Weekend Holidays

I spent the weekend in the country (though not the technical country, just more "country" than the city where I have been spending all my time) at my Aunt's house. I took the train down - all told about a two hour trip - and spent most of that time listening to my iPod and staring out the window. At one point, as I looked out on the rolling green landscape dotted with grazing sheep and listening to Imogen Heap, I quietly smiled at myself and my situation. A very nice old man sitting across from me asked me what I was smiling at and I don't think he quite knew what to say when I answered, "England". What an astoundingly beautiful place. I can't say it's perfect and there are things I wish were different - but not many things and not drastically different.
Spending time with my Aunt (who looks nearly identical to my mom) and my cousins (three sisters who are incredibly close) made me miss my family just a little bit. I'm feeling particularly lonely this Monday afternoon, now that I have returned to my little apartment. But overall, it was nice to have a family and home cooked food and more than one room to live in for the weekend.
I've been spending a lot of time with this Israeli exchange student I met named Lena. She's pretty cool - over here doing graphic design - and it's been really nice to have someone who is equally interested in all the dorky things I am. We've been going to film festivals, pop art exhibitions, and documentaries on the typeface Helvetica. We are starting to make travel plans for after Christmas. Top of our list; Ireland and Scotland. We might make it over the channel, depending on how much money I am making at that point.
I sort of, not really, but kind of got a part time job at this club around the corner from my house. They posted on gumtree looking for a sound engineer for their live gigs. I applied, not really expecting anything, but got a call for an interview. So I went over there to have a chat with the girl who owns the place and it turns out that she Loves Austin. With a capital L. That was actually the main reason she called me up. She said she had a huge response, much of which was compiled by people more qualified than I am, but that she has never met someone from Austin she didn't like. We talked for about an hour about ACL, her club, and music in general. I am now on a standby list of sorts, for when she needs someone to come in a cover a shift. Basically, it is something I'll be doing once every 3 weeks or so, but I am pretty excited about it. She said she would make sure I was there whenever they had an Austin band in.
I just read Nick Hornby's "A Long Way Down". I highly recommend it. It only takes a day or two to read, so go pick up a copy.