Occidental College
Campus Conversations
Not a Party School
I'm going to start of by explaining my title, and then I'll get into what else is going on in my Oxy-centric life. As you may or may not know, Oxy made it into the news this weekend! And not for anything good! It must have been a slow news night, is all I have to say, because a bunch of college kids getting drunk isn't exactly newsworthy in my opinion. But, since apparently we're now being dubbed a 'party school' I feel like I should set the record straight; we're not. Splatter was a really fun dance, and honestly really tame. I've talked to a bunch of my friends about this, and we've come to the agreement that it's basically the same 20-30 people that get alcohol poisoning during the year. Statistics are a democracy right? The point is, Oxy is not a party school. Oxy is a school full of nerds away from home for the first time who sometimes make mistakes. That's not to condone it, but it happens. I was part of self-dubbed Sober Squad freshman year. We were a group of people who didn't drink, and we'd hang out when everyone else was drinking, and make fun of them, or just do our own thing. That's the great thing about going to Oxy; it's small enough for extremely good academic support, but big enough to find a lot of people similar to you. Ok, enough with the serious stuff.
Fall break, which started October 15th and ended the 18th, was a fabulous, and completely un-epic time. I originally planned to get ahead in my classes, review Japanese vocab that I forgot over the summer, and that sort of thing. Instead, I spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday watching a Korean drama, almost without leaving my room.
- So. Much. Time. Wasted.
I finally finished (25 one hour episodes is a lot longer than you'd think...) and proceeded to... not do my homework. Instead, I took a friend of mine to Chinatown to experience the delights of dimsum, which he'd never had before. As he will be studying in Hong Kong next semester we thought now was as good a time as any to introduce him to it. (He loved it! Success!) We took the bus, which turned out to be pretty fun. LA public transportation is not nearly as bad as everyone says. The buses almost always come on time (cough cough not like Seattle cough). They're a little costly ($1.50 per ride, and I still can't figure out how transfers work...) and they take a while because each route zigzags through neighborhoods to pick up more people, but if you have a day to spend and someone to ride with you it's pretty fun! Plus, bus fare is way less expensive than parking!
This past weekend I went to Splatter, as previously discussed, then spent Sunday with my grandfather (who lives in Pasadena). A Noise Within is a 19 year old Los Angeles repertory theater company, and we went to the open house for the new space they're moving into.
- This place
After taking the tour we went to dinner at Cafe Bizou, one of our regular spots. It's a 'get your parents to take you there when they're in town' place, a little too pricey for college budgets. (There's a Japanese restaurant called Shaab two doors down we go to a lot too, it's my favorite!)
This week I'm preparing for my last midterm (!!!) and looking forward to my favorite holiday! Hope everyone has a great one!
Happy Halloween!