First Classes

Classes started Monday admist a blistering heat wave. I have never been so sweaty and in need of thirst in my life than this week, mainly due to walking ten minutes between the parking garage and campus. The history department is small but I like the people I have met so far. The students I'll be working with are down to earth and really great to hang out with. It is strange though going from knowing hundreds of people on campus to ten or eleven. Baylor is, well, not Virginia Tech. The campus is nice, but small, and the school feels to be poorly administered. One would think that a poorly administered school in blistering central Texas would not be an academic powerhouse. Despite Waco's shortcomings, this school is home to some impressive faculty members. Our professors are leaders in their respective fields. Baylor would probably be ranked higher academically if not for the administration and small library. After coming from Newman, the libraries here are unimpressive. I am going to be a TA for Dr. Longfellow, a specialist in French history. Dr. Longfellow is in fact a UVA alumnus! However, he does not seem to be concerned that I am a Hokie. Speaking of UVA, I cannot get away from Thomas Jefferson. The man was not even one of the great presidents, but liberal arts schools tend to thrive upon his musings for some unknown reason. One of my professors is a native German, whose father has the distinction of being the first Wermacht officer captured by the Allies in World War 2! Other than my three classes this semester I will be leading discussions and lecturing for undergrad history classes, which is a bit intimidating giving the lack of teaching experience I have. Other than classes and the unbearable heat we are finally settling into Waco. This place is different, and certainly not Blacksburg.

Parking Services Sucks!!

I go four years at Virginia Tech without getting a parking ticket...and wouldn't you think that the second day of classes I get one here. Was I parked somewhere I wasn't supposed to be?? NO! Was my sticker displayed wrong?? NO! Do they just ticket me because my license plate says HTPINK and I’m from Virginia?? I think so! So...what does my violation read? VIOLATION: Backed in space! WHAT?!?! You can't back into a space at Baylor University? First of all...I didn't back into any space...I'm not that good of a driver...I never even had to park in driver's ed....I PULLED THROUGH the space...which if you ask my opinion, is completely different. Secondly...there were no yellow lines separating the spot I pulled into from the spot I ended up in clearly indicating to me that it is not illegal to pull through. Might I add there were other cars in the same position as mine with no tickets on them. Thirdly...ticket reads: License: TX HTPINK....ummm.... excuse me...but I'm NOT from Texas...I'm from Virginia. So...if you want to give me a ticket...at least read my plate right...because clearly…a plate that says Virginia Tech on it....Go Hokies...AND says Virginia...isn't from Texas. So....I have to pay $20. I’m not even sure if it is worth the time to appeal it. But…$20 is a lot for a poor grad student who already had to pay $175 for the freaking pass to begin with. You should have seen me....I was SUPER mad. So...I tear the apartment apart looking for the rules they gave us when we bought our parking permit...and sure enough...rule number thirteen...Parking Backward in a space on Baylor property will result in a parking citation. Who makes that rule?????? Probably the same person who decided that all students should be considered the same when it comes to parking passes. Unlike Virginia Tech, who despite having a somewhat evil parking services staff, separates parking passes logically. Because residents live on campus, they do not need to park right outside of their dorm room, because students who commute to campus might need to park so they can actually go to class. Instead...approximately 3,000 students on campus get to park wherever they want to, because they all drive a Lexus, Mercedes, or BMW, and poor commuters just need to park far away, walk, and hope they make it to class. That being said....Graduate students who are teaching assistants are also just considered students. I'm sorry...but if you expect me to teach a class for you...for like....1/100th of the price you are paying a professor...you should at least let me park somewhere where I can make it to class on time. So...this is my current beef with Baylor...that and they've messed up every single piece of administrative paper work I've put in. How on earth does a school with some of the best scholars in the world run their school so poorly? If you ask me...that's a good way to stay out of the top 50 schools. But...no one is asking me...they are just giving me parking tickets.

