Sport Fanatic

I LOVE sports, especially my Chicago teams! Da Bears, Da Bulls, Da Sox , I guess da Cubs, Da Blackhawks. I love that most people in Illinois are Chicago sport fans too. Most of our sports are representative of only one team, with the exception of baseball; there is the Southside Sox vs. Northside Cubs rivalary but for the most part when it comes down to it both fans would cheer for the other if either were in the World Series (although only the Sox fans would really know from that).

But here in Texas there are so many teams and such big rivalries! I am friends with people from all over Texas and some are such fans while others are such haters and I do not like that! For example, Texans have something to celebrate right now, the Rangers being in the world series but Astro fans have not been supporting them at all! Are these non-Ranger fans really that against this team or just that mean? In my opinion it's one for all and all for one and everyone should be excited about this huge achievement for the Rangers.

Also, it is hard because Texas is such a big state and the sports teams come from many different cities so you don't see an abundance of pride anywhere in Austin, just scattered team pride. Whereas in Illinois, all of the teams are in some part of the city so team colors and mascots are everywhere in site no matter where you are.

I guess the pride that the state has for the UT Longhorns makes up for it because Illinois people aren't nearly as obsessed with University of Illinois or Northwestern or University of Chicago or any of the great colleges located in the state. So to hate on the lack of team pride Texas has would be unfair because both Chicago and Austin have huge team pride just Chicago has it for professional teams and Austin for college teams! Regardless the people in both places are passionate fans and that's all I can ask for!

But for me as a new Texan...I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and say Go Rangers!

Wild about Music

One thing Chicago sure doesn't have is Austin City Limits! Although, Chicago does have a good reputation when it comes to music with festivals like Lollapalooza, Pitchfork and Taste of Chicago, it doesn't beat Austin in that category.

Austin City Limits threw down on October 8 of this year and you guessed it, it was amazing! The Eagles, Muse, Phish, The Strokes, M.I.A., Vampire Weekend, Band of Horses, Spoon, Slightly Stoopid, Black Keys, Norah Jones and so many other worldly renowned artists jammed at ACL 2010.

As amazing as the artists and their performances were it wasn't just that that made the weekend incredible. It was the combination between everything; the atmosphere (there was the beautiful Austin sky line in the background everywhere you walked), the weather (unlike last year the weather was clear and sunny all weekend long), the array of people (some obvious frequent festival goers and other festival virgins). All of these factors worked together to make this weekend an experience unlike any other.

Another difference between Austin City Limits and the other festivals in Chicago is that Austin knows when ACL weekend has arrived, whereas in Chicago it's just another day but some music fanatics and many youths know about the festival that's going on. In Austin, people in every restaurant or business we visited throughout the weekend made conversation about the huge amazing weekend that had arrived. By no means does the city shut down for ACL, actually quite the opposite it anticipates the festival's arrival and prepares for the visitors, music, and culture to flood in.

Well already, my favorite weekend of the year has come and gone and ACL 2010 is now over. But we do have South by Southwest to look forward to. And I am positive that that music festival will also dominate over any festivals Chicago puts on. It is great and such a privilege to be exposed to such great music in both cities but Austin does beat Chicago by a tad in the music competition.

Chicago vs. Austin?

I was born and raised in an amazing city, Chicago. At first I was going to say one of the best cities, but there are a lot of great cities out there, so I’ll just say amazing. If you haven't been, go! The food and shopping are incredible and the people are great! I grew up with midwesterners so I am used to those types of people. And the city itself is beautiful!  Also, we have some great sports teams (Da Bulls, Da Bears, Da Sox, Da Cubs, Da Blackhawks). But after being there for 18 years I was ready for change. Luckily, it was my time to start applying to colleges. So I saw that as my opportunity to try something new and I applied to 13 universities throughout the country. I was very confident with myself and figured I could handle going to school a plane ride away from home. After many months of contemplating, list making, researching, etc. I finally chose The University of Texas-Austin. 

Arriving in Austin immediately put a huge smile on my face! This place is great! The weather is awesome, and with great weather brings great landscaping and birds always chirping (which I love). The buildings are so unique looking, not much of that commercially strip malls thing. The shopping is top notch, with a lot of boutiques (which I also love). The food is good, except I feel like it’s a lot of the same: mexican, sushi, asian, barbecue and not much Italian food at all. But that’s ok, I am by no means starving here in Austin. I am having such a marvelous time here but then homesickness kicks in a little..

But why? Am I just homesick because it’s typical and I am stressed out with school so I just want to be home or am I homesick for Chicago because I think Chicago is better?

I cannot say Chicago is better than Austin, nor can I say Austin is better than Chicago; both are very unique yet incredible cities. Austin is just very different to me. I don’t want to say it’s because it’s Texas and everyone is a conservative, republican cowboy because that's not true but there is no doubt that were not in the rest of America when we’re in Texas. The people here just seem to be raised a bit differently. They are so proud to be a Texan, in fact, in school growing up they even sing a Texas state song! That to me is crazy! People here though are super nice, but in a different way than my fellow Chicago-ans.

Basically, there are obvious differences between Austin and Chicago but obviously! That’s a given! So do I like the new better than the old? Is Chicago better than Austin or Austin better than Chicago? I just don’t know… I am going to go about my life in Austin finding the great similarities and differences between here and Chicago. I will attempt to find things that make me happy in Chicago and see if they are available in Austin. First stop, deep dish pizza? Amazing department stores? City art work? Any great places in Austin ya'll (see I am getting used to living in Austin!) can suggest? I’ve got a lot to do…Be back soon!