Journal

Playhouse Square Rock n Roll Hall of Fame Little Italy Ybor Cleveland Beach Cleveland St. Patricks

 When trying to figure out what I wanted to do for my journal, at first I had no idea what I wanted to do for it. I try to come up with some ideas, but none of the ideas I was coming up with were working or I just didn't like them. So, I decided to just go around and take photos of random things. I walked around and just started taking pictures and when I looked at them a lot of the pictures were of downtown Tampa, so I thought about doing something with Tampa. Then when I looked at my gallery of pictures on my phone, I saw I also had pictures of my hometown Cleveland. So, then I came up with the idea of comparing and contrasting Tampa and Cleveland. Then to put a personal touch to my journal, I would talk about some of these photos and things and how they were a part of the decision process of going away from my hometown and going to Tampa for college and some are photos are about things I did not know about Tampa. So now too the actual photos. The first five photos are things that Tampa and Cleveland have in common. The first photo represents that Tampa and Cleveland both are on the water or near the water. They both have rivers that go through it. Tampa has the Hillsborough River and is near the Gulf of Mexico. Cleveland has the Cuyahoga River and is on Lake Erie. The next photo represents the two cities during the day, where they both have a lot of big businesses and banks where you can see people walking to work and lunch during the day. The next photo is of Playhouse Square in Cleveland and represents both cities having a appreciation of the Performing Arts as Tampa as the Straz Center and the Tampa Theatre. I did not know about this and these places until I arrived in Tampa and a fun fact about Playhouse Square is it is the place where Tom Hanks got his start in acting. The next photo is me at the Browns game and it represents both cities appreciation, devotion, and love for their hometown professional sports teams with Tampa having a little more success lately with their teams. The last photo is a shot of the campus of University of Tampa as this represents both cities being college cities as Cleveland also has Cleveland State right in the downtown area. Now the next six photos come in pairs and are photos that represent something both cities have, but are totally different. The first pairing is of Tampa's and Cleveland's nightlife. Tampa's nightlife has a lot of clubs, while Cleveland's nightlife is more restaurants and bars like in the photo of Little Italy and other places like West 6th street. This is also something I did not figure out until I got to Tampa. The next pairing of photos is about St. Patrick's Day. They both celebrate it, but they are on two different spectrums. Tampa just made their river green and had a little thing in the park as seen in the photo. Now in Cleveland, St. Patrick's Day is one of the biggest days of the year. As most people take the day off and go downtown for the parade and to party. I compare it to Gasparilla in Tampa, but bigger. The last pairing is of the beaches in Tampa and Cleveland. The beaches in Tampa and the surrounding areas are one the main reason I decided to go Tampa for college and leave home. These beaches are some of the best in the country and are clean, warm, and lively, while the beaches in Cleveland are not clean and are really bad. Now the last 9 photos are differences and things are better in one city and these are the things I contemplated when deciding to go to school here. The fist photo is of the woods in my backyard back in Cleveland. Cleveland is way more woodsy and green then Tampa and I miss that because that is where I have a lot of adventures and play paintball and games like that. The next photo is of the turkey we make every Thanksgiving and it represents that food in Cleveland is just way better than Tampa's food and I really miss it. Cleveland's food scene is one of the best in Cleveland and even Travel Channel's Andrew Zimmern and Anthony Bourdain have said how much they love Cleveland's food scene. The next picture is of the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame as it represents the music scene is a little richer in Cleveland then Tampa as Cleveland as local and professional bands playing everywhere in the Cleveland area and you do not have that as much in Tampa. Now the next 5 photos can be put together and these represent the biggest reason I came to Tampa for college and that is the weather during the winter. The first picture is of me on the ocean before I went back home for Winter break and the next photo is what I flew into when I got home. The photos are pretty self explanatory. The next three are taken during the winter as well. In Tampa, you can go outside and walk through the park in a t-shirt and shorts, while in Cleveland you pretty much stay inside and if you want to go outside you have to put like 5 layers of clothes on and still be cold. The last picture is of me and my family and represents the thing I miss the most about Cleveland and the thing that was holding me back from going to Tampa for college. My family and me are really really close and while weather is what separates Tampa from Cleveland, it is my family that separates Cleveland from Tampa. These photos represent both Tampa and Cleveland and they are pretty similar with a few things separating them from each other and i ended up going to Tampa for the weather and to just get away for a few years, but still doesn't mean I don't miss my home town.