Good Ol' Schenectady

The Stockade District

As it is absolutely freezing outside I doubt many people want to travel farther than they have to. This usually means students are contained within campus walls as the prospect of leaving the comforts of the campus also comes into play. I am well aware that Schenectady doesn't have the best reputation, however I decided to see for myself just what this town has to offer. Having no expectations I was quite thrilled when I left campus to discover that Schenectady does, in fact, have many charming attributes. I'm not saying all of Schenectady is a walk in the park, but for the most part this town has a lot to offer young college students.

1. State Street
This street has much to offer us Union students. Although it seems to go on forever and ever without an end, all that we really need is located within walking distance to the campus. Given it can be a very cold 15 minutes walk in the winter, it is worth it to go catch a movie or make a quick run to pick up goodies for your dorm room. A few of my favorite places on State Street include: CVS, the Bowtie Cinema, Bombers, and the Paul Mitchell hair salon. I am a frequent shopper at this CVS as I have an obsession with dying my hair at the most random of times. The CVS offers a lot of different hair color options and has the perfect college dorm room snacks. My favorite is the multi-pack of Nature Valley bars they have started selling. It is also a good place to pick up an misc. items from a new toothbrush to deodorant. No one wants to pay a million dollars at the book store for something they can get for a discounted price right around the corner. I also love the Bowtie Cinema as it reminds me a little of the Spectrum 8 Cinema in Albany where I used to work. I love the tiny theatre feel and the fact that I can order chicken wings and fries, even though it takes ten years before they are prepared for you. They also show a good variety of movies and although they don't show independent films I usually like all the movies playing. Bomber's Burrito Bar is also located on State Street and makes my life a little bit brighter. On top of loving the food there, I also love the environment. It reminds me a lot of Union with all the college paraphernalia on the walls and the homey feel to it. I enjoy my trips to Bomber's so much that I have even applied for a job there! The Paul Mitchell hair salon is also a fantastic place. Because it is a school the rates are reduced and you can get a gorgeous haircut for a reasonable price. The atmosphere is also nice as many students are in their twenties and are very easy to relate to.
 2. Jay Street
Ahhhh, Jay Street. This is fast becoming my favorite street in Schenectady. In fact I was just there yesterday at one of my favorite restaurants. It is full of colorful shops selling bizarre, funny, and delicious items. Some of my favorite places on this brightly lit street include Chez Daisie, The Open Door Bookstore, and Tattoo Blues. Chez Daisie is absolutely incredible. It sells homemade crepes that are some of the best crepes I have ever eaten. The first time I dined there I skipped the dinner crepes and went straight for a dessert of banana, peanut butter, and nutella deliciousness. When I went yesterday I had my first actual dinner crepe there which consisted of red peppers, diced chicken seasoned with Cesar dressing, greek olives, and so much more. It was incredible, especially because it was followed up with a crepe filled with strawberries and nutella. I was in heaven. The next shop I love is the Open Door Bookstore. I can honestly spend hours in this little place browsing the bargain books and staring entranced at the giant books filled with all sorts of interesting images. It also sells various odds and ends such as picture frames, candles, and knick knacks. I have already bought three novels from this store and have great difficulty not buying a book every time I walk past. Tattoo Blues is my next favorite store on this enchanted street. I love to walk past and look in the windows at the people getting tattooed. I have always been fascinated by the thought of tattoos, of someone forever staining their skin with something that means so much to them. I find all the books filled with images of thousands of different tattoos incredible. I have a hard time resisting the urge to tattoo myself. It is like they say, once you get one it is almost impossible to stop there.
3. The Stockade
And now for my final locale. The Stockade District is a historic site in Schenectady that has one of the largest concentrations of colonial houses in all of the United States. Upon first visiting this historic area I made the correct choice of visiting it with my parents. They knew more about the area than I did and therefore almost gave me my own personal tour through the tiny, winding streets. The area is just incredible, full of these gorgeous, old colonial structures that are bursting with history. I loved seeing the authentic plates on each house dating the time of its construction. Some of the houses had sadly fallen into disrepair, but I saw glimpses of hope as many older, more shabby looking houses were in the process of being restored. I had no idea so much history was lurking down the street from Union College. I encourage everyone to go and visit the Stockade. It was truly a treat to be able to see these beautiful houses. My favorite part of that day was finding a small park located alongside the river where my parents and I took a little stroll together. I remember discussing my future at the college and all that I hoped to accomplish while gazing out at the river surrounded by so much history and promise. It was one of the most peaceful days of my life.

