Wifi, where are you?
I'm currently sitting in a Borders bookstore, mooching free wifi from a neighboring restaurant and trying to come to terms with the lack of wifi access in San Antonio. Despite being one of the top-ten biggest cities in the US, wifi hasn't really caught on here...or rather, it's caught on at hotels near the Riverwalk, but nowhere else. Tourists, rather than locals, seem to be the perpetual focus of urban projects around here. This makes SA a great place to sit next to a river and drink a margarita, but it means that there is a substantial lack of basic city services (like recycling) for people who actually live here. (And, the fact that I would refer to recycling as a "basic" service means I really am an ex-Seattlelite.)
And, why am I sitting in a Borders, rather than an independent coffee shop? Because there are, like, maybe four that are "in town" (meaning, mostly outside of the loop), and of these, at least three are run by evangelical Christian groups. I'm all for freedom of religious expression, but it's hard to concentrate on a dissertation when you're encouraged to join the Bible study in the back room.
Somehow, I thought it would be easy to move here and view the significant cultural shift as a interesting sociological experiment. Instead, I find myself getting frustrated by the smallest things, and it's difficult not to feel like I'm a serious outsider. Still, I know that a city this size has to have a number of people who are somewhat like me -- it's just a matter of finding them.
(Oh, and the nicest thing about sitting in a SA Borders? Streaming KEXP live!)
