Complaint warning

It's 6:30 PM on a Friday evening and I am sitting in my office, trying to work on my papers and listening to a way too mellow Gipsy Kings song. Can I tell you how much I miss Houston life right now?

Graduate housing is not my favorite thing. It's like a college dorm. Sure, it's good to get to know people, and it's convenient. But you know how much nicer it is to have a place to go home away from school/work? And I prefer to not have most of my friends within three hundred yards of my home. Sometimes I want a place to go home away from friends as well. Maybe you Rice kids out there remember our sophomore year living off campus. For some reason being around people in a dorm/grad housing situation ALL THE TIME grates on me a lot; I appreciate my friends more and have more fun with them when we live more than a stone's throw away from each other. I miss the cutest house I probably will ever live in, 5816 Community. A shout out to my friends still living there, appreciate the loveliness of that house!!

I also miss the continuous vibrancy of life in H-town. For instance, there's always a happening coffee shop to go work at, or a quiet place to go work at. I never would feel bummed working at 6:30 pm on a Friday in Houston, because I could grab my computer and go work in one of ten coffee shops, and enjoy myself. Even at 10 pm on a Friday or Saturday, I could go and find one of 10 coffee sh0ps to work/study at. Here... I can't even think of one coffee shop of that kind. The only place to go off campus is Barnes and Noble, which I appreciate having, but does get old.

There's also missing have girlfriends and missing have more American friends. Too many of my friends here are Indian or other international. I love them and it's generally fine, but it's just tiring being the only person like me all the time. I guess I'm learning a tiny sliver of what it's like to be a black person in a predominantly white environment. Having to change how you do things to meet how the majority does them, always having to defend your "culture" or ways of thinking, learning to interact in ways that aren't natural to you, listening to people speak a foreign language, frequent topics of discussion that aren't of much interest to you. . . I guess my preference remains a multiracial environment: I don't want to be the odd oen out in a group where everyone else is the same, and I don't want to be in a group where everyone is the same as me. I prefer a group that is a mix of lots of types of people, so no one viewpoint or idea or way of doing things can take over or become viewed as "right".

Lastly, I miss sun and warmth. I started wearing flip flops for multiple days in a row recently, and my feet hurt! I can't remember when my feet hurt wearing flip flops. I think my feet have gotten used to the support of "real" shoes. How horrible!! By the way, it's supposed to snow tomorrow. Yes, at the end of April.