A Trip to the Gym

The Sanctuary

Out of all the buildings on campus the Alumni Gymnasium is one of my favorites. My love for this special place has come about through various means. Before arriving on campus I was someone who loved to workout sans the gym. Running outside was a great passion of mine with some crunches on my bedroom floor thrown in for good measure. Ever since coming to Union, I have become obsessed with the gym.
I think part of it is because of the atmosphere. I love walking into the gym and being greeted and/or smiled at by those students at the front desk. It puts me in a good workout kind of mood. When heading up to the gym I can gaze out at the swimmers diving into Union's beautiful pool. I like to imagine myself diving off the high dive with such grace, even when I know this will never be possible due to my lack of elegance and my irrational fear of the high dive. Terrifying. Before I enter the actual gym area I usually make my way to the bathroom as running on the treadmill with a full bladder is a nightmare waiting to happen. I love the bathroom at the gym, which is really a weird thing to say. The bathroom is usually empty, doesn't smell like decaying animals, and has cheerful yellow stalls. My kind of place. After my bathroom stop it is time to enter the gym. Ahhhh, the Alumni Gym.
I have two reasons for going to the gym. One is to attend my wellness classes and the other is to do my partner workout with my suite mate. I take two wellness classes, but I really only attend one regularly because I am not as interested in the other. Dance Cardio Fusion is so much fun every single class I find it almost impossible to want to attend Kickboxing. I was let down the first day of kickboxing when I realized we actually weren't kicking giant punching bags. We simply shuffle around and punch the air a few times. Sadly lame compared to my intense dance class. Dance Cardio Fusion takes place in one of the little classrooms off of the gym. It combines all different types of dance so you can never be bored. So far we have done African dancing, the Jive, hip hop, country hoe down (one of my personal favorites), modern, and some crazy 80's dance moves. All in all a terrific class which doesn't meet enough. The second reason for going to the gym is my partner workouts with Gina. We started doing this end of fall term and although some weeks we haven't followed through we are beginning to pick back up on the workouts. I love these workouts as we encourage the other to push themselves harder in order to live a healthy lifestyle. We also have created our own diet which consists of anything and everything healthy (this of course we only really stick to on the weekdays...sometimes you just have to have those fries on Saturday night). The workout consists of 20 minutes on the elliptical, 15 on the treadmill, 30 for crunches and weight activities, 15 back on the elliptical, and a cool down of 10 minutes on the treadmill. When it gets warmer we have decided to add a swimming component to our little workout.
So back to my description of the Alumni Gym. It is full of ellipticals, treadmills, stationary bikes, weight machines, and mats for misc. activities. I love using the elliptical and being able to watch my favorite crime dramas. It seems the channel is always tuned to some type of crime show and I could not be happier. The absolute worst is coming in to the gym and finding that all the televisions have been turned to some sort of sports channel. Hockey I can deal with, every other sport makes me want to hurl the T.V. out the window in sheer boredom (Don't worry I would never actually do this!). Although I believe there should be more of a mat area to do crunches on, I do like how the gym has little mats you can drag across the floor and position yourself. The water fountain is also near by if you forget to bring a water bottle so that is a nice bonus. I have never been downstairs in the Alumni Gym. I believe there is another, more intense weight room down there, but as I have the arm strength of a baby lizard I have never felt the need to check it out. There are also squash courts I have never had the pleasure of seeing as I played squash in high school and have been scarred for life by it (I played against my coach and was smacked so hard in the head that I fell on the floor half dead...).
During fall term I also used to frequent the swimming pool during open swim hours. I was usually the only person who went during these times and it was absurd that there were five lifeguards to one little me. I remember getting decked out in my friends flaming hot pink and bright orange one-piece swim suit complete with crazy eyed goggles and a metallic swim bonnet. If you think that looked incredible imagine me wearing it while swimming .1 miles an hour in Union's pool. I have never been the fastest swimmer and on top of that I can't swim with regular strokes, I have to doggy paddle. I am a happy embarrassment when swimming. I have recently had to stop my swimming as it is freezing outside to the point where my hair turns into icicles and I fear that it will break off and cause me to become bald. Thankfully spring seems to be approaching which means that I will once again be able to make the trek to the pool every night in order to swim my painfully slow laps in perfect contentment. I love the gym!

