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A Rundown of the College Bar Scene (a girl’s perspective)

The Sports Bar

The sports bar is the most versatile bar on campus, because it’s normal and socially acceptable to be there at any time of the day. Have an hour to kill between classes or meetings? Sports bar. Bored on a Monday night? Sports bar. Actually interested in a game that’s on? Well then, obviously, the sports bar. The best part is that you don’t even have to get dressed up. Like, you can go drink a beer in a hoodie and yoga pants if you want, and no one will look at you funny. You can even stop by after the gym in norts and a ponytail (studies have shown that beer provides better post-workout hydration that water. Google it). As much as we love to engage in the long, drawn-out primping process, there’s just something awesome about a place that allows you to go drink spontaneously or get dragged by a sister straight from class or chapter. This also tends to be the place that gets taken over by Greek Life before/after events like Homecoming, Greek Olympics, Greek sing, Bid Night, and any fraternity day drink, so it basically becomes a GDI-free zone where beautiful people can black out in broad daylight.

The Campus Staple

This is the oldest and most popular bar on campus, and the one that your chapter alumni are constantly telling stories about. The inside is decorated kind of old-fashioned like and you get a weird sense of nostalgia knowing that sorority girls past have been drinking the same drinks and making the same mistakes under the same roof for several decades now. The livelihood of this bar is due to it’s ability to provide something for any mood. There might be a DJ and dance floor upstairs and tables with live music downstairs, there are usually several different bars throughout to ensure that we have a full vodka-soda in hand at all times, and it has awesome drink specials and even better food (not that we’d EVER drunk eat. NS). The great thing about it is that is has it’s own nights (for my campus staple, it was Thursdays and Saturdays) that you can reliably find EVERYONE you know in the same place, which has its ups and downs. I can’t even tell you how many rekindling relationships, breakups, arguments, and new friendships I’ve seen happen here in my day, around the same tables with the same pitchers of beer. By graduation, approximately 87% of your tagged pictures will be from within its walls, and it will be one of the places you miss most afterwards.

The Wine Bar

This is a place that we don’t frequent for several reasons; it’s an older crowd, it’s totes sophisticated, boys don’t go there, and it’s expensive (Why buy $10 glasses of wine when there are $3 rails down the street?) But, it does come in handy when you and your closest girlfriends are feeling a little Sex-and-the-City-esque. Whenever we hadn’t had quality time in a while, or one of us had a boy problem, we would dissect it over several bottles of Pinot and plates of fancy croissants. The funniest part about it was that the servers would come around with different wines for us to sample, instructing us on how to swirl the glass and sip the right way in order to release all of the expensive tastes and aromas, as if we were classy individuals who didn’t drink Franzia FROM A BOX on a regular basis. Despite the guise of class and sophistication, we always left completely trashed and feeling much better after all of the girl talk. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: wine cures everything.

The “What the FUCK Happened Last Night?” Bar

There’s one on every campus. We go out and get hammered at all the bars, all the time, but there is just something WEIRD about this place and its weekly college night. We form lines down the block to get in because it boasts the best DJ, strongest drinks, hottest people, and most fun atmosphere, but don’t expect to escape with your dignity intact. This bar is literally a black hole that swallows you up and spits you out at last call without your belongings, money, friends, or self-respect. If you are even remotely attractive you’ll have no problem finding someone to go home with, although the next morning you won’t know how you got there. And while you stick to the standard skinnies-and-pumps or dress-with-tights combo for most nights out, it’s totally standard to wear things to this bar normally reserved for 42nd street prostitutes. While, in theory, you could probably just show up naked and no one would even remember the next day. There’s a rumor around campus that they actually roofie their drinks, though it hasn’t been proven. On my campus, they literally don’t even hold onto your credit card when you open a tab because they KNOW that no one will be sober/coherent enough to retrieve it at the end of the night. Drunken, sloppy dance floor make outs are commonplace, dancing on top of the bar/pool tables is the status quo, and nobody bats an eyelash at a bar fight. This place is responsible for most of your regrettable hookups, public emotional breakdowns and worst all-time hangovers, but also for all of your favorite college memories (if you can call them that).

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