Seizing the opportunity

Just a little off of the central dormitory meeting spot on UTK (called presidential courtyard) John and I met up to go rock climbing at the climbing gym called the "VOL-WALL."
So, I decided i would talk about that for a bit, since it is easily one of my favorite things to do on campus!

Whew! there's me on the incline wall. always a good challenge there!

The gym opens up at 3 in the afternoon and is free to all students, which is awesome! They also have a lot of different brands of climbing shoes in every size, which is also free to check out! its an excellent way to spend the afternoon. They have tons of walls, and even more routes to climb. There's both bouldering and belaying. I mostly enjoy bouldering, simply because i have a crowded schedule and don't always have time to get the harness and belay set up, However, i will belay from time to time. I feel like longer walls test you more, climbing higher without stopping, or jumping back down definetly pushes your skill as a climber.

The walls have a lot of variety, and i love the different shapes and directions they give them. 

You do have to stop at the Red tape if you're bouldering, any higher and they require a harness.

They have walls that go on the ceiling as well. One of my favorite aspects is that they always change and add new courses. At the beginning of every semester, they entirely rework the walls. Both make for an experience that never gets old for me. The people there are always friendly, and everyone winds up discussing different strategies on tackling different walls.

The Cracks are so fun! they are involved in a few routes, but climbing them by themselves

is even more of a challenge!

I do have to admit, that crack did almost take my ankle one time, and slipping and falling out of that thing was much less than enjoyable. BUT! still fun. A lot of my fellow engineering students love to meet up go as a group, but we don't always have schedules that are conducive to such outings.

This one particular wall is pretty creative, There's no hand holds for the first 

10 vertical feet you climb, and that little yellow and black box on the right hand side of the 

picture is where you put your hands to start.

I love rock climbing,  and you can find me down there quite often. My opinion, if you're on campus, this is a must see!

Slightly Different Than Expected

So, this weekend, my buddy from high school came up to visit on his way up to a wedding, so I got a couple of us high school buddies got together and we decided to take a trip into downtown Knoxville to have a night out!

The goofy one on the left is me, the one in the middle is Jake Holladay, who is attending the University of Tennessee Chattanooga. The one on the right is John Sikes and the lovely girl behind the camera is Elodie Kruk. (don't worry you'll meet her soon enough!)

Well, enough said we were on our way downtown past Ayres hall (my favorite building on campus!) when we stop for some pictures, which naturally turned into antics. We start fooling around when Jake jumps over a bike rack. 

Now, i didn't see what happened exactly, I was turned around, but the idea, is that jake more or less broke his finger, or at least that is what I assumed, because his finger was kind of sideways.

So, as you can imagine, after a quick moment of panicking, slowly followed by a small amount of rational thinking, we take him to the UT medical center.

There's the nurse popping his finger back into place

Well, after a few x-rays the doctor asked us what had happened.

Now, as you can imagine breaking your finger while jumping over a bike rack is a less than glorious injury story. So, the story jumped back and forth a little bit. In Radiology the story was that Jake had wrestled a tiger and punched it in the face. To the registration nurse, the story was that he had hurt it wrestling in the trunk of a car with a hooker. (that was my personal favorite story) And, when the UTPD was filing its injury report it was the truth... unfortunately.

Awhhh, Jake looks drained! and That is the lovely Elodie in the middle there, by the way.

Luckily Jake had only dislocated his finger! (with a slight fracture on the end of the dislocated bone.) Honestly, I dont know how it wasnt broken, but for Jake's sake, I'm glad he was spared a lot of pain by that fact! 

That Nurse was so funny!

After a little wait, and a second run through radiology, the discharged jake, which was good, because the night was young! we were still going to hit the town!

Sorry for the blurry photography Please note John being a total idiot. He gave the parking guy the parking fee looking like that.

Moral of the story here;

1) Bike racks do not enjoy games of leap frog

2) If you injure yourself doing something stupid, come up with an epic story, BEFORE the officer asks you what happened.

Getting Things Started Right

Hey there! I'm Adam, and I'm a student at the University of Tennessee.

Yeah, that crazy kid is me.

 I'm hoping to use this blog to try and describe some of the crazy life that goes on at college. I love every moment of it and wouldn't trade it for the world! I was sorta motivated by my sister to start this blog, because i always love seeing her blog, though i think hers might be slightly more interesting.
But, I digress,
 long nights of studying, days running to class, waking up late, unpredictable weather, and realizing that one thing you need for that presentation? yeah, that really important thing? You probably forgot it.
Thats college life!
Keep in mind, i will ultimately fail to describe how crazy it is in reality.
Theres simply too much going on at college to really try and sum it up!
That and i still have to attend class and whatnot, I can't spend all my time taking pictures.