Late night at Reamer

Union's own Campus Center

As I am sure most readers know, Reamer refers to Union's glorious Campus Center where many of the colleges activities go down. It is a bubble of energy on campus and recently it put on a late night party that I am still thinking about fondly.
This party, running from 10 pm until 2 am, seemed like some sort of corny event via email. For the first week I began receiving emails I had already determined that I would not be attending, but the week of I had a spontaneous change of heart. I figured I might as well check out what the campus had to offer its students on a Saturday night. So I trudged across campus with a few of my friends and prepared for a lame time.
The first thing I noticed upon entering the first floor of Reamer was the bull riding that was taking place center stage. A mechanical pull stared me in the eye before taking its rider on one crazy ride. As I took up a table and sat watching rider after rider try to stay atop the evil thing, I realized the longest anyone could hold on was 10 seconds. Now that is just plain sad. Students were getting whipped around like Willow Smith's hair in her music video 'Whip It'. Talk about hysterical. One kid actually flipped off the bull and landed feet up on the blue mats! While wondering whether I would have the strength to hold myself up on that massive beast, my eye caught hold of a bunch of students dressed up in old time costumes. I quickly realized this meant there were old fashioned photos being taken and my heart skipped a beat. I had always wanted to do just that. The girls and I hurried over and began putting together some of the most ridiculous outfits I have ever seen. Since there were three of us we decided that one of us would be the gun slinging cowboy complete with faux leather floor length jacket, one would be the town's own southern belle, and the other would have to be the crazy bar maiden who side-lined as a can-can dancer. I of course chose the bar maiden and what ensued was one of the best memories I have at Union College thus far. The photo was a mix of embarrassment and delight as we posed in front of a saloon back drop. I am still laughing when I think back on it.
After our photo opportunity, we headed to the second floor where some arcade games were set up. We didn't stay too long on this floor as we realized the food wasn't so great and the games were of no interest to us. Heading up to the third floor, my friend and I realized that they had a build-a-stuffed animal workshop. We immediately decided we wanted to make one for each other, an early Valentine's day present. But as we rounded the stairs we came face to face with a line like no other. Everyone and their mother wanted to create a stuffed creature. What appeared to be a million and one couples stared back at us from there places in line, no doubt ready to defend there position if we should decide to budge the line. You can't get in the way of true love. There was no way we were waiting in that long a line to stuff cotton into a furry creature. We looked sadly at each other as we both knew there would be no teddy bears knit with tender love and care this Valentine's day. But what there would be was fried dough covered in powdered sugar! Our eyes moved from the line of students and fixed on a distant food set up. Sweet mother of the lord I had never been so excited in all my life to see that fried dough. We loaded our plates with delicious goodness and sprinkled an extra bit of powdered sugar for good measure. My eyes and my mouth watered as I took my first bite. HEAVENLY.
On to the fourth and final floor. This floor had lots of arcade games, but we soon found what we were looking for. Sand art! What a forgotten art form. I filled up a smiley face bottle with all different colored sand and was heart broken when some of the sand ran together. My artistic vision ruined! Thankfully my suite mate was there with a surprise. She had created sand art for me as an early Valentine's day present. I made sure not to mess with this one. After leaving the sand art station, I came face to face with the hot dog table. Oh no. Whenever I see hot dogs I can't just let them lie there. So instead of ignoring them, I grabbed a plate and chowed down on two incredible chili dogs. So worth the extra high intensity dance session the following day.
After the carnage, the girls and I travelled back downstairs to sit and relax. It was nice to sit in a peaceful, warm setting and talk about our days over glasses of lemonade. Around 12:30 we decided to go dancing at the frats, but not before stowing our prized possessions from the evening in our mail boxes for safe keeping.
I have never been so glad that I attended a campus event. It was a lot of fun, even if we never got to build a stuffed animal. It was also nice to see how many people from the community came out to support a school sponsored activity. My only regret for the evening was not riding that devilish bull. I still dream of beating 10 seconds.

