1. Sunday drumcircle @ The Market (the Loop) - watch or join in, it is always a good time; anyone with things to hit, bang, clang, etc. can play, or you can record the best parts on your cell phone and have a collection of kicking ringtones like me

2. The Market itself (Loop) - lots of cheap yummy foodstuffs, including pizza, cheez fries, and Chinese; lots of space to sit with peeps; busstop at the door

3. Vintage Vinyl (Loop) - awesome independent record store (yes, they still sell and buy vinyl), great place to spend all your money (ok, it's where i spend my money, and you don't have to, i'm just saying...)

4. Meshuggah's (Loop) - independent cafe; the best coffee in StL, hands down; also good food and smoothies

5. The Zoo (Forest Park) (free entry) - one of the best zoos ever! it has sea lion shows (they've trained the sea lions to recycle, isn't that cute?), normal animals, weird animals (including Coquerel's sifaka, my favorite), insects, reptiles, birds, orangutans with attitude, state of the art habitat reconstruction, and active international collaborations to restore endangered species (alumna Jen Griffes adds, "The zoo also has a peacock that roams free and chases people around....And the penguins in the new penguin exhibit also get a kick out of splashing nasty penguin water on passers-by....The animals there have an attitude. It's awesome.")

6. The Art Museum (Forest Park) (free entry) - not the biggest art museum ever, but a place i can easily spend a whole day, plus it has rotating special exhibits you can go to for free if you are a member; student membership is $40

7. The StL Symphony Orchestra (Powell Hall, Downtown) - despite recent contract and striking problems, the SLSO is back in business with a hip new conductor (Dave Robertson), they are known for both traditional and modern/experimental (the kind your grandmother hates...ok, maybe just my grandmother); and there are cheap tickets for students

8. the awesome selection of places to see other music for cheaper than anywhere else on Earth (b/c, well, it is St Louis) - The Pageant (Loop), Blueberry Hill/The Duck Room (Loop), Mississippi Nights (Laclede's Landing), Sheldon Concert Hall (West End), Focal Point (Maplewood), The Fox Theatre (Downtown), Touhill Performing Arts Center (UMSL campus), Bottleneck Blues Bar (St Charles), Pop's (Sauget, IL); smaller venues: Gargoyle (Wash U campus), Cicero's (Loop), Riddles Penultimate (Loop), Brandt's (Loop), Red Sea (Loop), Billiken Club (SLU campus, Downtown), Off Broadway (Soulard), BB's Jazz Blues & Soups (Downtown), Beale on Broadway (Downtown), The Creepy Crawl (Downtown), Way Out Club (South City); giant venues: Scottrade Center (also where the Blues play, Downtown), Verizon Wireless Pavilion (Earth City)

9. the excellent sports attitude - people in stl are sports fans in a way that - in other places - makes people go 'whoa, that is a true fanatic'. they wear team logos and colors all the time, and there is very little sexual division of fan-ism. in fact pink and powder blue have become offical Cardinal team colors. When people see me watching a game at the gym, they are not like 'weird, are you really watching that?' they are like 'what's the score?' followed closely (lately) by 'dammit! what the hell?' to which i reply 'i know, it's pathetic' while of course, loving the team all the time b/c you have to or else. that said, if you are from a place and love that place's team, stl people will not hold it against you, but if you display even a small amount of stl-team luv, there will be instant bonding. the main sport is, of course, baseball (go Redbirds!), but team colors include blue, which segues nicely into hockey and football season (go Blue Notes! go Rams!) so you don't need separate wardrobes. Cardinals play at Busch Stadium, Blues at the Savvis Center, Rams at the Edward Jones Dome (all Downtown).

10. the Riverfront Times - our free city paper contains plenty of anti-establishment news articles, as well as an excellent focus on arts & entertainment, with plenty of commentary from the editors and writers to get the hell out of the house and do something b/c it's st louis, so everything is cheap or free, so you have no excuse and here's a list, get to it.

11. MetroLink - yes, we finally have a convenient, fast public transportation system! and it is free with your student ID! so are the busses, but they are not as convenient and fast.

12. fountain-swimming - it is legal to swim in the city fountains and that's awesome (come on, how could i not put this on the list?)

*Fellow grad students: show some StL-love and e-mail me with additions!

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Website maintained by Cynthia M. Fadem. Last updated 10 July 2007.