If you have ever been lucky enough to enroll in a class that meets at PODEM, you might be wondering where it is. Better yet, you might also be wondering what the name even means. If you unscramble PODEM, it spells out “moped.” Might this be the university’s way to tell us to go buy mopeds?
“If you had a moped, you wouldn’t have to worry about walking there.”
In order to find your destination, you may be inclined to use Google Maps. Unfortunately, Google Maps is a hit-or-miss when it comes to finding walkable paths on campus, and in this scenario, it’s a complete miss. Every time I search for Podemos, the result is some tax office 71 miles away in Santa Ana. But don’t worry, it has one 5-star review on Yelp, so if you’re ever interested in going, let me know how it goes!
Other websites aren’t very helpful either. When I go to UC San Diego’s MapLink and search Podemos, I get no results. When I click on UCSD’s Maps, a warning pops up, telling me that my connection is not private. I don’t want trouble with ResNet, so that website is also a no-go.
Fortunately, the mystery of where Podemos is located can be quickly solved through word-of-mouth and social media platforms. Podemos, otherwise abbreviated as PODEM, is located in Eighth College. It’s south of Revelle, and if you’re the type of person to rely on reference points, you can think of it as being across from Galbraith Hall.
Perhaps the question to ask now is this: “Wherefore art thou, Podemos?”
If you’re in Eighth College or Revelle College, congratulations! If you ever need to go to Podemos, it’s right next door. No sweat or tears are needed in the process to find it. But if you’re in Warren College (like me) or Seventh College, for example, good luck! By the time I got there, I was early because I thought it would take half an hour. Experience is the best teacher, because now I know that it doesn’t take half an hour to get there; it takes 20 minutes.Of course, if you don’t think you can survive a walk there, you can take the school shuttle’s Inside Loop to get to the Theatre District. Maybe I should have tried this option instead. On the bright side, now I definitely know where Podemos is.
Ivy Peng is the Editor of The Conch for The Triton.