Someone's Hungry

Ozone Café

I am not just writing this post due to the fact that I am starving right now. I also want to discuss dining opportunities and where to go to get the perfect chicken parmagiana. Yummy.
There are quite a few dining options on Union's campus which is fantastic for me as I am a girl who likes to mix things up every once and a while. The college offers West Dining Hall, Dutch Hollow, Upper Class Dining Hall, Rathskeller, and Ozone Café. I have decided to spill my own opinion on each dining location so that whomever is reading this will have an idea of what to expect.
West Dining Hall:
Otherwise known as the busiest place on earth to be between the hours of 12 pm to 1 pm. Every time you venture into this world between these two times it is like stepping into the wild jungles of the Amazon. It is the Animal Kingdom in there as students fight for the last piece of pizza and load up on greasy french fries or a boring looking salad. The best time to go is right when the dining hall opens or right before it is about to close. I've found the environment much more peaceful and therefore have had a better dining experience. The food isn't too bad. Some of it is overly greasy and seems to be screaming, "Eat me, Eat me! I won't make you gain forty pounds!", but you just have to exercise self control and turn your ears away. The salad bar is really great. I love being able to create the salad of my dreams especially because it offers celery and raw broccoli both of which I can't live without. The sandwich station is also great as it has its very own grill where I can create paninis. For me, the overall best meal at West is brunch on Saturday's and Sunday's. I LOVE brunch as it is every type of food I would ever want to eat all concentrated under the same roof. The omelets are delicious, the pastries are heavenly, and they have grapes which makes my heart soar to new heights. While West isn't the best place to eat all the time, it does have the best brunch I have ever tasted. Amen to that.

Dutch Hollow:
This dining option is located in Reamer Campus center and offers all kinds of goodies until 12 am. There is soup, salad, sushi, fruit, yogurt...pretty much anything you could ever dream of. One downfall is that you have to pay with your declining balance, but the taste of the food makes up for it. Dutch Hollow makes a mean chicken parm that I always recommend to all my friends who come to visit me. The environment is also less stifled and more relaxed as there are less people milling around. The cashiers are also really friendly and always wish me a good day! Overall, it is a really nice place to grab a late night snack if you aren't afraid to walk across campus to get it.

Upper Class Dining Hall:
I have only ever eaten at Upper Class once, but it was a nice experience. The cafeteria is spread out along the second floor of Reamer and it has a lot of great food to offer. The first time I went there there was strawberry shortcake and I think that biased my opinion of Upper Class from then on. The layout is much better, more of an open spread. While the food is probably worse for you than at West, it is all the more delectable. Plus you are surrounded by all different aged students which is great because at West it is mainly freshmen. While the food might taste better and there might be more of an eclectic society, I still prefer West as it is a five minute walk from my dorm in the winter time.

