The international orgs on campus are the most popular and put on the best shows, dinners, and dances. The sports teams are also super-popular, and even if our football team is a joke there's still track, cross country, baseball, volleyball, soccer, rugby, and water polo (among other things). Theater, dance, and music are surprisingly good, considering how small the departments are, and the quality of the art majors' senior show is always awesome. All the environmental and political orgs on campus have tons of folks and tons of energy, they never seem to get tired of mobilizing and protesting and making concrete changes around campus and in the Cities. Most of the events on campus fill up quick, be they guest speakers or games or prformances, and a lot of times it gets problematic because there are too many things going on at once. I wish mre people went to the dances, though, I just don't think it's in American culture to dance as much as I'd like to! Dating is kinda ridiculous, we all kinda cycle through everyone else's rejects because it's such a small campus, which just feeds the gossip mill. It's not just hook-ups, though, which is nice, people really do seem to want to get to know one another on an emotional-intellectual level. It's definitely a very attractive student body, so there's no lack of options, and there are lots of other colleges in the area if you wanna break out of the Macalester bubble. You meet people through classes, through dorms, through parties, through orgs, but I feel like my closest friends were the girls who lived near me freshman year, who've known me from the beginning. There's not a whole lot to do party-wise except on the weekends, but usually one of the sports teams and someone from the international crowd, plus a few hipster kids, are always hosting a kegger or electronic dance aprty in their basement. We don't have Greek life (thank God) so there's not quite the same culture of drinking, it's never really a big deal for folks who don't drink. The best school-sponsored shindig is Founder's Day, which happens every March and involves the entire campus, profs and students and administration alike, getting dressed up and dancing drunkenly to a live salsa band in the campus center. There's also Springfest, which is a day-long music festival with free beer for the 21+ crowd and lots of good local bands, and the international talent show is always amazing. And every year starts and ends with a free campus-wide picnic, which is really nice. Off campus, I'm always at a show at First Ave or Fine Line Music Cafe or the 400 Bar, or at Theatre de le Jeune Lune or the Guthrie or the Playwright's Center, all in Minneapolis. There are also frequent protests and parades and pride days in the Cities, which are a lot of fun. It's crucial to get into the Cities as much as possible so you don't suffocate on our tiny, 4-block campus.