Summer plans

In case you are interested, here is going to be my summer itinerary. The attached is the schedule for the 6 week program and then afterwards is the schedule of our eurotrip.

June 26 - Depart from Rome to Athens

June 29 - Depart from Athens to Amsterdam

July 1 - Depart from Amsterdam to Barcelona

July 6 - Depart from Barcelona to Paris

July 10 - Depart from Paris to Rome

July 12 - Depart from Rome to Chicago

Only 9 more days until we leave. I'm pumped!

Saturday Recap

Saturday May 1st was Illinois Marathon day in champaign-urbana. This was my first time every participating or even attending any marathon type event. At the beginning of the day (6:30 am), the weather didn't look to promising. I felt kind of sick too, which didn't help my running at all.

The race got started around 7:50 to the west of assembly hall. We started at a really good pace, but began to slow down as the race progressed and we all kind of split up. The first 5 miles went by pretty quickly, but after I started to struggle a bit. At this point, I realized that I should slow down a bit and pace myself a little better. When I reached the first water table it was quite a relief. One of my favorite parts was dumping water on my head and throwing the cup on the ground, I felt like a real runner.

When I got to stony creek in Urbana ( about 6 miles in), I had to give in and walk a little bit. At the exit of stony creek came the first gatorade table which I was excited for. The gatorade was way too strong though. They mixed it up and used way too much powder which made the gatorade less than enjoyable. It did make me feel better than the water.

After that came the park which was easily my least favorite leg of the race. The path was very narrow and wound through a humid, uncovered forest preserve. On a normal day it might have been nice to run in, but there were tons of people on the tiny path, and the sun was beating down on us. At one point some girl elbowed me out of the way to pass me and I would have gone after her if she wasn't running so fast.

I was extremely relieved to get out of that place. At this point I was around mile 9 or 10, and I got a little more energy with the help of some more gatorade. The rest of the race was through the neighborhoods of Urbana and leading back to memorial stadium. I was extremely happy that I knew where I was again as I could gauge the distance until finish. I was running a lot slower now, but the wide streets of urbana coupled with the pack of people thinning out gave enough room to spread out.

One of the coolest parts of the race, I thought, was all of the people cheering you along the whole course. The people in this town really supported everyone and I didn't realize it but the places where there were more people watching, it was easier/more enjoyable to run.

When I made it to mile 12, I picked up the pace again for the final mile. I felt good about passing a lot of people as they were slowing down, and it felt great to cross the finish line at the 50 yard line in memorial stadium. Final time of 2 hours 16 minutes 4 seconds. My family was waiting there to drive me back home (thankfully) because my legs felt like they were rooted to the ground when I tried to walk. After taking a shower and short nap, (and getting those shoes off) I felt a lot better.

I said afterwards I would never do something like that again. But now that I've had some time to think about it, it was a really rewarding experience. If I train a little more, I can really decrease my time, and maybe one day I'll do a marathon (maybe next year).

Anyways, we ended up going to Black Dog bbq in Urbana for dinner (suggest by Swong). It was really good. It actually impressed my dad as the sides were better than his hometown favorite, smoque.

The day seemed really long (because I never wake up at 6:20), but it was a really awesome experience. And I got a pretty sweet medal.

Events

I know I haven't posted much lately. I think I prefer to write one bigger post once or twice a week instead of smaller ones everyday. This takes up less of my time and it should be more informative for my loyal viewers. With that, here are some upcoming events that I am looking forward to.

MNM olympics which will consist of events both in drinking, intelligence, and strength. We are going to play it in either teams or countries which will be a lot of fun.

Last full week of classes. No more homework will be a good thing, and only 3 finals this semester.

Next Saturday the half marathon. I've been slacking on running lately so hopefully I can still finish in under 2 hours.

Just a couple more weeks of school and then off to Italy!

Our entry to the 48 hour film contest

Hope you like it

shower drain

I'm kind of scared to take showers now.

We have to share 1 shower between the 3 of us. Every time after someone uses it, there is one disturbing problem. Hair. I'm a fairly hairy guy, but it doesn't fall off of me when I'm in the shower. After my roommate takes a shower, there is a fur ball in the drain. I have come up with a couple of theories. 1) Our shower drain is alive and grows hair now. 2) He sacrifices squirrels in the shower (I have the most evidence for this one so far). or 3) he showers with a cat. It annoys me that the pipes have become so clogged that I am taking a bath now every time I want to take a shower. He doesn't even notice it either. We have tried leaving it there so that maybe he will notice its happening after he takes showers, but he just goes about business as if everything is hunky-dory. The worst part is when I have to clean it in order to take a shower. I have to wad up many many sheets of toilet paper and turn my head as I reach down to pick up the specimen. Many times I have gagged during the process. Delaying taking a shower until after Rick seems to be the only solution to that problem. I don't think I can ask him whats going on either. It would be kind of weird asking why he sheds like a grizzly bear. Anyways, thats what has been bothering me lately. I went to take a shower 30 minutes ago and the drain had an afro, it was disgusting.

