Texas BBQ

A funny thing happened on the way to lunch today.…

A continual attempt to explore my surroundings means I was headed to a new 'cafe' for lunch. Basically, the first decent sounding restaurant on my iPhone map application was quickly cross referenced on Urbanspoon and then there was a quick website visit. I was happy with the menu, and the name of the restaurant was Veggie Haven.  Sounds perfect.   I head out of the library and through the revolving glass doors and into the heat.  On foot, it was maybe 3 blocks away... but after the BBQ stand called something like HogWild. For some strange reason my already terribly slow pace turns into a stop. I'm reading their sign and thinking hey... this sounds good...

Something must be happening to me. A sandwich full of pulled pork?! Heather- what are you thinking?? Next thing I know a dude from the trailer comes out and strikes a convo. Says something about trying a free sample. Says something about 6 bucks after I say something about wanting the pulled pork sandwich. Next thing I know I'm walking back the same way I came with a pretty heavy white little baggie. Full of BBQ pork and bread and BBQ sauce and Cole slaw. Totally unexpected craving, and maybe justified by the fact that I'm in Austin. Part of me wonders if my food direction will change from the salad/veggie direction my diet was heading toward in Atlanta to a more... meat... Based diet now that I'm surrounded by people with loving relationships with hogs.  Well, whatever may come, I know one thing – I was pretty darn happy after that pork sandwhich.  I know exactly how much my food baby weighed.  ½ pounds, and after that somewhat spicy sauce, she was kickin’.

Pulled Pork sandwich that leaves you slightly in awe.

…

The campus is beautiful. And big. To all my Georgia Tech friends, you'll appreciate me saying that UT makes Tech seem Small. For several reasons, UT 'feels' bigger.

1. It is. Twice and some the population of Tech; 51,000 people are hard to ignore. The campus is dense and wide. The football stadium dwarfs buildings around it.

2. There is SOoo much more variety. I see buildings with descriptions like 'rhetoric and writing, business, pharmacy, law, languages'. Browsing the course catalog for class registration leaves me even more impressed. My finger almost gets tired of scrolling through the list of majors. Majors, not classes. Yeah, part of me is wondering if I got the whole college choice backwards... Going from a very focused engineering school to a state school with so much diversity.  

UT Building ... so beautiful and temporarily makes me feel like I'm in Europe again

The Structures department had orientation earlier this week.  There are about 45 other ‘structures’ grad students starting this semester.  I was happy and relieved to see a good mix of international students and people from other universities - UC Berkley, Notre Dame, and Florida to name a few.  Registration went ok, without a hitch.  I’ve spent quite a bit of time researching other class options outside of the Civil Engineering course offerings, though.  I hope to report soon that I will be able to audit a marketing class.  It’s one of the avenues I want to explore more, in addition to writing and communication.  So, I’m taking advantage of the larger course selection and trying to take some classes on the side.  And, I’ve pinpointed marketing to start off with because it seems like the one area where I can learn via attending class (as opposed to writing and journalism classes where I’d have to spend time and effort outside of class developing assignments.  Hard to commit to with 3 tough grad courses coming up).   We’ll see what happens!  More from Austin soon!