As someone who has never lived in a city before, I find everything to still be quite new to me. I come from a very small village at the foot of a mountain range in the North of Ireland and went to college in another small town by the Antrim coast, which is the most northern point of Ireland. I’ve never lived more than a mile away from the sea and am used to around three week’s worth of sunlight per year.

Austin is pretty much the exact opposite of what I’m used to, and beyond the initial culture shock, I have come to love it and St. Edward’s more than it is in my writing ability to describe.

In writing this blog, I am to document how an outsider views American life while also getting a sense of what my own culture is like in comparison. Something that has always interested me about travelling is what stereotypes people have for my culture and what stereotypes we in turn have for them. I will be completely honest and say that my own perception of Texas was based almost entirely on King of the Hill (which I am fanatical about) and that the Irish perception of Texas as a whole exists mainly on stereotypes from the golden age of Western cinema.

I remember having a conversation with my barber before leaving for Austin and him telling me quite authoritatively, “Bloody Americans like. My mate was over in Boston and they’ve all got the complete wrong idea of us. Think we live in cottages among leprechauns and all.”

Which I suppose is a fair enough point, who wants to hear their culture being reduced to a caricature? However, he then added, “So Texas then? You’ll be living on a ranch ye wee redneck. Make sure to lasso yourself some sexy girls at least!” without quite realizing the irony in this.

In fact, based on the well-wishing from friends and family in the last few weeks at home, I half expected my first day of St. Edward’s to involve me walking through saloon-style doors to registration, only to be welcomed by the sound of a honky-tonk piano grinding to a halt and a dark room full of disgruntled card-players staring at me like the out-of-towner I am; the faint, unmistakable sound of chewing tobacco hitting a metal bin being my only greeting. For better or for worse, this wasn’t quite the case.

I hope that in reading this blog you can get a sense of me adapting to this new culture, broadening my horizons, and learning some new things along the way. Stay tuned!