Our dream is to move to Austin, Texas after we're done at Pitt. We like Austin because of it's beautiful location, fun vibe, smaller size, warm weather, and proximity to our family in Houston. But the biggest reason we'd move to Austin is the University of Texas, one of the top ten math graduate schools in the country. Out of the other nine schools, five are either in California or New York City - too expensive! The other three are in Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Boston - too cold!
The last leg of our road trip was spent scouting out Austin. On Monday morning, we met with a realtor to make sure that Austin was an affordable place to live. I had a ridiculously long list of "would-like" requirements for a future apartment and our realtor showed us a few places that met all of them! Here's the deets:
- Two bedrooms, one bath {with walk-in closets!} for $650 a month.
- Complex has a pool, tennis courts, fitness center, and laundry on-site.
- On the UT shuttle line, a twenty minute ride from campus.
The places we looked at were all in the same general area and in walking distance to a shopping center that had:
- Essentials: grocery store, pharmacy, post office, library.
- Doctors: medical center, optometrist, dentist.
- Restaurants: pizza, Chinese, Mexican, barbecue.
- Snacks: donuts, Starbucks, frozen yogurt, gelato.
I was practically giddy imagining living near not only a library but a gelato place!
The pool at one of the apartment complexes we toured. After we finished with the realtor, we headed down to UT's campus.
While I got to have a fantastic lunch with Lauren and Sara-Jane at my favorite sandwich place, Which Wich!
We wandered around campus for a little while, checking out the Catholic Center and the Student Union, which has a movie theater and a bowling alley! Then we decided that we needed some dessert before driving back to Houston.
We tried to go to Hey Cupcake, but they were closed! I was very sad. But we split a pint of dark chocolate from Amy's Ice Cream instead.
The whole drive back to Houston, we couldn't stop talking about how excited we were about the possibility of moving to Austin. Cross your fingers, everyone!
