Relaxing in Rip City

David R.

March 26, 2010 - 11:35 AM

Finally, after calling Portland International Airport religiously, I was able to get my hands on my lost luggage. They were going to deliver it to Eugene, but I offered to pick up it from the airport instead. Because I saved them some driving time, they rewarded me with a $100 airline credit for any flight I might take in the future. Shortly after receiving this credit I began to wonder what I might use it for. After a couple minutes of thinking I realized that this free $100 would be perfect to use for my flight down to Tennessee in the fall to watch the Oregon Ducks football team take on the Volunteers from the University of Tennessee. For months now my roommates and I have been talking about going down to this game. The Southeastern Conference is arguably the best conference in division one college football. It isn't every game that our football team gets to take on an opponent from this prestigious conference. Tennessee also has one of the most famous stadiums in college football. This massive stadium is packed full every saturday by those who live and die with college football. I have always wanted to travel around the country and visit different college football stadiums. I see them all the time on ESPN but I have never been any other than Autzen and Folsom at the University of Colorado. If our trip plans hold up that should be a very memorable game.

I have been in Portland for the last few days with a few of my roommates. I love Eugene but it is always nice to get away and spend some time in a city that I didn't grow up in. Yesterday we went and relaxed in a park overlooking the Willamette River. There aren't any large rivers near my house in Colorado so I particularly enjoyed this.

We spent a large portion of last night watching the March Madness games. The tournament is currently in the sweet sixteen round and has been nothing short of thrilling. Last night the Kansas State Wildcats defeated Xavier in two overtime periods. I couldn't stay in my seat and I am not even a fan of either team. Butler was able to eliminate Syracuse, one of four number one seeds in the tournament. Today I plan to watch the Northern Iowa game. This team made a name for itself earlier in the week by knocking off the highly-favored Kansas Jayhawks. Now that my bracket is officially destroyed I hope that Northern Iowa will be able to use its built up momentum to move on to the the elite eight.

As of right now I am planning to head back down to Eugene tomorrow. I have a lot of preparation to do before the term starts, including a significant amount of moving. As I may have mentioned before, there are currently six of us living in a five person house. This last term was my designated term to share a room, but now I will have a room to myself again.

As the sun has begun to creep out a little more the last couple of days, it is only a matter of time before I can wear shorts and some flip flops to class!