Student Life Archives

Scott Bressler

Located in University City, only a short walk from the South 40, the Delmar Loop is a great place to spend an early autumn afternoon or evening. There are countless things to do on this one street, including seeing a movie, shopping, or going to a concert. Additionally, the Loop is home to some of the most delicious restaurants in St. Louis. From pizza to sushi to burgers, the Delmar loop has many appealing options for every appetite.

The restaurants on the Loop promise to satisfy any and every craving of the average college student. These options are not only appetizing, but reasonably priced. In addition, reaching Delmar Boulevard does not require a car or taxi, as it is walking distance from campus. Feel free to celebrate orientation with a stop at any one of the fantastic eateries on the Delmar Loop.

Seki’s Japanese Restaurant
6335 Delmar Boulevard
St. Louis, MO 63130
314-726-6477
$10-20

Seki’s is a popular place to go for a tasty Japanese meal at a reasonable price. Both the maki sushi (rolls) and the nigiri sushi (pieces) are always fresh and tasty, and there is an extensive menu consisting of traditional Japanese dishes. The chicken teriyaki proves to be a flavorsome selection for any diner who doesn’t eat sushi. Also, many dishes come with Miso soup and cucumber salad at no additional cost.

Pi
6144 Delmar Boulevard
St. Louis, MO 63112
314-727-6633
$15-25

One of the newer eateries on Delmar, Pi’s offerings include San Francisco-style deep-dish pizza as well as thin crust pizza, salads, and several appetizers. In addition to the items on the menu, patrons can pick and choose toppings to design their own personal pie. The Lincoln Park thin crust pizza, made with mozzarella cheese, garlic olive oil, zucchini, fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, and feta cheese, and the Western Addition deep-dish pizza, topped with mozzarella cheese, spinach blended with ricotta and feta cheeses, mushrooms, onions, and garlic, are two particularly delectable choices at this delightful eatery.

Fitz’s
6605 Delmar Boulevard
St. Louis, MO 63130
314-726-9555
$5-15

Blueberry Hill
6504 Delmar Boulevard
St. Louis, MO 63130
314-727-4444
$5-15

These two very well known restaurants, located almost across the street from each other, serve up two of the best hamburgers in the city. Blueberry Hill, famous for hosting concerts-including a monthly one by St. Louis legend Chuck Berry-in the Duck Room, is notable for much more than just delicious burgers. Other options include various salads, breakfast plates, and vegetarian dishes. Fitz’s, known for its root beer, is another Loop restaurant with a menu that boasts scrumptious burgers and more. The chicken club sandwich, topped with bacon and Provolone cheese, is a superb substitute for a Fitz’s hamburger.

Scott Bressler

So besides knowledge, fun, new friends and good times, what else are you hungry for at Wash. U.? Food is going to be an important-and necessary-part of your college experience. You will bond over meals with your newfound friends and learn just how long certain potables and comestibles can marinate in your mini fridge before the smell becomes utterly offensive to your roommate. There is a lot of fun to be had with food, but it is important to recognize that your eating habits could change. Here are a few suggestions to help you maintain healthy patterns of eating.

Make time for breakfast: You’re in college now-one of the best ones in the nation, at that!-and you will need all the brainpower you can get. Nine and ten o’clock classes are going to continue to feel earlier and earlier as the semester progresses, but remember to take the time to fuel yourself with a nutritious breakfast. Bear’s Den offers breakfast food in the mornings where you can sit with some eggs and toast and read Student Life before leaving for class. Something like fruit, cereal or instant oatmeal is easy enough to prepare in your room while you get ready. Eating breakfast will ensure that you are prepared for the busy day ahead of you. Also, it is best to eat carbohydrates earlier because they will give you the most energy to burn throughout the day. As the day winds down, you do not need as much energy-which will turn into fat if you do not use it-so you can cut back on the carbs.

Remember portion control: Just because the guy in the pasta line manages to stuff three pounds worth of pasta with meat sauce into that tiny white box does not mean you have to eat it all. Stop when you’re full and try to remember to diversify what you eat-meaning some protein, some dairy, some fruit and vegetables, etc. You can be sure to get all the different food groups in by eating several small meals a day instead of stuffing yourself with a few.

