It's hard to believe that my time at UF is over. Unlike camp, I
never ever counted down the days - I really wanted it to last forever. I felt
like I did have forever. And yet, here I am, reflecting back on what I can only
describe as the best four months of my life.
throwing around the pig-skin at the back of Weaver while we're studying
UF is the happiest place on earth. Gainesville is the most
far-fetched thing from reality that you can get. It's not real life. You do
what you want, when you want, go out as much as you want, deal with no
consequences and answer to nobody. This experience has opened up my eyes; I've
learnt so much about myself, grown so much more independent, love country music
now (yeah, what the heck? Didn’t see that one coming), and above all, met the
most amazing group of people that I know I will be friends with for probably
the rest of my life.
***
So to recap since the last time --- I'll try to keep it as brief
as possible, so here goes ---
More football. I never thought I'd say it, but I really love the
sport now. We went to Jacksonville for the Florida-Georgia game (the rivalry is
that bad, they need to hold the game in a separate city) and it was absolutely
crazy. The “hotel” we stayed at was this real sketch place that reeked of
cigarettes in every room, and their “pool” was bright green.. Within 10 minutes
of arriving my friend was offered weed and we were also informed that there was
a shooting there the night before.Nice.
The night before the game we went to the Jacksonville Landing,
which was basically this humongous party area with bands performing, bars all
around and a million people scattered everywhere. By the end of the night it
was raining pretty heavily but nobody seemed to care - we all just danced in
the rain like a Geri Halliwell music clip.
A large group of us watched the actual game the next day on a big screen in this fenced off grassed area. For some unknown reason, nearly all the girls got so drunk that they were all suddenly crying. Seriously. El and I were just sitting there like... what the heck? How did we end up in a crying party? "Do you need a cigarette?" I asked my friend. She obliged. Determined I go around the entire area asking people for a spare smoke: "Please do you have a spare cigarette? I've found myself in a group of crying girls, please you need to help me out so I can calm them down!". My story moved one guy so much that he gave me four. "Good luck", he says. The things I do.
Beautiful jax
...
***
Lisa, Trystan, El, David and I spent one weekend in Atlanta, along
with some of the other guys from Weaver. They mainly wanted to go because of a
Falcons game that was on, but us girls just tagged along so we could party. We
ended up at this strange (but great) nightclub where we partied with the likes
of Big Bird, Mr Potato Head, Chewbacca, an old near-naked man with head-to-toe tattoos, and
motherfuckin' Gumby, to mention a few.
I like this look on Trystan
***
We went to Miami for a friend's 21st which in my opinion was the
BEST city (apart from Chicago) thus far. Just an unbelievable place to be,
where the nightlife just blew me away.
Standard nightclub in Miami
Our weekend in Miami summed up in one picture
Unfortunately, it is within this city that the worst possible
thing that could ever happen to a traveller (short of death) happened to me. I
lost my passport. In fact, my whole bag was stolen off South Beach. It was the
most sickening feeling that I wish to never, ever experience again. I felt
empty. I literally had no identification whatsoever, nothing to prove who I am, and no money.
I couldn’t get back to Gainesville because there were no buses running so I had
no choice but to stay in Miami. It worked out alright though, cause turns out a
photocopy of my passport was an acceptable form of ID so I was able to go out
the next night with everybody (yeah, so I can get into mammoth clubs in Miami
using a photocopy, and yet Grog, the sketchiest bar in Gainesville, flat out
denied me entry later that week. Go figure.)
Because of this, I had to go all the way to motherflippin’
Washington D.C. to get a new one. So off I went, flew into D.C. in the morning,
went for the interview at the Australian Embassy, and flew back later that
evening. Luckily, after the interview I had a few hours to kill so I walked
down to the White House to check it out. Here I made friends with a random
Australian guy who I ended up sticking around with for the rest of the day. We
saw the Lincoln Memorial together, the Washington Monument, and posed like
douches for photos.
Me and Danny
***
Halloween was wild. I can’t inform you about the first half of my
night or the very end of the night as I am a classy lady who doesn’t kiss and
tell (Ok for real, basically, you just CANNOT script the shit that happens to
my life. The next day, David went on to say that I “won the night”). But for
the most part, I dressed up as Robin Hood / Link / Peter Pan, and we went to a
frat party to celebrate. Even just walking up to the house, it appeared as if
it was straight out of the movies.
