Texas Ice Storm 2007!!!!

Last Friday I moved back to Austin and into a new (much bigger!) apartment. My parents came up to help me get everything out of the storage unit, and I was getting excited about starting my last semester as an undergrad on Tuesday.

Then, the ice storm struck! Sunday night a winter storm rolled through, giving most of central Texas a small coating of ice and a chilly MLK Day. Monday: icy, but luckily alot of things were closed and people were off the roads because of the holiday. Austin doesn't have salt trucks, and most Texans have no clue what to do on icy roads. The weather didn't look like it was improving, and UT cancelled classes for Tuesday. Monday night was cold, again, then Tuesday it snowed! Kinda... here's photographic evidence:



This is roughly the view from my front door. Tiny amounts of snow! And it was falling! Pretty exciting for me at least.

Conditions didn't look like they were improving, and UT cancelled class for Wednesday as well. Although the 5 day weekend has been fun, I'm getting really antsy! I need to get out! So today I go inventory my car/the road to see about a trip to the grocery store (about 6 blocks) and I find: a car popsicle!



Luckily I don't have to drive anywhere until tomorrow morning, so I guess I'll deal with it then.

Keep warm everyone! And drive safely!
Maren

Going Home

Well, right now I'm sitting in the Barcelona Airport, staring the long process of going home, this time for good. My family and I left the house in Mallorca at 4am this morning, and I get in to the airport in Houston at 2:20pm tomorrow, after a day in the airport in Barcelona and a night in London.

It's hard to believe that a little over 4 months ago I put most of my life in a storage unit and the rest in 40 kilos of baggage and headed across the Atlantic. The semester has passed very quickly, but it also seems like a very long time ago that I moved out of my apartment in Austin. Alot has happened since then - I've traveled Spain and some of Europe, visited a Muslim country, and crossed the Atlantic 5 times.

I still haven't decided how I feel about leaving, but I do know that I'm looking forward to some good Mexican food!

Before I sign off, here's a sunset viewed from the house we stayed at in Mallorca. Amazing!



Love,
Maren