Austin - Capitol Exterior, Dome with Statue Behind Wall / Journey into Another Language, Mexico

Not too many shots of the capitol building's exterior, but hopefully some from perspectives not often seen.  Certainly this is one of the most photographed buildings in the country, with millions upon millions of images captured.
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[continued from yesterday's post; series started 07/05]
At SFA I enjoyed the Spanish, and the general experience of hanging out at the Modern Languages Department, so much that I dropped forestry and changed my focus altogether.  In order to keep my hand in science I double-majored in Spanish and biology, with a biological emphasis in herpetology.

Thus, by my junior year in college I'd whizzed off on a trajectory that was totally unforeseen, yet I knew it was the right thing to do.  Though difficult at times, I was learning a lot of Spanish, earning my way up to the sophomore level in both conversation (course 209) and grammar (232 and beyond).  This plus another summer in Amarillo with Ramón and his bunch gave me confidence in my progress at becoming fluent.

Yet I wasn't really fluent, and grew frustrated because I'd plateaued in my development.  So what to do?  Answer: MOVE TO MEXICO!  Must become immersed.

This strategy worked well.  The summer of 1980 was the summer after my junior year, and I'd heard about a good program out of California State University at Sacramento.  To greatly simplify probably one of the happiest and most formative times of my adult life, I enrolled, moved down to Mexico to live and spend time with Ramón's family, went down further to attend classes with the program in Guanajuato, then emerged truly fluent in the language.  In fact by the fall of 1980 I was dreaming in Spanish, and at times had to reverse-translate back into English upon my return.  The angels were with me that summer in many ways...