Considering relocating to Austin from San Diego (Spring, Morgan: relocation, budget)

[traceyr13]

I'm totally giggling over the "holy hook 'em horns batman". Totally, totally agree. Coming from New England, I am constantly amused and puzzled by the devotion to college football here. My sister and bil are Aggies, and they seriously get annoyed when we bring up UT (I work at UT, so talk about encountering the obsession!) Don't get me wrong, UT is a great place to work and I'm grateful and happy to be here, but I just don't get the "football is God" mentality.

And I second the mispronunciations - I am constantly corrected. A recent one is San Jacinto (as in the Boulevard). I pronounced it "San (ha)cinto" (silent J) like I was taught in 6 years of Spanish class. Nope. Apparently it's San (Ja)cinto. I never know how to pronounce stuff. Another is Lake Buchanan. I pronounced it Lake Byoochanan, with a long u. Nope. It's Lake Buckanan (short u, hard ch).

Weird Texans.

[Trainwreck20]

Add Amarillo to the list of mis-pronounced words. Or Pedernales Fallas (for some reason, pronounced 'perdenales falls').

You can, however, make the argument that the words have all been americanized and are now pronounced correctly in English. Teenager is a German word, promounced teenauger (or sorta like that, I don't know my phonetics ). Same for radio...germans say 'rawdio'. Of course, you would never say we mis pronounce those words....

[plaidmom]

Pedernales Fallas (for some reason, pronounced 'perdenales falls').

LOL. Thanks for the memories. I was just thinking about that.

[southaustingal]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Add Amarillo to the list of mis-pronounced words. Or Pedernales Fallas (for some reason, pronounced 'perdenales falls').

And Del Valle and not pronounced "Del VAY-yea" as you might learn in Spanish. It's pronounced "Del VAL-ee."

Manchaca I've heard two ways, "Man-SHOCK-a" (from my Hispanic friends) and "MAN-shack (from the gringos)," but mostly I hear the latter.

And let's not forget, people, that it's "BURN-it" Road, not "Burn-ETT."

The unintuitive pronunciations go along with Austin's way of giving every major road three names.

[southaustingal]

Originally Posted by newinkyle

*People are CHILL, it's so great. Its rare to find superficial, shallow minded, "keeping up with the Jones'" kind of people out in our neck of the woods. And THAT is a breath of fresh air!!

Oh, they're here, too. I was just at my daughter's dance class talking to a mom who just enrolled her daughter after moving from LA. Her poor kid was scared and in tears, and the mom kept trying to force her into the class and making sure to tell the other moms about how great her daughter was, how she competed all the time, how her LA school had beautiful costumes, and on and on, all while waving around a three-carat-adorned hand. I felt like telling her, "That's great lady, but you don't get it: We don't care. Just give your poor kid a break."

*Pronunciation of some towns/streets around here are not as you would think them to be. For example, Buda is NOT pronounced like "Boo-duh", it's "Byew-duh". Del Valle is NOT pronounced as "Del Vye-yeh" (like Via De la VALLE off the I-5 back home), it's "Del VAL". Like Shallow HAL. And it isn't Manchaca. It's Man CHACK. San Marcos is San Marc "US".

Which reminds me... I better check with the locals to see if I've been pronouncing Pfluegerville right..[/quote]

It's FLUGER-ville. And It's not "Del VAL" but "Del VAL-ee." I spent years working in the schools there and never heard it once called "Del VAL," though many of us would occasionally take on the Spanish pronunciation in jest.

[Trainwreck20]

And let's not forget, people, that it's "BURN-it" Road, not "Burn-ETTIts

it's BURNit, durn it, learn it!

[austin_or_sd]

Originally Posted by Russ_in_Atlanta

One draw back though, You may get a little O.T. at Dell so you may find yourself pretty busy.

Hi Russ, Have you worked at Dell before? How do you know the O.T. at Dell?

[fishstix3]

Ok, as a No. California girl who has spent her college years in San Diego, that post was really insightful, tashina! Thank you. I can't tell you how many times that I have said that I actually ENJOY the variation in weather in Austin and gotten laughed at -- everyone here in CA. thinks it is just horrendously hot 24/7 in Austin, and I say that while it DOES get horrendously HOT, we have also really enjoyed those lightning storms and the changeability in weather that Austin seems to have. I get tired of the SAME weather day in/day out. We are also really looking to get our kids out of this "me-centric" universe that seems to surround us, and we noticed that the kids in Austin generally seemed respectful of adults compared to where we are here -- broad, sweeping generalization, I know, but even though we teach our kids to be respectful of adults, it is hard when no one else seems to reinforce that. There is such a sense of entitlement in so many kids around here, and they all HAVE EVERYTHING, so what is there to work toward? Anyhow, thanks ---

[Trainwreck20]

Hi Russ, Have you worked at Dell before? How do you know the O.T. at Dell?

I have not worked there, but the OT at Dell used to be legendary. I worked in a bar, and there were a couple of folks (mid-higher level supervisiors/managers) that would come in occasionally. They worked 70+ hour weeks on a regular basis. Of course, the one in particular that I am thinking of retired ~45 and is a stay at home dad now .

[austin_or_sd]

The Dell stock did the wonder so he could retire realy and enjoy his life. But it is a different Dell now with the fierce competition around the globe and PC is no longer a growing market.