Birthday Globetrotting

Caitlin H.

February 20, 2010 - 11:43 AM

In two years I can officially say I have lived for a quarter century. That's right, I turned 23 on Friday.

There are a lot of ways to celebrate a birthday in Eugene, but I was lucky, I had the opportunity to host an extra special birthday party. Just in time for my birthday the Harlem Globetrotters arrived at Mac Court. My parents came down for the occasion and joined seven of my friends to watch the world famous Globetrotters take on the Generals. I was surprised at just how many people turned out for the event. Lines were long outside the door and most of Mac Court seemed to fill up.

Eugene has quite the scene for shows, concerts, galleries etc. stopping by as they travel the west coast. For instance in this case the Globetrotters stopped in Eugene on their way to Portland to play the next night. The UO Ticket Office website is a good place to start looking around if you have an interest in the kinds of shows that travel through Eugene. A number of shows are also available for free either presented by the UO Duckstore, the ASUO, or as a part of the local Eugene scene. I know I have said it before but I don't think it can be said enough: Eugene is never short of things to do.

So what is it like living in a city that has so much going on? Well, the obvious answer is I love it, but I would also suggest that it is at times frustrating. Sometimes I feel like I don't know what's going on in time to make the most of it. The Eugene Weekly usually has a comprehensive guide of weekly activities, but I wish Eugene had a more accessible and interactive calendar for community members to utilize. The City of Eugene Calendar is out there and available, but not something I find myself using very often. I suppose I am envisioning some kind of system designed for students at the UO combining campus activities with community activities. Ideally students would be able to search for events by event type, name, location, date, etc. Departments on campus would have the freedom to post information on this calendar, and maybe student groups would be able to post pending activity approval. I live and breathe through my planner trying to ensure I am organized and on task - I suppose I'm envisioning turning my planner digital and making it accessible to an entire community.

Well, as I was dreaming about all this I discovered the UO has an events calendar. The sort of thing I have often wanted but never found before. So why aren't more students using it? Perhaps I have been oblivious for the past few years and I was simply living in the dark. But I think it is time this calendar became a more widely used feature within the student community. It would be interesting to see what would happen if links to the calendar started appearing in more places on campus, such as department home pages, event bulletin boards, Facebook, or even an additional link under "current students" from the home page. As a student I want to be well informed of what is going on or coming soon to my community. However, the UO calendar only displays UO sponsored orauthorized events.

Perhaps someone out there will be inspired to create a website that displays all of Eugene and the wonderful things it has to offer both on and off campus.

In the meantime, information is certainly available in a couple of different places, and Eugene is certainly not running out of things to do. Maybe I'm crazy for wanting a more streamlined process to know what is happening around town, but I hope you find the events you're looking for!