A quick catch-up

We've had a good week. We've been trying to make the most of Sid's last few days of freedom, as his course starts today. From today he will be studying from 6am to 12 noon at campus, then doing another 12 hours of study from home. So on Friday we went to Butler Park, which has fountains for kids to run around in. We also bumped into some other parents from Sid's course, which was great for me, as we're going for a formal dinner on Wednesday to meet everyone.

Butler Park

On Saturday we drove out west to Lake Travis. The lake was very low as there's been a drought here this summer, but the landscape around there is beautiful. We stopped at a barbeque place and gawped at all the huuuuge houses around there!

The Boat House Grill

Lake Travis

Yesterday we were invited over to a Scottish family's house after church. They have a gorgeous house, and a pool which Esther loved! It was nice to spend time with people, though it's strange to think that all our social time at the moment is spent with people we don't yet know very well. I can't just plop myself down on the sofa and chat like I would with friends back home. Ah well, it's not bad, it's just different. And I know we have to go through this stage to get into good friendships. At least having both lived abroad before we knew we'd feel this way before we got here. It helps to remember that it gets better as you go on.

Our other news is that on Thursday we bought a car :) It's lovely! It's a 15 year old BMW, and the guy selling it lives way out of Austin and even though he'd had 18 (!) calls from people interested in it, no-one had managed to get out there to look at it! Some had tried and got lost. So Sid asked if he could bring it over to our place as we couldn't get there on a bus, and he agreed. We both liked it and he even went with Sid to the town hall to do the paperwork, which normally Sid would have had to do on his own. So we're enjoying adapting to Texan driving. I keep jerking my left arm into the door looking for the gear stick, but no major injuries or incidents so far :)

Hoping these photos work okay!