You have to read between the lines: “I dwell in SDSU. Life is WECOTA building”. My life as a student and as a research assistant in SDSU is dyed-in-the-wool to seeing the building daily, to marvelling its rooms and, most appropriately, to exploring the grace of the first floor and the basement (or the dungeon, as we fondly call it).

So what’s worthy of musing over a building – apart from the seeing, marvelling and exploring – with a massive pair of columns at the entrance and a lone window at the basement room that would not even open? Well, as a matter of fact, there are a million and one reasons to reminisce about. Allow me to highlight a few.

1. The insert-your-dollar vending machines. It serves coca-cola products, potato chips, M&Ms, and all other candy and bubble gum varieties. The MSG-filled junk foods are right there waiting to delight you in on idle moments, when you can’t think of anything but crisps and sweets. The not-so-intelligent machines don’t accept all sorts of paper bills except when they are finely ironed. It is the place of hellos, do-you-haves, little chitchats and where most sleepy heads normally convene during break time.

2. Brew me a coffee. The coffee room is right along the main hall. It offers an assortment of free stuff, aside from coffee of course, to tea, to chocolate powders, to even muffin or doughnut leftovers. Being near the sunroom, it is strategically placed so as to cater a 10-minute break between class sessions. More so, it is the best place for quick note-scanning, tutorials, and meeting others halfway.

3. The relief room. I could only speak for the men’s room though; the area intended for comfort, most of the times, creates a putrid atmosphere when twilight comes. With the automatic flushing mechanism often failing to do its work, expect to see scary bits and pieces, and all that jazz in array of sizes, floating like crazy. You know what I mean.

4. Visit the secretary’s desk. For any clarification or inquiry or to simply bellyache just about anything, this is the exact place to be. Madam JoAnn has a room for every diminutive moan you have however bizarre-sounding sometimes it may be.

5. Swipe before entering. The card-operated room 100 or better known as the sunroom, houses most of our excitements [read: learnings]. For the scholarly students, this is the place next to home. The room is useful in many ways than one. You can be there tens of minutes before the 3-hour evening class starts to mingle with classmates, discuss assignments, or just to feel a little comfy with few yawns at the back seats.

6. Hang-out till 2AM. For the hardworking and cannot-put-the-work-until-tomorrow students, the building offers the best place to get projects done or to laugh with peers till wee hours.

7. Blank. You have already read my “daily” life inside WECOTA and in SDSU in general. I would reserve this last one for you to discover something that makes life in SDSU precious of coming back every day.

I saw and would continue seeing, I marveled and would go on marveling, and I explored and surely would not stop exploring!