Student Life at Puget Sound

The end is in sight! Only 3 days of exams, and then the holidays are here. I love my school, don’t get me wrong, but I’m pretty sure the idea of finals puts most people in bad moods. I have 2 exams, one for Western Art History, which requires an essay and memorization of about 100 slides, and one for Japanese 201. My other two classes, Cultural Anthropology and Social and Cultural Change have essays instead of exams. I have two 6-8 page research papers due before Wednesday. I haven’t started!

Oh well, instead of continuing to complain about my academic life, I am going to highlight the best things to do in Tacoma, as promised, some of which have to do with the holidays. All of these things are accessible by bus or by foot, and they are all within 7 miles of campus.

10. Listen to some live music at the Mandolin Cafe, while sipping coffee and pretending finals are not next week!
9. Watch polar bears and reindeer at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. It is AZA-certified (meaning their animals are especially well cared for and they work to rebuild endangered populations), and during the holidays they have thousands of Christmas lights shining at night throughout the zoo.
8. Enjoy two dollar Tuesdays at Chalet Bowl, only a five to ten minute walk away from campus.
7. Try a World Famous (or, at least, campus-wide famous) milkshake from Frisko Freeze.
6. Take a walk down N. 30th, through Old Town, down along the Puget Sound. The water is pretty to look at but not to swim in! It is freezing, trust me.
5. Go watch the Tacoma Rainiers, the AAA-affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, play ball just a few minutes from campus.
4. Head downtown to the Museum of Glass, started by the actually world-famous glass artist and former Puget Sound student, Dale Chihuly. Sunday admission is free for students, and they continuously have glass blowing demonstrations throughout the day.
3. While you are in the downtown area, grab a seasonal pumpkin cupcake with caramel icing at Hello Cupcake!. It may make you fall into a sugar coma, but it is so worth it.
2. Stroll through the neighborhoods surrounding campus, looking at the beautiful, Victorian-style homes, and pick berries along the way.
1. Last, but not least, visit my personal all-time favorite restaurant in Tacoma, Sushi Tama, and order a Spicy Tuna Roll, or if you don’t like raw fish, try the Nabeyaki Udon.

So, I just realized that at least half of the list above has to do with food… I guess I’m hungry. Or the coffee/food in the Northwest is just wonderfully delicious. Seriously though, the coffee, as well as the Asian food, in this area is definitely top notch.
That’s it for now, I believe. I need to start studying sometime!

So instead of attempting to start the mounds of homework that are piling up, I thought I would write a little post, because then I can write about anything I want, instead of the depressing subject of unemployment and overpopulation in Cairo. Besides, I’m sick, yet again, so reading Elyachar’s opinion on the Egyptian economy  makes my head hurt. You would think being sick in college would be nice, since you can just skip class instead of having to force your mom call in sick for you. However, it’s kind of the opposite. Missing class is not fun, because then you have to make up homework for the night before class, then get notes from class, and then still do the homework for the next class on time. Professors can be pretty understanding, though. Last time I was sick, one of my Comparative Sociology professors helped me revise an essay that I had tried to write while I had the flu. I can assure you, it was a terrible essay. Nevertheless, she met with me to discuss it and allowed me to make some changes and turn it in the next day, and I, surprisingly, ended up doing pretty well on the paper. Also, the people CHWS (Center for Health and Wellness Services) are really great to go to if you get sick. They have free cough drops, Advil, etc., and they can let you know what exactly you have so you know how long it will be until you get better. You can also get flu shots there, as well.

Even though it can be a bit depressing to be sick without your mom (or dad) around to make you soup and take you to the doctor, I have had so many people ask me if they can get me anything. People seem to genuinely care here. I know I am probably being pretty cheesy, but I am really appreciative of the friends who get me chicken noodle soup and who ask me how I am feeling each time they see me. Anyway, all I am saying is, though missing class does suck, I wouldn’t be too worried about getting the flu miles away from home, because friends (and CHWS, I guess) can also make being sick a little better than you would think.

So this weekend is fall break, and though I am having a great time, the days just seem so much shorter on breaks. I feel like I haven’t gotten to do near the amount of homework I was planning on doing, nor have I caught up on my sleep. Professors always love to give you extra work on breaks, too, which I can never seem to understand. Some students go home and most others go somewhere fun, so it is not like we have all this extra time to do work. Oh well, I did make 40 bucks today in the tour guide office, and I did made it up to Pike’s place and Uwajimaya (an amazing Asian market) in Seattle, so I shouldn’t be complaining. I had a great time with one of my suitemates here. We got some of the famous flowers at Pike’s place and got some wonderful Ramen at Samurai noodle. I took a few pictures that you can look at of the Seattle area. As you can see, the weather isn’t always cloudy and rainy.

