Wachovia: 1-800-922-4684
Bank of America: 1-800-299-BANK
Sun Trust: 1-800-786-8787
Campus USA Credit Union: 1-800-367-6440

1. Reitz Union - Subway, Wendy's, Sushi & Noodle Bar, Capeesh (Italian), Home Zone (American), Java City, and (downstairs) Taco Bell, Orange & Brew (American), and Freshens Yogurt. Also, the 4th floor has Arredondo Room, a buffet with soup, salad, and at least 2 meal options for around $5.

2. The Hub - This is probably your closest option since it's right across from the astronomy building. The food court has Chick-Fil-A, Einstein's Bagels, and Zia Juice.

3. Racquet Club/Rec Center - Another nearby food court with Burger King, Java City, Salad Garden, Steak City Cheesesteaks, Boar's Head Delicatessen (sandwiches), and Cranberry Farms (American).

4. Broward Dining Center - Fresh Food Company: all-you-can-eat food with great selection and reasonable prices.

5. A CHEAP vegetarian lunch option - The Hare Krishnas set up a table on the Plaza of the Americas at noon, serving all-you-can-eat vegetarian food for a $3 donation.

6. Off Campus - Here is a selection, mostly within walking distance of the astronomy building: Joe's Deli, Sub Station, Kotobuki - Japanese and Sushi, Copper Monkey - American, Swamp - American, Cafe Gardens - American, Fritanga Grill - Cuban, Pita Pit, Larry's Subs, Leonardo's - good pizza by the slice, Italian Gator - addictive pizza by the slice, Burrito Brothers, Maui Teriaki, Orange Garden - Chinese (they also deliver), Smoothie King, Planet Smoothie, McDonald's, Saigon Cafe - Vietnamese, El Indio - Mexican and inexpensive, but a little farther walk, Carribean Spice, Gator City, Steamers, Bageland, Farah's On the Avenue - Middle Eastern, and Ben & Jerry's - technically not lunch, but oh well.

7. Delivery - Papa John's, Domino's, Hungry Howie's and lots of other pizza places, Orange Garden, Szechuan Panda, China Express and Jade Gardens (Chinese), Allen's Deli and Joe's Deli.

1. Emiliano's - An excellent Carribean/Puerto Rican style restaurant with AMAZING desserts.

2. Amelia's - Very tasty Italian restaurant. This is a good place to bring a date!

3. Harry's - Cajun style cooking that will definitely fill you up.

4. Steve's Cafe Americain - Expensive but very classy restaurant. They have some pretty innovative items on their menu.

5. The Melting Pot - A fondue restaurant. Not cheap but yummy and lots of fun, although be prepared to work for your dinner! The chocolate fondue is excellent. Reservations are recommended.

6. Carrabas Italian Grill - Excellent Italian Cuisine, great atmosphere. We recommend you call ahead to get on the "call ahead list" before you go.

7. Chopstix - A department favorite. Pan-Asian, with nice decor, huge windows overlooking a lake with alligators, and outside tables; great at sunset!

8. Dinner - Yes, that's the name! Located in Thornbrooke Village, it's one of the rivals for "best food in town" (377-0996).

9. Bentos - Japanese food and bubble tea; good stuff!

10. Tex-Mex recommendations - On the Border and Don Pablo's are good for large parties or fancy dates.

11. Mexican food recommendations - Las Margaritas, La Tienda, El Norteno, La Cabana (more Caribbean than Mexican). For a complete guide to Mexican food in Gainesville, see Carlos' amazingly thorough review.

1. Java City - located on Campus (in the Racquet Club food court and the Reitz Union). Doesn't have great coffee but is the closest place to the department

2. Java Lounge - University Ave, next to the Swamp. Great coffee and great atmosphere.

3. Maude's Classic Cafe - 101 SE 2nd Place, next to the Hippodrome. Great atmosphere, they even have a live jazz band occasionally, plus desserts and other drinks, too. The quality is not necessarily the best; avoid the cappuccino if you are a coffee afficionado, though the macchiato is quite acceptable. Great place for sitting outdoors and pondering the meaning of 'grad school'.

