Andrea Willingham

I’m happy to say I survived “The Swine,” and have just returned from another fun-filled Friday night at Eckerd.

Our evening started out at “Five Guys,” an amazing burger joint in downtown St. Pete. We had a huge group, including 3 English Language School (ELS) students from South Korea with us. With the ELS program, foreign students are assigned partners with US students so they can learn English and experience our culture. The students who were with us hadn’t seen much outside campus before, so they seemed eager to embrace the experience.

After a huge dinner of burgers and fries (waaaaay more than I should have eaten after just having recovered from the flu!), we headed down to Artwalk in Gulfport. Just like last month, it was wonderfully colorful and festive this evening.

We watched a glass-blowing workshop, which was really cool. I’ve seen it done on TV before, but it’s so much more intense when you’re actually there feeling the warmth from the furnace and watching the glass warp and change from hot red to swirly transparence right before your eyes. It looked like so much fun!

In our conversations throughout the evening, the ELS students had many questions about different parts of our language and the things we were doing. It actually made me look at our own culture a little differently, and consider things I hadn’t thought about before. They had questions about how they could speak English better, which I really couldn’t answer. How does one speak English better, besides practicing a lot? It really made me think.

I was glad we had the opportunity to meet the ELS students, make friends, and be a part of their experience in coming to the US. The whole evening was incredibly enjoyable, and a great reminder of how lucky I am to be an Eckerd student.

Until next time,

Peace out.

It’s here. It’s there. It’s everywhere. It’s… the Swine Flu. And it’s spreading like wildfire. Despite new policies, procedures, and attempts to educate students on preventative practices, illness seems to be spreading across Eckerd at an impressive rate.

Emails went out at the beginning of the school year to remind students to wash their hands, cover their coughs, and self-isolate in the case of sickness. At the Eckerd library where I work, we’ve been instructed to disinfect computers and door handles periodically throughout the day. But all that seems to have done little to hold off the impending outbreak.

And it’s certainly nothing against Eckerd – schools all over the nation are encountering the same problem – when you have so many students living in close quarters, disease is bound to spread.

Over the weekend, easily half of my dorm came down with flu-like-symptoms (whether or not it’s H1N1, per se, is somewhat irrelevant at this point). Even with all my attempts not to get sick, on Monday my throat started to get sore, and by Tuesday I was feeling slightly flu-ish.

I called the Eckerd Health Center, and was told that they were booked for Tuesday, closed on Wednesday, but I could make an appointment on Thursday. Um… how about no. If what I knew was correct, the flu is only treatable within 48 hours of the onset of symptoms.

I was a little miffed that the Health Center wasn’t more competent. Considering it is the only place to get medical help on campus, it is personally my opinion that they should be open more than 4 days a week and be able to provide proper care when it is most needed.

Fortunately, one of my dormmates was kind enough to drive me and my also sick roommate to the local walk-in clinic. There were at least 4 other Eckerd students there, and once I got in to the exam room, the nurse told me they had seen 20 Eckerd students the day before!

Long story short, I was diagnosed with the flu, prescribed medication, and sent home with instructions to monitor my temperature and drink lots of fluids. By late afternoon, the flu hit full-force and I spent several feverish hours in a zombie-like state of half-sleep.

Supposedly the flu gets better and worse a couple times before it completely goes away, but this morning I feel pretty good, relatively speaking. I was instructed by the school not to return to class until I’m fever-free for 24 hours, so at least I have the day off.

Well, until next time,

Stay healthy and peace out!

This week has been really busy, but very interesting. On Wednesday, Campus Sustainability Congress organized a carpool to the local Studio@620 to attend a forum on “Sustainability Efforts on Bay Area Campuses.”

The event was a panel discussion by faculty and students from Eckerd, St. Pete College, USF, and Stetson University talking about ways they make their campuses ecologically sustainable, by working with student groups, changing lights and appliances, etc. I have to say, I was very proud of Eckerd – although we can be doing a lot more, we are really on the ball with our sustainability efforts.

The next day, I attended an Environmental Affairs Committee meeting, which basically consisted of a bunch of Eckerd professors, students, and faculty sitting in a conference room, reporting on current environmental business on campus. It was pretty interesting though. We got a briefing on our Yellow Bike Program, updates on the President’s Climate Commitment, a look at the campus master plan, and more. I found it rather eye-opening to see what goes on behind the scenes, so to speak.

