EckerdLife

So after an awesome semester in Lisbon, it was finally time for me to be state side again.  But inorder to evade US soil for just a bit longer my brother, Ryan, came out to help me pack and we took quite the detour.  So after showing him the ropes around Lisbon...

 we started our trek East (instead of West).  Barcelona was awesome and I finally got to use that Spanish that I've been saving up haha.  And after a pub crawl and getting lost in downtown Barcelona by myself...it was time to venture on to Switzerland where we could see the sights (and some emo cows). 

Haha so after waking up in a park to a crazy lady screaming and chasing some people down the street, we had to hit the road to our heritage.  Since family is predominantly Czech, we were off to Prague.  It turns out that there was a bachelor party on our train so our trip was made more comfortable when they invited us to party with them and we got to drink whiskey out of a gas can haha.  Prague was incredibly beautiful, the food was delicious and the night life was out of control.  I have to say I love hostel life.  They are just full of adventurous people who are friendly and are just down to have a good time. Europe was a blast, but its probably better we left when we did because we were absolutely exhausted.

So Kristen and I decided to hop in a bus and go south for the weekend. We decided about an hour before our bus left for the Algarve so we were basically sprinting through the metro station trying to make it on time. We didn't even know were we were going to sleep so we brought sleeping bags because we didn't have ANY money. But somehow one of our couchsurfing requests came through and we had a place to crash for the weekend. Interestingly enough we stayed with a Latvian couple who just moved to Portugal. Is it wrong that we didn't know how to pronounce their names? (oops) But they were a blast they took us bar hoppin in Albufueira and for some reason there were copious amount of men dressed as chimney sweeps....hmmm... The next day we went and climbed some of the cliffs on the beach.  It was so beautiful there.  Kristen and I had a grape seed spitting contest but we got distracted with the other possibilities that grapes could provide.... Thanks for everything Dana and Aichels (At least I think that is how you spell it).

Ok so when we were venturing around Evora not to long ago we got a little hungry and pulled some oranges off of the trees there...They were the best oranges I have ever eaten!!!!  I think I ate like 6 and even smuggled some back on the train...visual aid...haha 

 But even more interresting...is that there is a restaurant here in Lisbon called Orange.  You can get a good meal and all you can drink sangria or beer or whatever for only 10 euros.  Its awesome!  Haha its become a habit that Alex and I decide to "go vertical" with our glasses and I end up carying him home lol

Moral of the story is that in Portugal oranges are gooooooooooooooooood.

Back to the place where time moves more slowly, to the land of orange groves and roadside produce stands. Back to the winding roads, to the big lakes surrounded by tall cypress trees. Back to my own bedroom with blue curtains and little model horses lining the shelves. Back to the place where I fall asleep to the sound of rain pattering against the window. Back home.

Coming home is so different now. It’s almost like going back in time, even though it hasn’t even been a year since I started college. And yet, there is something infinitely comforting in returning to the place where I grew up, coming back to my family, our pets, and all the things I’ve always known.

What a strange experience it is growing up! Each time I come home, I can see how much I am changing.

Some things are harder; I have my own opinions and ideas now, and sometimes they conflict with those of my family. I guess that’s something I’ll be learning to deal with over the next few years.

Other things are wonderful, though. The silence, the peacefulness, being with my brother and sister, playing with the dog and my parakeet, and just feeling more independent.

My freshman year at Eckerd College was officially the most amazing year of my entire life. It was rollercoaster, for sure, but one that I want to keep riding over and over again for the next three years. :-)

Until next time,

Peace out!

So this year has come to close for me as of today, my exams ended and my full time summer employment is just around the corner. I had a blast this year, met a lot of people, opened my mind up to so many new things, and hopefully established a few interested readers out there =)

Enjoy your summer everyone!

-James

PS-This isn't necessarily the end, but I no longer have school related things to discuss as school has ended. I may occasionally update you on my summer whereabouts/happenings.

So since I got a new computer you now that I'm doing a semester in Lisbon.  Its really awesome; so many travel opportunities...I got to go to Morocco for spring break which was the most unplanned, craziest and probably the dirtiest adventure I've had.  Atleast in Malawi we slept under a mosquito net and had some sort of gameplan.  Morocco was just chaos.  Trekking throughout the whole country, desert as well as coast, with surf boards, no language and no where to sleep.  Fortunately there were markets where we could afford to buy some bread and cheese (basically all we lived off of for 9 days).  So when the opportunity arose to eat some fried fish, I learned post ingestion that I ate the entire fish, heads included haha.  Although I didn't get sick I was surprised to find that my insides weren't torn apart my fish skeletons. 