4. Starbucks - If you need an explanation for Starbucks you just don't drink enough coffee! They have four locations in town: University Ave./13th St., downtown, Newberry Rd. next to the cinema, Newberry Rd. next to Oaks Mall, and Magnolia Park on NW 39th Ave..

5. Coffee Culture - 5221 NW 43rd St. Independent cafe w/ very good coffee, free wireless, & amusing slogan: "That other place sucks." Drive-through window is very convenient.

1. Gator City - Sports Bar with TVs, pool tables, video games, and a good restaraunt. A good low-key place to go and hang out. Wed night is ladies night. Usually no cover. (Free pool weekdays until 7pm!)

2. The Grog House - Bar with several TVs and a small stage and dance floor area. Can get crowded at times, but can be good if you get there early and get a table. Wed night is ladies night. Fri is beat the clock and Sat is free beer and karaoke. Sometimes a cover.

3. The Salty Dog Saloon - Bar. Very good beer selection and a good place to go, sit at a table, and hang out. Happy Hour is 3-7pm every day. No cover.

4. Balls - Hole-in-the-wall bar. No cover.

5. The Swamp - Bar and restaurant with outside seating and free wireless. A good place to start out the night; the beer's a bit expensive, but the happy hour deals are good. Monday night is unofficially sorority night (so you can be there/avoid it that night as you prefer). Live music usually Wed and Fri. $5 cover after around 9pm some nights.

1. Durty Nelly's - Irish Pub. Good place if you get there early enough to get a table. Live Irish music on the weekends. Cover is usually $2.

2. Market Street Pub - Bar/Club with pool and darts. One room has lots of tables and a bar. Another room has two bars, more tables, and a large stage/dance floor area. Very good beer selection. Thursday is ladies night ($5 cover). Friday is '80s night (no cover). Cover varies from nothing to $5.

3. Bank - Bar/Club with several rooms each with a bar. Cover usually $5. 2-for-1 martinis and drafts before 11:30 on Thurs-Sat.

4. Sky - Bar/Club on the roof of 8 Seconds. A few tables and a dance floor area; expect to stand in line and be looked up and down to get in. Sat night is their big night. Cover usually $5.

5. Side Bar - Can be good if it's nice outside because you can sit/stand outside. Cover usually $5. Live music inside on the weekends. Free beer 9pm-1am Thursdays.

6. Stubbie's - Small bar with over 100 different beers. Good place to hang out if you get there early enough to get a table. Non-smoking.

7. The Library - If you want a free shot with your cover charge to be followed up by girls dancing on the tables, this is the place.

8. The Top - Best happy hour downtown, with 2-for-1 drafts (full size pints) and single liquor drinks 5-7 weekdays and 6-8 saturdays. Good food & vegetarian options.

9. Silver Q - Pool hall with a basketball hoop and video games.

10. Happy Hour - Another pool hall, with cheap, HUGE beers.

11. Palace - Club with a stage for occasional live music. Cover charge.

12. 238 West - Club with several rooms. Cover charge.

13. Fat Tuesday - Bar/Club with dance floor area. Usually crowded on Tuesday nights. Sometimes a cover charge.

14. Simon's - Bar/Club with multiple rooms. Cover usually $5.

15. Speakeasy - Dark and smoky; find a seat on one of the couches or stand in the crowd at the bar to be seen. Good people-watching.

16. Faces - A good venue to see local bands; will likely be crammed full like sardines in there.

17. 8 Seconds - Club. Avoid at all costs if you don't like country music and rednecks.

1. Ale House - Sports bar and restaurant. Wed is ladies night. No cover. NFL direct ticket.

2. Various other restaurant/bars including Chili's, TGI Friday's, Hops, Bennigan's, On the Border, and more.

1. Gators Dockside - Sports bar and restaurant near SW 34th St. & University. Good place to start out the night. Thursday is ladies night. $1.50 domestic pints all day every day. NFL direct ticket.

2. Calico Jack's - Sports bar and restaurant near SW 34th St. & 2nd. Ave. Happy Hour is 3-7 and 11-close every day. NFL direct ticket.