Today I got a break from environmentalism and enjoyed some social time with friends. The caf was serving a dinner of steak and crabs tonight – a welcome change from the usual mystery food they serve – and afterwards we went to see the weekly International Cinema movie. This week it was a Swedish surreal film called “You, The Living,” which was a trippy combination of comedy, drama, and, well, the surreal.

It’s been a good week, but now I have 3 exams to study for and a ton of homework this weekend. Why must classes just happen to schedule their exams all on the same week?

Oh well, until next time,

Peace out.

Just like last week, this past week has had its fair share of ups and downs. Classes and homework were time consuming and stressful, and on top of that we had the annual Club Fair to prepare for.

Everything went surprisingly well, though, and Club Fair was a great success. I was there with Campus Sustainability Congress, representing just one of the 50+ clubs stationed around the quad.

The goal of the fair is mainly to advertise your club and learn about others you can join on campus. These range from athletic clubs (rugby, soccer, martial arts, equestrian, etc), to arts clubs (improv, photography, gaming, dance, etc), to activism (social justice, environment, UN, etc) and more. Most of the clubs can be found on the ECOS Clubs page.

I spent most of Saturday doing homework, and in the evening my friends and I set off for Art Walk, a twice-monthly event held in the downtown district of Gulfport, about 10 minutes from Eckerd.

Art Walk is perhaps best described as a fantastic hub of culture. All along the street, vendors set up booths and tents to sell jewelry, clothing, food, art, and everything in between. Musicians play on the street corners and in courtyards, and entertainers can be found here and there. This past Saturday was Talk-Like-A-Pirate Day, so there were even a few pirates roving about.

Art Walk is a fun opportunity to get off campus for a bit, enjoy some time with friends, and mingle with the locals. It’s definitely one of those things you have to go to while you’re at Eckerd.

Until next time,

Peace out.

Last night someone told me something kind of funny that I’ve been pondering ever since. I was down at Baywalk in downtown St. Pete with some friends, and we were in a little fossil shop called “Lost in Time.” My friend Henry (who is obsessed with dinosaurs and all things prehistoric) struck up a conversation with the owner, an ex-hippie-paleontology-guru.

The guy was really happy to see a bunch of Eckerd students in his shop (especially students who knew a thing or two about natural history), and told us to study hard and do whatever we love the most. In his own words, “Do what you love and you’ll never have a job.”

It was meant as kind of a joke, but he was also serious. If you’re actually doing what makes you happy, it’s not really work at all. Albeit, depending on your field of study it might be near impossible to get a job, but when you’re doing what you like, it doesn’t really matter.

Last week had been really tough, so I guess that’s why his words of advice made me stop to think. It was one of those weeks where everything is goes wrong, stress levels are high, and it seems like there’s no end in sight to all the homework due.

It’s really hard to love what you do when what you’re doing makes you want to cry, but the effort always pays off if you believe in yourself and your ambitions. And through all the great adventures I’ve been on thus, I have no doubt that I will continue to do what I love for the rest of my life (and probably be jobless!). ;-)

All kidding aside though, I believe more than ever now in the importance of following your dreams. No matter what you like to do, find a way and do it.

The same night we met the fossil shop owner, we also went to see the movie “9.” Coincidentally, the last line of the movie offered similar inspiration: “this world is ours now. It's what we make of it.”

On that note,

Peace out.

Saturday afternoon, my friends and I attempted to go fishing but found out that due to a change in Florida laws, we now need a fishing license. Fortunately, the license was only $9 at Wal-Mart, but by the time we got back to school, all the fishing poles had been rented out. Just our luck!

We were told to check back on Sunday, so I ended up spending the rest of Saturday doing homework and watching vampire and monster movies with my dormmates, which was a blast.

That night, we also poked our heads into the annual Sigma Block Party, which I have to admit was better than last year. I’m definitely not a party person and I didn’t care for the blasting music and crowds of students, but the event offered spray paint art, airbrush tattoos, giveaways, free food (always a plus!), etc.

The conclusion? Parties: not my cup of tea, but this one was decent as far as college events go.

After a late breakfast on Sunday, we checked back at the Waterfront and they had one fishing pole available, so my roommate and two of our dormmates and I headed out to our trusty dock at Lewis House.

