Oh yes. You thought you might escape my stay in Texas without a reference to the weather, but you were wrong! Texas is hot! Austin is hot! And the amazing thing is apparently this is nothing. It’s been about 90 degrees the last couple of days and when I was speaking to someone yesterday about Austin, Houston and Texas in general and they said something along the lines of “God, the weather in Houston is terrible!” I couldn’t help but think, if Houston is terrible, what’s this?
The truth is that the weather has been lovely. It did rain on Saturday, which everyone says was a great thing as Texas has been in one of the worst droughts in years. But other than that, it’s been sunny and hot. Something has happened to me after all my time living in London. I’ve become so British that I love talking about the weather. Oh, a good complaint here or there about the heat or the cold or the wind and rain fits quite nicely with me. Writing this post I feel quite at ease.
But getting back to the point at hand, one of the perks of the weather here is getting to spend so much time outdoors. Practically every cafe and restaurant has an outdoor covered space full of people hanging out, drinking their coffee, typing away on their laptops (because obviously every coffee house has to have wifi), flashing their tattoos and talking. I had forgotten how Americans love to talk. Well, mostly Americans outside of New York City. I’ve sat down at communal tables and soon am besties with the people next to me. I’m enjoying my culture shock.