3. Dugout - Bar with pool and darts. Located behind CJ's.

4. JP Gators - Pool hall near SW 13th St and 16th Ave.

5. Shamrock - Irish pub on University and W. 10th. Has novel vegetarian options, like a vegetarian Reuben. Also lots of live music there, rarely just Irish.

6. Mellow Mushroom - University and W. 12th. Has great bucket-o-beer deals, great pizza/calzones/hoagies, and Monday night trivia. Free wireless.

7. Common Grounds - Univ. and W. 9th. Most likely place to see touring bands through Gainesville. Also has good local shows.

8. Eddie C's - On S. Main St.; bar of the people. bring your own pint glass or drink your 8 ounces with a smile. Good for pool, darts, and live music.

1. Rent movies - Blockbuster - not the cheapest, but they have a good selection; Hollywood Video - you can rent new releases for five days. The public library and university library systems also have good collections of movies that can be checked out for free. The university collection is currently in Library East; the front desk has binders that list their films alphabetically.

2. Go to the movies - Butler Plaza, Royal Park, or Oaks Mall. There are student-run movies for cheap or free at the Reitz Union. The Hippodrome State Theater also shows foreign and independent films, as well as musicals and plays.

3. Go out to eat - At one of the fine restaurants listed in this guide

4. Bowling - Alley Katz has large rooms and cosmic bowling. The Reitz Union is the cheapest and is on campus. The Union also has a game room with pool tables, foosball, air hockey, and video games. (And the ever-entertaining Dance-Dance-Revolution.)

5. Mini golf and roller blading - Funworks

6. Golf - University Golf and Ironwood, and there are driving ranges on Archer Road. See Aaron for more info.

7. Going to the mall - Oaks Mall is really the only traditional mall in town but Butler Plaza has an amazing array of stores.

8. Plays - Gainesville Community Playhouse (376-4949) or the Acrosstown Repertory Theater (375-1321). Also the Hippodrome State Theater.

9. Natural Sites - Paynes Prairie, Morningside Nature Center, Thomas Center Gardens and Historic Center (located at 302 NE 6th St.), the Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail (a 15 mile paved trail, mostly through the woods), Kanapaha Botanical Gardents (372-4981), and the Devil's Milhopper sinkhole

10. Sante Fe Community Art Gallery - On the Santa Fe Community College campus. Mostly local artists. Call 395-5621.

11. Thomas Center Gallery - "Reflecting the diverse talents and aesthetic interests of the whole community in a splendid Renaissance Revival setting." Call 334-2197.

12. Dance Alive - Professional dance company. Call 371-2986

13. Fred Bear Museum

14. Gainesville Rock Gym - Get a serious workout via rock-climbing! Call 335-4789.

15. Storyreading - For those of you with literary interests, we get together every few weeks to read stuff aloud to each other: children's stories, science fiction, poetry, excerpts from novels, interesting or entertaining articles, things people have written themselves, and so forth. Nor does anyone have to read--you're welcome to just come and listen if you like! Contact Eric for more info.

16. Music - Downtown, live every weekend. Jazz at Maude's, Irish singing at Durty Nelly's. Also choral and instrumental concerts are held periodically by several in-town groups.

1. Lake Wauburg - Free for students, nice picnic area. You can get 1 canoe or 2 kayaks per student ID. They also have a climbing wall and frisbee golf, which is surprisingly fun! (Well, not in the summer...)

2. Bat House - Watch the bats at the bat house at sunset (near Lake Alice)

3. Alligators - Go to Lake Alice to see the alligators

4. Harn Museum of Art - 392-9826

5. Center for Performing Arts - 392-1900

6. Florida Museum of Natural History and Butterfly Rainforest - 846-2000. The museum has excellent displays, including a collection of Florida fossils and artifacts and a hall for traveling exhibits. In August 2004 another exhibit, the Butterfly Rainforest, opened. The Rainforest supports 50-60 species and hundreds of specimens. If you are particularly interested, yearly passes to the rainforest are available through the museum. Otherwise tickets cost $6.50 for Florida students.

