University of Florida - Tower / Seminole Yearbook (Gainesville, FL)

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Sophomores Nick Fiorella, Matt Paynter, Justin Kramm and Matt Gent show off their karaoke skills at a local bar in maica. The three friends spent Spring Break snorkeling, catching some rays and trying to catch some females ' attention. Florida Alternative Break gave dents the chance to do some good for the community while on tion. Junior Katie Oetjen spreads mulch for a children ' s playground while statistics graduate student Heather Bristol stands by. Why do you think it ' s important to plan ahead for Spring Break or other vacations? people who didn ' t do anything be- cause they didn ' t make plans. Nick Fiorella 2BA A Because I know a lot of Instead of heading for the warm Florida beaches, sophomore Michael Bozza, se- nior Phil Culpepper and sophomore Williams headed north to Wash- ington D.C. for a different kind of cal Spring Break. These students jumped at the chance to spend some time in the cold. Weekend road trips were a favorite among the UF student body. Here tion sophomore Tiffany Arcaro and neering junior Erik Swerdlow pile their stuff into a friend ' s car. Arcaro and Swerdlow took a five-hour drive to to attend a U2 concert in November 1997. Student Life 11

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On the Road Again Wherever the place, traveling was a great way for students to forget about school for a while. Each University of Florida student, at some point in the arduous academic year, felt the need to get out of Gainesville. Whether that meant going back home to visit old friends and family or embarking on a road trip with the likes of new company, traveling outside of the campus ' s five-mile radius enabled students to forget daily stress and remember that there was a world outside of Gainesville. Of course, the main vacation students planned for year round was Spring Break. There ' s good reason too. Tour packages for cruises and tropical locations filled up early, and students found that the later it got in the year, the higher the prices got. Sopho- more Nick Fiorella planned ahead and booked a trip to Jamaica with a group of his friends. I ' m glad we got our plans together be- cause I know a lot of people who didn ' t do anything for Spring Break because they didn ' t get their stuff together before it was too late, Fiorelli said. Some students chose to use their time off to better the community through volunteer efforts but not without having a great time along the way. Florida Alternative Break gave students the opportunity to travel and lodge at a discounted price in return for community service. Business sophomore Valerie Fitton and 15 other students traveled to Nashville, Tennessee to help build wheel-chair ramps for children with cerebral palsy. Helping others out really was a experience. It was better than sitting at home, Fitton said. In addition to lavish, week-long breaks, weekends also gave students the opportu- nity to get away for a little while and within a reasonable budget. Road trips to big cities like Atlanta or Miami were an easy five- hour drive . Whatever the reason or wherever the place, traveling was a great way for stu- dents to forget about life for awhile. Story by : Jenny Williams. 10 Student Life

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Are you leaving? Students walking to their car were often stalked by desperate drivers who were looking for a parking spot before their classes began. Whether they drove a car or not, ery student felt it. The futility, the anger, the tragedy – and then, in a small clearing of asphalt, the glory. Parking has a long and rious history in the lives of UF students. Generations of students have known the same horror, and so the legend is passed on. Rarely, if ever, does a student escape Gainesville without suffering the sequences of Gainesville parking lems – a ticket, a towed car, and for the fortunate few, the always fashionable and cosmetic boot. Many students had their own ideas about how to remedy the parking lems in Gainesville, both on and off campus. When asked if she found parking in Gainesville friendly, senior Jen Hickman replied in angst, No, it sucks. I hate it. Her solution? Build more parking garages, I guess. Parking garages, I guess. Parking garages seemed to be a love affair for UF dents, who commonly expressed the need for more. Yet others found more creative, if not practical, solutions to the parking quandary facing UF students. Senior Mindy McCumber said, Most people would give up half the sex they ' re having for better parking. Although speaking entirely for herself, students like McCumber represented the sheer desperation of most UF students regarding parking. Every student feared the ticket man and often tried to outsmart him by making checks on their illegally- parked car. Or who could forget the forever blinking hazards lights of cars lined up along the bike lines. Story by Sean Kane Slaving through another day, UF official Arthur Jones serves a ticket to an illegally-parked car. Despite the fine, illegally parking on campus was actually more cost effective than elsewhere in the city, where tow trucks put a painful dent in students ' wallets. 12 Student Life