January 29, 2011 · 5:32 pm

Athens Senior Bucket List

“There’s a saying in Georgia: If you lead a good life and say your prayers, when you die you’ll go to Athens.” -Princeton Review

My college career is rapidly winding down and I’m starting to reflect on everything I’ve been blessed to be able to do in Athens and everything that I still want to accomplish before graduation.  With less than a year left until commencement (Save the date, Dec. 16th 2011!) I might as well get started now!  I stumbled upon the BBC’s 50 Things To Do Before You Die List and it got me interested in creating a UGA bucket list.

Here’s my Senior Year Bucket List so far (feel free to send me suggestions/additions for the list):

1. Have a drink at every bar in downtown Athens
2. Run the bases at Foley Field
3. Make a basket at Stegeman Coliseum
4. Run the end zone at Sanford
5. Jump into the foam pit at the Suzanne Yoculan Gymnastics Center
6. Ring the Chapel Bell
7. Take a picture under the Arch in cap and gown
8. Take pictures with the Bulldog Statues
9. Complete Pauley’s “Around the World Beer Challenge”
10. Float the Broad River
11. Get a picture with the Iron Horse
12. Frisbee/Study/Nap on North Campus
13. Read a book under the Tree That Owns Itself
14. Go on a sorority Date Night, Formal, Sporting event and Philanthropy event
15. SNELL-abrate! (Eat breakfast at the dining hall after 12am)
16. Go to a local band’s concert
17. Go to at least one of every NCAA sporting event at UGA
(List is still in progress…I’d love to hear some more ideas!)

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

December 29, 2010 · 11:53 am

All Dawgs Go To Memphis

A message to the Hound Dogs traveling to Memphis:

Stick to the nice neighborhoods, don’t end up In The Ghetto of Memphis.  Be sure to cheer on the Dawgs on New Years Eve and hopefully we’ll beat UCF so no one has to check into the Heartbreak Hotel.  When you go out to ring in the new year find a pretty woman to give a Hunk of Burning Love to at the stroke of 12.  Don’t celebrate the win too hard or you may find yourself doing the Jailhouse Rock (Damon Evans style).  If you run into a cop have A Little Less Conversation and tell him your name is Johnny B. Good and you’re just having some fun!  Hopefully you’ll leave saying… “Memphis, I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You”

As most of the Bulldawg faithful make the trek to Memphis I am ending my trip to Tennessee.  I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Memphis recently and I wanted to give a few pointers to the Bulldog Nation:

*Check out Graceland, Elvis Presley’s Memphis mansion.  The King of Rock and Roll is the pride and joy of Memphis so stop by his crib.

*Get some good ‘ole fashioned BBQ.  You can’t leave Memphis without trying some pulled pork.  Ask a local their favorite spot and Let the Big Dawg Eat!

*Obviously you’ll want to watch the Bulldogs take on Central Florida, but check out some of the other Liberty Bowl festivities:

Thursday:

5pm – The Bash on Beale Pep Rally — Show some support for the Dawgs!

7pm – Memphis Tigers vs. Lipscomb basketball game @ FedEx Forum

Friday:

8pm – After Dark NYE celebration – Ring in the new year with live music and the annual guitar drop at midnight @ Handy Park on Beale St.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

December 18, 2010 · 5:31 pm

Don’t Just Go…LEAD!

Just received one of the best Christmas presents ever! I found out I was selected to be the Assistant Director of the Global LEAD Greece program this summer!  I’m so honored and blessed to be able to take a leadership role with this organization this summer.  Since I found out about my new internship all I’ve been able to do is look at pictures from previous trips.

I’m amazed by the beauty of Greece.  It looks picture perfect and stunning.  I can’t wait to get the opportunity to trek through this new country and find out more about Greek culture.  Sailing the Greek Isles and exploring the Mediterranean will be a blast as well.  Indulging in some Greek food is also pretty high up on my to-do list.

I’m excited to be a part of the Global LEAD family and ready for summer because I know that LEAD Greece is going to be the best program yet!

