More Bats than a Bat Cave!

Today, we went out to Congress Avenue Bridge, which crosses over Lady Bird Lake in Austin. What's special about this bridge is that it's home to the largest urban bat colony in the world. That's right, about 1.5 million bats hang out under this bridge. That's more bats than the total human population of Austin.

The coolest part is that when dusk hits, it's feeding time. Around 8:30pm, swarms of Mexican free-tailed bats fly out from under the bridge, hunting for insects. According to what I've read, these bats consume 10,000 to 30,000 pounds of insects between them. That's insane! Oh, and the wonderful smell of guano (bat poop) fills the air when they come out. It's not so pleasant and you can't avoid it. Video of flying bats below.

More Bats than a Bat Cave! from Hello Vicken on Vimeo.

Keep Austin Weird!

Note: This is part one of three posts about Austin. The next two parts will be about food (yum!) and points-of-interests.   

So I've been in Austin for about a week now and I can say that so far, it's my favorite city to visit in the United States. I could pretty much see myself living here. Let me give you (ya'll) a summary of what Austin's all about.

Austin Skyline

First off, it's a pretty small city compared to others I've visited. Unlike Houston, which is large and widely spread out, Austin is a city of about 790,000 people and small enough to easily get around in.

credit: AustinPost

Second, Austin is very eccentric and diverse. The city's local motto is "Keep Austin Weird", which rings true to its name. So far, I've seen quite a few weird sides of Austin, as well as the hipster, ghetto, urban, and classy sides, all combined. From people commuting on a unicycle (cause two wheels are obviously too boring) to a movie theater that serves food and beer, Austin has them all. The motto is also used to promote an independent, anti-corporate business culture. You won't see a lot of chain restaurants and shops in this city, which I think is refreshing (compared to Los Angeles). Lots and lots of mom-and-pop stores and small businesses, so there's a lot of variety when shopping around.

Daniel Johnston's famous "Hi, how are you" mural on Guadalupe St. (credit: anoopiyer)

Third, the city has an outstanding arts and music culture. You'll find a lot of small businesses with street art and murals plastered on the walls of the building. Very cool. For music, Austin is known as the Live Music Capital of the World because of its vibrant live music scene, and for good reason. It has more music venues per capita than any other U.S. city and hosts a lot of festivals, including the famous annual film/music festival known as South by Southwest (SXSW). And if you head down 6th street any night of the week, you'll find plenty of bars and clubs featuring live local bands and DJ's. One of the coolest bands we went out to see so far was Wheeler Brothers at the Shady Grove. Combine that with some frozen Jack & Cokes from the bar (for $3.50!) and you have yourself a very good night.

Wheeler Brothers playing at Shady Grove, Austin.

So that's Austin in a nutshell. If you love live bands, great food, beautiful scenery, and an abundance of street art, definitely hit up Austin on your next road trip. Next post, I'll be covering the food scene in the city and all the awesome tacos, Cuban sandwiches, and Czech kolaches we've been stuffing our faces with. Thanks for reading!

Austin, TX

In 6 hours, I'll be on a plane to Austin, TX and will be hanging out with family.This will sort of be my first case of "breaking free" since I started the blog, so I'm excited. The airport shuttle service will pick me up around 2:30am! 2:30! In the morning! I can't even sleep! I've missed a lot of important things thanks to oversleeping, so I'm going to try and stay up for this one.

I'll be there til the end of June and I'll update ya'll on some of the places, food, and everything else in Big Ol' Texas.

Oh, and I never made it to the Peace Corps info session on Saturday. It was over an hour away and with gas at over $4/gallon, no thanks. Maybe I'll check one out in Austin or in West LA when I get back.

Americans just don't get enough time to travel

When I tried to explain to my parents about my goal of getting out of the country and living abroad, my Dad said he had a better idea. "Vicken. If you want to travel so much, why don't you work here in the U.S. and take a vacation every year to travel?" Not a bad idea. I could earn more money working here in the U.S. and would be able to take some time off every year to explore at least one country. But how much paid vacation do American employees receive? I decided to do a bit of research and found the results pretty shocking.

Source: CNN

Basically, if you want to take lots of vacations to see the world, then the U.S. is probably not the place to work. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average employee receives about 10 days of paid vacation a year after one year of service with the company. After 5 years, the paid vacation gets bumped up to 15 days. And it isn't until you've worked for a U.S. company for at least 20 years that you will receive another 5 days of paid vacation time. How does this compare with the rest of the world?

Source: CNN

After 10 years of service, the minimum amount of paid vacation days range from 10 to a whopping 30 days of vacation time. That's a full 7-week vacation period. You can spend a whole month exploring Europe and when you get back, you still have two weeks of vacation left. And you get to do this every year! I bet that makes a lot of Americans jealous. Americans are definitely hard working people, but many are being overworked and don't get any opportunity to take a break long enough to release some stress. Chances are, if I decide to stay and work in the United States, I'm going to live to work, rather than work to live.

Of course, I also have other options to consider. I could start my own business, and since I'll be self-employed, I get to choose my own 'paid' vacation hours. Another option is joining the Peace Corps, which I'm seriously considering at this point because it seems like the fastest way of reaching my goal. Speaking of Peace Corps, they're holding an info session this Saturday in Costa Mesa. I'll be checking that out to see if it's really something I want to do. Thanks for reading.

Introduction/Inspiration

Breaking Free....what does it mean? Well, every person takes the meaning differently, but it's simply getting away from something you don't want to be in. Some want to break free from a bad relationship. Others may want to break free from stress, the repetitive 9-5 job, or their boring lifestyle. And in its literal sense, it may even mean breaking free from places with oppression of freedom, like prisons and corrupt governments.


To me, breaking free means leaving my current lifestyle and going out to see the rest of the world and explore new adventures. I want to get rid of my comfort zone and throw myself in a new culture and lifestyle. I want to learn new languages, abide by new customs, check out new food. My dream is to leave the United States, the home I was born and raised in, and go live abroad. 


I have always wanted to go travel and live around the world. Last year, I studied abroad in Cairo and I had the best experiences of my life (more on that in a later blog post) but what really inspired me to start pursuing my goal was a video by Matador Network called Breaking Free (which also inspired the blog title). 




It's an upcoming video series that explores the lives of Americans who have dared to live their dreams. People who have broken out of the regular 9-5 lifestyle, ditching routine, comfort zones, and their own personal fears to live abroad in a foreign country. The makers of the series define the word Breaking Free as "realizing your potential, and following your path wherever it leads, no matter the challenges." It's a path with many challenges that I hope to step on very soon.


So what's next for this blog? Well, it'll mainly be about my life in transition from the U.S. to Destination B, but I'll also post anything related to moving and living abroad, and updates on the Breaking Free video series. Follow along if you want to join the journey. Thanks for reading.