Used Books

It was snowing big thick flakes when Justin and I left the campus center to make the walk to the rare-and-used book store, DJ Ernst, on Market Street. It’s a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon, scanning the old cracked spines to see what jumps out at you. Because you never know what you’ll find, and as cliché as that sounds, it’s true. I picked up John Updike’s Terrorist, Graham Greene’s The Power and The Glory, Stephen Crane’s Red Badge of Courage, and an autobiography of the Dalai Lama.

Justin was broke, and all I had was a dollar in my wallet and some quarters in my pocket, but we were still able to walk out with ten 50-cent paperbacks between the two of us.

We came in about twenty minutes till closing time, but the store owner had no problem chatting with me about books while Justin made his final selections. The owner has always struck me as a person who just genuinely loves books. He reads and has read many of the books that pass through his store.

When Justin had his third and final book in hand, the owner rang up the purchase on an antique cash register, tapping its metal keys, rattling it like a typewriter.

Laundry Day

Laundry is an essential aspect of campus life.

I clean my clothes at the laundromat a block off campus.  It's cheaper than using the on-campus machines, and if you have more than one load to do, it's usually quicker too.  (Plus, it's kinda fun to watch the clothes swirling around in the machines.)

If you don't happen to have a girlfriend with a car who can drive you to the laundromat, the washers and dryers on campus can get the job done.  All the major residence halls have them.  Half the machines are coin-operated, and half are card-swipe, drawing cash from an account linked to your student ID.

Bagels at Benny’s

I’m not a morning person. I like to wake up slowly and ease into the day.

Benny’s Bistro is usually my first stop on campus each day. I’ll grab a bagel and a cup of coffee and then read for twenty minutes or so until it’s time to head to my first class of the day.

Benny’s Bistro is one of four on-campus eateries. For breakfast they serve eggs, hash browns, and all sorts of bagels. My usual is either a salt bagel (it’s like a soft pretzel for breakfast) or just a plain bagel, though if I’m feeling really adventurous I may get something exotic, like cinnamon raisin or poppy seed.

For lunch and dinner, Benny’s offers pizza, soup, salads, sandwiches, burgers and fries, stuff like that. I’m a big fan of the chicken tenders wrap (with hot sauce, ranch dressing, and pepper jack cheese). It’s definitely not the healthiest option, but if you’re looking for quick college food, Benny's is the place.

• More on Benny's Bistro

Chilling at Charlie's

At 8:30 PM my long Wednesday was finally over—class, work, class, a meeting that ran long and made me late for dinner, and then I led an Intervarsity Bible Study. It was third long day in a row, and Thursday was promising to be even longer. What I needed was a break, some time to relax. What I needed was Zombieland.

Every Wednesday night (Friday nights too) Charlie’s Susquehanna’s student-run coffee house, plays a movie that’s left theaters but hasn’t made it onto DVD yet. I’d seen Zombieland at the Selinsgrove Cinema Center with Rob and Holly back in the fall and had been completely surprised to find that it wasn’t terrible like I’d expected it to be. It was actually really hilarious—especially for a zombie movie.

Anyway, Zombieland was just what I needed. I met Alice, Casey, and Eric at Charlie’s and for two hours completely forgot about how jam-packed Thursday was threatening to be.

Charlie’s is great. It’s home to both the best hot chocolate on campus and the university’s most comfortable couches (Get there early if you want a good seat!). They serve hot and cold drinks as well as all kinds of snacks. Occasionally they also do “mocktails,” and during football season, they have free wings. In addition to showing recent movies, Charlie’s also has live music, football games on the big screen, poetry readings, open-mic nights, and all sorts of other stuff.

It’s one of my favorite places on campus.

• More about Charlie's

One Week Down

The first week back from winter break is always an interesting one. It’s a comfortable return, with no heavy furniture to lug in, just small things to arrange. My refrigerator is plugged back in, and Elwood, my lovable betta fish roommate, is back in his spot on my bookcase.

The first week back is also an exciting week. You keep bumping into people you’re really excited to see. Of course, they’re the same people you were bumping into a month ago, except now they’ve got new haircuts and some new stories to tell.

In some ways it’s a weird week, with new schedules, new classes, and new professors. On Monday, I was feeling a little over confident—I arrived at Bogar Hall just in time for my Italian class only to suddenly realize that I didn’t know what room Italian class is in this semester (Don’t worry, I found it eventually.)

Of course, the newness of it isn’t all bad. My new classes this semester include Detectives in Fiction and Film as well as a novel-writing workshop. Excited isn’t exactly the right word to describe how I feel about churning out 150 pages in one semester, but I’m looking forward to the class anyway.

All in all, this semester seems to be shaping up pretty well.