Don’t eat late at night: It is tempting to stop at Bear’s Den at two in the morning just because you can, but it is not the healthiest choice. Eating so close to bedtime does not give you the chance to work off the calories you just took in, so it turns to fat. It may also interfere with your sleep schedule.

When in doubt, check it out: It seems that Wash. U.’s catering service, Bon Appétit, does its best to provide students with a plethora of food options, some healthy, some not. Their web site provides the nutritional information for most of their meals so you can keep track of your caloric intake.

Eat fresh, eat healthy!: By now, you know which foods are good for you and which are not. Try to eat things that are unprocessed, such as fruits and veggies. Don’t eat too much of one thing and don’t overindulge in fried foods and sweets. Michael Pollan expands on the notion of eating more natural foods in his book In Defense of Food if you’re interested in learning more about food, like stuff we eat and when we should cut back on red meat.

Don’t be afraid to use your kitchen: Dorms are equipped with functioning kitchens, so have at it if you like to cook or are hoping to learn how. Unfortunately, they do not have pots and pans, so bring your own or find a friend who has some and wants to share some quality cooking time with you.

Open packages alone: If you do get some eatable goodies shipped to you, you may want to assess if you want to share them or not before others know you have it. It’s not everyday anymore that you get to have your mom’s awesome oatmeal chocolate chip cookies or something of the like, so guard those puppies and eat them sparingly!

There are a number of exciting new culinary prospects ahead of you. Your class will be the first freshman class to experience the new dining facilities in the University Center, as well as the old classics. So get out there while the eating is good and enjoy your meals.

Scott Bressler

Diwali
Before this epic cultural event, a line of RAs and other students in sleeping bags will plug up the Mallinckrodt hallways. Dancers, actors, and crew members give their lives for weeks to the wildly popular show in Edison theater hosted by Ashoka, the South Asian Students Association. Their work does pay off; students expertly perform a wide array of Asian dances and a skit with a lesson about Asian-American life. My advice: if you want to see it, get tickets early. This is a good time to take advantage of your RAs.

Vertigo
Three guesses: who are the greatest partiers on campus? Would you guess the engineers? Well, you should. With their lighted dance floor and their great DJs, this is one of the most popular parties of the year. I can’t get any more specific than that. My advice: see it for yourself. Otherwise you won’t believe it.

W.I.L.D.
Anyone can walk in someplace. You can walk into class. You can walk into your room. But how many places can you walk in AND lay down? Well, your room is one.but still, the twice-yearly W.I.L.D. concert is a completely unique experience. A crazy, excited mass of kids gathers to listen, jump around uncontrollably, and be, well, W.I.L.D. Past headliners have included George Clinton, OK Go, Guster, Ben Folds and Outkast. My advice: To get the most out of W.I.L.D. forget, for a second, that you have any sort of a reputation to maintain.

2:59 a.m. at Bear’s Den
Okay, so this isn’t really an official event. And technically, nothing happens at exactly 2:59 that doesn’t happen at 2:58 or earlier. But something does happen at 3 a.m. every Saturday and Sunday which is important to all students: Bear’s Den closes for the night. And something else important happens one minute later: you will get hungry. Thus the forward-thinking residents of the South 40 grab their last-minute quesadillas after their night on the town. My advice: definitely do this. Food always tastes better late at night.

Holi
So you’ve slogged through a whole year of college. You’re thinking about exams. It’s spontaneously hot outside. And you want nothing more than to smack that annoying kid on your floor with a water balloon. Can Ashoka, the South Asian Students Association, help? Of course! In mid-April, the group prepares 20,000 short-lived water balloons for this sloppy free-for-all on the swamp. My advice: take advantage of the mud. Your Holi success is judged by how indistinguishable your friends are.

MCT

Your freshman floor will be your new home at Wash. U. It’s a veritable melting pot of new ideas, diverse perspectives and fresh opinions. More importantly, it’s where most of you will learn to live with your peers away from home for the first time. While the school rightly prides itself on stimulating intellectual conversation spilling into the residence halls, one of the most important things you’ll learn in college will be how to get along with this crazy group of students from all different backgrounds. Sometimes, the most important thing you’ll learn each week won’t come from a physics class, but from the girl down the hall who just turned you on to an awesome new band or your roommate teaching you how to clean up your hard drive. There are a few especially important people who will contribute to the ecosystem of your freshman floor; get to know them.