1 Comment

Filed under LEAD Greece

Tagged as , , , , ,

September 6, 2010 · 11:20 pm

Athens, I Love You

I love traveling.  It’s a great way to expand horizons and meet new people.  I’ve met lots of people with different ideas, beliefs, and ways of life.  I saw some amazing places this summer, but there is no place like home.  Coming back to Athens was incredible.  Once I set foot back into Athens I immediately knew I was home.

Athens, Georgia is such a special place.  Going into my senior year I really need to take advantage of it because one day in the near future I’m going to be walking across the stage at graduation.

Top 5 Places in Athens:

The Arch – I love the Arch. It connects the historic part of UGA’s campus with Downtown Athens.  The past meets the present right there on Broad St. and I can’t wait to walk under it for the first time on graduation day.

Sanford Stadium – There’s nothing like going to a football game with 92,746 of your closest friends!  Being Between the Hedges on Saturdays in Athens as a part of the Bulldawg Nation has definitely been one of my best experiences in the Classic City.

Miller Learning Center/Tate Plaza – I normally will go out of my way to walk through the MLC and/or Tate Plaza just to see people that I know.  Both are great places to find friends in between classes and I love naps on those big orange chairs outside Jittery Joe’s.

Last Resort Grill – Jhaff’s #1 pick for Best Restaurant in Athens.  Cool atmosphere, great service, and better food! You can’t lose at the Last Resort.

Downtown Athens – The Prince Review ranked UGA the #1 Party School in the nation for one reason, Downtown Athens.  It’s reputation definitely precedes it but it offers so much more than bars.  It has great restaurants and cool eclectic shops.  The music scene is also a big deal in Athens. Home to R.E.M., Widespread Panic, and the B-52s, the Athens music scene has a long history.  More recently John Mayer got his feet off the ground here filming one of his first music videos in the historic Georgia Theatre and Bubba Sparxxx got his break in the Classic City as well.

2 Comments

Filed under Georgia Bulldogs, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

August 24, 2010 · 1:03 am

“You Can Travel the World… But Nothing Comes Close to the Golden Coast!”

I hate to say it but Katy Perry knew what she was talking about when she said, “You can travel the world, but nothing comes close to the Golden Coast!”  After a summer in San Diego, Southern California definitely has a special place in my heart.  I can easily see my self moving to California at some point after graduation.  San Diego is such an incredible city I’m already starting to miss it (especially the cool Cali weather!).

The craziest thing I experienced during this trip to Cali was Comic-Con.  I had absolutely no idea what to expect at the San Diego Comic-Con 2010 but the closest thing I could compare it to is the Georgia-Florida Football Weekend (“The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail  Party”).  It is 140,000+ costumed fans running around San Diego for 4 days!  Comic-Con is interesting because anyone involved in the comic book, video game, and/or entertainment industry comes out to release their new products to the world.  My favorite part was seeing some of the red carpet celebs.  After grossly miss-using my press pass I was able to see Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Vanessa Hudgens, Wesley Snipes, and Draco Malfoy (aka Tom Shelton) among others.  It was really cool to have Angelina Jolie, Will Ferrel, Michael Cera, Seth Green, Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis all come in for the convention.  I definitely wasn’t expecting celebrities to come out for this event but I was pleasantly surprised.  Comic-Con is a BIG deal, apparently.

I got to go to the convention because I was interning for the summer at a SoCal TV station.  I worked with San Diego 6-The CW (XETV) on their morning show, San Diego Living.  This summer definitely opened up my eyes to the California job market so it was great to get some experience out on the West Coast.  Maybe I’ll be living the dream in LA someday…

Leave a comment

Filed under Comic-Con, San Diego, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

July 12, 2010 · 12:11 am

¡Viva España!

Spain - 2010 World Cup Champions!

Now that the World Cup is over and Spain has been crowned the victor it’s time for the rest of the world to join America back in its regular scheduled routines.  Watching the games and seeing ESPN broadcast all of the stadiums and the country of South Africa made me envious of the people who got to take part in the worlds most watched sporting event.  While it was only my home for a month I feel like I truly left a piece of me behind there and I will always be connected with the people of the Republic of South Africa.  Any time you leave the country you tend to notice the subtle differences between home and abroad.  Here are a few from Cape Town:

America has stop lights.  South Africans call them “Robots”.
America has fast food.  South Africa has Steers Burgers and KFC on EVERY corner.
America has ketchup.  South Africa has 1000 Island and BBQ sauce for burgers.
America has Six Flags.  South Africa has the Worlds Tallest Bungee Jump.
America has petting zoos.  South Africa has Shark Diving with Great Whites.
America has rush hour traffic.  South Africa has Elephant road blocks.
America has football, baseball, and basketball.  South Africa has
Rugby, Cricket, and the 2010 FIFA World Cup!

