It seems like no matter what grade I’m going into I always get super nervous and anxious the first day of school. Well today was no different.1 I started my last first day of school off with just one class and five hours of working at the CRWC (the Rec). My one and only class of the day was Intermediate German 1, which means I’m almost done with this pesky language credit. My professor sounded really cool (on ratemyprofessor.com) however I soon realized that trusting anonymous people with my college schedule was probably a bad idea. She ended up being pretty intense, which normally doesn’t scare me, but this is German and mein Deutsch ist nicht so gut (that’s about the extent of my German speaking skills, oh wait mehr Bier!).

The second half of my day was spent doing manual labor at the Rec, fixing lockers, and painting lines on the lacrosse fields (you’re welcome), and I loved it. It sounds weird but doing a job like this for hours at a time really helps you clear your mind. If I didn’t have this job I would’ve spent all afternoon laying in bed watching tv and dreading my long day tomorrow (all 5 classes from 9:30 am to 10:00 pm). And now I’m completely exhausted! Which is actually a good thing seeing how Ive been staying up all night the entire summer.

Well anyway, to all you underclassmen out there, just relish every second you have at the University of Iowa. It goes by so fast it’s unbelievable. Like the great Billy Madison once said “Stay here. Stay here as long as you can. For the love of God, cherish it. You have to cherish it.”

I think it’s funny reading the other blogs, and seeing the thousands of freshman walking around Iowa City this past week all excited and giddy for moving into a dorm. I wouldn’t say I hated living the dorms, but it was not the greatest experience for ,me that’s for sure. Back in May I moved into my new “apartment”, it’s a 100 year old house right in the heart of Iowa City. I can say without a doubt that having my own space has made my college experience even better. The fact that I have my own room, and my own privacy really allows me to just breath once in awhile.  But what I love most about my new place is the bathroom. Is it a nice bathroom? not especially. But I only share it with one other guy, my roommate, not an entire hallway of bro’s.

I wonder how long it will take before one of the freshman bloggers starts complaining about the dorms. I believe I broke after about 4 or 5 weeks. Of course I was a transferred in Junior living with a bunch of kids 2 years younger then me. I’ll give them the over.

By the way whats all this On Iowa! stuff?

Let me first start out by saying this is not my first rodeo when it comes to summer school in college. My first experience was back in San Antonio at Northwest Vista College two years ago. Remarkably, however, the reasons for taking summer school haven’t changed that much for me. My first foray at summer school was basically because I REALLY wanted to get my gen ed’s done in two years (at the time it would’ve taken two and half years thanks to my terrible math skills). This time it’s because I REALLY want to graduate this year (turns out Iowa is really expensive for out-of-staters; who knew?). So far, it hasn’t been too bad. I actually enjoy it much more than the first time I took summer classes. In San Antonio it was 90+ degrees every day, and always sunny. The last place I wanted to be was in a classroom learning about Oceanography (it fulfills a Biology credit, FYI). Up here in Iowa, though, the weather is beautiful but not so awesome that you want to be outside all day (plus it rains like every other day and the gnats attack your face, but besides that, it’s great). I’m currently wrapping up my first three-week course, America in a World at War 1931-1945 (sounds amazing, right?). On Friday, I officially begin my time with The Daily Iowan, writing sports (If you can’t get enough of my amazing work here, you can get your weekly fix now).

But by far my favorite thing about summer school in Iowa is the empty city. Not that I don’t love walking through a crowd of lost freshman getting from one class to the next in the school year, but walking around Iowa City in the summer is just so peaceful.

Oh yeah, I hit up the Rec in the summer too. You literally have the run of the place during the right hours (but yeah, you can figure that out for yourself).

Wow I just realized how long ago my last post really was, sorry for the delay, I’m sure my throngs of fans were deeply upset. It’s the end of the semester, exams are coming up, papers are due, and it’s all in all just a very stressful time in any college student’s life, mine included.

But with this post I am going to just lay it all out on the table for ya: the good , the bad, and the ugly, I remember when I was in the midst of my college hunt and all I really wanted was the truth. So if you’re anything like me you’ll appreciate this.

DORMS: OK, so dorms, as I’ve explained in the past, I wasn’t exactly thrilled with my dorm (Hillcrest if you forgot). Don’t get me wrong, for a building that was built in 1939 its not too shabby, my only qualm was that the entire dorm experience relies on who your roomy is, and who your neighbors are. And in my case I was 0/2, I had loud neighbors keeping me up at night, and a roommate who didn’t exactly see eye to eye with me. But from what I’ve heard from residents of Burge, and Mayflower, most students really enjoy living there.

STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS: My experiences with student organizations throughout the year has been really positive. If you count writing in this blog as a sort of stu/org, Ive participated in 4 just this year. They have been a great way for an out-of-stater like me to meet new people, and get involved. I’d recommend everyone to get involved in at least one student organization at some point.