7. University Galleries - 392-0201; student and faculty art.

8. Sporting Events - football, basketball, gymnastics, baseball, soccer, tennis...

9. Astronomy Public Nights - Friday's 8:30 - 10:00pm at the Campus Teaching Observatory.

10. Rec Centers - Offer a variety of activities, including racquetball, tennis, gatorobics (including Yoga and Tai-Chi), weight rooms, indoor and outdoor basketball courts (at SW Rec), intramurals, etc.

11. Leisure courses - Available both at UF and at the Santa Fe Community College.

12. Student Organizations

13. Gator Nights - Lots of great free activities on Friday nights at the Reitz Union, designed to give students an alternative to drinking themselves into a stupor at the bars :-).

14. Campus Events - Two good places to keep track of campus events are the StuffToDo webpage and the UF Calendar.

February - Hoggetowne Medieval Faire

Spring sometime - Zucchini fest

March - Gatornationals (car racing)

April - Spring arts festival

April and October: Friends of the Library Booksale - A 5-day event held twice a year; has really cheap prices and an amazingly huge selection for a town Gainesville's size, filling a whole warehouse!

May - Pioneer Days in High Springs

June - Watermelon Festival in Newberry

Late August - moonlight canoe trip on the Santa Fe River with anthropologists

Late September/early October and May - Kanapaha moonlight walks

October - UF Homecoming (day off school!)

November - Downtown Arts and Crafts Festival, Alachua County Fair

December - Madrigal Dinners, Christmas on the Boulevard, Festival of Trees, Nutcracker, and probably lots more, but it's time to take finals and go home!

There are also lots of seasonal events in Cedar Key (see below).

1. Beaches - St. Augustine: beautiful beaches near a small town and historic fort (and an outlet mall). About a 2 hour drive. Clearwater/Sarasota: white beaches about 3 hours away. Cedar Key: NOT a beach, but a small fishing community about an hour away.

2. Tubing/Rafting - Ichetucknee River: nice because there is a shuttle that goes up the river and then back to your car. Ginney Springs, Blue Springs, and Manatee Springs offer tubing and some scuba diving.

3. Canoeing - Santa Fe river and lots of the area's springs are good for this.

4. Organized outdoors activities - Check out TRiP or the Outdoor Adventure Recreation club. The Florida Trail Organization organizes MANY canoe and hike trips, and there is also a local Sierra Club chapter.

5. Silver Springs - Kind of expensive but there are discounts available. They have glass bottom boat tours and many animals. Wet'n'Wild is also next door.

6. Poe Springs Park - Fishing, boating, picnicking, camping and hiking. (454-1992)

7. Homosassa State Park - A cool state park and cheap (most state parks are $3 or so to get in). Has manatees!

8. Pick-your-own farms - Lots of U-pick options, especially blueberries from May-July.

9. Ocala - Large town about an hour south. There is an excellent Indian restaurant there.

10. Ocala National Forest - springs and hiking, outlet mall off I-75.

11. Kennedy Space Center - About 3 hours away; to see a launch go to NASA web page or contact state senator.

12. Jacksonville - (~ 1.5 hour drive) - good beaches, brewery, the Pier, nice fireworks on the 4th of July, professional football (Jaguars), minor league baseball.

13. Orlando - (~ 2 hour drive) - Disney parks, Universal and MGM Studios, Sea World, etc.; the parks usually have a discount for Florida residents and/or students in March or other times. Downtown Disney: free to get in - it is a shopping area + Pleasure Island. Also has Church Street Station, Winter Park, Beall's Outlet Mall with over 100 stores at the junction of the Florida Turnpike and Interstate 4, plus lots of other shopping and a lot of other stuff to do.

14. Tampa - (~ 2 hour drive) - Busch Gardens, Adventure Island, Museum of Science and Industry (with Omnimax theatre), Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Florida Aquarium, Lowry Park Zoo, and professional hockey (Lightning), football (Buccaneers), and baseball (Devil Rays).

The corner of 6th Ave and 8th St
Most places east of 6th St between University Ave and SW 16th Ave after dark
Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail and Payne's Prarie after dark
Payne's Prarie during alligator mating season (May-June)
Any ATM by yourself after dark
Denny's at night (mostly because of the food)