I spent most of today wandering around what may very well be the quietest part of campus, searching desperately for food. It made me almost miss the all-girls dorm I stayed at for the past few years. It may have suffered from drunk people giving blow jobs in the parking lot and the constant reek of illegal substances being consumed (inhaled?) from down the hall, but damn it, it was surrounded by places for food. There were at least three or four sushi places (and one good sushi place, which is all you need, really), two Indian restaurants, and a scattered handful of Chinese, Korean, and Thai foodstops. Not to mention a Noodles & Co. right smack dab across the street from the dorm. And a Panera. And some super swanky European place.
I could go on and on about all the food that I was surrounded by, if I was willing to pay for it, and as a hungry underclassman with no real appreciation for money, I was. And there was the ethnic shop I stopped by every week to look longingly at the scarves I wanted but didn't need, and a sex shop I stopped by every month to squeeze the dildos and make small talk with the owner. Even if I sucked at getting to know my hallmates, at least I got to know most every store I was surrounded by. For fuck's sake, I lived in the middle of downtown.
And now? I'm living in maybe the quietest, most deserted part of campus. I have to walk a mile to get to anything edible when the dorm cafeterias are closed, and even when the cafeteria is open, I seem to be utterly inept at finding my way there. My window faces a parking lot, and since the room's halfway underground, I am frequently plagued by fear that someone is going to ride a motorcycle through it. I ate ramen for dinner last night after scrambling back from the boyfriend's place so I could spend the rest of the weekend preparing for classes come Tuesday. I usually don't break into my first pack of ramen until right before midterms.
So I guess I was a little cranky as I tried to finish unpacking last night. The room seemed too small and dingy to be worth the cost and, at the time, it smelled like ramen. Nothing feels very classy when it smells like ramen.
But when I woke up this morning, all I could hear were leaves making that leafy sound in the wind, as opposed to the screaming construction equipment that worked from morning til night right next to my old dorm. And as I tried to find my way to the cafeteria, somewhere between ten and fifteen minutes away, but which still took me an entire hour to arrive at, all I could do was look around and think Huh...TREES. Which, for me, isn't a bad way to start off a day at all.
It also didn't hurt that they were having a barbecue. And had a water slide.
I might just be able to get used to living in the middle nowhere, campus.
* cough *
* knocks on wood *
* duct tapes window shut *
