First of all, I would like to mention Argon. Did you know that he's going to Spain for a entire month (or was it six weeks?) and will be speaking Spanish for most, if not all, of the time? He will come back perhaps the second Reese, Spanish-wise, and the two of them might carry on Spanish conversations when they see each other and effectively exclude me, because all I know in Spanish are "hola," "muy bien," "buenos dias," "buenas noches," "hasta luego," "hasta mañana" with the fancy ñ that I can never find, and various numbers due to my French background. So I will understand if they greet each other in the most simple way possible, but other than that I will simply prod them to speak English, or, if possible, French.
Those of you who know why I've suddenly decided to talk about Argon when there is not really a story about him will probably know where I am going next.
(Also, I am still two behind, and I need to talk about other people.)
Dino.
I'm trying to figure out what he means to me, right now and in general. I guess I first started wondering this when I heard about him asking Lauretta to prom. Prom is a pretty significant event, and although I knew I wasn't going, I thought I would at least be a little jealous. But I took it just as any other bit of gossip, a little regret that no one really asked me, but other than that I didn't feel much.
Then came his semi-obsession over her, which I thought I'd mind as well, but I didn't.
So I mean, do I really like him? Or was it simply my subconscious nagging me that I really, really want someone to like, for the sake of liking them, and I just happened to choose Dino? I know he's got some redeeming qualities, but he's also got a host of annoying ones that sometimes I wonder if he's worth the trouble. And I've come from a long history of troubled half-relationships, so it's all the more shaky what I really think and what I think that I think.
I don't know if I'm capable of jealousy. I think I am, which is sad, but I'm okay with that. I don't know if I'm capable of being jealous of Lauretta. I can't muster the energy to do so, can't really say that I dislike her because, honestly, I don't. Not in the least bit. I don't know if I'm capable of being jealous because of Dino. I think that, in some aspects, prove that I'm not crazy over him, even if I'm slightly obsessed. I also realized one day that I wouldn't die or do everything in the world for him, which I would almost do for Argon (so I guess I didn't need to mention the whole Spanish thing after all), and I found that a bit unsettling.
I could say he doesn't really mean anything to me, but that would also be a lie. It's a lie I tell myself every time I watch him walk by in his usual strut, his hands on his backpack straps. It's a lie every time I make up an excuse to talk to him.
My eyes still follow him down the hall, even if I don't talk to him. I don't want to talk to him, and he doesn't want to talk to me, so we've agreed on that at least. I tell myself it's stupid, and it is, but I can't help myself. It's a bit of a dilemma, to say the least, but I've got an entire summer to figure it out.
Other news for other people who deserve tags so as not to linger in the small-font phase:
Julie has already left, and Tea is leaving... tomorrow? I still can't believe so many people are leaving this summer. I don't know how we will cope next year, when we all go off to college, but that is not very, very important right now because of Math Prize! Math competitions make me happy. Well, science competitions too, but there's too little of them that I can participate in.
Gretchen gets mentioned here because we most likely will be getting our permits together, although I don't know how my lack of SSN will work out, so uh, I'm really sorry, but is it possible to extend the day after Monday? I know Tuesday doesn't work, but does any other day?
Avon is also mentioned because she is staying, as is Cammie because she is Cammie, and tomorrow I will have an entire post (hopefully) filled with all the other people who are pitifully puny because I don't nearly talk of them enough.
Showing posts with label Avon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Avon. Show all posts
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Monday, May 31, 2010
McGill: Metropolitan; Middlebury: Many Dorms?
Remember in year 12905120348BC I once said that I would do almost anything (taking out huge student loans not included) to go to a school in the US, and not in Canada? Well, my parents and I went up to Montreal to visit McGill this weekend (after an hour-long wait in customs), and now I can sufficiently say I have changed my mind. I wouldn't mind going to McGill either, even if it's not very high on my list of priorities.
(The really cute red-haired guy with those dark green-blue eyes that reminded me of Brent Tarleton may have something to do with it. Maybe.)
Before this college-visit-and-all-around-trip thing, I'd been to Princeton (with Tea and Avon), Dartmouth, and Amherst. All three of them are pretty secluded schools, in small towns that are a good distance away from the nearest city. McGill—not so much the case. While it's not located in the heart of Montreal (which, judging from where a lot of the souvenir shops are located, would be in Old Montreal), it's pretty much downtown. A blown-up map of the downtown section has the campus at the edge, and when you look out the gates, you see tall skyscrapers, bustling streets, and lots of people.