It was absolutely packed
and everybody went all out with their costumes. Unfortunately, a couple hours
into the night some idiot accidentally tipped over this huge ass water fountain
that was in the backyard (what in the actual?) so the guy who I presume lived
there came outside absolutely livid. “Everyone get the FUCK out of my house
now! I am not joking! Get the FUCK OUT!!!” Sooo there ended up being hundreds
of us just kicked out onto the street, left to find another party to go to. All
my friends wanted to leave but I wanted to kick on – where I found another
party. But that’s a story for another day.
***
I was fortunate enough to visit the Florida State Prison with my
criminology class, which was pretty eye-opening. As you may or may not know,
Florida has the death penalty so we were taken down to death row to talk to the
inmates. I was one of those annoying students that was constantly asking
questions but hey, if I didn’t, it would have been awks as. We weren’t allowed
to ask them about their sentence, but when I got back I looked up the inmate I
was talking to - turns out he raped and drowned multiple young girls. It’s so
weird how when you talk to someone, they can come across as so intelligent and
charismatic, and yet you have noooo idea what kind of person they really are,
or what they’ve done in their past.
***
Next up was a cruise to The Bahamas!!! It was absolutely, without
a doubt, the greatest couple days of the semester. The cruise ship itself was
enormous and had a huge buffet, 24 hour pizza bar, casinos, bars and
nightclubs. Every night we had a fancy-ass three-course dinner with all of the
patrons. Of course, our table was always the loudest and drunkest. But at least
we got to line our stomachs.
One night I ended up at this little bar sitting next to a random
black guy, and of course, with no inhibitions for reason unknown, I
freestyle-sang a song to him infront of everybody there. People were clapping,
singing “ahuh” “oh yeah!” along to it…. Yeah, you can’t script this shit. We
ended up getting “married”. Unbelievable. The girls all ran over eager to be 'bridesmaids'. We just
could not stop laughing.
with the hot as hell 'priest'
i'm just so ridiculously happy
The Bahamas itself was gorgeous. Beautiful beaches, super cheap,
and awesome weather. We went to one bar where they had a ‘booty-shaking’
competition – of course, my friend Yong physically lifted me up onto the stage
with all my friends cheering me on. I jumped back into my group of friends at
least four times but he kept catching me and taking me back on. In the end I
thought I’d just do it for the lulz, but when I later found out what my
competition would be…fuuuuuuck that!
Needless to say, she won
Later there was this huge congo line all throughout the bar, with
the bartenders at different points throughout the place feeding us drinks as we
danced past. It really was the funnest night.
***
The day after we got back from the Bahamas, we were off again to a
beautiful lake house 45 minutes out of Gainesville that we hired for
Thanksgiving break. Because we drove there at night, it seriously looked like
the setting for a murder-slasher flick. That, and the fact
that the second we walked into the house the phone rang, and once Trystan
answered, they hung up. Weeeiiirrrd. But anyway. No-one died. It was a completely serene place to me. I
was so glad to have had those wild couple nights on the cruise, then have a
totally relaxing couple days following it.
Can't believe they all trusted our drunk asses to cook the turkeys
Me to Phil every 2 minutes: "Play the German song!!!"
Beautiful chills after a game of ring of fire
Every night a group of us would cook dinner for the rest of us. It
was a nice change from standard dining hall food we were all used to. Food was
great, drinks were flowing, campfires, guitar playing, shit talking… just the
perfect couple days away with the best.
***
On a whim, Trystan, Jannis, Margie and I decided to hire a
convertible and drive down to St Augustine to go see Two Door Cinema Club and
Passion Pit play. We stayed at Margie’s grandparent’s condo which was riiiight
on the beach. It was beautiful! On our first night we bought a shitload of
cheese, bread, salami, dips and wine and chilled the f out, listening to music,
and dying of laughter at Jannis being high.
in our convertible bitchesssss
wine and cheese night
***
As you may or may not know, I had my first heartbreak here in the
States, and couldn’t seem to get over it. One night while at Grog after a few
too many, I bumped into somebody from my past, who went on to inform me that he
now had a girlfriend! Stunned, I literally just RAN away. I couldn’t find my
friends in the club so I ended up crying to all these random people that I’ve
probably only spoken to once in my life. What a nightmare! Luckily I had my
favourite ever bartender working, and I cried to him for ages and he let me
even though I was holding up so many people behind me hahahahaha oh my god.
