Since 5 a.m. Monday, when students began lining up to camp out before Saturday's Penn State-Iowa game, Paternoville has grown progressively more frenzied each day.
The campsite now features
110 tents, with just over 900 campers registered, Paternoville Coordination Committee (PCC) public relations representative Dan Saxton said. Those numbers should get a little larger before Saturday's game.
"We have received contact from a couple of the branch campus groups that have expressed interest in coming during the day Friday to do a little camping and be a part of the experience," Saxton said Thursday. "We'll probably be up to about 115 groups by the end of the week."
Aaron Merges, a Paternoville veteran, has brought some extra flavor to the campsite, with a tent dubbed "the Ghetto."
"The Ghetto tent is pretty simple," Merges (senior-kinesiology) said. "It's not meant to be set up on concrete. We have two water jugs holding the front down. The back of our tent is tied to our neighbor's tent. All the poles on the bottom have been woven together. It's really a model for any engineering student that wants to consider a thesis project."
Each tent at Paternoville is unique, with many small and large. The biggest is the tent city near the street that has been called "The Animal House."
Under a massive tarp, a series of tents ring a common area fixed up with a fold-up table for people to eat and drink on. With their proximity to the power outlets, the students camping there have been able to set up a speaker system and a disco ball.
But during the day, when the tents aren't full, students taking their shifts find the quiet great for studying.
"You can actually get a lot of work done up here during the day," Jennifer Studer (freshman-broadcast journalism) said. "It's really peaceful."
For Merges, Paternoville is the best place to study.
"I feel like during the day there are really no distractions," he said. "It's one of my most productive weeks of the year."
Though the general sentiment is that studying is easy at Paternoville, not everyone is in agreement.
"Many things don't get done or they don't get done on time," Ryan Beckler (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) said. "I have a lot of chemistry homework right now, and it's probably not going to get done. I just got a 50 percent on an exam, so I'm not too happy about that either."
Still, as the week comes to a close, anticipation is building for the game.
Saxton said he thinks Penn State quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno will stop by with some of the players. ESPN's Rob Stone also paid a visit to the campsite late Thursday afternoon.
"He wants to get the Paternoville experience," Saxton said. "I think he'll be setting up a tent and staying the night."
