Trevor Huxham

Monahans Sandhills State Park On my cross-country road trip last December from Phoenix to visit family in Dallas, I inevitably had to pass through the Permian Basin of west-central Texas. Sandwiched between the mountains of Far West Texas and the lower reaches of the Great Plains, this region rich in fossil fuels has gone through cycles of boom and bust over the decades—and even produced an oil businessman turned politician who would go on to become president: George H. W. Bush. It’s currently enjoying a boom thanks to fracking, so the setting along Interstate 20 is pretty bleak, with highway access roads lined with the same warehouse copied literally hundreds of times over and plenty of “man camps” or temporary housing for oil workers. An oil pump jack within the park A bright spot in this leg of my journey was...

Do you have any un-memories? Something you know that happened to you when you were really young but you don’t remember? Like meeting your great-aunt Genevieve when you were a toddler, moving across the country as a baby, or—and I’m stating the obvious here—being born. Something I know that I’ve done before—but which I have zero memory at all of—is visiting the coastal city of Galveston, Texas, as a little tyke. My parents have a photo on their fireplace mantel of my dad and me at Galveston Beach, with him showing me some seashells…apparently it was my first time at the beach, ever. Historic building in the Strand But I have zero memory of this seashell encounter ever happening, so when I went “back” to this gorgeous city southeast of Houston over Memorial Day weekend, it really was like seeing it for the first time. I loved taking a daytrip to this historic Gulf Coast city, where I made “new” memories by exploring some historic districts, appreciating excellent architectur...

Sul Ross Street I spent three years living and working in Spain as an English language assistant , which meant I had to travel from Dallas down to Houston three summers in a row to apply for a student visa to live in Spain . After my third and final trip to the Spanish consulate, I played tourist for a bit and visited the Menil Collection, an art museum not too far from the Hostelling International hostel in Houston’s Montrose neighborhood. Main hallway This free museum hiding amongst the shade trees of Montrose redeemed my nerve-wracking visit to the consulate and filled some time before I had to take the Megabus back to Dallas. When I returned to Houston for a proper visit this Memorial Day, the Menil was at the top of my list. Alexander Calder mobile This minimalist museum is only one floor tall, which helps it blend into the neighborhood of single-family houses. Inside, concrete louvers in the ceiling let natural sunlight filter in—while keeping out the worst o...

Monument through the trees “Remember the Alamo!” Nearly every Texan is familiar with this battle cry from the Texas Revolution that refers back to the Battle of the Alamo in 1836 at modern-day San Antonio. Today, the Spanish mission of the Alamo is a major tourist destination not only for its historic Spanish Colonial architecture but also as a pilgrimage destination for Texans of all ages. But as all fourth- and seventh-graders learn in Texas history class, the Texan rebels actually lost the Battle of the Alamo (and most of the defenders perished in combat). It wasn’t until one month later—at the Battle of San Jacinto near modern-day Houston—that they defeated the Mexican Army and gained independence from Mexico.

The city of Houston on the Gulf Coast of Texas is tightly intertwined with the three years I was able to spend living and working in Spain. As a resident of Texas, I was required to make the journey to the Spanish consulate in Houston to formally submit my application for a visa that would let me live in the country during the upcoming school year. But because I wasn’t able to renew my legal status during the summers I spent back home in Dallas, I had to return to Houston not once, but twice, to do the same thing, all over again. Safe to say, I got to know the Megabus route and the Hostelling International hostel fairly well. These brief, bureaucratic business trips left much to be desired, apart from a visit to see a Saturn V rocket out on the bay. Yet this vast city (the fourth biggest in the U.S.) has one of the best restaurant scenes in the country, with multiple culinary influences all contributing flavors, ingredients, methods, and more. In fact, the greater Houston metropoli...

A little over a month ago I finally gave in and bought my very first car, a brand-new Toyota Corolla. I first learned how to drive on a 2003-era Corolla, so I couldn’t pass up this familiar yet reliable model when I showed up at the dealership for the dreaded car hunt. But in between moving back home to Texas in July of last year and getting a car this past March, I had to make do without one. Fortunately my parents did have a car that they used for buying groceries and the like, but as far as getting to work, shopping, or having fun, I was basically on my own. View this post on Instagram Bought my first car today!!! 🎉🚗 It's a Toyota Corolla, most basic of the base line model possible, but I'm excited to be able to zip around town, get to work in 15 minutes (vs. 60 minutes walking + on the bus), and make day trips whenever I feel like it. In some ways I feel like I've sold out my walkable, transit-loving soul, but I...

