Dear Penn,
We thought we wouldn’t say this a month ago…but we miss you.
At first, everything was great. We finished our finals! We were tired of breathing your sticky smog and eating late night Jimmy John’s out of desperation. We craved the freedom of the summer. But over the past month we have realized that we didn’t fully appreciate what you have always offered us. So we’d like to acknowledge our naiveté and highlight some of your best features that have become evident in our hometown-spurred angst.
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The bars. The welcoming meccas of Penn’s campus that are generous enough to provide us with drink specials and activities every night of the week. (Did you hear that “Country Monday” now exists at Blarney?!) Even though we can sip quality wine (aka not Franzia) with our parents now that we are home, we’re still itching for a good dollar drink. And the sweet elixir that is a Copa margarita.
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Late night eats. We knew this all along, but they don’t exist everywhere. Frogro may not be the freshest supermarket around, but it does provide us with 24/7 access to greasy pizza and questionable Chinese food that tastes, well, almost good, past midnight. And don’t get us started on the late-night glory of the golden arches—McDonald’s.
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The beauty that is the BYO. We’re taking this one hard. Whoever invented this concept is a genius, and absence only makes the heart grow fonder. We miss those balanced blush and gnocchi meals. Not to mention that we are still mourning the tragic and permanent loss of Don Memo.
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We just want to dance. Really. Now that we’re home, the downtowns and frat parties that we took for granted are no longer an option. Our feet are anxious and shaking. It feels wrong not to be able to dance to Daft Punk’s new album at every party on campus until September.
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Food trucks. Food better than our moms make most of the time. We would do anything for a Magic Carpet cookie, a Bui’s breakfast sandwich, and a Chez Yasmin salad. There are no comparable alternatives at home, let alone prices.
