My Commons Life

News & features about the Vanderbilt Commons from the students who live here

Nashville

MCL Feature: The Student Walkout, My Experience

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Though my voice is now raspy and my legs are tired, I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything.

As a Vanderbilt student, I was honestly scared that my professor or classmates would judge me for walking out. I had heard of “performance activism” where people post or show their activism for their own social gain, rather than to help a cause. I was afraid that walking out of my class would appear as performance activism, because it felt so theatrical.

I pictured my professor barely getting into his lesson that he prepared for the day, only to be interrupted by me standing up in front of the class and leaving. Like the goody-two-shoes I am, I even asked my professor for permission to leave the class. Ironic, right?

My fears were instantly disproven when talking to more professors and classmates. To my surprise, many professors, including my own, cancelled their classes even before the walkout started out of support. From the professors I spoke to, many even claimed that they hoped students would walk out of their class.

Marching to the capitol, I felt scared yet inspired. To be fully honest, I wasn’t scared of getting arrested. I was scared that someone would come with a gun. I was scared that this anti-gun protest would spark something in a gun owner’s mind, and give them the power of turning a peaceful situation into a violent one.

Thankfully, the protest was safe and felt powerful. Running into my classmates, floor-mates, and sorority sisters truly made me realize how important the issue of gun control is to my community. It made me feel like I wasn’t alone in my fears. It gave me hope for future policy.

There was even a Vanderbilt professor speaking to the crowd!

Ultimately, a year from now, I think I would have forgotten exactly what I learned about in class on Monday. But I definitely will not forget about his protest. Chanting with people, demanding change, and reading the sad, yet true signs everyone brought will stick with me forever. I hope that this protest riled up people enough to create a change in the system of gun violence in schools.

MCL Top 5: Student Perks I Take Advantage Of

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Being a student can be expensive! I’d certainly know. (This is a cry for help. I need to get a job.) As a result, any discount I can get is always very appreciated, and I do my best to abuse the ones I’m able to. But you can’t do that if you’re unaware they exist! Therefore, I’ve compiled a list of the top 5 student perks that I find very useful so that you may also share in the joy of discounted services. Happy penny pinching everybody!

5. New York Times + Wall Street Journal

Don’t you just hate it when you’re trying to read an interesting article, but then the website says, “Actually, we need to feed our families and keep this website going, so you can’t read more than two sentences of this article unless you pay a whole dollar“? I’m exaggerating here, obviously, but the point is that I consider the whole process a larger hassle than it’s worth, and end up giving up on reading. Thanks to Vanderbilt’s gracious generosity, we no longer have to go through that ordeal! For the low, low price of zero dollars and zero cents, you can get access to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal with just your student email. How amazing!

(Small note about this one: both of these services ask you for your graduation date. I was unfortunately too honest, and only realized later that I probably could’ve gotten a few more years of the free subscription had I said I was graduating a few years later than I’m planning on. Not that I’m encouraging any sort of dishonesty, nope! Not at all! Of course not! But it’s certainly worth mentioning.)

4. Microsoft 365

Now, as great as the Google suite is, I’m really happy we have access to Microsoft Office for free. There’s a lot of features that you just can’t get from Google’s version of things, and well. As much as I hate to be that person, lots of jobs ask for proficiency in Excel and not Google Sheets. So… yeah.

3. Discounted streaming services

Specifically, the YouTube Premium + YouTube Music bundle. I’m sure some of you Spotify loyalists are clutching your pearls right now, and sure, I get it! But they don’t have any of my favorite covers, nor do they have lots of other international (cough anime cough) tracks that I really enjoy. Not to mention, I like to do stuff while listening to random YouTube videos, so having premium is quite the nice quality-of-life upgrade.

Aside from discounted music streaming, you can also get (100%) discounted show streaming. Vanderbilt actually gives us HBO Max—and Peacock apparently—for free! Simply navigate to the sign in page, click “sign in with a provider”, select XFINITY, then find XFINITY On Campus. From there, it should be pretty straightforward. Enjoy! (Or perhaps don’t if you have no self control like myself.)

