Readers, Young and Olde,
I'm sure you all have missed me dearly. I have neglected both you and this blog for close to two months now. I apologize fully, however, I don't mean it. I've been busy...living. You have probably been busy waiting and I can't blame you. I am two months into this thing people like to call "college," and I have quite a few things to share/critique/speak poorly about. This post will be devoted to the culture of my college: WashU.
WashU, short for Washington University in St. Louis, is located in, of all places, St. Louis, Missoura. Now, the reason I mention this in a seemingly tautological fashion is because of the first piece of WashU culture: no one knows where in Christ's name WashU is. If one were to say "Washington University" to any average citizen of America, chances are they'll think, "Isn't that outside of Seattle?". Well, they're wrong. We are not the University of Washington, which is conveniently located in Seattle, Washington. We are, instead, Washington University in St. Louis. In fact, the shirt of the year at our campus has the words "WashU Pride" written on the front (not suggestive of our LGBT organization, though one might confuse it for such) and "It's in St. Louis, Dammit" (notice the correct spelling of "dammit" and the proper use of the comma) on the back. Apparently, many of us are proud and would like everyone on the WashU campus to know where we are in an almost grating fashion. That's WashU though: blatant and a bit sarcastic.
The second bit of WashU culture, and it must be said, is there is a WashU bubble. When in this bubble, the real world vanishes. I honestly have no idea what is going on outside of this campus. I also don't have much idea of what is going on inside this campus, but that is beside the point. When here, there is no real world. That means, for example, no one here knew about the "Occupy Wall Street" movement until two weeks after it had started. The irony of the bubble is we all get free copies of the New York Times every day, yet we still cannot figure out what is going on in the ever-changing, allegedly very important real world.
TANGENT ALERT:
The "Occupy Wall Street" movement is stupid. I mean really stupid. If you've seen these swarthy guys and gals standing up for the "99%", you would be confused as I'm pretty sure most of the bottom 99% carries themselves with at least some hygiene habits. These OWS-ers, however, look as though their stink alone might scare the investment banker "pigs" (their words, not mine(If anyone who works at GS is reading this, I would like to be an IB one day and I'm sure my references will speak accordingly to this)) from Wall Street, thus accomplishing their goal. But then the greater question comes into play: who becomes the top 1% if the top 1% leave? That's right. The top 1% of the bottom 99% does. Hmm...then what happens? Are they to be protested too? It only seems fair right? I guess what's going to happen here is everyone will be forced to leave America except the 99 poorest Americans because then the top 1% will be a fraction of a person. This should be interesting. I'd buy stock in a popcorn company because there will be quite a bit consumed watching this comedy of humanity play out.
END OF TANGENT
On a social note, WashU is awesome. Yes, there is a fair amount of studying, but I have never seen a more laid back group of people in my life. Work is done quickly and effectively, then we all kick back and enjoy ourselves. A typical week involves a couple poker games. The frat parties on the weekend are always capable of pleasing. Plenty of good times are had, during both the week and weekend. I would say that WashU is not at all what I expected in this respect. I honestly thought most kids would study all the time, leaving me and a very small group of kids to our own devices trying to make our own fun. This simply is not so. The atmosphere is incredibly relaxed. The sarcasm at this school is so thick, it could be cut with a knife. Life has put me at this school, and I'm more than happy to make the most of it. A quick note: Northwestern Sucks, so does University of Chicago. I would be willing to wager most schools in Boston suck, too with the exception of Harvard and MIT (from what I've heard those two know how to have a great time). But my advice to all high-achieving students that might be reading this (I'm sure there's at least one): if you're thinking Ivy or a super-elite, top tier school, WashU is your place. I don't know how the school could be any better. Possibly if we had Sherpas (or perhaps Sherpae for those Latin scholars out there) that would carry us to and from class. That is one thing about WashU: the campus is long. Walking across the sucker can take upwards of 15-20 minutes, but it's great exercise, I suppose. Oh, also, the school isn't pretentious at all...except for all the pretentiousness that I have purposefully brought and distributed freely. Anyway, if you're smart and thinking about a great school, come tour here at least. I will warn you that the tour only tells you about the buildings, not about how incredible the school actually is. So, you should probably also spend a weekend here as a "Pre-Frosh" (that's what we call them and we don't bite much(I promise(unless you want us to, that is))). Also, if you're coming down, shoot me a text if you know me or an email if you don't, and I'd be happy to show you around/give you a tour/answer any questions the official info session might not have answered.
Come tour because we're in St. Louis, Dammit,
DG
