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Saturday, August 20, 2005
"Winning the War against Trees"
Today was a long one. After arriving in Tampa in one piece last night, we didn't do much except pass out after the ten hour drive. I woke up this morning to make it to the campus-wide graduate orientation on campus. Not surprisingly, it was well-organized and informative. I'd taken care of much of the stuff discussed, such as getting an ID card and the like. I even got a pretty nifty free tote bag with the graduate school logo on it and filled with cool stuff (one thing you'll learn about me is that I'm a coupon whore).
After that my girlfriend and I had the rest of the day so we drove to downtown Tampa and went to Westshore Mall to find me some smart clothes to wear on my first days. I did end up getting a few things. I used to think that I didn't care what people thought of me (and I still don't to an extent) but my first days of class and my GA/TA position will be critical for first impressions. I resisted the temptation to purchase a tweed jacket with leather patches on the elbows. I also passed up a wonderful t-shirt at Urban Outfitters that had a line drawing of a bulldozer and a pine tree and the slogan "Winning the War against Trees." I still can't stop laughing. We also found a neat little spot in the Cuban district of Tampa, which is famous for cigars. King Corona Cigars is a neat little spot; very chill inside and you can sit outside and watch all the "interesting" people walk by.
But you're not reading this to learn about my clothing preferences, so I'll continue to update with all the gory details about my first week here in Tampa for graduate school. Nothing scheduled tomorrow except we're going to try and make it over to Clearwater to spend the day at the beach, Gulf side baby. I better get all this "fun stuff" out of my system before I forget what it is.
Here are a few photos from around Tampa, including our dinner at Channelwalk (a shopping and dining district) and Ybor City, the Cuban district. Check them out on my Flickr stream.
Posted by Will at August 20, 2005 11:29 PM in Graduate School