1 week in and a hurricane already

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I'm going to try to be more regular. It's been hard to stay in touch with everyone, but I think things have finally calmed down now...
So, tomorrow evening we're expected to get hit with a hurricane, probably a category one, not too bad. Still, I'm honestly kind of excited. I have pretty much everything I need to be holed up for a day or two if necessary, just going to go to the food store ad get a few last things tonight.
So, basically for the past week, this has been my schedule...
1. wake up, get on the computer, look for jobs. I'm tired of being unemployed. Honestly, I feel like a bum and really have to decide if I should go and just get a job waiting some tables or something for the meantime. All I'm doing is spending money, and hat just feels wrong to me right now. My resume has been passed on to the human resources people at Syniverse, a great company here in Tampa that my uncle and the head football coach of the team I'm volunteer coaching for both work at. Both have put in good words for me and am confident that I have a good chance at landing the job, but I'm going to have to wait a little while, because they arent going to start reviewing resumes and bringing people in until the week of the 25th. As of right now, this is truly my only job going for me right now, so I really hope it works out.
2. I joined an incredible new gym literally about 200 yards from my apartment. It's a giant globo-gym style L.A. Fitness and is the nicest gym Ive ever worked out. It's really inspired me to get back into top shape and my body has responded incredibly in just a week back in the gym. I don't know what it is, my age, or the basically 2 months off from working out, but I feel like I've put back on any and all muscle Ive lost already and am excited about that, because without football and basketball now, working out is really my only sport I can take part in.
3. Every day around 5pm I make the 45 minute drive down to Sarasota where my cousins live and volunteer coaching the offensive and defensive lines on the 10-11 year old Sarasota Sun Devils football team. Honestly, I'm having a blast and it truly is one of the best feelings in the world to see these kids get really excited when they execute the technique you just taught them and really do well. They are all great kids and we have a lot of fun, and they are improving every day and taking pride in being great linemen and it is simply so much fun to watch and be a part of. The head coach says the line looks better than ever, and that plus seeing the kids happy they're getting better makes it all worth it plus some. Honestly, as long as I can, I want to continue coaching because Ive found that I'm good at it and am truly having a blast.
4. When I get back around 9-9:30 at night I usually make myself a late dinner and try to fix up my apartment a little bit for a few hours while watching the olympics before bed. I never truly thought about how much work it was going to be to get an empty apartment all set up, but it's been a never-ending battle and I still have more to go.
So, overall, things are going well. Part of me feels like a bum while remaining an unemployed volunteer youth football coach, but part of me feels like I just need to be patient and things will all work out. The hardest part so far is honestly that I'm just lonely. All my friends are 10 years old and live 45 minutes away haha. I'm hoping I can start to meet people my age here in Tampa. Until then, I'm just along for the ride right now, and look forward to my football pratices every night which are my only interactions with other human beings, albeit 10 year olds. It would be a lie to say I wasn't happy, though.

back to reality...

But it's not that bad...
So im back in the states, wasted no time, and now have a great apartment in Brandon, FL, a wonderful suburb of Tampa about 10 minutes away in a great area. So, im really excited and am just trying to get everything together and get furniture and everything now. I really have to run, but Ill talk about my England adventure later and update on the Florida situation and how reality has been treating me. All in all, I'm happy to be back and things are all well!

Amsterdam and Wacken Continued...

So now Im at the airport at Eindhovem, Netherlands about ready to get on a plane to London where I will spend my last 2 days in Europe. This has me thinking a lot about omse of our recent past experiences that I havent commented on yet.

First for Wacken:

Wacken is a town of 1,928 people in Northern Germany not far from the Danish border that raises cows for dairy farming. Once a year for three days, however, 80,000 metalheads bombard tyhis tiny town for the World's largest heavy metal music festival. We were a part of this amazing festival and it was the perfect grand finallee to our trip.

We stayed in a tent city on a beautiful farm where the concert was held. On our shuttle bus from the train station to Wacken, we became friends with a professional juggler from Peru who has been living in Germany and a film student from Colombia who was studying in France / niether of which spoke English. So we became neighbors with them and a British girl our age who never met with her friend who was supposed to bring their tent and she actually had to stay with us during the festival. Also, we became really good friends with a girl from Brazil named Ju whose tent colapsed and had to pile in with us. On top of this, it rained and we were covered in mud and smelled from three days of sweating and no showers / it all was glorious, however. I saw some of my favorite bands in the world and learned about some great new Northern European metal we don´t get in the states.

The crowd was friendlier and safer feeling than any concert Ive been to in the states and everyone, no matter who they are or where they came from, all had the love of true metal music in common and it was a beautiful experience. Some observations I noted...

Greg and I met people from at least 24 other countries

All Scandenavian metalheads look the same

Canadiens annoy me

Every band told the audience that it was one of the best festivals they had ever been to and I believe it
German street food is amazing / we had incredible barbecue, kebabs, beer, everything for not too much money.
Greg wore a kilt without a shirt on and looked like he was born to wear the skirt.
We both bought bull horns with holsters that clip on to our belts to use as drinking cups.
We saw too many naked men, tons of tattoos, piercings, different colored hair, great costumes, etc.
I had the greatest time of my life. Period.
It was sad to leave, but it was also to great to see Amsterdam. Amsterdam is both a beautiful and ugly city / I cant decide which one. However, it´s a great place and the Dutch are really cool people. Everyone is really tall and all the women are beautiful, but look too much like my mom and grandma for my own comfort. We saw beautiful canals, the Anne Frank House which looks like a small Ikea, the Van Gogh museum, walked all around the city and got lost several times...all around a good time. Now I have London to explore, a place Ive always wanted to go. I´ll try to update some about London later.

Amsterdam

I feel like taking a big sigh of relief right now...
Well, Greg finally left to go off to Brussels then to Dublin and home about 30 minutes ago, so I'm on my own now. I miss Greg already...
But I also feel so relaxed right now that it's finally the beginning of the end. In about 2 hours I head on a train to the airport then go to London for a few days and then down to Tampa. I'm sad about the end being so near, but I also am excited to get home... so things are good right now.
Anyway, I'm in Amsterdam now at an internet cafe. Amsterdam is a great city. It isnt nearly as scummy as I imagined to be. You certainly see a lot of crazy stuff all over the city because Greg and I didnt even go into the Red Light district. However, it's also very beautiful, like a Northern European Venice. We went to the Van Ghogh Museum which was amazing and met some really cool people. I went to tell so much more, but my internet time is about to run out. I'm going to try to write about a lot more tonight if I get the chance. Wish me luck!

the best 3 days of my life

Wacken was exactly what I needed. It met and succeeded all of our expectations. I saw some of my favorite bands in the world, met some amazing people Im gonna stay in touch with, ate awesome German food, drank great German beer....it was heaven. Greg and I are in Amsterdm right now and only have today so we're going to go out and make the most of it. I will post much, much more about Wacken when we have more time. Tomorrow I fly to London.