more on Texas

Well, it's been an interesting time here... I got really sick with a throat infection and actually took myself to the ol' western medical doctor (that is the pharmaceutical dr, not the wild west doc, however cool that would have been...). He was very impressed with my beefy, pus-filled throat and gave me a shot of the same antibiotic we used to treat gnorrhea in Haiti, but 4 times the dose, and gave me 10 days of oral amoxicillin, which I just finished... I've basically been recovering since then, with the exception of a (foolish) 25 mile bike ride in 95+ degree heat, which certainly set me back a few days on the road to recovery.

We made one trip up to Austin, but had poor timing and were there just in time to catch a lot of traffic and thus didn't have as pleasant of an adventure as hoped for...since then we've been considering moving to San Anton instead. (Other days we toy with the idea of moving to Iowa City...) Tomorrow though, we are giving it another shot, and will spend a couple days up there checking it out more thoroughly. I am really excited about the abundance of yoga, dance, kirtan, amazing restaurants and food, outdoorsy activities ETC there, so I don't want to give up on it yet, though we have also had a nice time biking around San Antonio and getting to know it. Justin grew up on the SE side and like most east-siders, so I hear, hasn't left that side of town much (till now), so he is equally enjoying discovering ol' San Anton.

In other activities, Justin bought a little 1999 Toyota truck, so that has made us feel right at home in Texas. In addition we have been wearing our cowboy boots out for special occasions (like Church with his grandma), and even went Texas two-steppin' at a dance hall called Cowboys a couple nights ago. We also went down to Pleasanton to visit his grandma, where we took her to a Czech mass and festival and also learned how to can/pickle jalapenos. Yeeeehaw! Aside from watching a million movies and reading, we've also spent a couple glorious days up in the hill country. We saw hundreds of thousands of bats emerge from an old train tunnel over a period of about 9 min near Fredricksburg (an old German town) and we wandered around the Cibolo nature center, where we saw an armadillo, watched a snake eat a large tadpole, waded in the river, sat in some cedar trees, and saw several deer and hawks.

Czech festival food

Justin Robert looking like a proper cowboy

Shiner beer is the local favorite

Our beautiful dill pickled jalapenos

Hanging out with Grandma Shiller in Jourdanten