Floridays

I made it to Tampa!! I know that this post is a bit late, I've been here for almost a month, but I've been busy creating a life for myself. Everything is going well so far, and I love it here. Actually living in Tampa and attending USF is better than I ever imagined it to be. It has been a challenge though, but most things in this life worth doing are.

The above picture is of a banner that my sister made for my "beach send off shindig." It now hangs above my desk to remind me, on days when I can't go to the beach because I'm writing a paper, why I came here.

I've had some interesting experiences trying to find my way around the area, but I always manage. The worst one though was when I went to a beach on Anna Maria Island. I had been to the USF St. Petersburg campus to look into sailing at the waterfront and I decided to go to the beach on my way home. I made it over the bay on the Sunshine Skyway, (it's a really big bridge that takes I-275 over the South end of Tampa Bay) through Palmetto, and into downtown Bradenton without any trouble. When I found Manatee Ave. W. I followed the signs to the beach. I parked in a sand lot and walked to the ocean. I was by myself, without a swim suit or a towel, but I was up to my waist in salt water, and as a school of minnows curiously examined the sand between my toes I watched a sailboat tack on the horizon and thought to myself that I had to be one of the luckiest people in the world. That was until I left and got completely lost on the way home. I made it through Bradenton okay, which is a miracle because the street that goes to the interstate dog-legs in downtown and every street seems to have three names and goes one way, away from the interstate. I got to Palmetto and as the bottom fell out of an afternoon storm I drove around following signs to an interstate that didn't seem to exist. I was able to find I-75 with the assistance of a map that I had bought in Bradenton, but had not previously needed, and a phone call to my dad who had been there before. When I got home I got on google and mapped out a new, much simpler route to Anna Maria, and I'm hoping to go back sometime in the next couple of weeks. It is, by far, one of my favorite places here.

I've had other adventures as well, most of which involve my roommates, the other two Americans that live on my hall, and all of the German and Danish exchange students who live on my floor. We've had some very interesting conversations and some pretty crazy nights. I don't know many people here, yet. Students don't really talk much to one another here before class like we do in Chattanooga. Classes are the one really frustrating thing for me here.

I'm in four English courses and one American history course. It seems as though all of USF's senior level English courses are UTC's junior level courses. I've already covered most of the material that I'm studying here. I had to read a narrative by Mary Rowlandson for my women's lit course here, but I had previously read it sophomore year in American Lit. Now we're reading Pride and Prejudice, but I read that after I went to the Jane Austen Center in Bath, England last year. In Literary Criticism we're reading Plato, Horace, and Sidney all of which I read either my senior year of high school or in my gen. ed. philosophy course sophomore year. I came here to learn something not to be redundant. USF is an awesome school, but like any university, certain departments are going to be better than others, and apparently English is not one of their better ones. I am learning a lot about living on my own in a big city though, so it's okay.

That's pretty much it from Tampa for now. I have some reading to do, and I'd like to make it to Honeymoon Island for the sunset so I've got to be going. For anyone wondering, I have gotten into sailing here, but that's another post in itself so we'll get to that later. Have a good weekend, and if you're in Tennessee, enjoy the fall for me, that's something we don't really have down here; and no, I'm not complaining, simply stating. ;) Take care.