It was about midday by now and we only caught a couple little Pen Fish, but when we returned to the dock at sunset to try again, our luck greatly improved. My roommate caught 9 fish total, including a couple Lady Fish, Sheep’s Head, Strawberry Fish, Catfish, and more Pen Fish. I caught 4, all Catfish and Pen Fish and I almost got a HUGE rock crab.

I’ll tell you what though, there is nothing more relaxing than sitting out on a dock at sunset, dangling your bare feet over the side, listening to the waves, watching boats go by, and the sun paint the sky with pastel shades of yellow and red. I still can’t believe I’m going to school in such a paradise.

Until next time,

Peace out.

I’ve only been back on campus for 3 days, but already I’ve found that returning to Eckerd as an upperclassman adds a whole new dynamic to the college experience.

When I look at the freshmen, I remember exactly how it felt to be starting college classes for the first time: kind of nerve-wracking, a little intimidating, but very, very exciting. Now, it’s just kind of a breeze; I still get a little nervous before starting a new class, but I feel so much more at ease with myself and the routine.

The schedule is going to be much harder this year. Three days a week, I have to wake up early for Intermediate Spanish at 8:30am. I think this is going to be one of my most challenging courses this year, because it is taught completely in Spanish. And after having only taken a year of college Spanish before this, I feel totally unprepared. Plus, who can think in a foreign language at 8:30 in the morning anyway?

Twice a week I have a course called “Asian Religions & Ecology,” which explores how Hinduism and Buddhism affects peoples’ perception and treatment of the environment in Asia. It’s a junior level class, but I think it’ll be interesting, if not a little challenging.

Tuesdays are quite busy. In the morning, I have my twice-a-week Intro to Economics of the Environment class, followed by twice-a-week Political Science Research Methods after lunch, followed by my work study job at the library immediately afterward. Whew!

On top of all this, I’m starting an Independent Study with my mentor to help create a campus garden, where students will be able to own plots to grow and harvest their own food. We’re doing this partially in conjunction with the new environmental dorm, which will hopefully be a big success this year.

So that’s my life right now in a nutshell. It’s cool to be a sophomore, but a little exhausting until I get used to it, I guess. I’m excited though; I feel like if I can do all this, I have a little something to be proud of.

Until next time,

Peace out.

Last year I put together a video montage of my first semester at Eckerd, and it turned out to be a big hit with friends and family. So, in keeping with this new “tradition,” I made a new one for my second semester (Spring 2009).

It’s a fun way to look back on fun times. And hopefully it gives you an idea of what life is like at Eckerd College – for an Environmental Studies geek like me, anyhow. Enjoy!

I’ve had a really crazy summer, and I’m looking forward to starting my sophomore year at Eckerd in a couple weeks. I have to say though, it was possibly one of the most unforgettable summers of my life.

Just a couple weeks after I got home from school in May, I set off across the state to go find a rare bird that had been reported in Jacksonville. I never would have done anything like this before, but I guess college has changed me in some significant ways. I find myself taking more risks and just spontaneously going off to try new things and see new sights.

Long story short, I ended up hitching ride with 3 birders who I didn’t previously know. As it turned out though -- and lucky for me! -- two of them were the top birders in the state of Florida, and took me under their wing (no pun intended!) on a whirlwind day of birding in Jacksonville.

An interesting coincidence: one of the birders I was traveling with turned out to be an Eckerd alumnus! He was a history major in the 1970s, and now works as a history teacher at a bay area middle school. And an even crazier twist – he lived in the exact same dorm I’m living in now. Talk about weird!

Well, the rare bird (called a Greater Sand-plover, native to the middle-east and only seen in the Western hemisphere once before) was easy to find. Sitting in the middle of a vast mudflat, there was a crowd of birders, naturalists, photographers, and journalists stationed a few hundred yards away with their cameras, binoculars and spotting scopes trained on the bird.

The Sand-plover was rather unremarkable for all the excitement surrounding it – a little orange, grey and white shorebird darting around catching crabs in the sand. Still, it was great fun and an amazing experience.

The rest of the summer was pretty low-key until my big trip in the beginning of August. I volunteered at a nature preserve, worked on some new piano music, and spent most afternoons biking and swimming.

So now I have about 10 days until I return to Eckerd, reunite with my friends, and start classes all over again. I get the feeling it’s going to be a really tough year – new responsibilities, a difficult schedule, new people – but it gives me all the more reason to stay positive and enjoy the experience to the fullest.

Until next time,

Peace out.

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!