Hello Austin

Well, its been quite the marathon the last few days! After FINALLY graduating from A&M my family and I moved my belongings to Austin Texas August 9th. Since then, I have been a busy girl searching for jobs, going to a couple of interviews, organizing my stuff, and going to orientation for school. I've also managed to experience some of Austins sights in between everything. My new roommate stephanie and I took the dogs, George and Audrey (Audrey is my golden) to the dog park downtown where we witness Audrey's first attempts at deep water and swimming on monday. May I just say, as a proud mom that she's a natural! I just wish she would have stopped stealing balls the from other dogs that were swimming with her, but I guess thats just part of motherhood, proud one moment and embarassed the next! We also went to a well known restuarant called Magnolia- very good by the way, try the pot stickers next time your in town! Thursday, my other roommate Jen and I went to IKEA to pick up a few things for the house. I have never been able to actually go to an Ikea until I moved here so this was an excited moment for me! Although its an easy place to get lost in!
Oh! Did I mention I'm sharing a house with three other girls?! Well I am and their names are Jen, Krista, and Stephanie for future reference!
As far as my job search goes I have had two interviews so far. Both interviews were for jobs at my school one as a tutor and the other as a customer service representitive. Both jobs have there perks and though I have not received any concrete information on either job I feel confident that my interviews made a good impression.
And now for the best part... ORIENTATION! It was so much fun! They served us hors d'oeuvre and iced tea during the vice presidents welcome speech and the orientation presentation. This was followed by a group quiz that awarded prizes for correct answers;I won a TCA pendant. After the informational part of orientation was over we were sent to several stations to collect our books,supplies, and uniforms. For those of you that are familiar with the kitchen, this might not suprise but my tool kit (which I was expecting to be the size of a brief case) was the size a weekend trip suitcase! I have over 50 items in my kit! You talk about Christmas in July, move it to August for me! My uniform looks very sharp and even includes a pair of non-slip black shoes.

Side note: We can not wear any jewelry, perfume, or nail polish! It all makes since to me, but I was a bit suprised at nail polish to tell you the truth.

So as you can imagine I'm getting excited and a little nervous about monday, my first day of school! I can't wait to see what challanges are in store for me. On a personal note, I'm adjusting well here and finding much needed peace and serenity to make this transition easier. I was expecting this first week to be a hard one but God has blessed me with peace and a chance to get things started on a positive note. Thank you all for your on going support and prayers! Please keep me in mind this next week and pray that I receive some good news on the job front. May grace and peace be with you this week.

Let Me Introduce Myself

I'm new to the blogging experience so forgive me if my first post is lacking! Let me begin by telling you a little about myself and what I hope this blog will accomplish. My name is Kimber ( I used to go by Kim so for those of you that know me , yes your reading the correct blog!). As of August 8th I will be a recent graduate of Texas A&M University with a major in History and minor in Anthropology. During my time at A&M I was priveledged to meet so many influentical people and gain new experiences that helped mold me into the person I am today. I believe going to Texas A&M was one of many good decisions in my life and has helped influence my next move in education- to pursue a career as a pastry chef. So, as a walk across the stage of Reed Arena to close one chapter of my educational career, I will be starting another as a student at Texas Culinary Academy in Austin, Tx.
The program I will be participating in, is the baking and patisserie program. It will last for about one full calendar year and is broken into two parts. The first part is nine months and will be mainly classroom and lab (aka kitchen) work. The second part is a three month externship which is basically an apprenticeship with an established chef. My classes have titles such as : "Sugar work", "Chocolate", and "breads" to give you an idea of what I'll be learning about. I'm hoping to post weekly updates about what I'm learning, who I'm meeting, what I'm making, and life in Austin. I'll try to include pictures as often as can as well as posting information about upcoming events at my school that are open to the public such as the chili cookoff in November and the Gingerbread competition in December.
I hope that this blog will be entertaining for those of you that are curious about what I'm doing and informative about the world behind the stove so to speak. Let me also say thank you to all that have supported and prayed for me over the years about this decision and many others!