Luck of the Irish

One of the first things I heard about Notre Dame social life is, “Notre Dame’s party scene is lame.” This may be one of the most-repeated mantras.

Compared to a lot of state schools and so-called “party schools,” yes, Notre Dame has a “lame” party scene. We don’t have streets of sticky-floored college bars open to anyone over age 19. We don’t have rows of frat houses serving jungle juice and offering free fake IDs to cute girls.

Here’s what we have instead:

Thursday night, a group of PLS majors cooked dinner together at my friend Adam’s house. We made pumpkin soup; a salad of corn, tomato and avocado on lettuce; pork tenderloin; mashed potatoes with herb butter; and apple pie with vanilla ice cream.

I was so proud of our culinary triumph.

After dinner we watched Casablanca, one of my favorite movies. Then we sat around and talked for hours.

Now don’t think that we always act so grown-up. We are college kids, after all, and this is Notre Dame, home to some fun-loving Irish Catholics. Friday night, for example, I’m going to a dorm-party rave. The theme, fittingly, is “Green Out” and everyone is encouraged to wear green for Irish luck. And I hope that the luck of the Irish is indeed with us against USC Saturday.

In the meantime, who cares if our party scene is comparatively “lame?” It’s still a whole lot of fun. Maybe that’s the real luck of the Irish- we’re not a state school, but we still know how to have a very, very good time.

What did you do for fun as a student? What were parties like when you were a student?