Live and Learn

I have recently picked up golfing as one of my weekend activities. I am reluctant to call it a hobby because I have only gone to the driving range about twice in the past month. However, I have every intention of keeping this weekly activity alive. The truth is, I am not very athletic, and I do not enjoy participating in sports that force me to face a flying ball of any size. That really eliminates about half of the sports in the world. But, since golfing only involves driving a ball away from me, I am excited about the potential of growing old with this sport. In any case, it is absolutely glorious to have the opportunity to be outdoors every week with some friends. Sometimes the week gets so busy at school that I would be walking outside without realizing how gorgeous the day is. Being outdoors, even just for a few hours each week, gives me the chance to take a deep breath and slow down my pace.

I have lived in Taipei, Houston, Boston, and now, Austin, and Austin by far has the best weather. Boston has beautiful seasonal changes, but it is frigid about 60 percent of the year, plus rainy and gray for many of the other days. Taipei and Houston, though warm enough throughout the year, are very humid and also it tends to rain a lot. On the other hand, Austin has rained within a dozen of times since I moved here in July. It gets hot during the summer, but not unbearably without the humidity, in my opinion. The best thing is that Austin is sunny almost all the time, and nothing cheers me up more than a blue sky. Even now when the temperature is much lower (still higher than what my friends in Boston are experiencing, by far), I still want to go outside and inhale the blue sky.

A busy few weeks are ahead of me as the semester is winding down, but I know I can count on the great weather in Austin to bring my spirits up!