African Road Block

While there are obviously differences between the two countries it is
ultimately the similarities and relationships that make South Africa a special
place.  I thoroughly enjoyed staying up late into the night talking
SEC football with a Canadian tourist at a hostel and realizing that
McDonald’s will deliver McFlurrys to your hotel room.  Moments like
these remind you that in the end people really aren’t that different
even if they are separated by the Atlantic Ocean.

Leave a comment

Filed under 2010 FIFA World Cup, Cape Town, Global LEAD, South Africa, Uncategorized

June 11, 2010 · 2:17 pm

2010 FIFA World Cup!

“It closes the schools.

Closes the shops.

Closes the city.

Stops a war.

A simple ball fuels the passion and pride of nations.

It gives people everywhere something to hope for.

It gives countries respect where respect is in short supply and achieves more than the politicians ever could.

Once every four years, a ball does the impossible and if history means anything, the world as we know it is about to change.

One games changes everything.”

One of the hardest things I’ve ever done was to leave South Africa before the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup…

South Africa is a truly amazing country.  Hopefully I’ll get the opportunity to go back there one day but until then I settle for watching as many World Cup games as possible!  Bafana Bafana (“the Boys, the Boys”), the South African national team, is kicking off the competition right now and I hope the boys do well in the first match against Mexico.

I’m also looking forward to the match tomorrow between the USA and England.  The American team might actually surprise people this year and not completely blow it!

While I was in South Africa everyone’s attention was justifiably focused on the World Cup and so I watched a lot of bad soccer commercials but the two videos on this blog are probably my favorite.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , ,

June 3, 2010 · 2:21 pm

Prison & Political Unrest

Langston Hughes quote @ District Six Musuem

Part of our coursework for the study abroad program is to learn the history of South Africa.  Sometimes Americans can feel slightly removed from the political unrest and the fight for the freedom of all people when much of the action happened 5 decades ago.  It is very different in South Africa because the political unrest happened just a few years ago.

Nelson Mandela’s story is a powerful one.  He brought a racially charged country back together in times of great hardships and became the first black president of South Africa.  He was imprisoned for 27 years for his part in the civil rights movement here and he spent most of his time on Robben Island.  I got a chance to tour the political prison with some extremely amazing people.  We went with Ed Larson (a Pulizter Prize winning historian), the granddaughter of Albert Luthuli (1st black African Nobel Peace Prize winner and former president of the African National Congress) and Ahmed Kathrada (Mandela’s former cellmate and activist).  It was a very powerful experience hearing from someone who spent a large portion of his life in prison simply because he wanted the same rights and freedoms alloted to the white population.  My time on Robben Island made me really reflect on what was important in my life. What I would be willing to lay my life down for?  What cause do I care about enough to spend 3 decades in prison for?

After the tour of the island I went to the District Six and Slave Lodge Museums.  The District Six Museum honors the forcible removal of thousands of black  residents of a vibrant Cape Town neighborhood.  The non-whites were kicked out of the region and all of the buildings were demolished.  The Slave Lodge Museum (aka South African Cultural History Museum)  was built to house slaves by the Dutch East India Company in 1679.  9,000 slaves, convicts and mentally ill persons were housed here for over a century and the building now serves as a museum to tell their stories.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

May 26, 2010 · 8:48 pm

I’ve Been to the Mountain Top

“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” – Sir Edmund Hillary

Last week for a lecture on “The Power of WOW” our entire group did a sunrise hike of Table Mountain.  It’s a flat topped mountain that overlooks the city of Cape Town and serves as the cities most notable landmark.  Table Mountain sits about 1,o00 meters (3,500 ft.)  above sea level and the early morning hike was definitely a challenge.  It is possibly one of the hardest things I’ve done in a long time.  Before the trek I was imagining a Stone Mountain like journey up the mountain but the steep, windy hills definitely were nothing like the small, Georgia mountain.

