Austin, just say the word and people around the country light up. We’re known as a progressive “green” city with lots of trees, rivers, and parks. We’re the capital of Texas and also the home of the University of Texas, as well as several other well-respected colleges and universities (Huston-Tillotson, St. Edwards, Concordia Lutheran) and high tech companies such as Dell, Samsung and AMD.  We’re located in the heart of the hill country, with rolling plains east of us and hilly “west Texas” type terrain to our west. Austin is the unofficial “live music capital” of the world.  

Our students stay with families from several different Presbyterian Churches (Covenant Presbyterian & Central Presbyterian, and sometimes hosts from other churches as well), some in town, and some more rural. We spend time with the families, we want you to get to know your hosts and form life-long friendships with them, and they with you. 

We try to gear our activities for all ages- your Austin coordinator has a little girl who is 6, and some of the other hosts have elementary to preteen children, so we do activities that will work for young to older. Austin is a beautiful city, the state capital, one of the most progressive cities in Texas.

Activities: Things we have done in the past are likely to continue in the future are:  We will go to a party at Jack Mountain Longhorn Ranch, where we will learn to square dance, have a barbecue and take a hayride to the top of Jack Mountain, enjoyed “Tuba Christmas” concert on the grounds of the State Capitol, taken a docent tour, heard a brass quartet concert at CPC, gone to the Armadillo Bazaar for unique gift shopping, more shopping, traveled to  the Emily Ann Theatre in Wimberley for Christmas lights, learned to make (and eat) tamales, toured the Austin Museum of Art and the Bob Bullock History of Texas Museum and seen an IMAX movie, gone to President Johnson’s ranch in Johnson City,  spent a day in San Antonio on the River Walk,  done a charity project at Manos de Cristo, had dinner at some nice homes with great hosts, and had our “International Dinner” night, where students and hosts prepared food that is typical of their country, and students entertained with stories, dance, songs and other talents of their home countries. Students will also spend a little more time with their host families, on Christmas Eve and Christmas, as well as several other days. We believe this is a “bridge building” peace program, and we want our guests and hosts to get to know each other well.

Students are invited to attend church with your family, as part of learning about our culture, but you are not required to attend should you not feel comfortable doing so.

Austin was founded in the middle 1800’s and has an interesting and colorful history. Our population is about 1/3 Latino, but we also have a growing Asian community, and also a large Hindu population. There is a strong Germanic influence in the Hill Country, too. Our weather tends to be mild, but can be cold around Christmas.  We encourage you to bring ‘layered’ clothing, that way, you can adjust you dress to the temperature.  Austin is a very casual place and you won’t need dress clothes other than for church.

Our program will run from Tuesday, December 18 through Wednesday, January 2. Our trip to the longhorn ranch is set for Wed., Dec. 19, so you don’t want to miss that! We really like for our students to arrive on the starting date, so that they don’t miss out on any of the fun! You are encouraged to arrive before 8:00 PM and not exactly at 5:00 PM rush hour.  We ask that students bring their own spending money. Usually when we eat out, it is everyone paying for his or her own food.

We look forward to your visit to Austin, the “Live Music Capital of the World”.  Our website is http://home.earthlink.net/~cih-austin/. Some websites to learn more about where we went are:

www.austin.about.com/cs/tours/p/vt_dt_capitol.htm
www.armadillobazaar.com/
www.cpcaustin.org
www.manosdecristo.org/
www.amoa.org
www.thestoryoftexas.com/
www.nps.gov/lyjo/
www.covenant.org
 http://www.emilyann.org/trailoflights.htm