Update!

I'm baaaaaaack!

I know, it's been forever. I'm sorry. Life has been (and continues to be) crazy, but will only be for a short while longer! I'm down to about 4 months left in Tejas (what?!), and as I suddenly realized, only 2 of those are with students. Yikes.

So here's the reader's digest version of what's been happening recently:

1. I went to Austin for South by Southwest for my friend Courtney's band! They were awesome, and I met my favorite YouTube personality, Hannah Hart! She makes a series of videos called "My Drunk Kitchen," and my roommates senior year of college and I really love her. I knew from twitter that she was in Austin, and of course as soon as I stopped scouring every bar on 6th street, I looked over, and there she was. Awesome.

 Courtney KILLED it!

 Hannah and Me!

2. I went home! Surprise!! My mom and a few selected NDA friends knew, but I went home during Cristo Rey spring break and surprised most of my family and friends. It was a lovely few days at home, and while I didn't get to spend as much time as I wanted to with everyone, it was still so very wonderful.

 Surprise, Dad!

3.  I went on Kairos! I went on Kairos III as an adult leader and cook with the junior boys. It was hilarious, inspiring, uplifting, and heartbreaking all in one. I learned a lot more detail about the things my students face every day, and gave me a good reminder that I am not just a regular teacher here- I'm volunteering and should be reflecting better. Full post on Kairos to come soon!

4. There is a new Pope! And he's (mostly) awesome and Jesuit! A whole post will come about this as well, but I couldn't ignore it!

A real post will follow, but I owed you all an update. I head home tomorrow for almost a week: yippee!

A Piece of Home

As I mentioned in my last post, I had some visitors this weekend! Kaitlin and Mary Emily, two of my best friends from high school, came down to Texas on Saturday. It's Mare's spring break from law school this week, and Kaitlin took her first "fun" vacation time from her job to come play with me!

It was a weekend of a lot of delicious food, so much fun, and a wonderful piece of home. I think you can all tell that I'm fairly homesick as much as I love my work here, and having Kaitlin and Mare here made that so much easier. I really enjoyed showing them around the city and taking them places to eat, and since they were here, I did a lot of things that I probably wouldn't have otherwise.

On Saturday we went immediately to Torchy's, my favorite taco place in Houston. They were hungry after a long flight, and I don't think I've ever said no to a Torchy's outing. On the way home, we stopped by Chris and Ryan's to pick up an air mattress and pillows/blankets (I seriously don't know how I'd do this year without them), since Cassie also had friends in town. We wanted to make sure everyone had a comfortable place to sleep!

After stopping by home and picking up Karen, we went to a party for Texas Independence Day at a really cool bar on the outskirts of downtown called The Refinery.  It was a "brew-off" of different Texas breweries, and we got to try a lot of different varieties of beer. My favorite was definitely a jalepeno beer from Katy, TX.

Note: yes, you did read Texas Independence Day. It's a thing. It was Sam Houston's birthday, and it's the day that Texans celebrate the period of time when Texas was a republic. They're quite proud that they're the only state whose flag can fly at the same height as the US flag. Of course.

Saturday night, we had a little party at my house, which was a lot of fun, and ended with some really great pizza. Sunday morning we went to a DELICIOUS brunch and went vintage store hunting. I didn't end up with anything, but it was still really fun!

Then, we hit the rodeo. Read my previous post for all those details.

I had to work on Monday (womp) but only until 2, so Mare and Kaitlin got up and drove me to work (they are seriously the best friends), and took my car back with them. After getting a few more hours of beauty sleep, they went to Hermann Park in the middle of Houston, one of my favorite spots, and Mare read while Kaitlin went on a run. She's training for the Broad Street Run through Team in Training (check out her page here), and she missed her team training because she came to visit me, so she got her run in on a gorgeous Texas day- the high was 80, no humidity, with sun shining.

They came to pick me up and we went straight to NASA to tour the Johnson Space Center! Luckily, we got the very last tram tour ride of the day, and we got to see the Apollo Mission Control Room, as well as the Saturn V rocket. It was so cool to see everything, and it honestly felt like we were in DisneyWorld.

On the tram tour!

Houston, we have a problem.

