Well, Saturday heralded the first football game for UF. Anastasia managed to get two student tickets, so I went along and passed myself off as one of her friends. Her friend had managed to generously “lose” his ID card, and that was good enough to get me in, apparently. The game itself wasn’t hugely exciting as it was more of a pre-season opener than anything… there were a bunch of rude people trying to jam more people than they should have into the seats around us and for a goo portion of the proceedings I either couldn’t see, or kept getting shoved by the people around me. Anastasia, while somewhat sympathetic, was a little more into the football (as she is wont to be). Since the student section is standing room only, I suspect I won’t be going to very many more football games. I’m not a Gator and while I can enjoy watching a football game, it’s not a sport that I’m passionate about – in short, I’ll keep to the couch for the football, methinks. While I know that Anastasia is both a Gator and extremely passionate about football, I suspect that it won’t be something we’ll be sharing in at the games too much unless I can be in a seat I can at least sit down in from time to time. ^^;

On Sunday Anastasia and I drove down to Tampa for Jules’ going away party. Our darling Julianne is heading off to Morocco soon to join the Peace Corps. She’ll be away having adventures for a couple of years, and we won’t be getting to see her in the interim unless we make a trip to Morocco. Given that I’m most likely going to be over in Japan for that period, I suspect we’ll just have to hook up after we’re both done on our respective international jaunts. Anyway! The party was interesting, a bunch of relatives and friends of Jules that I’d never met before, as well as a few that I had. The food was supposed to be Moroccan-themed, although I think some things went in a little peculiar direction. Still, good food. Was a little odd at times as I still don’t mingle hugely well when I get thrown into situations like that. Sometimes I can, sometimes I can’t. *shrug* Anyway, after the party, Jules, Anastasia, Anastasia’s cousin Ryan and I went out for drinks at the Rack. A bit more fun and chatty, since it was just the four of us. After that we all went back to the condo and crashed out.

Today we had a bit of a slow start, then went out with Jules shopping for digital cameras, so that she could take oodles of pictures while she’s away and show us all what it’s like over there. Eventually we said goodbye to Jules… it was weird saying goodbye and knowing that it was for such a long time. I mean, I’ve done it before with people going overseas from NZ, and when I left NZ back in 2005… I guess I just hadn’t done it here in the US yet. At least now I know when I get that feeling of “I know I’ll see this person again… not sure when, but I will.” Definitely got that feeling with Jules. I don’t know when, or how, or whatever… but I’ll see her again, I’m sure.

Anyway, after all that, Anastasia and I went back to the condo, packed up our stuff and drove back to Gainesville. Chinese for dinner, then Anastasia was off to her Phi Rho meeting, leaving me to do some study of game stuff for the evening. It’s certainly becoming more encompassing as I try to learn more and more. I’m looking forward to being a part of the industry proper. Lots more to learn, lots more to figure out… but plenty of time to get to it, I guess. ^^