The Painters

The night of May 18th a freshman, a sophomore, a junior and two seniors did something together that neither of them had done before…WE painted the spirit bench!

It has been something I have wanted to do since I first transferred to Pacific. It’s a great tradition and well worth the money ($20 for 7 cans of paint), I encourage everyone to give it a try.

The day of the painting I was trying to recruit friends to join me in the tagging. I was surprised to learn how many people responded with an immediate yes and how few of them had done it before. That night we painted the bench, two different groups of friends had already painted it, apart of me felt guilty because we would most likely be the third and final taggers of the night and the poor kids before us would wake up to find that their painting on the bench had gotten a make-over. But as my friends put it, “It’s the battle of the bench, who ever can tag it the latest gets the victory.” They were right in our case. The bench lasted 3 whole days, and is still mostly intact; my tribute to 90′s pop culture (EAT MY SHORTS, DONT HAVE A COW and FRESH PRINCE OF FG), Ryan’s pinwheel tribute to the Blazers, my Peugeot, Dr. Lesley Hallick the New/17th President, our goodbye to Dr. Phil (Peace) and our overall congratulations to the class of 2009.

Painting the bench was one of my favorite experiences at Pacific.

Keep the tradition alive!

Painting the Spirit Bench in my Boxer Briefs!

I’ll catch ya on the flip-side.

Ty

Why does this always happen? It’s like summer camp, you always seem to have the most fun and make a new best friend the last week.

Being a transfer student and living off campus, my experience at Pacific has been different than most. I transferred in feeling like the new kid in class. Obviously the more i was around and the more i got involved, the more fun i had and friends i made. The truth is though, i didn’t start getting involved until this last semester. That’s not to say i wasn’t having fun and making friends, but i just wasn’t around as much. Maybe it was the fact that i knew this was my last semester and i knew that this would be my last chance for a lot of things. For whatever reason i got involved, I had fun, i made friends, and now it is time to leave

Let this be a lesson to you and me. Don’t hesitate to get involved and to have fun. Try something new, step outside of your comfort zone, because sometimes you can find a whole new comfort, like a new friend.

It was fun while it lasted.

I’ll be seeing you.

Tyler “Peugeot” Andre

If you are wanting to live off campus and want to explore options outside of Forest Grove I would seriously consider making sure you are within biking, walking, or even crawling distance from one of the two shuttle stops because it will save you gas money and time. Oh! It also encourages you to wake up and get moving in the mornings with the threat of a missed shuttle and  having to devise alternate schemes to campus. The only thing I would love to happen is more flexibility with the shuttle (more trips, later times), but I suppose more people need to start taking the shuttle first!

My Spring Break plans in the winter involved me perhaps traveling internationally or taking a road trip with my girl friend, however, as March nears its end and senior projects get closer to deadlines, my new plans for spring break will be me working several hours a day. I expect to get an estimated 10 blocks cut for my senior show, each block takes me about 3 hours, so doing the math i will be working about 4.5 hours a day for 7 days. . The only break i will be getting is a break from my other studies, but a breaks a breaks…I’ll take what i can get.

Do me a favor and enjoy your Spring Break.

I’ll see you in 10 days.

Ty

Become a Boxer. It's an out-of-this-world experience.

"The world will never be the same once you've lived in Forest Grove."

This is the first of many images to come of Boxer making it on the “Big Screen”

Hope you like them.

Ty

1) Shop in bulk somewhere cheap. Safeway and Freddy’s are closer, but WinCo (or even CostCo) are well worth the extra drive.  We can pick up what would cost $200 worth of groceries for $125 at WinCo.  That’s two weeks’ worth of food for four people.  Getting Ramen, Mac & Cheese, Chili and other similar items can provide a lot of sustenance for a ridiculously low price.

2) Avoid the expensive stuff, or, don’t rely on name-brands.  It can be tough getting rid of that Haagen-Dazs addiction, but seriously, it’s just not worth it.  Not when you could pick up ten boxes of Mac & Cheese for the same price.  If you have to get ice cream, get the cheapest thing you can find.  Usually it will satisfy a craving just as well, and save you a few dollars in the process. A word of warning – it’s not always best to go cheapest.  Use this only as a rule of thumb. Cheese, detergent, ice cream, chips, and other products don’t make much of a difference as far as taste goes.  However, if buying meat or produce it might be worth it to put in a couple extra bucks to make sure you get something healthy. 

3) Utilize coupons. You can save A LOT using coupons. I got a page of Quizno’s buy one get one free coupons a couple weeks ago, and that one page of coupons amounted to over $40 of sandwiches, chips and drinks for free!  Whether it be for groceries or restaurants, saving those coupons can mean a good free meal here and there.

4) Save eating out for special occassions.  Nothing will make you go broke faster, other than an addictive hobby, than eating out once or more a week.  It’s nice to go to La Sierra, Primetime, Elmer’s, Shari’s or Red Robin every once in a while, but save those dinners for birthdays or family visits.  Fifteen bucks for a single meal could translate into three days’ worth of food in groceries. Although it’s often tempting, try to cut back to going out once, maybe twice a month, if that. Put that extra money to getting higher-quality groceries and you will be able to have food at home that’s just as good.

5) Eat with friends. Not only is it fun, but it means, if you have good friends, that you only have to cook some of the time.  Cooking for many people uses more food, but it’s ultimately worth it and saves money if you plan ahead and buy the ingredients in bulk. Ramen or Mac & Cheese en masse make for a great quick-fix for starving college students.  Any pasta works great, as does homemade pizza, burritos, bento bowls or rice bowls - use a rice bottom layer, then stack it with black beans, peppers, onions, avocado, tomatoes grated cheese, olives, sour cream and whatever else you want.

These are just a few tricks I’ve picked up after three years on campus with very little in the way of food money. Hopefully if you’re wanting better meals but don’t have much like I do, you’ll be able to use some of these ideas and have a healthy, well-rounded dinner for a very reasonable price.

-Alan