Howdy

Here I am in Austin!

Thank you so much for your well wishes and encouragement. :) I spent most of the day at the school today, and I'm feeling a lot better about the whole thing. I spoke with several teachers and the administrators, who said that my plans look good. So big 'phew' on that. :) The atmosphere of the school is amazing--everything is calm and quiet, there is no chaos to be found. No big disruptions or attitude, either. Lots of reinforcement of rules and expectations (of which there are MANY), but in a quiet manner. No yelling or snapping required. The staff are all young, very energetic, very intelligent, and really friendly. Six of them took me out to dinner on Sunday night and it was a ball.

I wandered around town on Sunday, visiting downtown (very sleepy on Sunday mornings!), a couple bookstores, and a botanical garden. I took lots of pictures, of course. :) This afternoon, I want to drive around some more (woo! rental car!) and see some of the outlying areas that are supposed to be nice. And hopefully I won't get too lost. :) Frighteningly, I haven't taken a single picture yet today; I better get working on that! After I polish up my lesson for tomorrow, of course.

I just realized that I'm leaving tomorrow too--in twenty-four hours I'll be at the airport. Funny, I feel like I'm just getting used to being here. It's very easy to navigate, the school is about ten minutes away from the house I'm staying at (yay couchsurfing!), the weather is warm but not too icky (and there's AC inside everywhere anyway), the people are nice, there are lots of flowers and plants and other nice things, and the town is 'green' too; did you know Whole Foods originated here?