Sister City

Last week, I was in Austin, TX for a conference. This is a picture of the capital building that was near my hotel. Although I was incredibly busy while I was there, it was a nice change of pace. It was good to see my colleagues and to be immersed in a crowd of 11,000 people who care about what I do. As a graduate student, it's very easy to sink into a lonely place where you think you're the only one in the world that thinks your dissertation is interesting. It was also nice, because the sun came up about 1 hour earlier and went down 1 hour later than it does here in Portland, and it didn't rain one single drop while I was there, and the temperatures were (for the most part) in the 70's.

Let's just say that my hotel wasn't the nicest place I ever stayed, but, thankfully, it wasn't the worst place, either. This is a picture of a gecko (at least I think that's the kind of lizard this is) in the stairwell of my hotel. We're not in Oregon anymore, Dorothy!

This picture is a sign posted by the 4th floor elevators in the convention center in Austin. I think it must be a typo :)

So, did you know that Austin and Portland are sister cities? I didn't either. Several independent Austin locals told me that this was true. Here, by independent, I mean that I met them independently at random locations and times throughout my visit. Even my good friend Billee told me this was the case. I asked him if anyone had told Portland about this and he said he wasn't sure. Anyway, Austin has a nice, friendly feeling about it like Portland does. However, the drivers in Austin are jerks to pedestrians. It's like they are trying to hit you. I am a total nerd (duh) and I pretty much always follow the pedestrian traffic lights (exceptions include Sunday mornings when there are absolutely no cars in sight and it seems silly to wait 3 minutes for nothing). I had about 3 close calls until I realized that they were trying to kill me and that I needed to be on the defensive. My mantra when stepping of the curb was "please don't kill me; please don't kill me." Here, in Portland, people are almost over-polite to pedestrians. It's really refreshing. Pretty much, if you see someone blow through a crosswalk with a pedestrian at the corner, the odds that they are from Washington are about 90%.