Kaitlin and I in front of the GINORMOUS Saturn V

And another with Mare.. does this photo give you some perspective as to its size?

Yesterday, I taught my morning classes, and picked the girls up for lunch to get some good barbecue. I must say that I wasn't all that impressed with the place we went- I'll have to update you all on where the best bbq is, but I have a feeling that it's actually not in Houston, but other parts of Texas.

We then went to my favorite boutique cupcake place, Sprinkles. I enjoyed a lovely peanut butter chip cupcake and small glass of milk, and just as Mare sat down to her Irish Chocolate cupcake (Belgian chocolate cake with Bailey's frosting...) and coffee, disaster struck in the form of a text. Their flight (through Chicago, eek!) was delayed so much that they'd miss their connection. Luckily, Mary Emily is a travel expert, and as Kaitlin and I watched while enjoying our treats, Mare had them rebooked through Orlando, but the closest they could get to Philadelphia was Baltimore. Kaitlin had to work today, and they knew that if they didn't get in last night, they wouldn't get in until Thursday night or Friday because of the snow. 

 

Two iPhones in use, and they had a new flight!

 

When they landed in Orlando, they discovered that their flight to Baltimore had been cancelled. They BOOKED it to another gate and ran right onto a new plane and thankfully made it home very late last night.

I'm so grateful to my wonderful friends who flew all the way down to see me, endured my crazy house and crazy schedules, and then had to deal with getting home in a snowstorm. I'm pretty lucky.

Well, How-dee!

It's rodeo season here in Houston, and I suddenly feel like I live in a different country. I know I have said this about Texas before, but the rodeo takes it to a whole new level.

Think of every single stereotype of Texas you can. What came to mind? Trucks? Fried food? Accents? Farms? Texas flags? Animals? Cowboy hats? Football?


That's the rodeo. All of those things are gathered into one place. It's overwhelming.

Yesterday, we adventured to the rodeo for the first time. After parking at Chris and Ryan's (they're seriously the best) and walking over, we picked up our tickets at will-call, and found our way inside the gate.

Then, we had no idea what to do. The rodeo has several parts, but we don't really know how to navigate them. There is a carnival, a livestock show (still very unsure what that actually means), and a rodeo, and then a big concert every night.

We wandered around the carnival at first, and saw a lot of rides and games, as well as a lot of fried food (on a stick!). For those of you who are familiar with Havertown traditions, think St. Denis Fun Fair, with a lot more fried food and about 10 times as big. I had the option to have any food fried- literally. So I figured when in Rome...

My qualifications were that it had to be fried and it had to be on a stick. This was easily achieved... with a fried Snickers.

Yes, the girl who prefers whole foods and eats vegetarian ate a fried Snickers bar on a stick. And liked it.

Then, we wandered through the Livestock Show Pavillion. We saw what looked like the AKC dog show... but kids were showing cows. We can't decide if this was what the Livestock Show is or if it's where people go to buy horses, pigs, goats, lambs, etc, but we will figure it out eventually!

Finally, we headed into the actual rodeo. We saw events like steer wrestling, calf scrambling, barrel racing, and bull riding... it was surreal. I loved that the best barrel racer EVER in the history of the Houston Rodeo... is a woman! She is a cowgirl from South Dakota, and is really cool. The events were so entertaining, and a very interesting part of American culture.

My favorite by far... Mutton Bustin'. It is when small children (aged 4-7) ride sheep for as long as they can. It's actually hilarious. They just grab on to the sheep and hold tight... so cute. Peyton, a 6 year old girl, was the Mutton Bustin' champion. Her interview was adorable... she informed the cowgirl that she had  done this 7 times before, which was probably why she was so good at it. She also practiced on her dog.

After the cowboy events were over, there was a concert that our ticket included admission to! Last night? Austin Mahone and Demi Lovato. Teen pop sensations. Pretty sure we were waaaaaay too old to be there, but we loved every second of it. Demi especially- she is such a positive role model for girls! She beat an eating disorder and depression, and she is very open about her story and empowering people to beat these terrible things. She's actually very talented too- girl can sing! She's from Texas and sang a great country song about being home, and teared up... which is when Eva, Megan and I lost it.

Look for more updates about missing home and the visit of Mary Emily and Kaitlin very soon!