2. Nashville Symphony SOUNDCHECK student tickets

The classical music enjoyer in me is showing. With code “soundcheck”, you too can get concert tickets for just $10 from the Nashville Symphony website! They have lots of different offerings, from classical masterpieces, to live movie score concerts, to family events and more. There’s something for everybody, so check it out and support the arts!

1. Nashville bus system

This is literally the only reason I was able to write my Top 5 restaurants in Nashville article (which you should totally check out if you haven’t already) and most definitely my favorite student perk. Sure, they’re often late and don’t run come by all that often at night and may be a bit scary if you’re waiting at a stop alone. Haha! But it certainly beats having to pay outrageous prices for an Uber!

Honorable mentions go to the 60% discount on Adobe Creative Cloud (still too expensive for my taste) and the 25% discount on car insurance from State Farm and Allstate (I don’t own a car). And in case you’re wondering if there’s any more perks you can use—of course! Here‘s a slightly more comprehensive list of the benefits you can get to make up all your tuition money as a Vanderbilt student. Enjoy~

MCL Top 5: Restaurants I’ve Been to in Nashville

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What joy is a college student to (legally) find in life except eating good food? Kidding. But in all seriousness, I quite enjoy going out to find yummy things to eat, and I’m sure you do too! (At least, I’d assume so since you’re reading this feature.) To celebrate this commonality, I’ve compiled a list of my top 5 favorite restaurants in town so that you can also enjoy some great meals!

Note: I did my best to make sure that all of these restaurants would be accessible to most people. Some of the places are a bit far, but they’re all either bus-able or walkable locations. Additionally, in case you’re concerned that you might’ve searched the wrong place, I’ve linked the Google Maps URLs to the headings. No need to worry about any transportation expenses or location mix-ups!

Now without further ado, here are the top five restaurants I’ve been to around Nashville!

5. Black Dynasty Secret Ramen House

They were not lying about it being a secret ramen house. I actually ran into another group of people who were looking for the place in the middle of my search. Turns out the big secret is that it’s located inside the Bearded Iris brewery—now that you know, you hopefully won’t suffer in the cold as I did! Once I finally got inside, though, I had a pretty good experience. I got the miso tonkatsu ramen, which you can see pictured above. The broth was flavorful, albeit a bit salty for my taste (nothing a cup of hot water can’t fix), and the noodles had a pleasantly chewy texture to them. As for the miso caramel banana pudding, it reminded me a bit of crème brûlée! No funky miso flavor. On top of all that, the interior is really interesting, and has a nice ambience. My only gripe with the restaurant is that everything is definitely on the pricier side, but it’s a great place to visit occasionally when you’re craving a good bowl of ramen. (Advice for easing the burden on your wallet: 20% gratuity is automatically included when you order, so don’t feel pressured to tip again!)

4. Meet Noodles

Can you tell I really like noodles? Well, I do. I promise the rest of this list won’t just be noodle restaurants, though. Meet Noodles was my go-to comfort restaurant last semester, meaning I probably spent half of my meal money there. The combination of a sub-10 minute walking distance + warm Asian food is dangerous(ly enticing). They offer a great selection of Chinese noodle dishes, and I’ve never once been disappointed by anything I’ve ordered. For the indecisive folks out there, my usual order is the Shanxi sliced noodles (pictured above). I won’t go into detail about the dishes since I’ve realized that food descriptions are not my strong suit, but I’ll say this much: it’s good stuff!

3. Sitar Indian Cuisine

Something tells me that a lot of people already know about this restaurant (and the previous one for that matter), but here it is anyways! Due to my overwhelming love for rice and shrimp, I’ll admit that I haven’t tried as many things from Sitar as I have at some other places on this list. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve eaten, though! I unfortunately can’t comment on the dine-in experience, as I’ve always gotten my food to-go (sat down at a table just to get the photo lol); however, I can at least attest to the fact that they have some pretty speedy service. Overall, I’ve had a great experience, and I’ll definitely be back once I start craving shrimp biryani again.

