![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Greetings from Texas
Lsat Tuesday my manager asked whether I wanted to come along to the project start-up meetings this week. I thought this would be a very good idea to try to get properly acquainted with the shape of the project; the start-up meetings are at ARM's Austin office, so on Saturday I spent twenty-one hours travelling, and have two days to recover in Austin before the meetings start.
It's a Texas winter's day, which reads to me as a balmy UK spring; I'm slightly too warm in cord trousers and a light jumper. At 7:30 on a Sunday you could film a zombie movie downtown without any of the normal issues with blocking off streets, but everything has livened up by about nine.
The first thing that struck me was the birds; there is a common long-tailed crow-shaped bird, slightly glossy if you see it close up, with a loud voice that it's fond of using and a habit of perching somewhere visible, and vocalisations including the classic movie door-squeaks-open sound. There are large white herons. In one of the parking lots I saw a bluejay, which is a distinctly surprising bird to a Briton. In the lake in the middle of town there are wild turtles; I'll admit I stood on the bridge looking down at them with a big smile on my face.
I walked across to the temple of commerce that is the first Whole Foods store, expecting that it might serve breakfast. I suppose British and American retail traditions have had a long time to diverge, but it was a weird place combining absolute absurd abundance with a sort of open-plan arrangement in which you couldn't readily find anything. It didn't serve breakfast; I ended up walking a bit round the lake and eating in a creperie where the language of the staff and the kitchen was French.
I found the fabled bat-roosting bridge, but most of the bats go to Mexico for the winter and come back in March; there was a little of the high-pitched squeaking that suggests the presence of bats on gnat-ridden summer evenings by the Cam. I will be in Mexico in March, but by then the bats will be back in Texas.
I will probably go up and see if I can go on a tour of the Capitol this afternoon; its brown granite was quite impressive in the early morning sunshine. If anyone reading this knows Austin and can think of fun places to eat tonight and interesting things to do tomorrow, please let me know.
It's a Texas winter's day, which reads to me as a balmy UK spring; I'm slightly too warm in cord trousers and a light jumper. At 7:30 on a Sunday you could film a zombie movie downtown without any of the normal issues with blocking off streets, but everything has livened up by about nine.
The first thing that struck me was the birds; there is a common long-tailed crow-shaped bird, slightly glossy if you see it close up, with a loud voice that it's fond of using and a habit of perching somewhere visible, and vocalisations including the classic movie door-squeaks-open sound. There are large white herons. In one of the parking lots I saw a bluejay, which is a distinctly surprising bird to a Briton. In the lake in the middle of town there are wild turtles; I'll admit I stood on the bridge looking down at them with a big smile on my face.
I walked across to the temple of commerce that is the first Whole Foods store, expecting that it might serve breakfast. I suppose British and American retail traditions have had a long time to diverge, but it was a weird place combining absolute absurd abundance with a sort of open-plan arrangement in which you couldn't readily find anything. It didn't serve breakfast; I ended up walking a bit round the lake and eating in a creperie where the language of the staff and the kitchen was French.
I found the fabled bat-roosting bridge, but most of the bats go to Mexico for the winter and come back in March; there was a little of the high-pitched squeaking that suggests the presence of bats on gnat-ridden summer evenings by the Cam. I will be in Mexico in March, but by then the bats will be back in Texas.
I will probably go up and see if I can go on a tour of the Capitol this afternoon; its brown granite was quite impressive in the early morning sunshine. If anyone reading this knows Austin and can think of fun places to eat tonight and interesting things to do tomorrow, please let me know.
no subject
There are a million restaurants downtown; for the most local color, try Tex-Mex, barbecue, or chili, and remember that vegetables are only a garnish. The closer you get to campus, the cheaper they are.
For a true brainwashing experience, try the Texas History Museum. It's the one with the massive metal star in front (lol oh my homeland). There's also the Texas Memorial Museum on campus, a 1930s limestone cube. It's well-known for having a Somebody Else's Problem field--I suspect the local branch of Men in Black work there. Find the mustang statue and look up the hill. I haven't been there in decades, but when I was 12 it was awesome. If you like turtles, there used to be a zillion of them in a little pond behind the Tower.
Oh and you must try Amy's Ice Cream, a local chain that I miss terribly. Oh, and for good coffee, Ruta Maya. The airport has a pretty good selection of local food, too. I had my regulation chicken-fried steak on my way out last time I was home. (Yes. It is a steak, fried as though it were chicken, with cream gravy on top. It's much better than it sounds...kind of like Texas itself, come to think of it.)
(edit: there's a persistent rumor that grackles are actually European starlings. Can you confirm or deny, now that you've seen grackles?)
no subject
no subject