Not Good to Drive

I like the idea of a big city. More specifically, I like the idea of public transportation in a big city. I don’t know if I like transit systems that go beyond the hypothetical because I have sparse experience with them. Minneapolis got a light rail right as I left the Twin Cities so I never used it and in Madison you just walked. Everywhere. Nobody (students) used cars for anything other than going to work or to the grocery store. When you went out at night, it was on foot because everything was within reasonable walking distance.

That being said, the biggest thing to which I have had to issues adjusting is how St. Louis pretty much requires driving to get to the rich diversity of nightspots here and there aren’t any other good options. So… if you are going out for drinks, as we MSTPs have been often, this presents a problem. For the first time in my life I am actually concerned with things like DD’s, cab fares, and when the train stops running (the ONLY train, mind you, as StL has yet to make a nice rail system that covers most of the city.) Luckily, our schedules have so far worked out that somebody usually has to go into lab or do something else early the next morning. If that isn’t the case, there are also a few people in the WUSM class that hang out with us MSTP folk who don’t drink much/often for various reasons. They still come out and have fun, which is great, and they can drive us home at the end of it. If not, cabs aren’t too bad. From the Loop area to the Central West End, a cab will cost you about as much as a drink as long as there are 4 of you riding home. Still, I miss the days of roaming the streets in a small pack of jovial, inebriated peers.

I guess there’s just something eerily adult about going home in a car. Maybe it’s time to get used to that.

Really quick: The good, the bad, and the ugly. The StL dining selection, the washU IT department(s), and the heat of the afternoon at 3:30 or so.