Rathskeller:
I hate to admit it, but this is by far my favorite dining option. It is located under old chapel in a cellar, yet it is anything but dark and drab. I love the low hanging ceilings and the diner booth set up. I also love all the greasy, disgusting food they have to offer from milkshakes to cheese sticks. It is a great place to go on the weekend at 1 am when all you want is a salty snack before bed. The place has a bar atmosphere to it and that makes it have a cool, youthful feel to it. But don't expect to be served right away on the weekend. The place is usually packed around 1:30 am and the wait to get your food can be up to 45 minutes long. In the end, the food and the vibe is still worth it.

Ozone Cafe:
Truth be told I have yet to eat at Ozone! From what I have heard it is very very good, but sadly I have never been. It serves organic, healthy food by the plate, but must be paid for in cash or with the declining balance. I will have to update this post as soon as I get my butt over to the café to try all that it has to offer!

So all in all the best place to eat is....West during the week, Upper on Friday nights, Dutch hollow for a late night snack, and Rathskeller when going out on the weekends. I have no favorite place to eat, but instead enjoy all that the campus has to offer.

Minerva on the Brain

For the past two weeks I have mainly had one thing on my mind. One thing that keeps nagging at me and making it impossible to go to sleep at a reasonable hour. My Minerva.

The Majestic Golub

The Minerva houses at Union have always fascinated me due to their uniqueness. I have never seen a housing program quite like this at any other college or university. What is really cool about the program is that you are automatically involved in a Minerva house the moment you become a student, but it is up to you how involved in the house you want to be. Living in a college dorm can be really gross, so it is a nice change to be able to go to your Minerva house whenever you want in order to lounge around on the plush couches or cook an actual healthy meal in the kitchen. I have loved being able to go into Golub, my Minerva, whenever I want in order to hang out and watch T.V. or bake cupcakes. Plus the house is all around so much nicer than the dorm I live in it is like a welcome vacation every time I step inside. 

So why, you ask, am I constantly thinking about my Minerva? This is due to the fact that Minerva housing applications are due in less than a week. My application has already been filled out and sent, yet I can't help thinking about it. I want so badly to live in my Minerva next year for a variety of reasons. 

1. I have yet to feel a true sense of community in Davidson, my current dorm. I want to be part of an actual close-knit community of students of varying ages. I keep having this recurring dream in my head of waking up in Golub and cooking pancakes for the whole house. Not that this will ever actually happen due to the fact I probably would burn the house down cooking that early in the morning, but it is nevertheless a wonderful thought. 

2. The Minerva's put on so many events that I can't help but be drawn to it. I want to feel a part of these events by actively participating in organizing them. In high school I really enjoyed planning events and and attending the finished product. I want to constantly be surrounded by activity and amusement. How great would it be to come downstairs and find a little party going on in the living room? 

3. The other housing options for next year seem so bleak compared to my Minerva. I would either be living in Fox Hall or College Park. Fox Hall is essentially the same as Davidson and the thought of living in a Davidson-esque building for the second time makes me shudder. While College Park is a renovated hotel that has been turned into a dorm complete with air-conditioning, the walk to campus is really not worth it. If I had a car I would be all for making the drive everyday to campus, but the fact is I do not own a car and probably will not own a car until Junior year. Therefore a 15-20 minute walk to campus everyday is out of the question. 

4. My Minerva is beautiful. Who doesn't want to live in a house equipped with its own bevy of study rooms, great lounge areas, and a very cleanly and organized kitchen? While I have never seen the bedrooms, I have seen the floor map and I must say they are much bigger than the bedrooms in Davidson. Plus the bathrooms are much closer to all the rooms. 

These are only a few reasons why I wish to live in Golub next year. I am crossing my fingers my application is good enough to allow me to move in next year, but I won't know until the spring whether I have received a coveted bedroom. Until then my Minerva will never leave my brain.