A Beautiful Saturday Off Campus

There are just some days when you've got to get off campus.  You need to explore someplace new.  And that's what I did today with my good old friend Alison.  After working at the library and eating lunch in the caf, we walked a few blocks northeast to catch a city bus.  For only a dollar we ended up at Lindale Mall where we did some shopping.  It was nice to just walk around and enjoy the nice and pleasantly warm weather.  From Lindale we walked to Best Buy, Half Price Books, and then treated ourselves to Chai Tea Lattes at Starbucks.  We drank our lattes while waiting for the bus to take us back to Coe.

What I love about today was the adventure aspect.  We got around the city thanks to public transportation and our good old legs.  It wasn't expensive, only $2 dollars and today that will probably not even buy you one gallon of gas.  It was fun to do something exciting and different on a Saturday.  And it was good hanging out with Alison, she's a fantastic friend (who is also from the state of Wisconsin) and we get along so well.  We're both writers and lovers of history and literature.  Ideas are always bouncing back and forth between the two of us and we both have started to carry a little Moleskine book around with us to write our ideas and quotes in.  And we frequently go back and reread and laugh about our various quotes and the stories that go along with them.

This is what is fantastic about Coe and college in general.  Second semester is when you really start to cement the friendships you began first semester.  I think I have spent every weekend in 2011 hanging out in small groups with my various friends.  We are bonding and becoming closer each weekend.  And we do the simplest things like going to Lindale, taking advantage of public transportation, studying and writing in the PUB or Writing Center, watching a TV show or a movie, or just talking for hours on end (that one is my favorite).  We constantly cut each other off, eager to share our stories, opinions, and ideas with the people we trust the most.  And when we talk, we don't just gossip or discuss the latest fashion trends or the boys we think are attractive, we talk about so much more (and much more important topics) : our classes, what we're learning about, what we want our futures to hold, national and world issues, problems we are dealing with, things we dream about, plans we want to make.  Just like I saw in Common Hour, the conversation is intellectually stimulating.  College is a whole new level, and I completely understand why so many people told me that as much as I loved high school, college was going to be even better.

Well there's warm tea to be drank for my sore throat, French Renaissance to be read, and Firefly episodes to watch so I best be off. More to come as always.