about bliss

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

daily bliss: college town coffee shops with wireless internet

Good morning! I'm live blogging from lemonjellos, a funky little coffee shop in Holland frequented by "Hopies," i.e. Hope College students. As I walked towards the flyer-plastered double doors, I couldn't help but think what a different town this is than the one I grew up in. Signs for literary journals, concerts, and the Young People's Socialist League (!) allude to a certain liberalism and radicalism that was not at all visible in the 1980s and 1990s when I was a young person in this town. Now, there's also a sign for a Steven Curtis Chapman and Michael W. Smith tour, which is a remnant of the past Holland and the past dharmagirl.

This morning, I fight for a table against prospective Hope students, a smattering of faculty, and students, everywhere students, sipping coffee and being brilliant.

My question is, how do I help bring this college culture to my town? To my two-year school that still has a reputation of being the fifth year of high school, even though students return and tell us we're harder and better than the 4 year schools?

Begin with the coffee shops.

And now, I must stop procrastinating and work on *my* scholarly article, which I'm presenting in two weeks. And which is largely unwritten. Gulp.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:44 AM

    Good luck with your article!

    I love college town coffee shops.

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  2. Awww coffee shops and spring break! Enjoy yourself!

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  3. Ohh, a lively coffee shop. We have on of those at my college. We go there, grab coffees and discuss everything from annoying professors to relationships.

    In fact, I was just in one 2 days ago with The French Club and we were practicing our french by talking about our spring breaks and sipping on cafe.

    It was pretty great. And I like this post. You're a very good writer.

    ReplyDelete