Once we reached the top the hike was immediately worth it.  The views of the city from the top of the mountain were incredible.  It seemed like I was sitting on top of the world.  Cape Town is such a stunning city.  It rests between the ocean and a mountain and offers some of the best scenery in the world.  From the top of the mountain we were instructed to create a 50 item bucket list of what we wanted to do before we kick the bucket.  Here’s my tentative Bucket List from the mountaintop:

(Warning: Some items on the list are a joke! If you take life too seriously please stop reading now, because I don’t!)

1.      Visit all 50 States
2.      Visit all 7 continents
3.      Swim in every ocean
4.      Sail the greek isles
5.      Watch a Shakespearean play in England
6.      Host my own TV show
7.      Launch my own TV network
8.      Be in a major motion picture
9.      Climb Mt Everest
10.     Visit the Taj Mahal
11.     Shake hands with the President
12.     Become a CEO
13.     Inspire others
14.     Go to a World Cup Match
15.     Watch Olympic Track & Field
16.      Have tea with the Queen of England
17.      Date a Victoria Secret “Angel”
18.     Date another Victoria Secret “Angel”
19.     Start a big family
20.     Own a private island (like Nekker Island)
21.     Own a penthouse in NYC
22.     Visit outerspace
23.     Go to the winter Olympics
24.     Learn to speak Spanish
25.     Learn to speak Afrikaans
26.     Re visit South Africa
27.     Have a crazy Ranch/Zoo/Mansion (like Neverland minus crazy Michael Jackson)
28.     Own a zebra
29.     Own a giraffe
30.     Own a lion
31.     Date a pop star
32.     Start a non profit
33.     Fall in love
34.     Have a best friend I would die for
35.     Date a movie star
36.     Marry an heiress
37.     Take all of her money
38.     Go skydiving
39.     Bungee jump
40.     Make a kid laugh
41.     Drink every type of coke from around the world in its home country
42.     Become a YouTube celebrity with Claire Shurley
43.     Play with Penguins
44.     Fist pump at the jersey shore
45.     Eat sushi in Japan
46.     Write a book
47.     Hitchhike through Europe
48.     Go to Mass at the Vatican
49.     Dive in the Great Barrier Reef
50.     Climb a pyramid in Egypt

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , ,

May 20, 2010 · 1:02 pm

“Education Isn’t the Filling of a Pail”

Kids in Township

For part of the study abroad program our student group spent the night in a South African township (slums/projects) and lived off of $1/day.  I didn’t really know what to expect before this experience but I have a completely different mindset now.  Immediately off the bus we were welcomed by the entire Sir Lowery’s Pass Township community.  We spent hours playing rugby and soccer in the streets with kids and riding them around on our shoulders.  These were probably some of the happiest kids I’ve ever seen outside of Disney World!  After hours running around with them we went into our respective homes for the night.  My host family was amazing.  The father was a pastor and librarian and he built his family’s home on his own.  His children were great and reminded me of my own family at home.  Faith and education were clearly the most important things to this family.  The father was studying to earn a degree in Information Science and his college age son was in school to become a civil engineer.  All of the other kids were in school and doing well.  He told me “In Africa, without an education you will fail.”

Many times as Americans we think we will come into a “3rd World Country” and show them the “our way a.k.a. the best way” to live.  But this family taught me more than I ever could imagine about the importance of faith, family, friends, and education, no matter where you live.  I can’t wait to go back next week to spend time in this community and learn more from these wonderful people.

After our initial overnight visit to Sir Lowery’s Pass Township we were issued a challenge by the Global LEAD staff.  We were all handed an envelope and told to watch a short video clip.

After watching the clip we were told about how a church in Atlanta issued a challenge to its congregation.  They gave each member $1, $5 or $50 and told them to multiply it and change the world.  We all opened our envelopes and inside was 10 Rand (around $1US) with the instructions to use this money over the next 3 weeks to change the world.  At this point I have no clue what to do with my 10 Rand but I really would like to make an impact on someone’s life.  Feel free to give me suggestions!

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized