Wonders of Canada
cannot compare
to close-knit Eugene
I transferred here from McGill Uni
versity in Montreal, perhaps the cold
est city on the face of this planet (ex
uuumg irKuisKj. i went
from a city of 3.5 million to
one of 140,000, and the dif
ferences between the two
places are almost impossi
ble to imagine.
Firstly, Montreal is stuck
in a quasi-North American,
quasi-European vortex. Half
of the city speaks English;
the other half speaks a lan
guage leseinuimg riencn. YOU DUy
beer from what is referred to as a De
panneur. Wine comes from the Societe
des alcools du Quebec, the state-run
liquor store. You can’t turn right on a
red light, but people frequently drive
directly through them. To an outsider,
little makes sense about this island. It
was an ideal place to get lost in a new
world with the comfort of taking
classes in English.
Linguistics was my major. But I
was really there to study immersion. I
was keen to see what it would be like
to separate myself from
what I knew. It was sort of
my year abroad before I
even started school.
And I learned a lot. I
learned that a drinking age of
18 was at the same time no
big deal and a blessing, rou
tine, a gross concoction of
fries, gravy and cheese
curds, was something best to
avoid, out, most importantly, I learned
that it’s important to be away from
home. It’s easy to miss what’s happen
ing around you if you never leave.
But, I came home to get me a edu
macation in advertising, something
that wasn’t offered at McGill. The
place to be, of course, was the
University of Oregon.
ASBURY, page 22B
Internships, friends
made college a good
taste of real world
College has been good to me.
This thought enters my mind as I sit
on my incredibly comfortable futon
in my exceedingly cool historic
home, surrounded by friends and
good music.
ns eveiyone Knows,
college is much more
than school. It’s a per
sonal revolution that
changes who we are,
who we know, what we
do and, sometimes,
what we want to do.
This has been true for
me, and I hope it’s true
for you. As a middle
aged sage told me many years ago
around a campfire, “The whole
point of college is to get laid.”
While it wasn’t much of an exer
cise in courage for me to attend this
in-state, public liberal arts universi
ty, I have endeavored to derive from
it as much as possible. To wit, I
made the excellent decision to join
the Sailing Club team my freshman
year, a decision that has taken me
far both geographically and person
ally (a special thanks to George
Yioulos, without whom the team
might not exist).
I took on the task of double
majoring in journalism and political
science, which I completed in four
years minus a term. I interned at
two newspapers, one of which is
the most-read daily journal in our
little corner of the world, and also
CHUCK SLOTHOWER
TAKING ISSUE
wrote tor this publication. I
fought forest fires for two
summers. I did all this
while maintaining my
trademark sense of humor,
charisma and a killer set of
abs. (Sure, this column
drips with egotism and self
congratulation, but it’s a
graduation column, what
did vou expect?]
In college, friends have come, and
friends have gone. Some warrant
just a nod and a “what’s up” when I
see them on campus. Others, a
short conversation. But a quartet of
fellas has been there day in and
day out for every drunken ass-grab
bing, every drained three-pointer,
every high and low. To Adam Cross
ley, Ryan Matthews, Ryan Orr and
Pete Zenczak, 1 give my thanks and
best wishes.
Now I enter what some insist on
calling the “real world,” though
SLOTHOWER, page 23B
*
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■ Explore a world of art in Eugene
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