In Which The Collective Is Explored
It occurred to me recently that, though I have frequently spoken of this university and its various denizens (though perhaps not in these electronic pages), I have never provided my friends or family with an accurate picture of the place. So a couple of days ago, I took my camera and toured the campus (or the Collective — a sobriquet with which I honored it after hearing the easily-prompted chanting of the drones, in which one group shouts, “We are,” and all those within earshot are expected to bellow back, “Penn State”). It wasn’t an exhaustive tour. I missed major venues of sight-seeing like the vast tarmac fields of the student parking area and the arena of gladiatorial combat. I also skipped the innards of the food-processing units (I fear the effects of that many fast-food production vats in an enclosed space), and other tourist hot-spots like the Creamery (yes, purchasing ice cream made by students of advanced cow-bothering is a tourist attraction here) and the gift shop.