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Happy Valentine’s Day!
I’ve always managed to be single on Valentine’s Day throughout college, but if someone were to take me out to celebrate this holiday of love and romance, we’d have plenty of places to choose from — from bakeries to ice cream places to restaurants that actually serve dinner. Here are some great places in town to sit down, grab a bite, and have a quiet conversation with someone you care about.
1. For the pastry lover: Try JeannieBird Baking Company, which I wrote about yesterday. They have lots of different gourmet pastries to choose from that change from day to day. With lots of seating and charming decor, it’s a lovely place to spend some time. Perhaps best of all, it’s within walking distance from campus
 At Birdie’s Cafe on East Main Street, you and your date can enjoy all sorts of coffee and play chess. 2. For the coffee lover: There’s no reason to go to Starbucks when Birdie’s Cafe is in town! There are so many different latte and coffee options that it’s difficult to choose from. Lots of seating here too. There’s also plenty of art to look at, and if you’re so inclined, you and your date can play chess, as many of the tables have chess boards painted right on them.
3. For the tea and sandwich lover: I haven’t spend a lot of time at Westminster’s CUP, since I am not a big fan of either tea or sandwiches, but I know lots of people who swear by it. Cozy, modern decor and within walking distance from campus.
4. For the ice cream and fro-yo lovers (who are topping enthusiasts): You have a couple of options. Sweet Frog is a nearby self-serve frozen yogurt place where you choose as many toppings as you want. I used to go here on friend dates all the time. If actual ice cream is more your speed, there’s a Cold Stone Creamery also within walking distance.
5. For breakfast junkies: There is no better breakfast place in town than IHOP. I’ve spent many a meal here with one or two friends, gobs of friends, or even by myself. Maybe this is more of a reflection of me than of IHOP itself, but I would totally go on a date here. It’s the perfect place to strike up conversation, the food is delicious, and the service is usually fast. And it’s another place within walking distance from campus!
6. For those who like to spice it up: There’s Papa Joe’s, a Mexican restaurant within walking distance from campus. I’ve only gotten take out here, but they definitely have a unique take on Mexican food. I know at the beginning of this post that I promised to talk about quiet places, but I’m breaking that promise here: Papa Joe’s is often crowded, and it’s definitely not quiet. There’s another restaurant called Cinco de Mayo that just opened up near Sweet Frog. I suspect it’s quieter than Papa Joe’s and I need to go try it out sometime.
7. For Asian food enthusiasts: Try Forbidden City. The interior is kind of dated, but it’s a relaxing place to go — they’ll serve you tea when you first get there. It’s cheap Chinese food, but it’s so good. And yes, you can even walk there. I highly recommend.
There’s so many more places to eat in Westminster than what I’ve listed, and lots of these places are good. Whether you go on a romantic date or a friend date, I hope you find a place that you love, with good food and good conversation.
 This is what a JeannieBird butterhorn looks like. Cinnamon-y and buttery, it reminded me a little bit of a bear claw. Photo by JeannieBird Baking Company on Facebook. Today, I did something I’ve been meaning to do for weeks: I went to the newly-opened JeannieBird Baking Company right on Main Street.
I’d gone to my internship at the Carroll County Health Department for the second time today, and someone who was shooting the breeze with my supervisor mentioned going to JeannieBird as one of his weekend plans. (Incidentally, the bakery founder, Jeannie Vogel, worked at the Health Department until a few months before she opened up the bakery. My friend Nikki wrote a great McDaniel Free Press article about the bakery and its founders last semester.)
Since I had an hour to kill in between my internship and an info meeting about Phi Beta Kappa (a prestigious honor society I’ll have to say more about another time), I decided that the window of opportunity to treat myself was perfect.
Inside, the place was bustling. A couple of my friends who actually work there were there to buy some treats for their grandmother, so I had a brief chat with them. I had the chance to meet Jeannie (whom I’d actually met back in October during Midnight Madness in Westminster), and then, I had to make the painstaking decision between getting a fancy-looking eclair or what JeannieBird calls a butterhorn. I ended up getting the butterhorn — it was smaller, so it cost a little less and hopefully had fewer calories!
