Hello. Welcome to my website. It started while I was in Europe for a semester, and I've kept it up since then. I'm now at the University of Chicago Law School, living in Hyde Park, and the story continues. If you want to say hi or visit me, email cfloyd at uchicago dot edu.
"Life is nothing if not the sum of your anecdotes." -Scotty The Body, on storytelling "But it ain't that bad, man. Just figure out the system before the system figures out you." -T. Matthew Smith, on the 1L year "The beer just doesn't taste as good when you're not drinking it with your buddies." -Anon., on being away from good friends "Somebody has to pay the rent around here. Why the hell not us?" -Cotton, on studying for exams
6/04/2003
Here's the deal.
I just got back from a little lokale nearby, called Babenbergerhof. It's run by a boisterous older lady named Anni, who really seems to enjoy her job. On Wednesdays they have live music there. So I was sitting watching this guy play an acoustic guitar and singing songs that everybody knew the words to, and I drifted between that place and Oklahoma. I was taken back to all the times I've had with an acoustic guitar and people singing along--as a camp counselor, at the Deli listening to Travis and Stoney, hanging out at the DU house, sitting in Ted's garage writing songs, performing live at Brothers. I realize I miss all this, but it also occurs to me that I've successfully found an acoustic guitar show here in Graz. So I miss the guitars at home, but I'm finding guitars here. You're asking, so what about the guitars? Silly reader, the guitars are analogous to the whole study abroad situation. See, the whole time I've been missing certain aspects of my life at home, I've been creating a life here also. I have my coffee shop. I have my bar with guitars. I have a workout buddy. I have buddies I watch sports with. I have classes that I procrastinate for. I have posters and pictures on the wall. I've managed to make due here and develop a routine, 5300 miles from home.
So now let's go back to the Babenbergerhof and take 'er home. I mentioned to Anni that I play harmonica, and now I'm supposed show up with my harps on June 23rd to jam with some local musicians that play there sometimes. I'm really excited about that. Also, eight days later, I'm leaving town for good, heading back to Oklahoma. Ah, now the analogy becomes fully parallel. In the three-plus months I've been here, I've just managed to start feeling at home. I know the university, and I know the town. I'm beginning to know some people other than fellow studiers-abroad. Four weeks from today I'll jump a plane and leave it all behind. That's slightly frustrating. I can't wait to set foot on Oklahoma soil, but it's going to be distantly sad to leave. I won't shed any tears for Graz, but I will be aware that I have invested four months of my life in what has been, for the most part, an extended vacation. If nothing else, this has prepared me to be ready to put down roots in Chicago in September. Thanks to my Graz experience, I should be able to adjust to a far less foreign place far more readily than I would have before.