Also, there is so much to do in Seattle. If I ever get bored here on campus, there’s always the Tacoma area. And, if you ever get bored in Tacoma, there’s always the Seattle area. If I get bored in Seattle (which probably won’t happen, but just in case), Portland, OR and Vancouver, B.C. are always excellent choices. Eastern Washington is home to the Cascade Mountain range, so skiing in the winter is also a fun thing to do. The popular ski resorts are about 45 minutes away.  Seattle’s about 35 minutes from campus, and Portland and Vancouver are both about 2 and a half hours away. I thought I would make a list of my favorite things to do on campus for this blog, and then start exploring some new things in Tacoma, then Seattle, then Vancouver/Portland/Eastern Washington for future posts. 

The Top Ten Things to Do on the Puget Sound Campus:

10. Grab a “Buffalo Chicken (or soy chicken, for vegetarians) 12″ Pizza” at the Cellar and see if you can eat the whole thing. It’s so good that you may be able to. 

9. Explore the Science on Display exhibits in Harned Hall, including Foucault’s Pendulum, a perfect acoustic circle, and Willie, an adolescent gray whale skeleton. I don’t even like studying Science very much, and I think this stuff is cool..

8. Go to a Jazz Band performance in Schneebeck Concert Hall. They take you back to the 1920’s…

7. Visit one of your professor’s during their office hours. When they don’t have other students, most professors really like to talk, not just about your class, but about their research and their fields of study. Most professors have Ph. D.’s so they are all extremely intelligent and they want to help you. 

6. Take a walk around campus in the spring, when the Cherry Blossom trees, dedicated to the former students of Japanese descent that were sent to Internment Camps during WWII, are in bloom. Depressing subject, but the blossoms are beautiful. 

5. Watch a Ubiquitous They show on a Friday night. They are our Improv Comedy group on campus, and are pretty hilarious. 

4. Join RDG, Repertory Dance Group, which is our largest club on campus. Anyone can participate in one of the many hip hop, jazz, tap, lyrical, ballet, and ballroom dances even if you have never danced before. It was a really great way for me to make friends at the beginning of Freshman year. 

3.  Curl up with a cup of coffee (all fair trade and organic) on one of the couches in Diversions Cafe on a rainy day, watch the rain pour down, and be thankful that you’re warm and dry. 

2. Though I am biased because I am an Art minor, take a spin through Kittredge Gallery. It’s one of my favorite places on campus. The curator for the gallery is the same curator as the Tacoma Art Museum, and they have a variety of student and professional exhibits. 

1.  And, last but not least, enjoy the few sunny, warm days in the Pacific Northwest by picnicking and playing frisbee on Todd field with some friends. It’s definitely a stress reliever.

This is my first post, so I guess I’ll begin with introductions…My name is Christina Miller, and I am a sophomore here at Puget Sound. I am from Chattanooga, TN, so I have come quite a long way from home. Though I do love my hometown, my freshman year and the first part of my sophomore year here in the Northwest have been wonderful. Surprisingly, I have even managed to survive the rain, which was a really big change for me, since I grew up in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. If you are at all worried about the rain and the cloudy skies, I’m just here to tell you it’s really not that bad. I actually enjoy playing in the rain now, and though it does get a bit dark in the winter, everyone really learns to appreciate the first sunny days of spring. The reason I brought this up, though, is because it just started raining for the first time this semester last week, so I just got out the rain boots and I’m pretty excited to wear them again!
Anyway, back to my intro…I’m a Comparative Sociology major which is an interdisciplinary major combining Anthropology and Sociology. Honestly, last year at this time, I had absolutely no idea what I was going to study-and it’s nice because you don’t have to decide your major until 2nd semester of sophomore year. So I took some classes that counted as Core requirements (just the requirements you have to take from each field of “thinking” to fulfill a Liberal Arts education), and realized that I was primarily interested in International Relations, but I enjoy studying people’s social relationships as well as politics and economics. I am also minoring in Japanese and Studio Art (just for fun!). Hopefully, next year for my full junior year I will be studying abroad in Japan at Waseda University (早稲田大学). I can’t wait for that, but I will talk about it more when I know more details.

Like most other Puget Sound students, I am involved in lots of clubs and activities. I don’t know any student that is not a member of some organization or club that they really enjoy. I dance with Repertory Dance Group (RDG). I’m actually in Justine’s lyrical dance (Justine is another blogger on this site). I am also doing a beginning tap dance. Other than dance, I am an International Student Mentor, and I am mentoring a student from Vietnam. Uyen is so great-we are going out to a Vietnamese dinner tonight and I am so excited! Being from Tennessee, I have never had Vietnamese food before.

I have 2 jobs, one on campus and one off. I’m a tour guide, so if any of you come to campus for a visit and I am your guide, let me know you have read this! It is not a work-study job, but I have had 2 other work-study jobs during my freshman year, and they have lots of options (recycling crew, printmaking lab assistant). Also, I work at a church’s nursery about a mile from campus. It is really nice to get off campus sometimes and make friends with people that are from this area.

So now you know all about me and what I do around here, so feel free to comment or ask questions! It’s fall break this weekend so I’ll be headed to Seattle during the day tomorrow and I’ll be picking up a few extra hours at the tour guide office. I’ll try to post again with pictures of Seattle!