2. OSH Restaurant & Grill

No, the duplicate photos are not a glitch. It was just the best way I could think to make sure that the image wouldn’t show up huge on everybody’s screens (so please bear with me).

I don’t think I’d ever been to an Uzbek restaurant before OSH, but boy did it set the bar high. To start off, the dinnerware is so pretty. Perhaps I’m just used to food being served on plain plates, but the matching plates, cups, and teapots felt fun and fancy to me. As for the food, all the dishes I tried over the course of my two visits were so good that writing about it is making my mouth water. I particularly enjoyed the lagman (oops that’s another noodle dish) and lamb kebab. The latter especially surprised me with how tender it was. But seriously, wow. I’m going to stop typing now so that I can think of other things that won’t make me unbearably hungry.

1. The Boba Bar

Last but not least is The Boba Bar! For everybody thinking, Wait, but that’s not a restaurant!, I’d have to agree. That being said, I really love the place (the I’ve-been-three-times-in-this-past-week-and-the-staff-remember-my-face-and-I-dream-of-their-boba-when-I-go-back-home-for-break kind of love), so I don’t care! The decor, the music, the drinks—it’s all just *chef’s kiss*. I’ve made it about a quarter of the way through the menu so far, and my favorite definitely has to be the brown sugar boba. Honorable mentions go to the peach yakult and the korean strawberry milk. Everything I’ve had has been really good, so I’m very excited to try more of their drinks.

That’s all I’ve got for now, but if you’ve got any suggestions for more restaurants I can visit, email them to mycommonslife@gmail.com! I’d love to explore some new places (provided they aren’t too expensive). Happy eating everybody!

Walker Tries to Feed a Venus Flytrap?! (or We Visit Bicentennial State Park)

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It’s officially the last Nashville Wanderer’s post of the year! We’ve explored a lot of places throughout our first year at Vanderbilt, making great memories along the way, and hopefully, through these posts, we’ve inspired you to travel off campus as well. This week Walker and I decided to pack a lot into one post, so we went and visited one of our favorite places in Nashville: the Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park. Not to be confused with Centennial Park, Bicentennial is located right down the hill past the Tennessee State Capitol. It’s a bit of a hike if you decide to walk — about 45 minutes (which I still highly recommend) — but only a short eight-minute ride if you decide to Uber. Since the 19-acre park is so beautiful and has a multitude of attractions, I made a list to cover as many of the features as I could. Bicentennial has got:

  • The Greek-inspired Tennessee Amphitheatre
  • The Nashville Farmers’ Market
  • The Court of Three Stars (the center has an echo spot like Upper Quad) surrounded by a Carillon of 50 Greek-styled bell towers
  • Rivers of Tennessee Splash Fountains
  • A 200-foot-wide Granite Map of Tennessee
  • A World War II Memorial with an 18,000-ton moving granite globe
  • The Tennessee State Museum right across from the Court of Three Stars

For our trip, Walker and I spent our time exploring the Tennessee State Museum, the Court of Three Stars and bell towers, and the Nashville Farmers’ Market. We started at the museum, which is free to the public, and were immediately blown away by the structure and detail of the exhibits. Music, racial movements, the Civil War, sports, clothing through the decades, paintings, and even quilting (I still don’t know why quilting was involved) were covered in the wonderfully arranged displays of Tennessee’s origins and past. The museum had plenty of interactive screens and videos that covered each exhibit and also had plenty of photo-worthy architecture as well (the place is so huge that I honestly lost Walker for a solid ten minutes).

Before we left the museum, we hit up the children’s area (you should not be surprised by this point) and it honestly had some of the coolest art from the entire place. While the general exhibits had lots of history, the children’s area had all of the bright murals one would look for. The floor was covered by a giant map of Tennessee and the walls had multiple colorful pieces on them; one of them even included the Batman Building, but Walker failed at getting my photo next to it (rip).

