Surviving at UF is no easy task. For groceries, I’ve tried going to Aldi by bus, which takes very long. I also tried going to the same Aldi by bike, which is perfectly doable, except for the way back… All food turns brown really quickly because of the humidity (bananas turn from green to brown in 4 days). At least shopping at Amazon has been made more easy, since there is a 6-month prime trial for students. The easiness of shopping at amazon is something I miss at Walmart/Target, these places are so big that even the employees have to use an app to find the right division where the products are. For now I think my best bet is to go beg to people with cars to take me with them when they go grocery shopping. 😅
The biggest difference that I notice now, is the luxury of eating whatever, and whenever you want. Daily egg/midnight yoghurt is no problem. I’ve also noticed that I have more time on my hands, since the academic level here is somewhat lower than I’m used to at TUDelft.
It’s the fourth week, and I haven’t found a single alligator. Even though everyone tells me they are everywhere. At least I have taken revenge on this matter, by eating an alligator tail (!!!) burrito at Boca Fiesta, downtown. It tastes like sea chicken. I also tried the Boba Mango milk tea, at Bento, an Americanized Asiatic restaurant. Which had gummy-like “fish eggs”, as a friend put it.
Dayglow Paint Party!! We decided to go since it is free entrance (in heart and kidneys I stay Dutch) and because it sounded promising. And it was! The only worry I had was that it would not be easily washable, so I brought my most expendable clothes and hoped for the best (it turned out to be washable of course).
Tuesday, all classes are canceled because of the hurricane Dorian, as well as the next day. Little did we know that Dorian decided to alter its course and not bother us at all. However, a hurricane goes hand in hand with a hurricane party of course! This party was not cancelled naturally. At my Weaver Hall, on the first floor, a party was organized with different drinking games (BYOB for legal reasons). And here I met the first American with the claim of having Dutch roots, who actually could speak Dutch as well. It is common to hear Americans talking about also being of another nationality but not being able to speak a word in that language.
On Thursday, I had the luxury of being able to hitchhike with a friend to the Aldi, this friend couldn’t stop making fun of the fact that I actually was willing to buy meat etc. at the Aldi, making claims as “are you actually gonna eat that??” or “Ohh that’s gross!”. She, and some other random person at the Aldi, recommended me to go to the Publix supermarket after, so we did. Where I also got to try a Pub Sub. Being back at 7.15PM, we tried to get free shirts before the volleyball game of UF-Stanford. Unsuccessfully, since they came 4 shirts short for us to obtain one. It is a nice feature that all games (except for football, for which I got the season ticket), are free for students at UF.
It’s Friday, which means it’s time for: Gatornights! This day we decided to stand early in the line (more than an hour before it starts) to get a stuffed gator. After standing in several lines we finally got one! Well, half of us did. On this event they had also a mechanical gator for us to try out, this is the first time that I get why you have to sign a waiver before such an event since I arrived to the States (ouch!).