A new beginning in Austin, Texas

‘So… why Texas?!’ was a common question when I told people I was going to study at UT – often asked in a surprised and slightly concerned tone. This conundrum would then deepen for the inquirer when he/she found out that I am in fact vegetarian and I have never eaten fried chicken. People genuinely thought I may starve.

If I’m being honest, I don’t really know why I chose to study at UT; I arguably knew very little about Austin and even less about Texas. I knew that Texas is the second largest state by size (behind Alaska), bordering Mexico and is predominately Republican. However, Austin appealed to me; the city is regarded to be a liberal hotspot deep in the heart of Texas, completely different to surrounding Texan cities and towns, and actually does contain lots of vegetarian and vegan cafes (astonishingly to my Texan inquirers); the university is huge, with a total enrolment of nearly 51,000 students in 2015 (University of Texas at Austin, 2016) and is regarded to be the 16^th best public school in the USA (US News and World Report, 2016); the university is also campus based, with numerous free sport facilities. All of these points made me interested in University of Texas at Austin.

And now I’m here.

What have I learnt these past few weeks? Well, firstly it does rain in Texas and I’m profusely thankful I packed my umbrella. The campus is absolutely massive and unsurprisingly, with 51,000 students, it can be hard to find somewhere to sit. However, the campus is remarkably modern and pretty – unlike Austin. Austin does however have a certain hipster-y charm, in the sense that many buildings seem to have been built in the late twentieth century and consequently, produce an unintentional juxtaposition with 2016.

Students dress differently here compared to UCL, often clad in oversized t-shirts and sports shorts with sandals. I’ve found that the students I’ve spoken to have been really friendly and easy to talk to. However, people cannot do a British accent to save their life, as I start to realise how no one can truly pronounce ‘water’ in my accent. Speaking of accents, I’ve noticed how Americans pronounce certain words differently (e.g. processes, epoch, aluminium, ecology, and even geography), which has made me question my own pronunciations in my head at times...

I’ve also realised that it feels incredibly unnatural writing the date with the month first, sharing a room with someone is proving not to be too bad, and the closest supermarkets are a ten-minute bus ride away. Oh, and also the queue for Starbucks is huge.

View of downtown Austin 

UT's infamous tower - the equivalent of UCL's portico

A few of Austin's downtown office buildings

Experiencing one of Austin's farmers' market 

Although these differences may seem banal at first, they are helping create an image of Austin bit by bit and by May 2017, I hope that this image in my head is complete. I’ve already discovered what a UT football game is like and perhaps even more shocking, a Donald Trump rally. However, that’s something that I feel deserves its own story in another blog post… And even though I’ve only just started at UT, I sense this academic year is going to be very different to the one I am used to at UCL.

References

University of Texas at Austin (2016) Facts and Figures [Online]. Austin: The University of Texas at Austin. Available at: https://www.utexas.edu/about/facts-and-figures [Accessed: 12 September 2016]. 

US News and World Report (2016) Top Public Schools [Online]. Available at: http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/top-public [Accessed: 12 September 2016].