Despite living in the great state of Texas, I will say that while we are busy keeping Austin weird, we don’t get to do very many “real Texan” things. Well, that all changed during the second annual Graduate Women in Business Retreat we had in April.
Carly Tanker, Lasso Queen!
This year, we had almost 20 ladies drive out to Rancho Cortez in Bandera, Texas for a night of fun and bonding with our official cowboy host, Larry. We began the afternoon with a scenic horseback ride and lasso lesson. My horse’s name was Whiskey, and he was poorly behaved – the irony does not escape me. After dinner, we went on a hayride where we were able to take in the scenic Texas Hill country as well as get up close, and a little too personal with some real, non-Bevo longhorns.
Later in the evening, we enjoyed s’mores around a campfire with some of the other guests, including a nice family from Sweden. We rounded out the evening with some time in the hot tub and some serious girl-talk before turning in for the night.
Morning Trail Ride (no filter needed!)
The next morning, which started early at 8am (despite his casual demeanor, Larry runs a pretty tight ship), we had breakfast and were able to split up into another two groups for final trail rides before heading back to Austin.
Carly and I were so happy that we were able to get the retreat together, because I have to say it was one of my favorite events for the year. We have such a strong community of women in the MBA program here, that it was great to spend some time together having fun and getting outside of our comfort zones. It was also great to have a diverse group of attendees, international students, exchange students, part-time students and first and second years. Overall, now that we are coming to a close on the first year of the MBA program I can say that I am so thankful to have met these wonderful women and can’t wait to hang out at Rancho Cortez again next year!
See you next year, Larry!