Another thing that's different. McGill (like many, if not most, other Canadian schools) has a lot of students. While University of Toronto probably claims the most-populated-school title (to my knowledge, anyway), McGill has some 30,000 people, more or less. That's a lot of people, in a campus that is not particularly big. So the buildings, although not taking up a lot of space, are pretty high.
We were going to go to the Welcome Centre, where we could pick up self-guided tours, but the doors were locked. So I asked around a bit, and finally, whom I shall call Brent from now on told me that the bookstore might have some information, and he pointed us towards what we later found out was a library (the bookstore was behind the library). I got a map of the campus, and thus, we began our self-guided tour (because real tours won't start until June, and we're impatient).
On the right of the campus (if you look in from the front gates) are the science buildings—chemistry, physics, geoscience, environmental, and an anatomy/dentistry building. We mostly walked along there (skipping all the art/music/English buildings, because I only had five minutes to copy down which building was what, and so I skipped them). When we were walking away from the chemistry building, a couple of fire trucks came along, sirens blaring, and stopped in front of said building. We watched for a while, trying to figure out if a lab was on fire, but we couldn't figure anything out, so we went to the medical "wing." This was an oddly shaped (it resembles a drumstick) building, tucked behind the biology block, with mostly glass walls. Really pretty.
I don't think we ever figured out where the math department was, which was a pity. Our self-guided tour of McGill ended somewhere after the med/bio sector. The next day, we drove up Mont-Royal (much less exciting because I'd been there once before), then we wanted to go to the Jardin Botanique, but we couldn't stay for long, so we left for Williams, which was our next destination.
Since we wanted to see the islands between New York and Vermont, on our way to Williams we took Route 2 (and the ferry) across to Grand Isle, then onto the bridge and down Route 7 in Vermont, which leads straight to Williamstown. I got a map of Vermont on the island, and it was because of the map that we discovered that Middlebury was along the route as well, and so we made a detour there first.
(Somewhere here, we passed by this motorcycle parade filled with hundreds of motorcycles—and motorcyclists—whirring past us. It was really spectacular.)
Middlebury is probably the stark opposite of McGill. Whereas McGill was in the middle of a busy cosmopolitan city, with tall, modern buildings and the vibe of a city, Middlebury was calm, quiet, and sombre, with its grey stone buildings protruding from the ground in a neat pattern. We got a self-guide brochure from the admissions office, and followed along the route they told us to go.
The entire conversation of the tour basically went like this (all additional commentary are removed):
"Hey, what's this?"—"Dorms."—"Another dorm."—"Another dorm."—"Dining hall."—"Dorm."—"Dorm."—"That's a pretty building."—"It's another dorm."—"Oh! Science building!"—"What's that?"—"Another dorm."
(I can't type "dorm" now without thinking that it looks weird.)
We did find the academic buildings near the end of the tour (and we ended with the library, but it closed half an hour ago), and then we saw the athletic fields, including a small paddle-tennis court and a golf course. I thought the stone buildings were a bit drab, but they were very elegant, even if more than half of them were dorm buildings.
After Middlebury, we went (on track) to Williams. Compared to Middlebury, most of Williams' buildings are made of red brick, and instead of Middlebury's near-complete seclusion, the structure of the campus just flows into the town itself, with two major roads cutting through the middle of campus. It was somewhat difficult to navigate through campus and figure out what each building was supposed to be (we had a map, but it was not very informative), and after walking through two campuses, I was a bit tired. Nonetheless, I did like the small-town feel of Williams, even if it's not my favorite.
(We also saw two Memorial Day parades, and they were really fascinating to watch. I'm sad I missed our town's parade though. I got an email from Mrs. MacDonald asking for people to hold some banner of some sort? Does any of you know who did it?)
We went mountain-climbing as well, up Mt. Greylock, and up the tower on the summit. It was very fun, mostly because we rode the car up the mountain, as opposed to hiking up the side, so it was much less tiring on such a hot, sunny day. I also collected a lot of maps and brochures, which will be fun to read.
Which reminds me, I still have to read two acts of Othello for tomorrow. I was going to read it over the weekend, but as you can see, I was very distracted.
Also, my visited campuses ranking list thus far:
1. Princeton (what a surprise...)
2. Amherst
3. Middlebury
4. McGill
5. Williams
6. Dartmouth
(The really cute red-haired guy with those dark green-blue eyes that reminded me of Brent Tarleton may have something to do with it. Maybe.)
