My therapist, to me on our last session.
One year later and many dreams, arguments, holidays, tears, soul searching and more money than I even knew existed, I am following my heart and my boyfriends rationale questioning and moving to Austin, TX. I am also going back to uni (St Edwards) and trying to find somewhere to call home. 5 years ago I would NEVER have been brave enough to do something like this. I always used to think 'I can't. But 'I can't' can get you out of pretty much anything, I CAN seems pretty scary sometimes but the thing is I actually can...as Sun Tzu said;
'Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?'
Everyone seems to want to know how I feel about moving to Austin, am I scared, happy, excited, worried, stressed, terrified, elated, busy? Well so lets just set the record straight. I am all of the above and more and well am OK with that. Its just life.
Apart from the obvious reason of moving to the States as my boyfriend is from there, there are many other reasons for us to move and in my opinion many reasons to move to Austin. Most of the time people have quite a few assumptions about Texas which are less than positive so I thought I would give a few of my own favourite reasons on why I moving to Austin seems like a great idea! (from a British/South African perspective).
1. Cost of living. For our Brixton apartment ( which is not too close to the station) we pay £1200 a month. In Austin you can a central HOUSE for about 1,600USD with two bedrooms, a garden uhm sorry a yard...., and the likeliness of it looking something like this is quite high...What I like to call a 'mini ranch' although I am sure in England we would call it a bungalow...ANYWAY
2. Austin appears to have a lot of yoga and they appear to love it. For such a 'smallish' city ( in comparison to London) they have a lot of yoga studios. Love it when for those couple weeks a year we get yoga in the park? Well in Austin we have the weather too. This place should do the trick...
http://www.yogayoga.com/
3. Austin is HOT, not always a good kinda hot it appears but real hot. Are we worried? not really. How will be survive? We will swim of course! Do we need to go to the gym or the local lido ( the 'lido' might I add is free and saltwater)? Well you could but you could also go here.... Do you get hot and sweaty on the underground on the way there? No...there is no train...Is John going to get a motorbike instead? Yes of course...
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| BARTON SPRINGS... |
and walk down the banks and see the turtles....
What about the yoga though?! I thought you said we were doing yoga....?
http://www.sayomsouthaustin.com/say-om-paddle-yoga.html Don't worry you can do that on the lake too.
Need a quick vegan snack?
http://consciouscravingsaustin.com/
Yes its true I am excited about vegan food, even just vegetarian food, they have a lot of that in Austin..
4. You know that shop Whole Foods..? You have Austin to thank for that.
I am not expert on Austin living, and for all I know I could get over there and hate it, ( I doubt it).
Austin is no beach paradise, but if you think Cape Town is great well Austin is definately giving it a run for its money...
I will miss my family and friends greatly. But as my Aunt says, what the heck, the odds for happiness tip in the other direction!
“You lose your grip……….and then you slip………..into the masterpiece” Leonard Cohen
To my beloved boyfriend and the new brave version of me, here is to making our masterpiece.
xxxxx
Watch this space.....
Or just watch this....Come visit me in 'Bat City'
Be inspired,
LB xx