Thank FUCK I am over that. No more drunk crying occurred after that night.
Drunk crying girls are the worst.
our final goodbye!
***
My last week ever at UF was a blur. It went by so quickly. I still
feel sad now thinking about it… Everyday I’d say to the girls, “We only have x
amount of days left...” to which they’d reply, “Please shut the
fuck up about that and stop reminding us!” L Because my exams finished earlier than
most people, I was able to go out every night that week. The bars were so crazy
and packed that it reminded me of the first ever week we were there – so good.
Monday = Cantina (It was Lisa’s birthday!); Tuesday = Grooveshark’s
Holiday Xmas Party (I had no idea it was founded in Gainesville? This was an
awesome night filled with guys in suits, open bar, and a photo booth).
Wednesday = Yep, good ol’ Grog, our favourite place to hate, but secretly love.
Thursday = 0:8 Seconds (amazing country bar with line dancing and all!) and
Rockey’s Duelling Piano Bar (I absolutely adore Piano Bars. I wish it was a
thing back in Melbourne). Friday = Gator City (standard).
last gator city
grooveshark party (and isabel's best friend the snowman)
Most people left early Saturday morning, so Friday was a big
goodbye session with many a tear shed. God I’ll just miss these people so much.
Luckily a few people were staying over the weekend so I wouldn’t be lonely (my
bus for Orlando wasn’t until the following Tuesday). Becca was kind enough to
let me crash at her apartment for the time I was there, seeing as we were all
kicked out of our dorm on Saturday. Trystan and David stayed with me and it
turned out to be a great couple days, as there were still a few people left in
town to party with. We drank, listened to music and talked crap in the house,
went to Gator City to shoot some pool, more drinks at the house, went to an
“Australian” steakhouse called Outback which had items such as the ‘Thunder
From Down Under’. What a lol. It really was a nice relaxing way to end it all.
***
During my time at UF, for some unknown reason, almost every single
guy that I end up with had a hat. I honest to god do not go out with the
intention of finding hatted-men, nor am I especially attracted to them. I just
don’t know how this has become such a pattern. Well, everybody, especially the
guys, give me a LOT of shit for it. To the point where if I’m even talking to a
guy in a bar with a hat on, SOMEONE will take a sneaky phone photo and post it
on our Weaver Facebook group with the caption of, “Another hat!”, which would
attract comments such as, “Seriously Eva, this is becoming a problem”; “Eva you
have got to be kidding”; etc. It has become such a running joke that when
Trystan, David and Big J left the house to catch their flight to Vegas at 5.30am
the last morning, they woke me to say goodbye… ALL WEARING HATS. Fucking smart
asses!!! I must admit though, it was the most hilarious wake-up call I’ve ever
had. I love those boys so much.
***
Shit this was long. Well, of course, I’ve missed so many things in this, but this isn’t my
personal diary (you don’t want to read that shit, trust me) – it’s just the
highlights of my trip that I’d hope would be interesting enough to share with
you all. All in all, I think that the past four months have changed me. Not
completely, but I know I am definitely not the same person I was when I first
stepped foot onto campus in August. Before I came, I knew that I would meet
some amazing people… But seriously, it’s hard to describe the level of
closeness that we all had with each other by the end of it. It feels like I’ve
known these people all my life.
me spreading the good news. by the way, Roos' head is not where you think it is
Standard Weaver shenanigans. Australia v Germany
Undoubtedly there will be many reunions (we were even thinking of
making a big one a couple years from now in Thailand), but it’s saddening to
know that there will never ever be another time where we will ALL be together
again, each and every person. I’m sad even writing this now. I just miss
everybody so much already. Luckily I’ll be seeing a few in New York City when I
go there so it’s not goodbye just yet.
***
Now that I’ve begun the third leg of my adventure, I’m happy to
report that it’s been amazing seeing my three best friends from back home after
seven months of being away from them. Currently we’re in Toronto where it’s
-14˚C, but I’m loving just being here and I am excited for what the next two
months will bring.
Reunited at last!
Thanks for reading, and i'll keep you posted on our epic cross-country road trip!
xx eva
xx eva
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