Not from Nashville? Neither am I.
Ahhhhhhhhh, fall break! What a wonderful time to just chill, de-stress, and catch up on some much-needed zzzs! Fall break at Vanderbilt is a 4-day weekend that takes place around the midpoint of the semester, which is great timing because classes, especially biochemistry, are beating me up thus far. I decided to stay in Nashville for this year’s fall break because New Jersey is just too far away to come back for 4-days (at least my parents think so). So, if you’re like me and you don’t live near Nashville/can’t go home for weekends, don’t sweat it. Many students (some by choice) stay in Nashville over fall break. 4 of my 5 roommates were here in Nashville with me, so I ended up doing a bunch of stuff. Here is what I did…
*I will preface the rest of this post by saying that I woke up at 1pm every day during the break and that pretty much all of Vanderbilt dining was closed.
Thursday (10/15): I went to get an oil change for my car at a Honda dealership in Nashville and ate at Hog Heaven for lunch, but at night, my roommates and I went to see the Martian at Regal Green Hills Stadium 16, which is around 10 minutes away from Towers III! If you haven’t seen the Martian already, it’s a space movie with Matt Damon, and it’s about a botanist that gets left alone on Mars. I don’t want to get into any spoilers, but I thought that the movie was okay for the most part. I thought that the storytelling was absolute fabulous, but I felt that Matt Damon’s portrayal was unrealistic, his character was underdeveloped, and themes of loneliness were left unexplored.
My rating for Hog Heaven: 6/10
My rating for the Martian: 6/10
Friday (10/16): My roommates and I went to try a place called Burger Up for lunch, which is located near Belmont University, around 10 minutes away from Towers III and even closer from commons. The burgers were fantastic, and I really enjoyed the Nashvilly vibe and super nice staff! At night, we went to the Opry Mills Mall, which is an outlet that is located around 20 minutes away in East Nashville. We had Pepperfire Hot Chicken for Dinner, also located in East Nashville! I think that this place is better than Hattie B’s, the hot chicken restaurant close to campus, but my roommates would disagree.
My rating for Burger Up: 7/10
My rating for Pepperfire Hot Chicken: 8/10
My rating for Hattie B’s: 7/10
Saturday (10/17): I went to Panda Express for lunch, which is located near the 100 Oaks Mall, and had Bombay for dinner, which is an Indian restaurant near campus. Later that night, my roommates and I went to the Exit In, which is an 18+ bar with live music that is located on Elliston, a block away from Towers III! An experimental rock band called “Battles” performed, and they were okay, but they weren’t really my type of music and weren’t worth $20 in my opinion. The Plain White T’s are performing next Saturday at the same venue, so maybe I’ll check the place out again.
My rating for Panda Express: 6/10
My rating for Bombay: 7/10
My rating for “Battles”: 4/10
Sunday (10/18): I got Pancake Pantry for Brunch, and it was my very first time! Pancake Pantry has a great reputation around Nashville, and I will say that it lived up to the hype! Seriously, these pancakes were the best that I’ve ever had! After my lunch however, I decided that I had to get my stuff together and hit the library for the rest of the day… Vanderbilt stuff again :/.
My rating for Pancake Pantry: 10/10
My rating for studying: 0/10
Until next time,
-Jeff Yung