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The University News

The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

Cultural Potpourri

Maybe you immersed yourself in El Salvadorian culture. Maybe you skied down Colorado’s mountains. Maybe you ruminated through silent hours in a Kentucky monastery or gave English lessons to children in Mexico. Maybe you went home. Whatever you did over spring break, chances are you spent weeks anticipating the excitement of meeting old friends in familiar hangouts or new people in exotic places.

But if you want to get to know the world and its people, you don’t need to travel very far. This community, one of St. Louis’ most ethnically diverse neighborhoods, is only a bus ride away. A whole slew of cultural opportunity is just down the street, on South Grand.

Take Mangia Italiano, for instance. Here, you can simultaneously enjoy sandwiches with friends, sample fresh pasta, admire a unique mural and listen to live jazz.

Or you could take dinner into your own hands, unleashing your inner chef-extraordinaire at Jay International Foods and picking up Asian, African and South-American spices and dietary staples.

After that, of course, it wouldn’t hurt to stop by Riley’s Pub off Arsenal and hear live Irish music, the first Thursday of every month.

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You don’t have to go to Madrid or Mexico to practice your Spanish. Make new friends volunteering at the Acci?n Social Comunitaria and help mentor immigrants trying to maneuver through the American mainstream.

And you could meet people from scores of nationalities across the globe while working at the International Institute or participating in their Festival of Nations.

A representative sample of the world is literally at your feet. Proof that our city can thrive again, after the ravages of rampant urban decay, the neighborhoods surrounding South Grand are rebuilding.

But scads of money and months of reconstruction cannot force a city to thrive. Funds and buildings are only the inert products of mankind. They are tools. Without meaning, without culture, without purpose, they are inanimate.

What is a thriving city? A thriving city is a collection of thriving people. A thriving city is the community those people form and the culture they support. And with so many cultures growing just down the street, St. Louisans are is learning to live together without losing their individuality. With each new culture, our city becomes more.

Go, be a part. Know your city. Experience the morsels of culture that make it up. Take the excitement you had for new friends and spring-break plans and bring it home with you: Take it all in-a few miles south on Grand.

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