Oh, and I blog.

The Pennsylvania State University has decided that spring break will fall between March 8th and March 12th (counting only the weekdays) this year. I have decided that I will not be going anywhere. This means I’m spending a week in State College, PA, a town primarily heralded as being the home-away-from-home for the tens of thousands of students studying at PSU. This week, however, most of them are gone, making State College an empty shell. This is my story about that week.

The last weekday of Spring Break finally got here. You might wonder why I’m not counting the weekends that this week is in between. It’s because there’s a group of students that stay back during the weekend before break, and there’s a group of students that come back during the weekend after break, even if most students just get up and leave on Friday and come back late Sunday night right before classes. So it’s only about the weekday. And it’s the last day of the week already.

The rain that started at midnight the night before continued all day. The day was gloomy and walking around was totally out of the question. I wasn’t going to walk through the rain and the puddles, so I lingered around at home, trying not to get too upset about my really choppy internet (the reason for the really short post on Day 4). After counting the few people still in State College, I decided on meeting up with a friend from an organization, mixing business with pleasure.

He picked me up and we went straight to downtown for some sandwiches and banter at Irving’s. Good conversation and great food make time fly, especially if you’re in the basement where you can’t see the gloomy rain outside. He had some meetings and I needed to get back home, so we parted ways after he gave me a ride home.

A bit of cleaning around the house and some taking care of emails filled the time until 7:30 when I had planned a dinner. Low visibility due to the pouring rain and the fact that it was very dark made it hard to take the right turns. So we ended up at a different place that was just as good.

After that I watched some TV and went to bed. It’s hard to glamorize and blog about a day that had lunch and dinner as its major happenings. And this was the problem with this whole week. While it started as an experiment on the what it feels like to spend Spring Break in an empty college town, it turned out to be an experiment on how excruciatingly difficult it is to squeeze something interesting and blog-worthy out of dull days. And since I didn’t ask any of my friends about whether I was allowed to mention them, some actually asking to be kept out, I had to make it even duller, taking out names of people, places and even taking out whole conversations or events.

In any case, this is the last post about this Spring Break. Now it’s back to, hopefully, more interesting posts about relevant stuff.

- end of day 5/5 -

R'n'R, fictionally true, penn state, state college life Day 5, Spring Break, Spring Break 2010

The Pennsylvania State University has decided that spring break will fall between March 8th and March 12th (counting only the weekdays) this year. I have decided that I will not be going anywhere. This means I’m spending a week in State College, PA, a town primarily heralded as being the home-away-from-home for the tens of thousands of students studying at PSU. This week, however, most of them are gone, making State College an empty shell. This is my story about that week.

It was supposed to rain. It didn’t. Not until 1:00 am. My internet was bad all day. I was bored and walked around, had food, walked some more, came back home, went out, had a drink, came back home. In general was bored. That’s it.

- end of day 4/5 -

R'n'R, fictionally true, penn state, state college life Day 4, Spring Break, Spring Break 2010

The Pennsylvania State University has decided that spring break will fall between March 8th and March 12th (counting only the weekdays) this year. I have decided that I will not be going anywhere. This means I’m spending a week in State College, PA, a town primarily heralded as being the home-away-from-home for the tens of thousands of students studying at PSU. This week, however, most of them are gone, making State College an empty shell. This is my story about that week.

Today was supposed to be rainy. I know this because I watched the local news. WJAC TV is very entertaining, and their weather team is trustworthy. At least that’s what they claim. Not very trustworthy if you ask me, since it only rained for about an hour or so at 9 pm. So as soon as I saw that it was actually just cloudy, I took to the streets.

It’s kind of hard to come up with original descriptions of an empty campus more than twice, so I’ll spare you another round of laments about closed buildings and streets that seem to be widening due their lack of circulation. Instead I’ll tell you about how I remembered something I forgot to mention about racquetball yesterday. As a very recent glasses-wearer, yesterday was the first time I played a sport (an official sport, at least) while actually wearing my glasses. At first I tried the protective large sports glasses that go over your actual glasses and felt just a bit weird as the ball kept wooshing by my racquet. I then tried with just the protective glasses that replace your actual glasses. The ball kept wooshing by, but intertwined with me actually hitting it from time to time. And then I took off any kind of vision-adjustment mechanism and was able to hit the ball much better, but still very bad. And I finally realized I never had good hand-eye coordination, anyway. So much for not wasting your time with this post, huh?

