Grieving for a Home Away From Home

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When I left behind Austin to go visit my hometown, Dallas, over spring break, I never realized just how much I was going to leave behind, especially the ice-cream. Amy’s Ice-Cream is a staple ice-cream shop in Austin, and I was used to grabbing myself a bowl of the sweets right before I went to my classes everyday. However, when I went to go visit the local Braum’s near my house, I asked the cashier if they had any rainbow ice-cream, a vanilla ice-cream infused with sprinkles mix which was a common favorite at Amy’s. The cashier said he sure did, but when he came back out with the ice-cream, it was just a small snow cone with rainbow food-coloring around it. I never held a feeling of regret as much as I did that day.

Everyday Politics

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One day while I was waiting for the campus bus on Dean Keaton, a man approached me with a fierce glare in his eyes. I don’t like to make assumptions most of the time, but with his darkened and blotchy skin and raggy clothes, I automatically assumed that he was going to ask me for money. I reached into my back pocket to grab my wallet once he got close, but to my surprise, all he asked me was, “What do you think about the presidential candidate that’s named after a Disney character?” I was shocked, but then again, Austin is never short of heated political debate.

An Average Day on The Drag

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I was walking down The Drag one afternoon when a man with pitch-black sunglasses and a saxophone walked up to me and asked me for a suggestion for a song. Confused but curious, I asked the man to play “The Eyes of Texas”, to which the man smiled brightly and started playing the song, dancing along with the beat. A crowd started to form around me, and I soon found myself clapping and cheering, with the crowd following my actions and clapping as well.  The saxophone man finished his song with what seemed like his signature pose of jumping in the air and falling back down to the ground to do the splits, and then told the crowd that everyone should come watch his performance at an upcoming concert. Only on the streets of Austin would a famous musician come perform out of the blue in the middle of a busy sidewalk.

A Week of Pride

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During Gay Pride week in Austin, I was strolling down 4th Street after having just partied at Rain when I saw an old man screaming at same-sex couples couples while they were walking into various gay bars and restaurants about how they were an embarrassment to the city. A gay couple walked up to the man, laughing, and told him, “When are you going to be going back to College Station?” The couple then high-fived each other and walked away from the man, leaving him silent.