My first challenge week went pretty smoothly. Since the event technically started on Tuesday, I only had to go vegetarian for Friday, which was still part of Lent so it wasn’t anything different than I would have done. Because of this, I don’t feel like I really learned anything, but I’m feeling good about the upcoming weeks being more of a challenge for me. Something I think I can do differently that would help is thinking in advance of where to go to eat and what that dining hall or café has that I can eat. This way I don’t get stuck eating somewhere where there aren’t a lot of options for me to have a balanced meal. Luckily on Friday that wasn’t the case, but I can definitely see that as being a challenge as the weeks and progress.

I anticipate that next week will be tougher because since Monday was not included in my first week, I only went vegetarian for one day, which isn’t bad at all, but this upcoming week, I’m doing it for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. So far my Oroeco account says I haven’t saved any money or CO₂, which makes sense since I only did it for one day, but you’d think that since people usually eat meat somewhere in their day and I didn’t, I would at least save a few dollars. The CO₂ amount though would probably negligible for one day, though.

For the Earth Month Challenge I am going Vegetarian. For the first week, I plan to do meatless Monday and Friday, the Friday included because I have been doing it for Lent for the past few weeks so it won’t be difficult. The second week I plan to add Wednesday to that list to make it every other day meatless. Then, for the third week I will do weekdays are meatless, but I can still have some on the weekends and then for the final week I will do an entire week vegetarian. The first week won’t be that hard because it is two days and I am already used to no meat on Fridays. The only challenge for that is remembering that I can’t have meat on Monday. For the second week, I think remembering will still be an issue for Wednesday and thinking more about what I am going to have now that my options have decreased because before I could have anything on the menu, but now I’m limited. Once we get into the third week I think the difficulties increase because I am used to having some sort of meat in at least one if not two meals a day so to have no meat in any of my meals for 5 days in a row, it might be tough. I might be craving meat, but I won’t be able to have any. The final week will obviously be the toughest because I will go an entire week without meat. Some of the challenges I think I’ll face is having to spend think more frequently about what I am going to eat for each meal and figure out where I am going to get it, like if there are enough vegetarian options at Morrill commons or if I’ll have to walk to the RPAC to get something.

Some of the resources I will utilize is Katie and all my other vegetarian friends for ideas on what to eat and motivation when I might be craving a chicken thigh or salmon. I will also utilize morning star because I already eat some of their patties, but I might get tired of them after a few weeks. I will also use some of the websites I researched for places to go on the weekend of the final week for a change in options available to me. I could try going during the week but it might be hard with classes and homework. I might try to use one of the websites and make a meal during the week, possibly Thursday when I have more time.

I chose the neighborhood option and went to German Village. I’m most looking forward to just exploring the area because I have heard great things about it, how cute the houses and stores are, and I’m excited to visit the book loft, and by visiting German Village I’m hoping to discover more about the many places around Columbus and all they have to offer, places to eat, places to visit, places to buy books.

On our first trip to German Village we went to Pistacia Vera and the book loft, and oh my goodness that book loft was amazing! It had this adorable little walk up with string lights and it was a labyrinth of tiny hallways and sections for different categorized books and puzzles and posters. My favorite section was the young adult and kid section because they were next to each other on the first floor. I was looking at the young adult books and after five minutes I had four in my hand that I wanted to buy. I then sat down in a cute little wooden chair to just look at the books when Katie, Kandace, and Jake found me and we moved to the kid section which was so fun! We saw all these book series that we loved when we were younger like The Magic Treehouse, Geranimo Stilton, some picture books that I wanted to buy, it was amazing, I couldn’t stop smiling as geeky as that sounds. By the end everyone was heading out with a book or a poster.

My area of focus for the Earth Month Challenge is Food and Water, with the specific focus of going vegetarian. I was drawn to this because the social committee was in charge of coming up with ideas for this area and I felt that there were a lot of good ideas that were easy and simple to do on campus, yet still challenging on some level. Some such ideas include going vegetarian, going vegan, eat sustainably, eating organic, not eating preserved/packaged food, eating local, using reusable coffee mugs, using silverware in place of plastic wear, using a reusable water bottle, taking shorter showers, turning off the shower when lathering your hair, turn off the shower when shaving, turn off the faucet when brushing your teeth, when washing your face.  A source that could be helpful for this assignment and for food and water in particular is https://thinkcolumbusfirst.org/eat . It provides lists of local farmers markets, independently owned restaurants, and community gardens that could help in finding places to eat. Another good resource is www.onlineclasses.org/resources/101-way-to-conserve-water-in-college/ because it provides 101 ways, some of them being odd or not probable for some living arrangements, to decrease your water consumption. It lists them so it’s easy to find something and gives a short description of why to do that particular conservation effort. http://www.happycow.net/becoming_vegetarian.html is a website that has frequently asked questions about becoming a vegetarian, like how to get protein, how to become vegan, the difference between vegetarian and vegan, how to handle your family going to non-vegetarian restaurants, etc. and gives good answers to those questions. Lastly, another good website is yelp: http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=Vegan+Restaurants&find_loc=Columbus%2C+OH . It gives you the kind of food that each restaurant has, whether it’s vegetarian, vegan, Mediterranean, breakfast and brunch, etc. Some resources here in Columbus and on campus include the dining halls if you’re looking to go vegetarian because there are always a lot of options and the food has little symbols next to them indicating whether it’s gluten free, vegetarian,  etc. Another resource is the short north which is within walking distance of campus which has some of those great local or sustainable or vegetarian restaurants that you can find from one of the websites listed above. Lastly, a resource available for this challenge area is Target or Kroger which are also within walking distance and there you can buy some organic food,  some ingredients to make vegetarian meals, you can buy reusable water bottles, buy cheap silverware, etc.

