Columbus To-Do List: Part 1

For part 1, I went with fellow first-year scholar, Jeremy Schwochow, to “Lucky’s Market,” under the “Clintonville” list. Further on the list, I am excited about visiting the Wallhala Ravine. The geological history of it, the fact that there is a ravine in what is typically noted as an exceedingly flat part of an exceedingly flat state, is a very interesting quirk. Upon further investigation of it, however, I am most excited to see the architecture of the homes within the ravine, as they are notably designed. Unlike most buildings in Columbus, they were designed with an artistic respect to the surroundings, instead of a completely unremarkable concrete block that maximizes efficiency and takes no consideration to natural topography. It ignited a passion for novelty, as I have seen postmodern homes online, but I have never been close enough to see them in person, with consideration to natural phenomena. Hopefully, this assignment will force me to leave the comfort of the campus, and erase the unease and confusion surrounding public transportation (coming from a farm, buses may as well be UFO’s–my school didn’t even have buses for most students until my fifth grade year). Exploring the city is always something on my mind, and something I have genuine interest in, but it’s always sidelined for an eternal ‘later,’ this makes me explore without having it also feel like just another assignment. In typical fashion, we went to Lucky’s Market last night, the day before the deadline, and, to be honest, we were entirely unimpressed. We searched for novelty as much as we could, but we left seeing it as a convenient ‘Kroger’ style grocery store, focusing on more local products, like vegetables and in-house bakery items. It is nice to see an affordable, local, and convenient store right

down the street, but it is also not entirely remarkable, different iterations of this same store can likely be seen in any major city or town, especially one with a prosperous counter-culture/post-consumerism (hipster) population such as Columbus. I would not recommend this location to somebody with the goal of them exploring the city, but I would certainly recommend it to somebody who is tired of Walmart style box stores, or even somebody who offhandedly mentions needing some produce I would likely point them toward Lucky’s. Criticism aside, the coolest thing there was the candy-store style candy dispensers, however the availability of smoked Gouda forces me to give this place the highest praise, because smoked Gouda is the bomb.