Wednesday, December 21, 2005

College town without the students

Well, I skipped a few days of entries there. It's Wednesday and the week has been fairly relaxing so far. I've eaten lunch out every day with my daughter so far this week and done a little last-minute Xmas shopping. Living in a small college town is an interesting experience, (which I'll write about occasionally) but during breaks it's a different sort of place. The grocery store is no longer overrun with 18-22 year-olds, with me wondering if I'll run into a current or former student in the next aisle. The sidewalks of our "uptown" area are much less crowded. Parking is easier to find, too. Many of the streets look like ghost towns, because the student cars usually parked there are gone. Some of the businesses that cater to students actually close up shop during breaks like these. Our local Starbucks discontinues their 24-hour operations, too. It's a nice change for those of us who are not students, despite the fact they are the entire reason I have a job here!

There's definitely a seasonal waxing and waning of the population as the students arrive in the Fall, leave for Thanksgiving, leave for Winter Break, return for the Spring semester, leave for Spring Break (and run amok on green beer day before that), then leave for the summer. There are still students around during the summer for Summer Session, but the numbers are much lower. During that time, we get other groups of people on campus- for summer youth programs, high school band competitions, etc. There are restaurants that we don't frequent during the semester, but when the students leave we'll eat there. I'm sure other college towns experience the same sorts of changes over the year.

I haven't posted any links lately... Here is the University's main page. They have information aimed at prospective students and current faculty, staff, and students. You can also check out the "virtual tour". I'll post more later on Winter Break in Oxford!


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