Arriving at Park of Roses was a little disappointing because there were no roses, but that’s what happens in November. However, there was this adorable little gazebo near the entrance and apparently a lot of people have their wedding in that gazebo. My favorite thing was probably everyone posing on the bench inside the gazebo, but as far as the park, my favorite thing was exploring and walking down all the paths that had plates in the ground with all the names of all the roses that are usually in bloom during the summer and I remembered from my other visits how beautiful all the roses look. It was also fun looking at the other types of gazebos and just looking out at the park from the tower that’s near the fountain. I would definitely go back even though I’ve been there before because it’s so serene and I love taking pictures there- there’s so much to photograph! However, I would recommend people to go in the spring or in the summer when the roses and other plants are in full bloom, otherwise it’s not really anything special other than some pretty gazebos and other structures.

Getting to Antrim Park was fun with everyone in the car just chilling and going on a road trip. It was very nice to get out of Morrill! Once we got there it was pretty chilly but beautiful out with the sun shining and even though there wasn’t much vegetation, the view when you come out from under the highway is breathtaking with the gorgeous blue sparkling water with the dark wood overlook and the willow tree just perfectly situated to make the best picture ever. My favorite thing was probably coming out from under the highway because it was so breathtaking. The only confusing thing about the park was why there was a highway not 30 feet above your head while you’re walking to the lake portion of the park-there is another portion when you first drive in that’s just green for soccer and other sports. I would definitely go back, especially in the spring or summer when everything is in full bloom because it looks amazing when everything is green and the flowers are all blooming and the sun is shining. I would also most definitely recommend it to a friend because it is a great place to take your dog on a walk-we saw many people doing that when we visited- and I bet in the summer it is an amazing place to have a picnic. I think you’d have to have it on the portion before you hit the lake/pond, but if you can get somewhere with a view I’m sure it would be breathtaking.

Another place we visited was the Olentangy Trail which is conveniently located right outside Morrill Tower and the commute wasn’t too terribly long. The Olentangy Trail is a great place to go for a walk, a run, a bike ride, ride you skate board, anything. There are even places on the sides that look good for having a picnic. I love running along the trail because since they redid the banks of the river, it’s a very scenic route to take and fun to run along. Also, if you run the trail it can take you to the OSU Wetlands which is a pretty cool place to visit.

Second to last on our little road trip was Glen Echo Park which was situated right by some houses-great thing to have in your backyard. It was getting rather cold by this time, but it was still enjoyable-it had the cutest little bridges stretching over a cute little gurgling stream. There are places to have picnics, as there should be in any park, and paths to walk your dog, go on a midnight stroll, and great open areas to just sit and relax, maybe look up at the stars, or let kids romp around. If you’re looking for more strenuous exercise there is a cliff that you could climb or stairs that we had the fortune of walking down, which means we had to walk back up them, which wouldn’t have been a big deal if there weren’t 75 of them and we weren’t in a hurry to get to the nice heated car at the top. I would recommend this to someone because you can go as late as the fall because there are still activities to do and it can still be breathtaking, whereas say the roses in the Park of Roses might be wilting with the influx of cold weather.

High banks was our last visit of the day and it was a little sad to see the road trip end, although afterwards we went to skyline for lunch because apparently it was blasphemous that I had never had it before. Anyways, when we drove up there was this huge, adorable house with orange trim. It sounds weird, but it actually made it look super cute. When you walked in there was a tree growing in the middle of the building-unfortunately it wasn’t a real tree, which was very disappointing. There was a cute little area for little kids to color and read books and puzzles for them to do, a bird watching room that had the entire wall made into windows. There was also a bucks head nailed to the wall in that room, and just outside in the open area there was a screen where you could watch videos and we played one about forest fires. It talked about control burns and how they would set the fire so it burns against the wind because that helps keep it from getting out of control and is beneficial to the wildlife and vegetation. In the park they have activities for kids like making nature crafts and learning about the sun and moon and stars, as well as trails to go biking, walk your pets, bike. You can even go canoeing and fishing and many other fun outdoor activities that I really want to get into so I can utilize these metro parks and just to have fun. They even have sledding!
It was nice going and exploring Columbus because even though I’m from Columbus, there were a couple of these parks I’d never been to and never been to the areas around the parks either with all their stores and shops. I would recommend to anyone who is planning on completing a to-do list similar to this, or even if it’s not, do it with friends! It’s something fun to do with friends and it makes the trips much more enjoyable