Marrakesh was probably one of my favorites, snake charmers, snail stands and entrepreneurs selling teeth, yes human teeth.  We met some British hitchhikers there and crashed with them for a few nights on the roof of a building near the main square.But after a week in a country where alcohol is illegal, we were ready to get our hands on some Spanish wine.  What we did not consider was that on our 16 hr bus ride back to Portugal there were few opportunites to utilize the facilities.  In short, while Owen was peeing into a bottle he missed and peed on the only jacket I had.  Haha I guess thats what I get for losing the bus tickets huh?!

Classes are officially over, as of this past Friday. My friends and I celebrated by going to see the new Star Trek film, because we’re geeks like that. I have to say, though, it was phenomenal, and a great way to spend our last Friday together.

On the way back, we ended up getting lost in possibly the sketchiest part of St. Pete. For about 15 minutes, we wove our way through a maze of freakishly deserted streets, only passing a few pimped out cars every so often – not a great place to be at 11 o’clock at night. But, we survived and eventually found our way to the on ramp of I-275 South, and made it back to Eckerd in one piece.

The rest of the weekend has been (and will continue to be) spent studying for finals. I have two exams on Monday and one on Wednesday, before I get to go home and try to readjust to “normal” life again.

I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t get accepted for any internships for the summer, but, there’s always next year. I’ll enjoy the down-time until our family vacation in August, and then in September, it’s back to school again! Yay!

Well, enough procrastinating. I’d better get back to studying.

Until next time,

Peace out… or should I say, Live Long and Prosper!

Last weekend I took my clothes off for the homeless. I know what you’re thinking! But trust me, it was done tastefully because ECHO (Eckerd College Homeless Outreach) threw an underwear party in our very own Triton Pub where students could come and donate their old clothes right off their very own backs, dance, drink, and listen to RAP. Mmm, rap music. My favorite…

In other news, The Ape’s parents are in town, and (so far) I’ve gotten two free meals out of it (The Ape = Aprille = my roommate). We went to Bonefish Grill, a snazzy seafood restaurant AND Fresco’s Waterfront Bistro in downtown St. Pete. I’m not as a big of a mooching roomy as you might think though, because I treated the whole family to Ben and Jerry’s afterwards. Because I’m nice. 

I really should go to bed now though, because I have to wake up early in the morning for Inside Nazi Germany class where a group of students will be debating the following proposition: 

“Explaining the motivation behind the perpetrators of the Holocaust is actually quite simple. Nurtured in an environment of extreme anti-Semitism, most ordinary Germans were convinced that the Jews were either sub-human or an immediate threat to German security. Because of their anti-Semitic background, the great majority of Germans were able to put aside moral scruples fairly easily and, when asked, to become Hitler’s willing executioners.”

As I predicted, last weekend was pretty busy.

Kappa Karnival was not as great as everyone made it out to be (in my opinion, at least). It basically consisted of a few sketchy-looking carnival rides, an inflatable slide, some fortune-tellers, tattoo stations, and a petting zoo.

Bottom line: Fun, entertaining, but not especially remarkable.

The next day, after a field trip to the Pinellas Living Green Expo (which was pretty cool), I went to see the student production of Into the Woods. It was phenomenal! The cast ranged from biology to theater majors, freshman to seniors, and there was a live orchestra as well, consisting of all student musicians. It was such a blast and I was super impressed by all the hard work everyone put in, making it look like a flawless effort!

Sunday I was supposed to go on a field trip, but I ended up catching a cold, so I stayed behind and celebrated my roommate’s birthday with her and some friends.

With the weekend behind me, I had an Earth Science test on Monday, which I almost-aced. It wasn’t perfect, but good enough get an A in the class and get exempt from the final exam. Yay!!

So, my spirits are pretty high right now. Next week is going to be tough with finals and all, but I say, bring it on!

Until next time,

Peace out.

So I spent last week fixing my car over at my grandfathers house in Sarasota with a good friend of mine (Lucas). We had to put on two upper control arms and ball joints to keep that thing running sound, but we got it done pretty quickly once we figured out what exactly it was that we needed to do!

Saturday was my grandfathers birthday, so I went back to his place, just myself this time, to stay the day with him and celebrate his birthday, although he is like me and found it to be rather unnecessary to celebrate something as silly as a birthday lol.

Sunday was the Mr. Triton man pageant here at school, where I went to cheer on Lucas in his efforts to  raise money for the Make a Wish Foundation. It was...interesting to see the acts that people created, although many of them involved as little clothing as possible and some crazy antics (Needless to say, I'm waiting for Mrs. Triton to hit the scene next year).

As for my life in the near future, it will consist of lots of writing of papers because finals are next week and many of my classes are requiring a "final paper" that is due this Friday. I have yet to actually start writing them, but I have some good ideas in mind. Hopefully they pan out okay, wish me luck!