Springtime in Texas

What I remember about springtime in College Station, Texas…

How come the grass can be so… green? And the sky can be so… blue?

Duh.  My friends in Indonesia and other tropical country might think I’m nuts, but years ago, during my college years in Texas, all I saw during winter was either grey or brown. Brown branches, grey skies, brown landscape, grey chills. So when springtime came over Texas in all her glory, I never ceased marveling at the lush, new, fresh green grass sprawling around campus. It felt like the day before I was in a black and white movie, and then suddenly the next day I jumped onto a Technicolor one! Hello, suddenly the world just bursts in spectacular colors! Such feast to the eyes after the long, cold, drab winter. (Though winter also comes with all its beauties and niceties, of course!)

I never thought that bicycling around a vast campus could be so delightful!

Jakarta where I currently live is like the bustling city of Houston, ten times more traffic jam, ten times more air pollution. We don’t have so much space for greens and parks, and the weather in the tropics is hot and humid, combine that with all the dusts and exhaust fumes, made walking or bicycling not a very pleasant activity if you are required to do it daily.

But as a college student in Texas, I rode my bike everywhere around the enormous campus.  And never was it more enjoyable than during the beginning of spring. The air was fresh and crisp, the notorious Texas heat has not stroke yet, the sun was shining. You felt so alive and vibrant, like the world just has been created that very morning.  Not to mention that bicycling is healthy! I never had problem with pollen allergies, so spring time was definitely the time when I love spending most of the time outdoors. Sitting on the benches, watching the birds and the squirrels playing.

One spring break I skipped the chance for a road trip to Florida with my friends, opting to spend the whole week at the empty college town, and it was one of the most wonderful, resting holidays I ever had. Everything was so serene. Life was so slow and peaceful. The weather was beautiful. It was perfect.

The beauty of spring wild flowers

Here in Jakarta you can practically see green leaves all year round, everywhere you go, pretty much all over the tropical country of Indonesia. But colorful flowers you can only see in cultivated gardens and parks. There are lots and lots wild plants here, but not wild flowers.

But in Texas, for a short duration of one month, at least, it seems like the lands have decided to throw a spring festival, and wore their best and most beautiful party gowns made of bluebonnets, pink flowers, yellow flowers, red flowers, you name it, covered all the sprawling roadside all the way from College Station to Austin and Houston and Dallas, as far as your eyes can see. I always had this giddy excitement every time I passed through the complex mailboxes, on the way back from class to my apartment, because in April, there grew some of the prettiest pink wild flowers I’d ever seen around the mailboxes.

They reminded me of a verse in the Bible:

“Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them.  If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will He not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?”

(Matthew 6:28-30)

Not until my first spring in Texas, the verse finally made sense to me, in my mind, and also in my heart.

So, that was it, Friends, my memory of springtime in Texas. I have to admit, as much as I love the tropics, sometimes I rather miss those everchanging seasons in the subtropics. Yet, I am sooooo thankful that God has given this gal a chance to experience both worlds: the tropical Indonesia, and the subtropical USA. ^_^

These pictures were taken during my 27th weeks of pregnancy. I had to admit that as the months passed by, I ran out of ideas of what I should wear to work everyday. My wardrobe options had become more and more limited, so I grew bored with them already. So, again, I played with accessories, eyeshadow, and lipstick colors!

Here I combined a long string of fuschia pink colored bead necklace, wrapped around the neck twice, and another shorter pastel colored bead necklace. The colorful pastel bead necklace was a DIY project made of leftover beads.

To go with the colors of the necklaces, I painted soft pink and sky blue eyeshadow colors on my lids. I never bother to wear eyeliner or mascara for daily use, it's just too much hassle for my Asian small eyes. Hassle to put on, hassel to put off, hassel to maintain during the day!

The earrings are made of thin pieces of mother of pearls, painted pink. I love that the material give them a nice soft, pearlescent glow, not just muted pink.

And for my braceletes I combined matching pearly-studded gold bangle with some pearly-beaded bracelets, stacked together.

I just hoped I would still be able to paint my toenails until the very last month of the pregnancy. My husband said he would be glad to do that for me, but he won't be held responsible for the result, hehehe...

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