I've mentioned before that I lived at an apartment complex called La Mancha during that semester. I probably also mentioned before that La Mancha was a very popular place to live for International Exchange students, since they were one of the only places in Gainesville that offered variable length leases, including a four-month lease which was perfect for single semester exchange students. It was also nice because it had a centralized courtyard which was really a great place for all of us to get together just to hang out or to have legendary 6-keg parties.
Anyhow, I spent what seemed to be an endless first semester with my many foreign (mostly European) neighbors and my roommate Thiago, who I've mentioned before as my inspiration to work out regularly in this post. We spent most weekdays having dinner at each others houses (an activity that later inspired Wednesday Movie Nights in my sophomore year), and we spent most weekends on roadtrips. We hit St. Augustine regularly, as it was the closest beach to Gainesville. We went to Ybor City, Orlando, Atlanta, Miami, Key West, and Daytona Beach, all before the semester ended. To cap off the semester, a few of us (me, Jorge, and some of the Italians) went to the Bahamas for the first few days after the end of the semester!
I made some really good friends that semester. The friend I remember best would be Victor, a relatively short (for a Dutchman) student from Holland. He was about 6'2", and, like pretty much everyone else in Europe, loved to play soccer. He would visit just about every day, which was an easy thing to do at La Mancha because no one really ever locked their doors, and we would go play soccer or eat pizza at a small, artsy pizza joint called Rhapsody (which has since closed) with Jorge. The Italians were also a great bunch - the two Elenas, Francesco, Antonio, and Filippo. I kept in touch with those friends for a few years, but it has been a long while since we last talked.
One event that I thought of while creating my La Mancha photo gallery was the one time I have ever been to a sport event at UF besides a football game. One day, Jorge, Victor, Pablo, Didier, and I decided to check out a girls soccer game. UF's team was the defending National Champion team, and they obliterated the opposing team (I think it was Tennessee that night - I'm not sure though.)
What I am sure about, however, is that we met a celebrity that night. We met Heather Mitts, who was a senior that year, and would go on to play on the National US Womens team, as well as the Philadelphia Charge, and was also voted ESPN's sexiest Female Athlete at one time. I've seen her on TV as an analyst/announcer for soccer games, and I've seen her on magazine covers too! And now, thanks to Grant's Pad, you can see photos and action shots of my schoolmate Heather Mitts by going to her website here. Pablo, you can thank me later (you can join the fan club)!I'm going on vacation for a few days, so there won't be much in terms of new posts for a short while. Stay tuned for my vacation blog, though! I'll be putting up more photo galleries soon! Maybe you'll be in one of them too (though you probably won't look as good as Heather Mitts)! Make sure you check out the photo gallery!
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