Back to today. Campus-walking ended with a short tour of the University Park Libraries, from the one at the Law School to the main one, to the one in the Engineering building in search of books for friends. Late lunch at the Corner Room and a siesta on the patio of Starbucks off of College Ave followed suite. Maybe it’s because the streets were empty, maybe it’s because they were wearing bright clothing, maybe it’s because of something else, but the local drunks and beggars were very evident and very friendly. Too friendly for our tastes. We decided to “take the party somewhere else” and went to see a movie at one of the local cinemas. And since romantic comedies were out of the question for a group of guys, we went with the action comedy CopOut, and spent an hour and a bit laughing. We tried to keep the funny going as we got to one of our houses, but the premiere is only next week, when we’re back to normal life.

So today was basically just as uneventful.

- end of day 3/5 -

R'n'R, fictionally true, penn state, state college life Day 3, Spring Break, Spring Break 2010

The Pennsylvania State University has decided that spring break will fall between March 8th and March 12th (counting only the weekdays) this year. I have decided that I will not be going anywhere. This means I’m spending a week in State College, PA, a town primarily heralded as being the home-away-from-home for the tens of thousands of students studying at PSU. This week, however, most of them are gone, making State College an empty shell. This is my story about that week.

I managed to wake up much earlier today. I just decided to fight through my tiredness and laziness, and I did it. The day looked to be a great one, almost 60 degrees, no chance of rain, a light breeze, and rays of sun dispersed everywhere.

My day however turned out to be dull. That’s why this is a shorter entry. I tidied up my room, did some laundry and waited and waited for the time to play racquetball. And it took a while, a few false starts and a couple of hours later I walked out into the gorgeous outdoors, climbed into the car and we jetted off to Rec Hall. After scoping around we went to the equipment room only to be met with a large sign that read “We have NO Racquets”. Our insistence to simply ignore the sign and use our “grad students who stayed behind to do research” charm with a live person failed.

We got back into the car and took the long road to the Intramural Building, just because of the weather. The campus looks nice even if deserted and lonely. On the other hand, the IM building was packed. We took out two racquets and waited for a court to be vacated. This time was used to practice and get the rules straight (btw, don’t try to read it out to somebody, it’s so complicated, it’s easier if they read it by themselves). Even so, once we hit the courts several realizations were made. Unless you’re really into racquetball, the rules are only there for safety, faulting at every serve seems to be just a bit annoying. With my “ballet” avoidance moves I came to the conclusions that when I play a game, I have 3 major rules in this order: I first try to protect myself, then I try just to hit the ball, and last, and most likely least, try to give it some direction. Which means racquetball today was mostly a workout. A lot of running, some twisting and very little actual gameplay. But it was fun. The only downside was that somewhere between the lockers and the court I lost one of my black beanies, the one my mom always said is less warmer than the other one. Maybe I’ll find it tomorrow, maybe it’s going to end up in the lost and found.

The only other highlight of the day was finding out that some restaurants are understaffed to the point that they stop doing deliveries. So I will be going to bed much earlier tonight, evidenced primarily by the time this article is published. Yeah, today was so uneventful I’ve resorted to meta writing in order to fill this entry.

- end of day 2/5-

R'n'R, fictionally true, penn state, state college life Day 2, Spring Break, Spring Break 2010

The Pennsylvania State University has decided that spring break will fall between March 8th and March 12th (counting only the weekdays) this year. I have decided that I will not be going anywhere. This means I’m spending a week in State College, PA, a town primarily heralded as being the home-away-from-home for the tens of thousands of students studying at PSU. This week, however, most of them are gone, making State College an empty shell. This is my story about that week.