Herro

i should post more

Bday

So I turned 21 the other day and I went to chipotle for lunch as I said I would. I ordered a beer with my burrito and when they checked my ID she saw that it was my birthday and decided to give me the burrito for free. Score thats why chipotle is awesome

sennheiser rules

For my business technical writing class, our second assignment of the semester was a direct request. This involved researching a company, its products, services, advertising, and target audience. Using that information, we had to leverage the company into sending us free stuff. I chose Sennheiser because they make quality headphones. Since I am running at least 3 times a week now, I figured it would be a good idea to ditch my shitty headphones that fall out of my ears. So I decided that Sennheiser's CX-380 sport headphones would be a great target to write for.

Well look what showed up in the mail today (3/15).

The letter was sent out on 3/1, so thats a pretty swift response considering I gave a deadline of 3/20. The only thing is that they sent me MX 75 sports because they were out of CX380. I'm not complaining though. In case you can't read the note that came with it says "Hi Sam- I'm all out of CX 380... I hope this does the trick. -E-". He wrote that on the back of a business card. Here is the letter:

According to both amazon.com and sennheiser's website, this retails for $69.95. Sweet deal! Thanks Sennheiser! And to make it even better, I get an automatic A for the assignment, worth 20% of my semester grade.

Friday when I went to see the concrete crusher, I locked my bike up outside of Talbot. When I went to leave, the lock wouldn't unlock. It's ridiculous. No I didn't forget the combination. How does a lock just stop working? Is it because of the moisture and rain. wtf. My bike is now stuck at the lab. I have to walk everywhere. lame

no class

This weekend is EOH (engineering open house) and I am fortunate enough to have all of my classes cancelled tomorrow. This is great news. I will probably go to the giant concrete crusher in the basement of Talbot for the demonstration. We are going to do this in a lab for 300 this semester I think, but its fun to watch anyways especially if you don't have classss! I might check out some of the other competitions for a little bit, but I will have to study a little bit for the 300 exam on monday and the 310 quiz (airports finally). Friday night is beruit. Excited about that one. We got the 8th seed out of 30 which is our highest yet in any semester. Oh yeah and I have to run tomorrow.

Dear Prudence

Its getting real nice in shampoo banana so I'm going to have to start running outside soon. Running outside has its advantages and disadvantages. Its good because you can run anywhere without passing the same place twice, it feels better than running inside, and I don't have to go all the way to the arc or crce. Running outside can be bad because the sidewalks here suck (lots of fatigue and thermal cracking, some potholes), you must stop at stoplights/signs to avoid getting struck by cars, and its weird running among other people who aren't working out. But seeing as the half marathon is getting closer (may 1st), I need to start doing long runs which would be a lot more enjoyable outside. Speaking of enjoyable runs, my headphones suck. I'm waiting on my free headphones, Sennheiser. If they don't come by spring break, I'll have to go and buy a pair at the union.

food

All I've eaten for the past 2-3 weeks has been either:

• Noodles and cottage cheese (the quality of cottage cheese in champaign sucks compared to home)
• Pizza bagel (home made not that frozen shit)
• stir fry

Not saying any of those are bad. They are all awesome, but starting to get sick of them. Need to go home and restock on food supplies, go to good restaurants, and have a refrigerator full of food.

My birthday is 2 weeks from today and I'm excited for my lunch plan. I will be dining on chipotle. In addition, I will be the first person I've ever seen to order a beer with my burrito (probably a XX). I'm kind of hungry now...

what do you meeeow

summa

After talking about where we want to travel after the 6 week program is over, we decided on 5 countries. I couldn't be happier with our choice of destinations:

1. Athens

2. Berlin

3. Paris

4. Amsterdam

5. Spain (we haven't decided which city yet)

We will be staying anywhere from 2 to 2 and a half extra weeks so that will be 2-3 days in each place. I think there is going to be six of us traveling together. Can't waitttttt I'm psyched.

one more time

I've been listening to a lot of music lately so I decided to make a top5 of the concerts I've been to:

5. Phish at Toyota Park in Bridgeview 8/11/2009

This concert wasn't amazing by any means. First off, it took us 3 hours to get there sitting in bumper to bumper traffic. Our seats were pretty far back, and the song selection wasn't the greatest. But it was Phish. They are legendary. They did debut a new song "windy city", which is the song from this video. The light show was pretty cool, and the crowd was awesome. Also, they played "Harry Hood", my favorite Phish song.

