.

I ended up eating at an Asian noodle shop, Zen Zero. It was DELISIH! My only complaint is the serving size. It was so ridiculously huge – probably could have been about 5 meals. It really makes me sad to waste food…I suppose this is why I usually try ordering off the kids menu…the perfect amount of food, overeating and/or wasting food doesn’t occur…win win.

Regardless of my portion qualms, the food was delicious. I ordered chicken pad thai. Yes, this might sound boring, but alas there is a strategy behind my food ordering. My theory is this: If I get something different each time I go to a new restaurant, it’s impossible to fairly compare restaurant cuisine. It’s necessary to compare apples to apples. SO, when I get thai food at a thai restaurant, I always get the chicken pad thai. Burger place? A plain burger without onions. Pizza? A plain cheese pizza.

And on that note, here is my chicken pad thai:

After dinner, I continued my walk back to the hotel. Like I said before, there were lots of neat little stores to check out along the way. Such as this t-shirt shop:

After the t-shirt shop, I stumbled across this Greek restaurant, The Mad Greek. Like any other normal Greek person, my eyes of course light up as thoughts of gyros, dolmathes, tiropita and baklava infiltrated my brain.

At first I was sad that I did not see this restaurant first. (first world problems?) Then I stopped being sad because I knew I would be in Lawrence for another night and could come back. OPA!

Continuing along with my food critic theory above, I ordered a traditional gyro. It was delish. Wish they had kid size gyros…but I think when you’re Greek, kid size portions of anything (even for kids) do not exist. In fact, I think asking for anything smaller than an unnecessarily excessive portion of any type of Greek food might be considered blasphemy.

The next morning I was happy to find  The Juice Stop. After all the great food I had consumed in the previous two days, I was ready to detox and get back to my regular diet of primarily fruits & veggies. It’s not always the easiest to find these things during travel, so opportunities like The Juice Stop I snag immediately. (:

So there we go. Kansas experience, done & done.

Exploring Belgrano, Buenos Aires

We began today at the API center – here is our Buenos Aires resident director with my colleague Karen:

More API center…

After our time at the API Center, we took the bus over to the Universidad de Belgrano:

Here’s a view I snapped from inside the elevator at Belgrano:

The cafeteria:

And the view from the cafeteria:

We took a mini tour of the building, which ended around the time our students got out of class. Running into our students for the first time with Carmen was perhaps one of the highlights of the day. Prior to this interaction, I knew the students appreciated having an on-site resident director; however, within a matter of moments, it became quite clear how much our students love love love Carmen. Love it!

After leaving Belgrano, Karen and I decided to familiarize ourself with the neighborhood around the school:

Such a beautiful neighborhood – full of trees, museums, parks, incredible architecture…

Ay.

Finalmente, it was time for dinner! I don’t think I can say it enough, but man oh man, the meals in Buenos Aires seem to keep getting better and better. Here’s my dinner:

Provecho!