Today was supposed to be my first day of experiencing the ghost-town that is State College. Unfortunately I went to bed late, and by late, i meant so late that it was already the next day for a while. And not because I went to some party or felt the post-Oscar rush, or had something important to do ( like I’m doing now, at 2 a.m., writing this post, this is important, right? ) it’s just because i did not feel tired enough to go to bed at a decent hour. Going to bed late usually means that the time you set your alarm for is too early. So I kept delaying my actual wake-up by a lot.

‘It’s Spring Break, I’m not going to get extreme on my schedule, right?’ I said to myself out loud while realizing that it’s 12:30 pm and I was still in bed. After dilly-dallying a while, vacillating for a bit and dawdling for a couple of moments (yep, that’s the only thing I gained from the GRE, lots of fancy words), I put on some clothes and strolled over to my meetings for the day - I took advantage of the fact that most of the people that work for the university are still here and made appointments and such. The breeze was perfect and with the cloud-free skies, the walk was very enjoyable. What made it more enjoyable was the fact that most of my part of town (north of the University Park campus) was either empty or almost empty. Meeting up with a friend after my meetings, we took the long route through a bizarre empty-yet-still-alive UP campus. College Ave., the main street at the convergence of the town and the campus felt weird. It was a bit after 4 and landmark locales like McLanahans and Irving’s were running on a reduced schedule, while some of the retail shops were closed altogether. Our discussions quickly segued from our topics of choice to the idea of the ghost-town.

And this lead to the axiom of self-sustainability. Not that we actually called it that way, but when you want to make it sound interesting enough to keep people interested in this long post, you coat it in something intelligent. We came to the conclusion that the stores and restaurants aren’t expecting a drop in business, per se, even if a large amount of their patrons are gone, on the contrary, they’re not equipped to deal with the same level of business. Most of their employees are students, we postulated as we went through the menu of one of the chain casual dining restaurants on South Allen St. The students need certain services in order to maintain their lifestyle, the people that manage the businesses providing these services need employees and most importantly, the students need to make some money, this way the circle is complete. Most places in State College adhere to this circle, making them weak when students leave in droves for really short periods. Thus they have to either close, work on reduced schedules or pay up for the ton of extra hours.

Walking back to the car, parked next to the Blue Band building, the city in the twilight seemed to have a different face, it reverts to the “regular PA town” personality. But we were tired of making up excuses for spring break. And after a few hours of relaxation and possibly time-wasting-on-the-internet activities, we decided on working off the high-calorie food we took in, and totally disregarding the fact that it was 9 PM, on a Monday during Spring Break, we tried to hit the Racquetball courts on campus. Hitting a wall with the IM Building, where we were admonished, a bit too harsh, for trying to balance both a healthy and a social life, we tried Rec Hall. The courts (all of them) were open. Unfortunately the equipment room was closed and the only thing we had to work with were racquetball balls and tennis rackets. We gave up and decided to try again tomorrow. This time maybe earlier.

Unfortunately, it’s already late again. I might be sleeping in again. I hope not.
- end of day 1 of 5 -

R'n'R, fictionally true, penn state, state college life Day 1, Spring Break, Spring Break 2010

Usually, when you’ll be away from your “online presence” you claim it beforehand, link your twitter feed as your replacement for that period, and ask your readers to not panic and/or play nice.

Well I didn’t do that for a lot of reasons, most importantly, i totally forgot. I spent a week with my folks, a night in NYC, 7 nights in the Dominican, and another night in NYC. In the process, i visited three Hotels, the Affinia Dumont, the Paradisus Palma Real and Morgan’s. All three were great destinations in themselves, but they offered a gateway to urban and natural paradise alike. My spring break experience was not as flashy as other’s and it wasn’t as regretful either. Great food, great entertainment, random conversations with great people, and most of all active relaxation marked my vacation. With ups and downs, as all vacations are, the most springbreak-y experience was a short and funny encounter with two slightly drunk college girls.

All in all it was a great time. Now I can go from forgetting about my blog because of vacation to forgetting about my blog because of school.

P.S.: Interesting fact: i refrained from taking any pictures with my camera and took less than half a dozen pictures with other cameras.

