Sunglasses, Short-Shorts, and Delusional Sign-Holders

So, yeah. I settled in to life on campus... Sort of. I found the location of every Subway on campus and filed the information away for later. I tried the pizza from another vendor and decided to never get anything from there again. I spent time in the Library getting lost in the multi-level, multi-building maze that confused me with its sky-bridge...

I enjoyed people-watching on my way to and from classes, especially in Red Square, people really let loose out there. One day during Intro to Religion class, one of the guys sitting across from me suddenly exclaimed, "Whoa! Did anybody else see that guy?" We all, professor included, looked out the window and after a moment a strange sight wandered into view... A man with shaggy hair and beard, wearing the TINIEST little short-shorts I have ever seen, and nothing else. He (literally) skipped around the square on bare feet handing fliers as small as his shorts to the people walking by. We all stared for a while, mesmerized by this odd, yet not so odd sight. I should mention, Bellingham is a weird city, fantastic, but really weird. While startled to see this on campus as we were talking about Emile Durkheim, we probably wouldn't have even looked twice if we saw this dude wandering around downtown. Speaking of downtown, this man's tiny fliers were (if I remember correctly) advertising for Bellingham's annual Naked Bike Ride... Yep. We have an annual naked bike ride. Upon learning this, the professor, who was new to the area, and came from the East Coast originally, was truly shocked. She thought we were messing with her because, surely there was no such thing as a naked bike ride. Poor woman, she has a lot to learn about the PNW... Red Square is THE place for random booths to be set up, for fliers to be passed out, and during finals week, the trees surrounding it usually host several hammocks holding stressed out, napping students. True story.

One day I was walking through the square and saw a table with a "Spin the wheel and win a cool prize!" sign attached to it. I like cool prizes, I spun that wheel. My cool prize was sunglasses... Remember when I said I wear glasses?

Great, right? I totally pull them off. I should wear them more often... Anyway, there was this middle-aged guy that hung out in Red Square for a few weeks, holding a sign and trying to talk to passing students. I never once saw him successfully engage anybody in conversation. What was on his sign, you ask? "Trump for President!" followed by a whole lot of gibberish. Now, remember, this was Spring of 2017... Trump was already president... ????? Like I said, Bellingham is weird and is home to ALL sorts of people.

I eventually settled on "My" spot on campus. This became the place where I would go between classes to eat lunch, watch Netflix, or do homework. It almost never has more than a couple of people there at any time, has nice private study carrels, gets a good wifi signal, and is conveniently located adjacent to the bathrooms.It has become my little refuge and I hope it stays that way! 

Next time on Squinting From the Front Row... Decisions on minors, group projects,ridiculous amounts of reading, and I HATE KARL MARX. Stay tuned!