When I moved back to Texas back in July after living in Spain for three years, I felt guilty that I could give people better food or sightseeing recommendations for cities like Madrid or Santiago de Compostela than I could for the city I claimed was my hometown, Dallas. Now, part of the problem was that I actually grew up in Plano, a suburb to the north of Dallas, but that didn’t excuse me from not knowing this place as well as I should. View this post on Instagram The iconic Dallas Pegasus slowly rotates on a mini oil derrick just after sunset. Originally crafted in 1934, this porcelain-plated metal sign with neon illumination topped the Magnolia Building in Downtown Dallas for decades and became an enduring symbol of the city of Dallas. When Magnolia Oil was folded into Mobil, the red Pegasus followed, showing up at gas stations across the country. It was replaced with a replica in 2000 and relegated to a shed near White Rock ...

The auxiliares de conversación  program that lets English-speakers like me stay in Spain between October and May kind of leaves us hanging in the summer months, when I have inevitably come back home to Texas work at my summer job, save money, and spend time with my family. Plato Ibérico from Café Madrid To hold me over from my last menú del día  meal in Madrid and to satisfy my love of Spanish painters, Dallas thankfully has a lot of Spanish-themed offerings, all within the same general area. Meadows Museum The Wave by Santiago Calatrava Set on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas’ elite Park Cities enclaves, the Meadows Museum might be the premier collection of Spanish art outside of Spain. It opened in 1965 as a result of countless donations from the private collection of oilman Algur H. Meadows. As head of the Dallas-based General American Oil Company, he frequented the Spanish capital of Madrid in the 1950s, as his company was searching f...

Saturn V rocket A month ago I was back in Houston, Texas, for the weekend applying for a student visa at the Spanish consulate , which I need to go back to work in Spain as a language assistant for one more year. Because the Megabus schedules didn’t allow for me to leave Dallas early in the morning and return from Houston later in the day, I decided to make a city trip out of the whole ordeal and spend two nights in the local Hostelling International hostel. Third stage of the rocket I was first in line to apply for a visa at the consulate, so I ended up having more free time than I thought I would. Thankfully, I had brought my library’s copy of Alas Babylon  with me, so I spent several hours in Starbucks over the course of the trip engrossed in this highly realistic account of what might have happened had the U.S. and the USSR engaged in nuclear war. Written by Pat Frank, the book trailblazed the post-apocalypse genre and was published at the height of the Cold War in...

At the Texas State Fair I miss the sounds of: Crickets as they keep vigil through the night, their whistly sopranos petering out and being replaced by the next in turn The Doppler effect of the lawnmower as it passes by my bedroom window, and the calm relief that returns after it shuffles off Squirrels thumpety-thump-thumping across the roof The bright, bouncy cry of the cardinal The whooshing of the trees as they all clap their hands to welcome in an imminent thunderstorm, or the lazy flicker of leaves rustling together on a balmy, breezy day Thunder in all its forms: the uhhh-I-don’t-wanna-get-out-of-bed-Mom grumbles, far off in the distance—the basketball that bumps from one carpeted stair step to another—the large fart denied a way out of the bowels—the kind that shifts between rumble and boom that makes you wonder if it’s gonna be A Big One—the bedroom door slammed by an angsty teenager that makes the bookshelf fall over and spill all the books and knick-knacks on...

LAST UPDATED AUGUST 2015 For Spain’s North American Language and Culture Assistant program , you work 12 hours a week as a teacher’s assistant in English-speaking classrooms. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in doing, check out my post on how to apply for the program. However, once you’re accepted, you’ll have to apply for a student visa, rather than a work visa, in order to work in Spain as a language assistant. The government technically classifies the program as “continuing education” and you officially receive a “grant” each month…whatever. At least the visa process is simpler! My student visa for the 2012-2013 school year In this post I’ll explain how to apply for a student visa through the Consulate of Spain in Houston . This information applies only to those served by the Spanish consulate in Houston; i.e., residents of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and, of course, Texas. The Houston consulate’s website ...

Well, it’s official—I’m leaving the Great State of Texas for the better part of a year in September to be a language assistant in Spain . I’m overjoyed about going there, but, naturally, there are a few things I’m going to miss about home. Before I begin, I need to hat-tip Tyler Donahue —a fellow language assistant and denizen of the Metroplex—for inspiring me to write this post. He wrote about the top ten things he’ll miss  about the U.S. back in May, and I thought I’d add my two cents. Texas Star Ferris Wheel 1) Food Yes, I know, it’s terrible this is number one, but food just came to my mind first! Anyway, Tex-Mex and Texas barbeque hold a special place in my heart, and there’s just no way I’m going to be able to find it across the Atlantic. Also, I really enjoy the variety of foods available in the States; people from probably every country in the world immigrate here and bring their cultures, languages, and  their cuisines. I just love how in American cities we...