R'n'R

sunday 02.15.2009

(place thing time of day)

R'n'R, fictionally true Chinatown Bus, New York, state college, Toy Fair, Tramonti, walking around, Washington DC

The United States of America is sometimes associated with spending money, lots of money, spending money on stupid things, spending ridiculous amounts of money on useless pieces of merchandise, (you get the picture). Some prefer to say that America was built on consumerism, it became its religion and is now turning into its modus operandi, others say its a natural thing in a thriving capitalistic economy, and the rest don’t care because they’re waiting for the stuff they bought on SkyMall to be delivered.

Be that as it may, around some holidays, religious or not, official or not, even the most thrifty tend to splurge, within their fiscal limits, since it’s tradition to celebrate that way. Bottom line, people spend. And they try to make it appropriate to the specific holiday.

Enter Valentine’s Day, a day of love, tenderness, and above all a huge rise in sales of chocolate and flowers, the refuge of every man, when nothing comes to mind.

-I’m all out of ideas from the past years, what should I do this time?
-Flowers and chocolate, classy and timeless.

-I totally forgot about tomorrow, didn’t get anything special.
-Just buy some chocs and roses, you can’t fail!

-I don’t know what to get, I don’t want to send the wrong signal!
-It’s easy, nothing says just “happy valentine’s” more than chocolate and flowers.

( again, you get the picture )

That’s why, even for such a bad economic cycle, the companies that should be feeling good about themselves are in the chocolate industry; they’re set. Soon it will be Easter time and more choco-madness. With small blips like this on their charts, they can survive without making cuts, you know, drastic ones at least.

Well, not really. I did write this whole elaborate post just to say the following. A three-candy heart-shaped choco-box from Russell Stover, taken straight out of the wrapped and openned right in front of me, had not three but TWO candies inside.

Now, how does that work? Is one of the surprise flavors invisibility? Did they go green and realized that by reducing one candy out of three they cut off 50% of their CO2 emissions? Did they start a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory game where, if you’re lucky you might find a golden ticket, and if not you might not find a candy at all?

But seriously, shouldn’t the belt-tightening happen on the side of the demand, not on that of the supply? Is this recession going to turn into a depression? Because that would actually help the industry, people eat chocolate when they’re depressed.

In any case,

Russell Stover Chocolates, now with 30% more air.

R'n'R, fictionally true chocolate, recession, russell stover, valentine's day

As you are reading this, I’m on the Chinatown Bus from New York to State College. I’m not writing from my iPhone, there’s no internet on the bus, it’s just the magic of wordpress. We flew in from Punta Cana to New York, yesterday. We stood in a big line only to find out our flight from Atlanta, GA to Newark Airport had been cancelled due to weather. The upside was that the lady at the check-in counter was nice enough to ask us if we would like to fly into JFK on the direct flight that was to leave in 30 minutes. We nodded happily and took the “express” line ( another check-in counter attendant took us to the front of the security line ) and waited in the “Duty Free” area for a couple of minutes until an airport-sanctioned local band finished their set. We were escorted onto the runway as we walked in almost-scorching heat in single file to the plane. The flight was great and the landing almost perfect, as JFK was bracing for a snow storm. We waited in the plane for almost an hour, while outside numerous machines were clearing the runway. The hotel was just as expected, and the lounge on the 46th floor was pretty nice. So, now I’m on the bus. Tomorrow is my first day of second semester at S.I.A. in the brand new Katz Building.

R'n'R, state college life Atlanta, Chinatown Bus, Dominican Republic, JFK, Katz Building, New York, Newark, PSU, Punta Cana, S.I.A., state college

… I feel I’m not ready to leave NYC and go to the Dominican Republic. I mean sure, crappy weather exchanged for sun, light clothes and cool breezes, anytime. But the mixed reviews on TripAdvisor for our hotel seem a bit too much, especially when you’re staying in the center of Times Square. I really hope they’re overreacting. Well, there’s only one way to find out, and that one way is only 2 days away.

R'n'R D.R., Dominican Republic, New York, NYC