FOOD: This is going to be quick, dorm food is just OK, sometimes it’s good, and sometimes it’s bad, but for the most part it’s pretty bland (hot sauce helps). But for the past week I’ve been exclusively dining at the Burge Marketplace, and wow what a difference it is from Hillcrest. The selection is HUGE, and while some things are the same at both locations (the burgers, and pizza), other things tasted a lot better. As for the restaurants around town, it’s best to try new things, don’t just always eat at Subway because you’ve been there before, try Milo’s Sandwiches downtown (definitely not a plug).

CLASSES: OK, if you’re from Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, or any other surrounding state, you’re probably going to be just fine in your studies. Now for a southerner like me, who transferred from a community college, it took me all of first semester to get acclimated to the classes up here. I’m not knockin’ on my home state, or community colleges, but Iowa is definitely full of smarties. A test that I would study all night for just to get a C, a kid from Iowa could blow off and still manage a B+. It’s Insane how smart some of these people are.

NIGHTLIFE: My experiences with downtown Iowa City have been mild to say the least. I just turned 21 a month ago so I am now privileged with the honor of drinking legally downtown. It’s definitely fun to go out with a group of friends and just chill. My advice is just be safe and know your surroundings. Iowa City is a fun place, but there isn’t anyone looking after you, necessarily.

SPORTING EVENTS: Are great, enough said. Buy season tickets for football AND basketball. And go to sporting events you may not be that into. Speaking from personal experience, gymnastics meets are awesome.

Well I can’t really think of too much else to write about. I’ll still be posting throughout the summer, giving y’all the lowdown on how awesome summer school is! (I hope you caught that sarcasm.)

As I sit in my dorm room on this lazy Sunday afternoon I cant help but look back and reflect on what a great Spring Break I had back home in Texas. It went by pretty fast, and I probably didn’t get as wild as some people did but one thing is definitely for sure, I had the best meal ever.

This little baby was by far the best burger I have ever ate. The only place you can get this bad boy is from a hole in the wall restaurant called The Alamo Springs Cafe, in tiny Fredericksburg, Texas.

And as you can see it was on the cover of the Texas Monthly’s 50 best burgers (it came it at #3, I have no idea how any other burger could top it).

But yea I just wanted to show you what I’ll be dreaming of for the rest of this semester while eating exciting dorm food. (God I’m getting hungry just looking at these pictures)

Tasted horrible, it tasted more like expired milk, that’s right sour. Long story short my team the Dirty Oars (men’s club rowing team) got beat by 44 points by the Scoregasms (aren’t these team names fun?). Now I’m not by any means a great basketball player, but I’d say I’m pretty serviceable, and I had and O-fer tonight. Zero points, zero rebounds, one turnover, and two fouls. Basically I didn’t do anything productive for me team tonight. I was the Darko Milicic for the Dirty Oars (if you got that joke HIGH FIVE!!). Next Wednesday’s game should be interesting, hopefully we can keep the score within 20.

One German class, three journalism, and one history class make up my schedule this semester, and they are fantastic. I’m always reluctant to say how easy my classes are in fear that overnight they will turn into a nightmare. But so far this semester has been really… smooth (see the wordplay). I hope this public announcement doesn’t turn around and bite me in the butt.

I want to start this post out with a question, or maybe a few. Number 1 is anyone else as sad as I am that Thanksgiving break is already over? Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Family, good food, and football, does it get much better? But this semester has just been flying by, and now Thanksgiving is already over 🙁 2 and a half weeks till Christmas though 🙂 . Question number 2, who else is peeved about the football team this year? Seriously guys? A loss to Minnesota to top it all off? I’m not going to go on a huge rant about how angered I was on Saturday but jeez fellas have a little heart to win against a rival (a terrible rival at that, and they’re the gophers? what kind of a nickname is that?) but anyway I digress. On to basketball, question number 3, who else watched that game on Friday? Final score Iowa 111- SIU-e 50. Ok ok SIU-e isn’t exactly North Carolina but jeez you beat anybody by 61 points that’s awesome, and with the blinding rage I feel towards the football team this game made me feel 100% better.

I don’t know if you knew this, but last night Jake, Amir, and Streeter from collegehumor.com did stand up at the IMU. There wasn’t as many people there that I was expecting, but oh well good seats for me! (third row to be exact) They were all very funny as expected, and afterwords I got to meet, and take a picture with them. You have to understand, I’ve been visiting this website since I was 15 years old, at least once a day, but more like 2 or 3, so to meet the guys that I’ve idolized for 5 years is a pretty big deal for me. Once I graduate Ill have my diploma on one wall, and this photo framed on another.

Obviously dark jeans are in style just look at that picture, I’m embarrassed, I honestly am….

I had my first hair cut in over 5 months today, I’m a little sad to see my long beautiful locks gone, but it does feel pretty good to have a fresh cut (jersey shore style). As you can see from my picture I’m pretty shaken up still.

Oh yea I got my hair cut at Regis, and the stylist did a really good job, but that was the most Ive ever paid for a hair cut before. One haircut, one tube of gel cost me 43 bucks!!! I almost had a heart attack when she said that. Maybe that’s why I’m sad.