Debunking The Most Popular Myths of Student Travel

When many students think about recreation in college, many of the students think of drinking and partying.

Myth 1:  There is no place to go outside of campus/my college town.

This is one of the most popular things that I have heard students say over the past week, and it is nothing more than a bold faced lie.  One thing this myth does is anger me as well as makes me lose a little faith in my fellow peers.  The biggest way to debunk this myth is to just go walk around your college town and talk so people.  Doing that in Frostburg is far too easy for it not to be accomplished. Just now I took the easy route and looked at the Wikipedia page for Frostburg, MD. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frostburg,_Maryland#Local_art_and_culture  On that page there are countless items of interest including, yet not limited to: The Frostburg Museum, the arts walk that occur on Main Street two times a year, as well as the train depot.  In the end, this is not a myth at all students just need to go outside of their dorm room and explore their surroundings.


Myth 2:  Even if there is a place to go, I don't have any way to get there

I heard this from many students, most of them Freshman, who do not have a vehicle up here at school. While I will acknowledge that yes, this is a hinderance for those who do not have access or have friends with a vehicle that can be used to get to father away locations.  A simple way to fix this issue is to use public transportation.  Most schools have access to public transportation to allow students to get around the area.  For the schools that are located in larger cities, public transportation can be used to travel the city and get around to the various places and sights.  While yes, not having a car makes student travel more difficult, students can use public transportation or they can go to places that are within walking distance to travel and get off campus.


Myth 3:  Student travel is too expensive/I cannot afford to travel off campus

This is the most popular statement that I have heard from students over the past week.  This is the big elephant in the room, and yes it does cost money to drive to many places as well as to gain entry to others.  While this is a blaring issue for everyone in college since many of us do not have disposable incomes, there are many ways around it.  The easiest way around it would be to look into the two previous myth's; there are places to go and there is a way to get their without a car.  If students are looking to go somewhere away from campus, say to Pittsburgh for a weekend, there are cheaper ways to travel instead of car.  One of the the cheapest ways to get around would be by bus.  Greyhound has a location on campus where they pick up students and take them to the depot in Cumberland.  In short, there are many ways to travel off campus on a budget, and this is just a short look into how students can achieve it.


I hope that this post helped to debunk three popular myths about student travel that I have heard from Frostburg State University Students, check back later next week as I look into how students can find cheap accommodation while traveling and how to get the best deals.


Location of the Greyhound pick-up:
 http://www.greyhound.com/en/locations/terminal.aspx?city=190157



-Jason

Hanging Out and Enjoying Some Home-Brews at the Appalachian Festival

Today while wondering around the Appalachian Festival I noticed that a good portion of the people weaving their way in and around the tents and presenters were drinking out of brown bottles.  Being a self-aware college student, my first thought was that the University had lifted the ban on drinking on campus and that these festival attendees were embracing the sprit of this.  After spending five minutes researching this and trying to figure out where everyone was getting these bottles from, I found it by way of a table under the larger tent.  At the table was a sign that said “Home-Brew Sassafras Root Beer,” with Ian Cheek, a Frostburg State student, behind the table serving these brews in recycled beer bottles for a $2 donation.

(Sign on the table)

After this discovery, the vast majority of my time at the Appalachian Festival was spent in discussion with Cheek about the making of the root beer along with other things that can be brewed from local flora and fauna.  As it turns out, although he was manning the table Cheek did not in fact make the home brewed root beer, rather his friend and fellow FSU student Gabe Echaveri makes the root beer but he was at a presentation for a class, so Cheek was just filling in. 

Cheek and I talked about making root beer and he provided me with rough instructions on how Gabe made the patch I was drinking at the table. (Instructions provided below)

(Ian Cheek, on the right, and a friend enjoy the root beer)

   

Instructions:

1.     Either purchase or harvest the root of a sassafras albidum plant.

2.    Dry out after it has been thoroughly scrubbed and cleaned of all dirt.

a.     Note: If you bought the root, then you would not need to dry out the root as for it already has been.

3.    In the largest pot you can find/have, boil the dried root in water with vanilla bean.

a.     You are to boil until the liquid has a deep rich red color.

4.    Once the boiling liquid has reached the desired color, add brown sugar.

a.     Add brown sugar to taste.

                                                                 i.     Note: If you would want it very sweet, add more sugar.

5.    After the brown sugar as dissolved into the liquid, add champagne yeast.

6.    Pour the root beer into bottles and cap them.

7.    Allow the root beer to ferment in the bottles, until fully carbonated.

a.     This will take around 3-4 days.

Also featured on the table were books about the edible plants of Appalachia as well as recipe books on what you can make with them.  One the books that I spent some time looking at was entitled, Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers, which was filled with beer recipes from across the globe that can cure any ailment. 

(Herbal recipe books)

All and all the Appalachian Festival was filled with many different things that embody the spirit of the region as well as everything that makes this region so unique.  There were things for everyone at the App Fest including yet not limited to:

·      Puppet Shows in the Children’s Tent

·      Food vendors selling everything from fresh kettle cooked popcorn to Italian sausages

·      A petting zoo with goats

·      Arts and Crafts handmade by local craftsmen/craftswomen

·      Live music

·      Rocky Gap State Park Rangers with live Owls

·      Finally the biggest bait-and-switch of the event: an anti-wind farm group, ANCHOR: Allegany Neighbors & Citizens for Home Owner’s Rights.

o   The group had a big tent set up with what appeared to be information about wind turbines, yet it turned out to be a group supporting Code Home Rule Bill No 2-09; which goes against the plans of wind farm corporations.