4. Summer Camp Music Festival 2009

Summer camp is like no other place. There was no computers, cell phones, or tvs. Crazie hippies roamed the camping grounds, and there was a lot of awesome music. The best part was chilling in the middle of the forest. We had our tents set up in a little village called dickland where everyone was very friendly. The whole thing sounds kind of ridiculous, and it was (what else is in Chilicothe Illinois?). But everyone had fun for 3 showerless days, and Jeff Pearl repaid me for the sandwich incident from freshman year. JUICE

3. The Decemberists at Millenium Park July 18,2007

So this was the first real concert I had ever been to.

It was even more awesome because it was in the Millenium Park theater.

They played all of the good songs (oh valencia, 16 military wives were my favorites).

And afterwards it rained like a bitch and we got soaked walking to the train station.

2. Girl Talk New Years Eve Chicago 12/31/2009

I've been to 4 or 5 girl talk shows, but this was easily the best one.

Not only was the set awesome (a house that people were dancing in), but there was a ton of energy from the new years crowd.

Don't think I stopped dancing at any point during that concert.

1. Daft Punk Lollapalooza 2007

Look at the banner up top and this video.

No description necessary.

And for those of you who think electronic music sucks, screw you.

The lineups for this years festivals are awesome. LCD Soundsystem, Jayz, Gorillaz, Muse.... My good friends dp would say "musics got me feelin so free"

Caw

Don't remember reading this one.

rawr

great video and song

:( liver

With spring around the corner, there is a certain smell in the air. Not flowers. The spring beruit tournament. I never get excited about fraternity events, unless its this tournament. The competition is fierce, the games are intense, and wild things happen (such as mcnamara/dayan almost beating us two semesters ago in the most fun game I've played in). Kibbles and I will reunite as the Blouses for hopefully another run into the playoffs. We are angry after an early exit last semester and we are looking to bounce back. Ever since the epic finish to my fall 09 tournament I've made it my goal to get back into the elite 8.

For those of you that don't know: Let me take you back to April 2009. Kibbles was on the disabled list with yet another bout with pancreatitis. This brought together the unlikely team of me and Jake Klein. Coming in as major underdogs, we made it through the round robbin with a 4-1 record. This was good enough to give us a first round bye into the playoffs. After eating about a pound of chex mix and 4 walks around the block, it was time to play our best of 3 match against the cinderella story Horwitz and Weiner. Game 1 we rolled them. Game 2 we got pwned. And then came game 3. They shot out of the gates faster than a race horse. Needless to say, a large crowd had gathered around us, and we were getting embarrassed by the winners of the play in game. Down 2 cups to 8, Jake and I must have said something really inspirational to each other because we stampeded our way back to a 2 to 1 deficit. They went ice cold and we had our chance to win. With the 30+ spectators looking on Jake took his shot which performed a toilet bowl swirl in and then right back out. What happened next was a blur. There was a flash of orange light and tons of people screaming. In his anger, Jake had whacked at the table with his trusty "Zook Zone" towel which knocked over the final cup and our hopes and dreams.

So you see now that I must make it back to the playoffs and secure that evasive victory. Hope you enjoyed the memory because we got some shit for that over the following weeks, and I still have nightmares about the towel.

Primo

The first study abroad meeting was today which got me to thinking that I should make a blog. I won't be gone until the summer, but I'm going to try and post lots of cool stuff here and have some fun with it.

Things I've been up to lately: Cooking - Try to make 1 new thing every week usually for dinner. Some successes so far this year have been the chicken parmesan, french toast, and chili. Hash browns and baked spaghetti were somewhat failures.

Movies- When I can find some time, I've been watching movies. We saw Shutter Island tonight. Overall, it was a pretty good movie. Good acting and the story was pretty cool too. The directing was awesome as should be expected. I was a little disappointed with the lack of scariness. There were a few tense parts where you could sense something scary would happen, but the only thing that scared me was when my friend got scared next to me when leonardo dicaprio lit a match. I did however have my first vanilla coke in years (I was fairly certain they had discontinued it). Pair that with sour patch kids and popcorn, it made the movie a good time for all.

School- Busy.

Things I'm looking forward to this week:
-No exams
-The hockey game
-Monday Night Mayhem
-Unofficial