places and things

t is quite possible that my favorite place in Bloomington is the little thrift store two blocks from my house. As far as thrift stores go, it’s on the classier end. Everything is of a higher quality than say, Goodwill. And yet, most of the store is half price on any given day.

The real reason I like this store, however, are the wonderful women that run it: little old ladies who gossip about the same things over and over again in voices loud enough for the entire store to hear. I visited one week ago and again today, and they were still talking about that guy who tried to buy a suit with points from the Salvation Army.

Bloomington has all sorts of quirky places like this: there’s the hippy store run by a blind guy, the junk store that opens and closes whenever the owner feels like it, the coffee shop with peanut butter and jelly smoothies, the cereal restaurant, the empty chapel, the farmers’ market, and a whole slew of festivals and events.

This week is the Mid-Autumn Festival, a celebration of the harvest moon by each and every Asian related club or group on campus. I’ve now eaten five different kind of Moon Cakes, viewed the moon in its various forms, and stood around a bonfire listening to Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and who knows what else being spoken around me.

This weekend is also the Lotus Festival, a huge musical event of which I know nothing other than it is huge. I’ll probably take a break from all the studying (the reason this website is updated so infrequently these days) tomorrow and go listen to something.