After chilling at the museum for a while, we headed over to the park itself to check out the WWII memorial. As mentioned above, the WWII memorial has a giant, heavy black granite globe in the center of it, showing the places around the world that Tennessee troops went to during the war. The memorial is surrounded by cherry blossom trees and leads the way to the Court of Three Stars.

This area is so cool to experience because one direction you’ve got a beautiful lawn leading up to the State Capitol hill, and the other way you have 50 Greek-inspired columns that encircle a humongous granite version of the Tennessee Tristar. The lawn was undergoing construction when we visited this time (hence the lack of photos), but from past visits, I can assure you that it is a sight you will want to see while at Vanderbilt.

For our last stop, we hopped into the Nashville Farmers’ Market to check out some of the cool printing shops and local businesses inside. We had grabbed food at Commons before we left (gotta get that swipe), but the market also has bubble tea, crepes, Mexican, coffee, Jamaican, Korean, BBQ, a deli/grill, Jeni’s ice cream, and more. Since we weren’t eating anything there, we shopped, took some artsy photos with a magazine (check below), and then headed to the outside market and garden center.

The outside market hosts a lot of events throughout the year, and although there was no specific event the day we were there, they had some food trucks and neighborhood vendors selling their art (I got a bag of scrap fabric for only $5). The garden center, Gardens of Babylon, has actually been rated one of the most environmentally friendly businesses in Nashville. It was so fun to see all of the different kinds of plants (some were the same ones from Stevenson’s greenhouse) and shop around for flowers and succulents. Walker and I also spent a shameful seven minutes trying to get a mini Venus flytrap to eat a leaf (it did not work). But all jokes aside, I will definitely be hitting this place up for some affordable house plants for next year and recommend the same for anyone else.

Bicentennial State Park is a jam-packed experience that makes you want to come back time and time again. It is seriously one of the most beautiful places I’ve found in Nashville and I hope that you take the time to see it for yourself. Whether you’re looking for some good food, a scenic place to study, a chance to get to know Tennessee’s rich history, or a new succulent, Bicentennial has got it all and is only a walk away.

Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park Info: https://tnstateparks.com/parks/bicentennial-mall

Tennessee State Museum Hours and Info: https://tnmuseum.org/

Nashville Farmers’ Market Hours and Info: https://www.nashvillefarmersmarket.org/

Walker and I Get Our Inner Horse Girls On? (or We Visit the Frist)

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With all of the lovely weather that graced us this last week, Walker and I decided to head downtown and get our class on at the Frist Art Museum. With our luck, we planned our trip on the one cloudy and humid day of the entire week, but regardless, the museum was a sight to see. Located near the front of downtown, the Frist is about a 30-minute walk or a seven-minute drive, depending on how you want to get there (10/10 would recommend walking and hitting up McDonald’s for a $1 ice cream cone on the way). As Vandy students we get free admission — you’ll need your Commodore card as proof — and with your sick new wristbands (peep the photos) you’ll have access to the entire museum.

Now normally I’d recommend setting aside an hour or two to experience all of the beautiful art that the place has to offer, but due to an event that was starting soon, Walker and I only had 45 minutes to make it through everything. It was a hard task considering that everything is so regal and beautiful, but we did our best to document the hotspots of the trip (one of which was their insanely classy bathrooms … yes I did take a mirror selfie in it … I am only a little ashamed).

  • classy af
  • whoops…

The lower level exhibits of the museum are currently showcasing Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, and Their Times: The Mellon Collection of French Art, which ended up being a glorified animal painting fest with lots of doggos and cattle painted onto canvases. The best part of the lower exhibits, however, was a multi-room gallery dedicated solely to nineteenth-century horses. I don’t know whether “horse” is the museum’s new theme at the moment, but there were so many of said animal that I felt like I was in a horse girl’s dream and couldn’t find my way out. That being said, I got some bomb.com photos with the paintings and was able to find my way out in a speedy five minutes without hating the overwhelming aura of “stallions” too much (this may be me being a bit dramatic, the paintings are nice, I swear).

