As I wrote earlier, there were various experiences to enjoy while my brother and I attended Palomar Community College. Time changes things, it is true, and since we transferred in 2009 the observatory I visited closed (a new larger one will open this coming March). There are also more classrooms towards the center of campus, and construction is in progress on the theater. But the Concert Hour still happens in the same building each Thursday, and the Arboretum has remained mostly unchanged—though the people who work there are in the middle of labeling all the plants/trees in the area.
The transfer to Cal State San Marcos meant moving just a few blocks to what seemed—to me, at least—an even grander campus where my brother and I could jumpstart our chosen career paths. Having taken care of our general education requirements at the community college level, we could focus on our majors. That made the classes we took all the more enjoyable, even if we had to contend with tuition hikes and the poor economy.
Cal State San Marcos
Being a university campus, activities and events abounded at Cal State. Almost every week on the library plaza, the Student Association or another organization (from study-abroad programs to clubs) would set out stands. Sometimes they also offered free food, and then it was common to find long lines of people stretching from the plaza along the walkway towards the art building.
At the beginning of each semester, the main food court and eating area (called “The Dome” for its shape) and the five-story Kellogg Library tended to have big crowds of people either finding their way around or studying for their courses.
It was possible to get a little claustrophobic when caught amid these crowds, so I remember feeling refreshed when I had the opportunity to break away and explore the rest of the campus.
Down the hill, and across the street, from the library plaza stood the Clark Field House—a gym free for students to use throughout the year (so long as they took courses each semester, including the summer). Seeing this for the first time was good news to me, since I enjoy working out, and it had cost money at Palomar to use the gym every month. My first move was to apply for a card to enter the gym, but along the outside there was also a lounge. At first, the cougar logo placed on the front glass door made me think it must be a room for conferences or faculty members, yet on venturing in I found it clearly made for resting after exercise or studying for classes.
Visiting the lounge the first few times was a pleasant shock, since it was so vacant compared to the rest of the campus. It had couches, televisions with channels galore, a miniature fountain, and a coffee/hot chocolate machine. When things became too noisy elsewhere, I could retreat to the Clark Field House and enjoy some relaxation with warm drinks.
That is, until I found the cubbyhole.
Anyone who depended solely on taking the elevator to his or her classes in the Academic Hall would have missed this, but above the fourth floor where (if you took the stairwell to the top) you would find a cubbyhole. Although it had no chairs, the ground stayed clean of cigarette butts or other trash—and from there one could get a nice view of the library plaza and everything beyond. It reminded me of the topmost spot in the Arboretum in that way, and this was a great place to have lunch, especially on rainy days (if there wasn’t a wind).
The first two locations I mentioned were a bit out of the way, but there were good-to-know places reached by just wandering around inside the academic buildings as well. There were times when the computer labs at the library lacked open computers for students to use, but the lab found on the second floor of University Hall tended to always have ones available. I do not know if this was because not so many students know about this lab, or if reaching computers in the library was just easier—in any case, it was a good place to go if you needed to use a school computer and had trouble finding one. It also stayed unlocked past six o’clock in the evenings and opened around 7:30. So that helped, too.
I should also talk about the student lounges near the Dome, which house different groups of people on campus. It probably sounds strange, but even with my explorations, it was only recently I really took advantage of this area. More specifically, of the Women’s Center.
I happened to visit that lounge because I needed a band-aid.
Funny what can draw you somewhere, isn’t it?
Anyway, I had gotten the queen of paper cuts along my thumb—and it was only then I thought how nice it would have been to pack some bandages in my purse in case something like this occurred again in the future.
These thoughts brought me to the convenience-like store in the Dome.
They didn’t sell band-aids, but one of the assistants advised me to visit the student lounges:
“They always have a lot of band-aids there.” He said.
That took me to the Multi-Cultural room, which was a little intimidating at first because there were so many students sitting around tables or doing projects here and there. It felt like I was walking in on a meeting or a club, which wasn’t far from the truth—and several people turned and greeted me in unison. I asked about the band-aids, but they were out of the larger ones and advised me to go next door to the Women’s Center.
I did exactly that, and discovered the Women’s Center was different than I had imagined. During my classes, my professors and friends sometimes mentioned the Women’s Center. What I found there was an even cozier version of the lounge at the Clark Field House. Here the hot chocolate mixes were free, and the couches were soft. They had cards to play solitaire with, and dominos to stack. There were also shelves crammed with books. The people who gathered there moved about with ease, and the atmosphere was welcoming.
It was amazing.
These are only some of the many things available at Cal State San Marcos, and if asked to describe my experience on-campus in more detail—it would take many more pages to cover all the events you could discover.
So until then, this is the best advice I can give:
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