So, yesterday. The day before school started. There have been Welcome Week activities of all sorts happening around campus since last Friday, but I've stayed away from them all because 1) I don't live on (or near) campus so activities are a challenge to get to, and 2) It's been too dang hot to want to go to any of them.
But, yesterday was different. Yesterday there were a few things that I did want to do, so we left the apartment early in the afternoon with the intention of spending the rest of the day at UT. (In fact, I've spent more time on campus than at home in the last 24 hours, which is crazy for unhurried, un-busied, homebody me.)
The excitement began before we even got to campus; Capital Metro decided at the last minute this past weekend that the bus route that goes by our house was one of the ones that would be changed for the fall scheduling. I just barely learned that route, Cap Metro! Sheesh. So now I get to learn it over again.
Anyway, our first order of business at the Forty Acres (that's the UT campus; if you're going to read this blog for the next couple of years, you'll have to learn the UT lingo) was the Student Organization Fair. I had already found two (including Texas Runners) that I planned to join, so this was mostly a trip to see if there was a fantastic organization on campus that I haven't heard of yet. And, of course, there were two more: Texas Triathlon (brilliant!) and Oxfam. I volunteered for one of Oxfam's charity shops when I lived in Glasgow, but I had no idea they had gone international, so I was pretty excited to see that there is a campus chapter.
After 20 minutes in the 104+ heat got us nicely soaked through with sweat, Chad & I headed indoors. Specifically, we went to the Harry Ransom Center, which houses (among other things) The Gutenberg Bible and the world's first photograph. Unfortunately, I can't regale you with every detail of that visit, because the museum is closed for renovation until mid-September, but their two most famous exhibits were on display in the lobby. So, we spent some time admiring the Gutenberg Bible, and a little less time admiring the photograph.
Next, I was anxious to get a beginning-of-UT photo taken at the favourite spot on campus for such shots. The plan is that Chad & I will have someone take another picture of us there when I graduate. Yesterday, however, we didn't take a photographer with us. Not wanting to stop one of the thousands of swarming freshmen around the place just to get both of us in, I just had Chad take a pic of me and that was the end of it. He had fun pretending to be a professional photographer, anyway (hence the well-mannered pose, instead of my usual slouching).
From there we headed on down the hill (it didn't get any cooler while we were inside, btw), and stopped at the stadium because there was a flag-lowering ceremony in progress. Kinda. I didn't see what branch of the military was operating the flagpole, but there was a lot of standing-around-at-attention while we were watching, so we finally gave it up & headed up the next hill. (The UT stadium is essentially in a big hole in the ground. So if you go near it, there will be some hill climbing in your future, no matter what direction you want to go next.)
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