Monthly Archives: June 2007
We didn’t want your heart in San Antonio anyways
| June 28, 2007 | Posted by Angela under Random, Why I like San Antonio |
So this Austin Intern, Steven Stein, decides he wants to bash San Antonio on his blog. After only one weekend visit and viewing less than 1% of the city, he thinks he knows San Antonio. Let me just counter some of his comments:
1) His comment: San Antonio’s much-ballyhooed River Walk reminded me of the Los Angeles River — and that’s not a good thing.
My comment: How does the LA river remind you of the SA river? Take a look sir. Can you guess which one is which? Water seems to be the only similarity.
2) His comment: The river — if you can even call it that — looks likes a cup of coffee with a few packets of sugar dumped in.
My comment: I’m sorry, what? I think these were just filler words.
3) His comment: The river is encased by concrete walkways that are lined with restaurants that serve the same variation of mediocre Tex-Mex.
My comment: Where did you go and how can one determine this on only one weekend stay? First, the Riverwalk is not the only area with restaurants downtown. Additionally, there are plenty of other restaurants outside the Tex-Mex variation such as: Boudro’s, Paesano’s, Landry’s, Texas Land and Cattle, County Line and plenty more. Anyways, don’t tourists come to San Antonio for our Tex Mex food? Of course they do! It’s like going to New Orleans and saying “All I saw was Cajun food everywhere.”
4) His comment: The tour boats that pass by every few minutes are filled with people who look unhappy, which is understandable, since these poor souls actually spent money to tour the river.
My comment: Does it really look that unpleasant? I think this beats those gigantic 2 story tour buses trying to go through overcrowded cities.
5) His comment: The smoke expelled by the boats is welcome, however, since it masks River Walk’s many other unpleasant smells.
My comment: Now, you’re just making things up.
6) His comment: When you exit River Walk, things don’t get much better. The streets of downtown San Antonio are filled with people who think high fashion consists of wearing a tattered Spurs shirt that doesn’t quite cover their expansive bellies.
My comment: I am not sure if you are aware or not but San Antonio is home to the NBA Champion Spurs. Fans do sport their team’s colors. And talk about high fashion. Austin seems to think that flip flops, cargo shorts, UT shirts and torn baseball caps is high fashion. I used to live in Austin and I love the city but if you are going to hate on SA, I will hate on Austin. Expansive bellies? Maybe it is inappropriate but this is an American problem, why just pick on San Antonio? This has nothing to do with the culture of this city.
7) His comment: Even The Alamo, an attraction I had looked forward to visiting for years, disappoints. I appreciate the history of The Alamo — I grew up idolizing Davy Crockett — but it’s hard to take this history seriously when there is a Häagen-Daz next door.
My comment: What are you expecting? That the Alamo is going to be the same as it was back in the 1800′s and the area around was going to be untouched? This is the core of our city, we have built around it just as Chicago or New York has done so. So what, we have Haagen Daz and they have Starbucks? What’s there to take seriously? You get a nice cold ice cream after a long walk on a hot day.
San Antonio is a great city and spending one weekend here doesn’t give one enough time to criticize this city. It’s like going to San Francisco and seeing Fisherman’s Wharf and writing about how terrible the city is.
If you are visiting San Antonio and need advice on where to go, let me know.
Only in San Antonio
| June 12, 2007 | Posted by Angela under Why I like San Antonio |
Here is a sign hanging in San Antonio, Texas. “Go es-Spurs Go” If you are from here, you will understand, well most of you. Some of us San Antonians have this certain speech going on, it’s a mixture of Spanish and English, Spanglish. We put “es” at the beginning of every word or “e” at the end of every word. Or we say half our sentences in Spanish and the other half in English. George Lopez would be a good source for impressions. He does a very good job depicting Latinos in every day life. “I know huh” “Orale!” Haha, Viva nuestra raza!
Botero in San Antonio
| June 10, 2007 | Posted by Angela under Random |
The San Antonio Museum of Art is exhibiting the work of Fernando Botero this summer. Botero is probably the most famous living Latin American artist. He is noted for his what I like to call “chubby” figures in his artwork. I really enjoy Botero’s artwork because of the color and culture each piece holds. I feel a sense of familiarity. My favorite painting is the back side of a nude girl in the bathroom brushing her hair. If you are Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Picasso, or Diego Velazquez fan, you might enjoy Botero. 
Cruzin Cooler
| June 8, 2007 | Posted by Angela under Local Places & Events, Random |
I went to First Friday last Friday (yes, late post) and saw this Motor Ice Chest. First Friday is an art/music event every first Friday of the month in SouthTown of San Antonio. There are a bunch of vendors selling cool art, jewelry, clothing and other unique items. Rosario’s is a popular restaurant with good music and food. Blue Star is a brewery with a cool restaurant surrounded by art galleries. It’s an event that carries on from the Fiesta spirit. San Antonians don’t want Fiesta to end so celebrating the First Friday of every month helps carry it on until the next year’s Fiesta week. Anyhow, I saw this couple riding around on ice chests. I had never seen this before and I thought it was pretty interesting. I didn’t know what else to call it but a Motor Ice Chest. Then I did a search and found the Cruzin Cooler 
which is exactly what I saw. Kinda neat.
Volleyball Champs-SA Diggers
| June 1, 2007 | Posted by Angela under Health & Fitness, Local Places & Events |
So some of you may know that I play volleyball. I grew up playing volleyball in grade school, high school and played club volleyball year round. It was the thing I did outside school, work and family. After college, I stopped playing. When I started working at Rackspace Managed Hosting, I met Elaine Lopez. She played volleyball and her team was looking for an extra player. I offered to play. Now, I was thinking fun and games. I showed up and found out these girls were serious. A lot of girls were ex D1 and D2 college players. They were part of the US Volleyball Association in the Womens 18 and over.
I stuck with it and have played with her team for the past 3 years. We pick up tournaments in the regional area such as Dallas, Houston and Austin. This year, I went with them to Nationals which happened to be held in Austin, Texas at the Convention Center. It was a 2 day tournament. We were in the BB/B Division (Team Name: SA Diggers) which is 5’9 height and under. There were 13 teams. Our first day, we started off a little shaky. We won all our games except 1. We lost to Kilakila, a team from Hawaii. They were an amazing defense team. No matter how hard we hit the ball, they dug it. So the next day, it was single elimination. We did way better because we got the hang from yesterday. We made it to the finals and guess who we were up against? Kilakila! This time we knew how to play them. We had to strategically place the ball to where they couldn’t get it. So we did just that and beat them in 2 games. It was great! So we won 1st place. We really rocked and represented San Antonio pretty nicely. I have bruises on my arm and knee to prove it!
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