Sic 'Em Bears

Orientation's are never fun...unless they're at Virginia Tech (Yeah OL 04!!)...but this one definitely needed some work. James and I woke up super early to meet the Political Science at 8:00 to walk over together, which is a little too early for me, especially in the summer time. I'm not much of a morning person to say the least. I expected to learn a little bit more about the university, maybe go on a tour or something, but there was none of that. We went to a session on being married in grad school, which was nice. It's very encouraging to see so many married grad students, because I thought we would be in the minority, but we are not! In fact, I'd say about half of the students in polisci are either married or engaged, and it may be an even larger number! It was also good to finally meet people, after hanging out with just each other for a month....it makes Waco seem less empty. They basically read us a bunch of statistics and rankings in the morning, and told us how good their programs were. Well....we know...that's why we're here! A lack of information for the most part was my major complaint, and bad coffee. However, it was good meeting people, and the afternoon session on being a TA and helping professors with research was really helpful!! It made me feel like I actually learned something, and the day wasn't a waste of time. I would have rather had an orientation just with the department, because that is really who we are going to be working with for the whole year, so I look forward to that orientation! So...there I go again, complaining about things not being run well enough. But, I really think I am going to write everything down and go to the graduate school about it, because there were a lot of things I wanted to know that I didn't learn from orientation, and a lot of things I could care less about that I did learn. And to top things off...grad students aren't eligible for free student football tickets!!!! Yeah...we don't pay AS much in student fees...only $738 a semester, so....we are eligible for everything but football tickets!!! So...we have the option of paying $110 to see a crappy football team play good teams. I miss Blacksburg sooooooo much! :'( Arg on Baylor for leaving grad students out...we didn't even learn the Sic 'Em Bears cheer...

State Capital

On Saturday we traveled an hour south to Austin to buy Angela's new computer. After numerous problems with her Dell laptop, we went with a new Apple Macbook. The neat thing was we just went to the Apple store and left with the computer in about 10 minutes. That was until we checked the receipt. In any event, Austin is a really neat place. It is on the geographic line of coastal plain and rolling hills, so some new homes built outside on the ridges have a fantastic view. We visited an old friend from Tech, Matthew Rehnborg, who is an Austin native. He helped us navigate the back streets to the Apple store as Austin is in the middle of a housing and shopping boom. The area was like Northern Virginia with land to actually expand. After the problems and successes of the Apple store experience we headed back to the Rehnborg's for a family dinner. It was nice to sit down with people again as we have been so isolated in our apartment for the past few weeks. Mr. Rehnborg cooked some great Omaha Steaks which sparked several hours of great conversation. We left late in the evening, but I-35 traffic generally moves well above the speed limit. Our impression of Austin was that it is in starch contrast to Waco. The gigantic University of Texas alone is 2/3 the total population of Waco, plus a very large government structure. The state capitol is in fact taller and seemingly larger that the national capitol in DC, quite fitting for such a prideful state.

Angela's Turn! :-)

So....can I just say that I love Apple Computers! :-) I'm super excited about my new Macbook, but not too impressed with all we had to go through to get it. James and I spent a lot of time picking it out online, and we could have ordered it online, but our credit limit isn't big enough, and to do the whole Bill-Me-Later thing, you have to apply for another credit card. Since that didn't seem like a reasonable offer, we decided to head down to Austin! Every time we told someone in Virginia that we were moving to Waco, they would always pause and say, "Austin's nice." And...that it is! Office Space was filmed there, and Matthew pointed out several places from the film, including the road where they are coming up with their plan, as we were driving on it. It was exciting. The Apple store is in a really nice mall...very NOVA like...and I was even more excited when I walked into the store and gave the salesman my list of requirements, and he said they had it in stock! Ten minutes later, we were walking out the door with my new computer!! But, as we are pulling away, I am looking at the receipt and the computer, and realizing that he didn't get me what I had wanted. It was the right model, but with only half of the RAM, and with the program .MAC instead of iWork. We went back to talk to someone about it, and they told me you couldn't get 1gig of ram on that model, and I would have to get the more expensive model. I was like, I can order it online with that option, and with iWork installed, which they couldn't do there. So, we decided we would return it all, and have it put on a gift card, so we could order it online. But, when the salesperson returned it, he ended up returning it straight to my debit card, instead of a giftcard. I was getting kind of frustrated, so the manager came out. He said they could in fact install the 1gig of RAM on that computer while I was there, and get me iWork for the same price as it was online so we could leave with the computer right then. We redo the purchase, but because the returns do not post right away, my card wouldn't go through, because there weren't enough funds. I was getting kind of frustrated, because they were the ones that screwed up to begin with, and the money is there, they just messed up. I ended up being able to write a check that they weren't going to post until Monday, so it would go through. But....I have my computer! :-D And the trip was definitely worth it solely for the time we spent with Matthew's family! They are soooooo sweet, and I enjoyed talking to them soooo much. It made me feel like we were back home again! :-) It’s so good to be around Hokies, and we learned a lot about both Texas and Waco. I hope we get a chance to see them again soon. And if you are ever in Texas, you have to eat some Bluebell ice cream!! Thanks to the Rehnborg’s, we are believers! :-)

