Reply #5: Hi there aggie...

[sweetheart]

What inspired you to leave austin when UT is there? I think the experience of TAMU depends on the dorm or whether you're off campus. I first stayed in "the commons" and then moved to "hart hall" in the centre of campus near the MSC. The people my ramp were mostly from throckmorton texas and they brought all the ugly bits of small town america with them including their guns and racism.

I hear the place has gotten a bit more extreme (living in britain now, i'm using understatement ;-) )

I first discovered meditation at TAMU by experimenting with various chemicals as one does in college... along with the religious salesmen selling every bloody religion on the planet to students from baptist nutterism to bahai'ism.... and on a particularly vivid acid trip in what is now the "bush library" from what i hear (the old enterprise space ship library) I found a book by timothy leary and another by richard alpert (ram das). Those books took me away from texas thankfully to a world wholly more happy.

I'm glad people are happy down round them parts... and on an individual basis, i can get along with most folks... just theres this nagging reality that i had really bad experiences there from what are today neocons... they've never changed.

Good luck you you austin liberal. Surely if you want to get a graduate qualification, the Texas university system can offer you a more local solution!! :-) Otherwise, i think the best mix is getting a second degree in a foreign country. The systems of learning are so different and the people so different, half the learning is contextual... and all that more inspiring.