The bakery also has a lot of seating, so I sat down for a few minutes to enjoy my sugary selection. If I had had more time in my day, I could have easily pulled out my laptop and done some homework — JeannieBird offers free wi-fi. They serve coffee, but if they had an espresso machine, I would probably go back and work for hours.
JeannieBird Baking Company is a fun, cool new business, and it’s clear based on their Facebook page and interactions in person that they really love their confections and their customers. I think I’m going to have to make Friday afternoon trips to JeannieBird a regular occurrence.
 The Writing Center is one of my favorite places at McDaniel. I applied for the position of “Writing Center Tutor” at my freshman year and truly believe that the Writing Center is one of the best resources on campus. Even though I work at the Writing Center, I still make appointments with other tutors because the sessions are extremely helpful. What’s great about the Writing Center is that it’s not an editing service. Tutors work with students to actually teach them how to become better writers — we want to see students’ writing improve with each session!
In order to become a tutor, I took a one-semester course where I learned how to work with different writers and various formats (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.). I shadowed current tutors and slowly made the transition from “tutor in training” to “tutor.” As tutors, we are trained to work with any type of paper in any stage of the writing process. I have had students who simply brainstorm with me during a session as well as students who come into the Writing Center with a completely finished paper. Whatever the case may be, each session makes me increasingly appreciate the writing process.
As a tutor, I read countless papers in a variety of disciplines. I learned about Cortez last week, memo writing yesterday, and med school applications last year. In addition, I am able to work with students who all have different aspirations, opinions, and lifestyles. Although I (hopefully) help students’ writing improve, I sometimes think that I learn the most from the sessions.
 Tonight, I held an event for my floor. For lack of better title, I referred to it as “Hot chocolate and snowflakes,” which pretty much summarized our night, except that we had hot drinks other than hot chocolate.
We used construction paper and scissors to craft scissors, and then we hung a few of the unwanted ones on the wall of the common area since it was looking kind of lonely. It was really cool to see some of the designs that came out of simple folds and cuts. Some people looked up designs for specific snowflakes while others, like me, simply attacked the flakes with scissors and hoped for the best.
I purchased hot chocolate and apple cider for the event, but I also provided my own bags of tea–I have an extensive variety even though I don’t drink most of it. My favourite is my Oregon vanilla chai tea, which tastes best when made with milk. It was really cute to share mugs and use the kettle to make our own drinks instead of having them all come out of a dispenser like it does at Glar.
The Grammys were going on at the same time, and one of my residents had them playing in the background. I’m not very up to date on pop culture, but it was interesting to hear what the others thought.
 The novel we are currently reading in African-American Literature II This semester I am taking African-American Literature with Dr. Mary. I was very worried about it because I am very sensitive to race issues, and I thought that maybe this course might be emotionally taxing. I was also worried about being the only black girl in the course which would automatically make me the one who would have to represent the race. Surprisingly, the class has been fun and engaging; I have not felt the urge to cry once which I tend to do when I am emotionally invested in a topic. We also have a good mix of backgrounds in the class.
So far we have only read one of the four novels we have for this semester, but I really enjoyed it. Despite being black, I have not read much black literature outside of children’s stories. The first novel I read with a black protagonist actually confused me because I had been so accustomed to creating stories and images in my mind with white protagonists. Thus, this class is helping me a lot in terms of seeing the effects of having African-American literature and how that affects the black community.
This class has already helped me understand myself more. It challenges what I think about minority politics and what it means to black in society. I am constantly learning about the effects of slavery and how that has contributed to the current states of affairs in the United States. It is a better history lesson than I could have imagined and has encouraged me to read more so that I can understand the situations of others.
I love classes that inspire me to learn and grow. In this course, I have been inspired to learn more about the history that affects my world and how others see me. I would also love to learn more about the perspective of other minority groups all over the world. The more I read, the more understanding I will gain and then the better person I will be. All in all, this is looking to a fun semester with lots of interesting discussion.
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