The music aficionado
This is a great friend; he knows about acid jazz, zydeco and everything in-between. The music fanatic will be more than happy to burn you CDs of all these “awesome little indie bands that would totally be the next big thing except that their music is too deep for the big corporate labels, man” until you tell him to stop. Additionally, the music aficionado is always down to see a live show and will probably know all the obscure opening bands. He’ll usually try to get you to convert to his file sharing software so you can keep finding new artists; check with the computer whiz to make sure you won’t get arrested.

The guy who will play on all your IM teams
Many freshmen floors bond over Intramurals. And there are always those guys who will roll you out of bed on a Sunday morning to play anything from ultimate Frisbee to inner tube water polo. Always go. Even if your floor has all the combined athleticism of a potato, the games are a blast and the guy who will play on all your IM teams will make a great coach/head cheerleader.

The movie librarian
Sometimes you’ll just go nuts if you try to derive one more equation or read another act of Shakespeare. It’s times like these that it’s nice to spend a quiet weekend in the dorm with friends, PJs and popcorn. When you need to veg out, look for the movie librarian. Not every floor has one, but those who do cherish him. Boasting classics, popular new movies, foreign flicks and whole TV series, he runs a little Blockbuster right out of his room and can often suggest the perfect movie for you simply by looking deeply into your eyes for a few seconds.

The kid with extra meal points
On every floor, there is that lucky kid with a huge meal plan who can subsist on a mere bagel and some sushi day after day. Others are frugal and will be eating the special end-of-the-year lobster at Bear’s Den while you try to decide which clothes you wouldn’t mind selling to get enough scratch to survive on Ramen. Find the one who has more meal points than time to use them and remind him that they don’t carry over to the next year. What is he going to do, donate his points to charity while you’re starving next door?

The studious notetaker
We’d all like to be great students, and most of us go to most of our classes, but that 9 a.m. lab on Saturday morning is more than some of us can take. In times of crisis-midterms, the flu, etc.-find your floormate with the color-coded flashcards. His meticulous attention to detail is almost as good as you actually showing up to class. As long as you’re not a total mooch and have something intelligent to add to the conversation, this is a great person with whom to study.

The guy who can change your bed height
Listen up ladies! Able to move heavy furniture, deftly handle his tools and help lend a hand, the guy who can raise your bed is worth keeping around even after the first two days.

The person who knows absolutely everyone
This friend can’t walk into a room without getting hugged by about half the people around. A master networker, he is on the list for all the parties, is on a first name basis with a few deans and can always call in a favor. You’ll never know how this person got to know all his acquaintances, but try not to sweat it. He’s great for introducing you to new friends. Also, if you ever need to know about obscure medieval music or the literature of Mongolia, this person is likely to put a phone number in your hand before you can finish asking for help.

The guy with the air mattress
In a perfect world, your roommate would at least give you the courtesy of a phone call before cozying up with a romantic friend for the night. Unfortunately, every weekend, students get back to their room at 3 a.m. to find the tell-tale tie on the door handle. For those sexiles, the guy with the air mattress is a phenomenal asset. He’ll board you up for the night while your roomie’s having a romp between the sheets. He’s so nice that he’ll probably even grab brunch with you in the morning and attempt to make your roommate’s walk of shame even more hilariously awkward.

The computer whiz
This guy can do it all, from cleaning out your spyware to synchronizing your zip drive (or whatever it is that computers need fixed). He can run Macs and PCs and knows how LINUX works. Usually trilingual-fluent in English, some Asian language and binary-he will try not to laugh at you when you spend half an hour screaming at a word document but will politely point out that you are simply out of printer toner.

The local
This floormate knows all the great little Italian restaurants on the Hill, the best coffee places near campus and which of the five Thai restaurants on the Loop is the best. He can give you directions to the Central West End and suggest good places to club or to take a date. Best of all? He usually has a car.

The super-volunteer
Has anyone on your floor ever pan-handled? How about baked upwards of 500 brownies? Every year, Wash. U. students have hundreds of opportunities to volunteer. The most popular events are Dance Marathon and Relay for Life, and each team (floor) needs a captain. So find some young idealist who will ring a bell outside of Schnucks for sick kids and doesn’t mind learning a spirit dance.

The one with the fake
.uh, mustaches. You know, the Groucho Marx ones with the glasses and big noses? Yeah, those fakes. They make a great last-minute Bauhaus costume.