The End of an Era

We finished up our football season with a game against Auburn--it was sad to realize that the next time we will be in the stadium is for graduation, but the game was great and the weather was perfect, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Campus was so full of tailgaters--it was a great way to wrap up the season. Since we finally made it to a game on time, we got to see a few Georgia traditions we seem to have been missing out on these last few seasons.

Mary Kate and I also got to see our favorite Church Hall Red Coat, Ashley.

After we crushed Auburn we hung around the stadium for a bit. Jenny and I naturally started swing dancing to commemorate our win and when we finally made our way out of the stadium, I was definitely sad and nostalgic about the night. I'm not the most loyal or dedicated Georgia fan, but football has defined my fall semester for the last four years, and I'm sad to leave it all behind. I'm glad I had such good company to spend the day with, and I couldn't have asked for a better way to end our last season here.

GA/FL

The last weekend of October is arguably the most important weekend of the fall semester here. Our entire student body heads down to St. Simon's for what is referred to as the largest outdoor cocktail party (a very accurate statement). Georgia students completely occupy the entire town and spend all of Friday frolicking on the beach. Then on Saturday, we all pack it in and drive an hour to Jacksonville to play the University of Florida's football team. To say that the rivalry is intense would be a bit of an understatement--its insane.

{sunsets in the middle of nowhere Georgia are nothing short of spectacular}

We left town on Thursday and drove to the most precious house ever. Even though we had 13 people and only 2 beds, we made it work and had a blast.

{One of the worst nights ever--boys can be mean--but at least everyone else had fun}

The beach was amazing--that Friday is absolutely on my list of all-time favorite moments of being a UGA student.

Jacksonville was a blast too--even though it took us an hour (literally. an entire hour.) to find a parking space, we took advantage of that time to connect with our inner Swamp People and [pretend] shoot some gators. We were completely embarrassing, but confusing Florida fans is entertaining and we were dying of laughter.

The cherry on top of an amazing weekend though? Our boys pulled through and won!! Last year, we lost, and walking out of that stadium was painful and depressing. Revenge is sweet though--Georgia fans were puuumped and even though we got lost trying to find our car (we had some serious parking issues that day) we were too happy to care.

Please note the empty Florida side. It sucks to suck.

Terrapin

A few weeks ago, we finally made the trip out to Terrapin, Athens' local brewery.

It was way out in the middle of [sketchy] no where, they had some technical difficulties that ended with us standing in line for a solid 45 minutes before we could get our drinks, but the weather was great, the sunset was beautiful, and the singer sounded like Bob Dylan.

It was one of those perfect fall nights where we spread out a blanket in a field, laughed a lot, neglected our homework, and enjoyed the twinkle lights and each others company.

After we  drank our fill of Terrapin's yummy flavors (Hopsecutioner, So Fresh and So Green, Green), we headed to a downtown fave, Transmetropolitan, for a carb load and the football game.

Even though I ate my weight in pasta, I was hit with a chocolate craving, so Katie I headed to Walker's for some hot chocolates. They were divine (Katie's was by far superior...whipped cream, mint, and grown up hot chocolate......stop).

Even after all of our adventures, I still managed to be in bed with Hulu by 10 pm...it was perfection.

 

 

Saturday

This Saturday, like all Saturday's in Athens during the Fall Semester revolves around Football. Even when our team kind of sucks, and the team we are playing is less than exciting, Athens is still bustling with alumni and fans, and tailgates take up every grassy surface on campus.

When I first started college, I simply could not find the appeal in football. However, when your entire town gets taken over by rabid fans and you literally cannot leave your house because of traffic and road blocks, you might as well learn to love it instead of resenting it. As they say, when in Rome...

This Saturday was one of my favorite game days since I started college. Even though the game was at noon, the weather made up for everything. It was crisp and breezy but the sun was shining, and we couldn't have asked for better game day weather.

We ended up leaving the game around half time because our team was actually winning (!) for once, and we got super hungry. We made our way downtown and snagged an outdoor seat at East West Bistro, which was absolutely delicious.

I had a blackened salmon sandwich on crusty sourdough bread, which came with sweet potato chips. Pure food bliss.

After a stop-over at Blue Sky we headed back to for some rest. While Jenny chose the more traditional nap-in-a-bed route, Mary Kate and I made our way down to the Oconee River Greenway for a nap in the sunshine. Even though I'm incapable of napping, resting my eyes while the sun warmed my face was kind of perfect.

Even though I was not able to head downtown to celebrate our football teams victory that night (I was ready for bed by about 6:00pm), it was a successful Saturday. It only took us four years, but I think we've just about got it right.