  • so. many. good. boys.
  • more horses?

Next, we went up to the second level to walk through the Dorothea Lange: Politics of Seeing exhibit. This exhibit focused on the documentary photographer, Dorothea Lange, whose breathtaking black and white portraits worked to expose injustice and inequalities in the twentieth century.

After making our way through the photographs, we ended up at my personal favorite place in the museum: the interactive children’s exhibit. We ended up spending 35 minutes of the entire 45 minutes we had at the museum in this area, and I do not regret a single thing. From a stop motion station to light boards and a portrait drawing circle (surprise, surprise, where you could draw horses), this place truly has it all. Now I’ve been waiting to hit up this area of the Frist since I first heard about it, so it might have just been me, but I could have spent hours in there. There was this sick heat motion sensor wall that worked kind of like how an Xbox Kinect does when it detects your body moving and we attempted multiple still shots including spelling out YMCA (Walker forgot how to spell and ruined it) and anchoring down (an even bigger fail).

This took us way more takes than it should’ve.

Walker’s favorite station was a soundwave board that moved sand into different patterns on the board as it changed frequencies, while mine was the stop-motion station where we created a short film. I tried to document it on video for the blog, but we accidentally hit delete instead of replay 🙁 (shoutout to the eight-year-old boy who tried to help us recover it even though we all knew it was too late).

  • we accidentally deleted it

What I love about the art museum is that you can go to appreciate the details and effort behind the paintings and photographs, or you can go to have a fun time making up stories about why each piece was created. Either way, as long as you’re respectful of the people around you, the guards are extremely nice and enjoy seeing people interact with the art. So whether you end up checking out the Frist for the art galleries inside, or just for the architecture of the building itself (which is beautiful and 100% photo-worthy), the Frist Art Museum will not disappoint. If you have a free afternoon or weekend and you are looking for something fun to do downtown, I’d highly recommend checking it out.

Frist Art Museum Hours:https://fristartmuseum.org/visit/hours-directions

McDonald’s Hours: Open 24/7… SO GET THAT CONE!

Walker Makes A Mixtape?!?! (aka We Visit the Country Music Hall of Fame)

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By: Nashville Wanderers

With the weather warming up and spring right around the corner (my inner Minnesotan is so confused right now), Walker and I decided to head downtown for this week’s blog. As country music fans, and more importantly, Peter Cooper fans (the museum’s senior director as well as our very own History of Country Music professor) we’ve been meaning to hit up the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum for a while. The museum is located directly across from Bridgestone Arena and is surrounded by other awesome Nashville hotspots. It’s around a 45-minute walk or a 14-minute scooter ride but let me tell you: it’s so worth the trip. This has hands down been one of my favorite experiences in downtown Nashville and I hope that everyone takes a chance to check it out!

Now for an important tip before I begin. Lucky for us Vandy students, we have free access to the entire museum (shoutout to my man, Peter Cooper), but there’s a specific way to get it. When you get up to the front desk, tell the staff that you’re a Vanderbilt student (bring your Commodore Card for proof) and say that you’re looking for their “Passport to Nashville” deal with the university. If you don’t mention the name of the program directly, they aren’t supposed to give you a free ticket, so don’t forget this!

For our trip, Walker had scored us two tickets to see a live interview with Emmylou Harris and her Hot Band in the CMA theater inside the museum (which was led by Peter Cooper, because who else at this point?), and it was fantastic. The CMA theater doesn’t have events very often, but I would highly recommend attending when they do.

