Austin Trip - Oasis

In the way, Hanna talked to us about a boy who wanted to be friend with her and he was very rich. She said, "he was ridiculously rich. He spent more than 50$ for a lunch in his home when I was there. He even called to bring ice-cream. Who does this? Some of the building in UT Austin is with his name because his father donated them to the university. I don't want to meet such a rich boy." And Hanson told a story about one of his friends. He said, "I was with him for a while, and I didn't know that he was very rich. I suggested to go to Europe once, and he accepted. I said, 'OK. I search for hotels and airplane tickets.' he said, 'Airplane ticket? It is not necessary. I think that we can get my father's jet.' I said, 'What??? Your father has a jet?'" We laughed a lot about Hanson's story.

The view of the streets was amazing. Hanna said, "I have never been in Shomal or any other parts of Iran. Every time we go to Iran, we just go to Shiraz to visit the family there." She didn't know that some parts of Austin was exactly like Shomal.

Eventually, we got to the Oasis. It was like a cozy places in the mountains of Iran.

I could easily see that many boys and girls are dating here because of the types of cars that were there.

It was also a marriage ceremony there.

We went to that restaurant to see the view.

I had this feeling that the things people see in the card postal, I see in-person. It is amazing.  

The view was amazing. Henry said, "My friend said that you could see the ocean from oasis." And Hanson said, "Either your friend didn't know this place, or he didn't know what the ocean is." I really liked the lake view though.

We decided to sit there and eat something. We had a very good conversation with Hanna. I really enjoyed it. She told us about her 70 days travel to the mountains of Canada where there were no antenna and no sign of human beings. She went with a bicycle team, and biked all the way. She was a very adventurous girl. "I am too old for these kinds of adventures" I said. "But I am not. When I finished my PhD, I am willing to experience it." Henry said.

We were there until night, and the sunset was as amazing as what Hanna said.

Then, they started to play a live music inside. I went to see the performance. Some people were dancing together.

Overall, it was a very great place, and very great night.

Austin Trip - Talking to an Iranian second generation - Capitol

Then, we went to see Hanna. She was living somewhere near UTAustin campus.

Some streets were very similar to Tehran streets. Hanson mentioned this several times during our visit.

It was a big game today at UTAustin, and it was crowded. Hanna came with us to see State Capitol first. She was the first Iranian-American that I talked to her during this one year stay in the US. Her talking was very amazing. She was speaking English with some Persian words in between her sentences. Sometime she was speaking English that she switch to Persian and vice versa. It was super awesome.

Capitol was not interesting to me because it was there once. Nevertheless, I enjoyed talking with Hanson and Hanna.

I hadn't seen this room before in Capitol. It was amazing. There were so many pictures on the wall of the previous years senators. It was a nice historical place.

I wanted to see other parts of the building that I haven't seen that time, but they were unwilling to see it. So, I didn't ask them to do that. Hanna suggested us to see Oasis before the sunset. I thought that she was not going to come with us there, but she came with us.

Austin Trip - Shady Grove resturant

Hanson wanted to get some data from Austin, and he wanted to go there. I had visited Austin one year ago, but I decided to go with him. Henry also came with us. I gave my car's key to Ella for these two days. I didn't want Henry and Hanson know about this; so, I didn't tell them. We headed off about 10 am. The road was good. In the way, I found some gas stations using my yelp app. Hanson is not patient sometimes. He was in the gas station, and the pump didn't work. He could easily go to another pump, but he decided to go and find another gas station. "My time worth more." he said. However, he spent more time to find another gas station :) 

One of Hanson's nieces, Hanna, was living in Austin. She suggested a restaurant to us named, "Shady Grove". It was very crowded, but the weather was awesome. We decided to spend 40 minutes to get a table in the yard.

I sat next to Hanson, and we talked about marriage and girls.

The bathroom was weird. I don't know if it was part of "Keep Austin Weird" slogan or not. It was like a train compartment.

The inside was very cool, and it was like a ship or train interior.

I said my prayer in the backyard. When I came back to Hanson and Henry, they thought that I was weird that it took a long time to come back. I didn't want to tell them that I went to say my prayer, but because of that, I told them.

The food was very good. I liked it.

Halloween Party

I went with Henry to see Halloween customs in downtown. I asked Ella and her friend, but they didn't come with us because they went somewhere else before I call them.

I was a good night. I saw two very very beautiful girls there, but there was no chance to talk to them. I saw some other friends there, and they were spending their time with their girlfriends. Henry said when I went to Seattle with Ryan that time, I endured lot of weird looks. People though that we were gay. They might think the same about us tonight, and we laughed.

We went to the bar insides to see the customs and the people. The only disgusting thing was the smell of alcohol in the bars.

Everyone had someone to hug.

It was a good night overall. I still can't understand why they do that.