Visiting the Prez

Today we went on a journey out into the heart of Texas farmland. 15 minutes from our apartment is Crawford, where the Bush's have a 1500 acre ranch. The tiny cross roads of Crawford has benifited greatly from the Bush presidency. Small town trinket shops line the main throughway in town, with every place selling a large amount of "W" paraphenalia. It was odd to be in a place that still proudly supported the president, but very folksy. We bought some odds and ends in a courner store, the "Yellow Rose." We entered into a long conversation with a store owner down the road, who informed us why the town was quiet. It seems the president had taken off to Wisconsin this morning, meaning there were few government types around. He was a nice fellow and former graduate of Baylor in the early 1970's when courses cost only 17 dollars a credit hour!! We learned that Baylor bought some land near campus 4 years ago to set aside for the Bush papers if he donates them to the University. So far SMU and Baylor are competing for the documents. After shopping we headed down Prarie Chapel Road in search of the Bush Ranch, or as close to it as we could. We drove through beautiful and rugged Texas country. We thought we found the entrance to the ranch about 7 miles down the road. The property had a tall electric fence around it, so we figured it had to be right, in addition to the random black helicopter flying overhead. We later found out that that was probably a neighbor's of Bush, but we were darn close. The other interesting thing about Crawford is the protesters organized by Cindy Sheehan. They had a huge protest last summer, and are planning on another in a week. I don't know why anyone would plan a protest in mid-Texas in August where everyone camps in 100 degree weather, but she is passionate. She just bought property in Crawford to house her constant vigil of the war in Iraq. Her protests seem rather far from the ranch, and Bush more than likely never sees it. But the swarm of protestors elicit the locals to come out and defend the president, as he has reenergized the town. A local supporter camped out in town protesting the protesters took our picture for us. The locals are all real Texas hospitality, very nice.

Our first place together!

James and I are living in Arlington Farms, a large gated community on the outskirts of Waco, TX. Baylor's campus is only about 2 miles down the road, which will make traveling to and from campus very nice. We hope that once late fall hits, we will be able to ride our bikes to school, but right now it is way too hot! We have a cute three bedroom apartment, and have been spending the last two weeks setting it up, and getting to know the Waco area. As you can probably imagine, it's very different from Virginia, but the area is growing on us. The dry heat scorches everything, causing buildings to look run down and crappy, so at first glance, you're like, where on earth do these people live! But, in reality, it's a nice area that just needs a little bit of work. On one side of the apartment complex is farm land, and on the other is a business road, full of farming equipment retail, a feed store, three rim shops, a Mexican restaurant, a Guns-R-Us, a strip "gentlemen's club" and an old drive thru movie theatre turned flea market. Our apartment complex is really nice though and we have clickers to get into the gate, which is kind of exciting. We've only had three cockroaches so far, and we think we've fixed that problem by filling in a hole with spray foam insulation. We've been having some problems with our internet provider, as our speed goes in and out, and we haven't been able to upload any pictures until now! Which is why there has been a lack of you seeing what we've been up to, and a lack of updates. Hopefully it is just my computer, and will be fixed as soon as we get our new ones. Until next time, greetings from Texas!

1300+ miles

In a little over two and a half days we covered the distance from Virginia Beach to Waco, Texas. I-64 to I-81 to I-40 to I-30 to I-35. Luckily, we had Rod along with us to lighten the driving load. We made great time with good weather and little traffic, which was surprising in the metro areas of Tennessee. We stopped for the night in Arkadelphia, Arkansas after an 800 mile journey from Blacksburg in one day. On Wednesday, we had a nice half day drive around Dallas to Waco. Driving into Waco we could see the spires of Baylor University from a good distance off, which was welcoming after the miles of dry farmland we drove through. Our apartment complex is on the edge of city limits, with only ranches covering the distance between here and College Station. Rod helped us unload our moving truck and general apartment repair. He even took us down to Fort Hood for some tax free grocery shopping. That trip is worth a blog in itself. I'll let Angela now give her rendering of the drive:

The trip was awesome, and one of the smoothest ones I've ever been on! No bad weather, no accidents, no rush hour traffic, just a nice drive. And I only drove about 6 hours of the trip, so I was really enjoying myself! We altered the route about 40 miles so we could say goodbye to good ole Blacksburg one last time before heading out west. We stayed with Cathy, enjoyed one last meal at Macados, and headed out to the long drive of Tennessee, which, if you haven't driven through Tennessee, it never ends. Though, I must say it is a pretty drive, and very much worth it. Plus, I thought of Sarah James and Jacob the whole time, and their beautiful wedding! Congrats you two! :-)

The country out here is so beautiful, and the sky seems so much bigger than Virginia's for some reason. It was great having my Dad along for the ride, as it was our last chance to hang out with him before he heads to Iraq. So...here we are in Texas....miles and miles away from Hokie country, but about to have an awesome adventure!