The self-guided tour starts on the third level of the building where you will promptly meet a door that leads to a Taylor Swift exhibit. Among many things, it includes two of her costumes from her “Look What You Made Me Do” music video which was super exciting to see. Past her exhibit, however, is where you’ll find all of the original country music stars. Rows and rows of glass cases are filled with instruments and clothing owned by the most influential country music artists of all time. They’ve got glass cases for Jimmie Rodgers, Roy Acuff, Kitty Wells, Elvis Presley, DeFord Bailey, Charley Pride, and more. You name a country artist, and they’ve got a costume and guitar from them.

  • Don Gibson
  • Elvis Presley

As you can see in the photos below, Walker and I found that the second floor was definitely our favorite. Along with the museum’s advertised Outlaw Movement exhibit (shoutout to the billboard on Hillsboro that advertises it), interactive screens and games all over the place. The interactive sites include creating your own song title, writing a song (where we, of course, spelled aNcHoR dOwN), finding your future music-related job, designing an album cover with your face on it (scroll down to see Walker’s horrifying album cover), and recording your own demo in a definitely not soundproof “recording booth” karaoke station (two of the four song options are Taylor Swift songs? … there might be a trend here.)

  • ANCHOR DOWN
  • Inside the Karaoke Booth
  • Walker’s New Single
  • The Outside of the Interactive Station
  • Walker is Destined to be a Music Producer

Another part of the second floor was dedicated to artists starting from the 1990s to today. Toby Keith’s shirt that he wore in “I Love This Bar,” Carrie Underwood’s dress she wore during the finale of American Idol, and Taylor Swift’s dress from “Love Story,” are some of the many iconic memorabilia that are kept there.

  • Jason Aldean and Taylor Swift
  • Keith Urban, Tim McGraw, and Faith Hill

One of the more random things in the modern country exhibit was a giant guitar that you could climb inside, and of course, photos were immediately taken. I accidentally walked in front of a seven-year-old girl to get said photo and that is the moment that I realized I needed to chill out a bit — my photo still looked bomb though (thanks Walker). Next to the guitar is a beautiful view glass window view of downtown where I attempted to have Walker take a photo of me pointing to the Batman Building (only my favorite building in all of Nashville). Sadly, he’s still working on his photography skills, so I had to (poorly) edit the photo to do the building justice (please excuse my wonky hand).

  • After editing (aka I’m good at editing) 🙂
  • Pre-editing (aka Walker sucks at photography)

The best part about the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is that it never gets tiring. There are so many artists to appreciate, exhibits to view, and activities to try that you learn something new every time. Walker and I have already gone back since our first trip (cause free trips are the best trips) and it feels just as inspiring and fun walking through again. So if you’re looking for a good time, trying to learn anything about the music history of Nashville, or you just really want to be surrounded by Taylor Swift promotion, the Country Music Hall of Fame is the place for you.

And a quick note to my man Peter: you guys either really know how to market to the teen girl demographic, or you are using your chair as senior director to proclaim your love to Taylor. Either way, I love it.

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Hours: https://countrymusichalloffame.org/visit/hours#.XJmuflxKg2w

Peter Cooper’s History of Country Music Class:

1640 History of Country Music

Top 5 Weird and Awesome Things About Nashville

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Top 5 Weird and Awesome Things About Nashville

Nashville is a place rich in history, culture, and tradition. From the neon lights and cowboy hats, to the art galleries and orchestras, to the famous hot chicken, Nashville has carved out a truly unique identity. Here, we look at the Top 5 most unusual things about this one-of-a-kind city.

 

  1. The Batman Building

The Batman Building got its nickname from its resemblance to the Dark Night’s mask (but the less super name for it is the AT&T building). At 33 stories, the Batman Building is the tallest skyscraper in Tennessee.

 

 

 

  1. Nashville Was Founded on Christmas Eve

So when we celebrate Christmas, we’re all kind of celebrating Nashville, too…

 

 

  1. …And the Founder Lived in a Cave

Nashville founder Timothy Demonbreun spent his first few months in what would become Nashville living in a cave while he built his permanent home and pursued his fur trading business. You can still see Demonbreun’s cave, which is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

 

 

 

  1. Andrew Jackson’s Driveway

Long before Nashville was known as Music City, Andrew Jackson had his driveway built in the shape of a guitar. Supposedly, the guitar design helped carriages move through the grounds more easily. Or maybe Jackson was just clairvoyant.

 

 

 

  1. The Tomato Queen

Every year, Nashville has a Tomato Arts Festival to celebrate all things tomato. The festival includes a gallery of tomato-inspired art, a parade with tomato-themed costumes and floats, and a contest for Tomato King and Tomato Queen.

 

Top 5 Things To Do In Nashville During Your First Month On Campus

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You’ve survived the madness of move in, orientation, and your first few days on campus as a whole. If you’re like me, this whole process of moving off to college has been a little bit overwhelming. Luckily for us though, Nashville has some amazing places to chill out and just let loose. Here are the top 5 ways to relax, get to know your new home, and have a good time. So grab a few Vandy first years, and check out what Nashville has to offer.

5. First Saturdays

You won’t need to be an art connoisseur to appreciate number five on our list. Every first Saturday of the month, a handful of art galleries open their doors for FREE. With over 20 galleries participating in First Saturdays, you are bound to find just about any style and medium of art to please your taste. Some of the galleries offer free drinks to cool you off after a hot day of walking around campus, and if you’re lucky you may be able to meet the artists. First Saturday takes place from 6pm to 9pm at 5th Avenue of the Arts, 5th Avenue South, and The Historic Arcade.

More Info

4. Lonnie’s Western Room

Lonnie’s is a Nashville staple that college students love. Voted the #1 Karaoke Bar in Nashville and the #10 College Bar in America, the location is a real crowd pleaser. So even if you’re young, dumb, and broke, come out and show off your best dance moves and singing.

Address: 308 CHURCH STREET, Nashville, TN 37201 (Roughly a $10 round trip with Uber)

Hours: 6pm-3am, daily

More Info

3. Fido’s

You can’t officially say that you’re living in Nashville until you hit up Fido’s for some coffee and some high end, yet affordable, grub. Fido’s menu creates a harmony between organic, exotic, and junk foods, and if you’re not ready to experience a Fido’s burger or giant whole grain pancake, then you can always rely on the tried and true latte. Just a short half-mile walk away from the Commons, you’ll find that Fido’s is perfectly located, and you might even get a rare sighting of Belmont Students hanging around, too.

Address: 1812 21st Ave. S., Nashville, TN 37212

Hours: 7am-11pm, daily

Menu

2. Broadway

Broadway, also known as Honky Tonk Highway, is a rockin’ street in downtown Nashville. With countless restaurants, junk food stops, and nightlife area, you’re bound to make many memories here over your next four years. So, don’t be intimidated by being a first year student and head on down to music row within your first month to get a true feel for the city.

Address: Corner of Broadway and 5th Ave S. (Roughly a $10 round trip with Uber)

Things To Do

1. Live On The Green

Live On The Green is a homegrown FREE concert series that Lightning 100 host. It features local artists, as well as some pretty well known names. Loads of Nashville natives attend the concert, and if you’re lucky you’ll get to meet some pretty famous artist, like Paramore. There are just two weeks left in the series, but in my opinion the last weeks are boasting the best artists. The next show is Wednesday, August 24th. It begins at 6:15pm at Public Square Park, and will go until 11pm. I would HIGHLY suggest going to this one, because you’ll be able to catch some of my favorite artists like Portugal. The Man and Spoon. If you can’t make it to this one night event, don’t fret because you can catch a whole 3 days of fun over Memorial Day Weekend. Some of the major artists over that weekend include Sheryl Crow, Future Islands, The Lone Bellow, and Drew Holcomb. You can check the whole schedule below, address, and other details below.

Address: 1 Public Square, Nashville, TN 37201 (Roughly a $12 round trip with Uber)

Schedule and Line-Up

General Festival Info

Official Spotify Playlist