Before this college-visit-and-all-around-trip thing, I'd been to Princeton (with Tea and Avon), Dartmouth, and Amherst. All three of them are pretty secluded schools, in small towns that are a good distance away from the nearest city. McGill—not so much the case. While it's not located in the heart of Montreal (which, judging from where a lot of the souvenir shops are located, would be in Old Montreal), it's pretty much downtown. A blown-up map of the downtown section has the campus at the edge, and when you look out the gates, you see tall skyscrapers, bustling streets, and lots of people.
Another thing that's different. McGill (like many, if not most, other Canadian schools) has a lot of students. While University of Toronto probably claims the most-populated-school title (to my knowledge, anyway), McGill has some 30,000 people, more or less. That's a lot of people, in a campus that is not particularly big. So the buildings, although not taking up a lot of space, are pretty high.
We were going to go to the Welcome Centre, where we could pick up self-guided tours, but the doors were locked. So I asked around a bit, and finally, whom I shall call Brent from now on told me that the bookstore might have some information, and he pointed us towards what we later found out was a library (the bookstore was behind the library). I got a map of the campus, and thus, we began our self-guided tour (because real tours won't start until June, and we're impatient).
On the right of the campus (if you look in from the front gates) are the science buildings—chemistry, physics, geoscience, environmental, and an anatomy/dentistry building. We mostly walked along there (skipping all the art/music/English buildings, because I only had five minutes to copy down which building was what, and so I skipped them). When we were walking away from the chemistry building, a couple of fire trucks came along, sirens blaring, and stopped in front of said building. We watched for a while, trying to figure out if a lab was on fire, but we couldn't figure anything out, so we went to the medical "wing." This was an oddly shaped (it resembles a drumstick) building, tucked behind the biology block, with mostly glass walls. Really pretty.
I don't think we ever figured out where the math department was, which was a pity. Our self-guided tour of McGill ended somewhere after the med/bio sector. The next day, we drove up Mont-Royal (much less exciting because I'd been there once before), then we wanted to go to the Jardin Botanique, but we couldn't stay for long, so we left for Williams, which was our next destination.
Since we wanted to see the islands between New York and Vermont, on our way to Williams we took Route 2 (and the ferry) across to Grand Isle, then onto the bridge and down Route 7 in Vermont, which leads straight to Williamstown. I got a map of Vermont on the island, and it was because of the map that we discovered that Middlebury was along the route as well, and so we made a detour there first.
(Somewhere here, we passed by this motorcycle parade filled with hundreds of motorcycles—and motorcyclists—whirring past us. It was really spectacular.)
Middlebury is probably the stark opposite of McGill. Whereas McGill was in the middle of a busy cosmopolitan city, with tall, modern buildings and the vibe of a city, Middlebury was calm, quiet, and sombre, with its grey stone buildings protruding from the ground in a neat pattern. We got a self-guide brochure from the admissions office, and followed along the route they told us to go.
The entire conversation of the tour basically went like this (all additional commentary are removed):
"Hey, what's this?"—"Dorms."—"Another dorm."—"Another dorm."—"Dining hall."—"Dorm."—"Dorm."—"That's a pretty building."—"It's another dorm."—"Oh! Science building!"—"What's that?"—"Another dorm."
(I can't type "dorm" now without thinking that it looks weird.)
We did find the academic buildings near the end of the tour (and we ended with the library, but it closed half an hour ago), and then we saw the athletic fields, including a small paddle-tennis court and a golf course. I thought the stone buildings were a bit drab, but they were very elegant, even if more than half of them were dorm buildings.
After Middlebury, we went (on track) to Williams. Compared to Middlebury, most of Williams' buildings are made of red brick, and instead of Middlebury's near-complete seclusion, the structure of the campus just flows into the town itself, with two major roads cutting through the middle of campus. It was somewhat difficult to navigate through campus and figure out what each building was supposed to be (we had a map, but it was not very informative), and after walking through two campuses, I was a bit tired. Nonetheless, I did like the small-town feel of Williams, even if it's not my favorite.
(We also saw two Memorial Day parades, and they were really fascinating to watch. I'm sad I missed our town's parade though. I got an email from Mrs. MacDonald asking for people to hold some banner of some sort? Does any of you know who did it?)
We went mountain-climbing as well, up Mt. Greylock, and up the tower on the summit. It was very fun, mostly because we rode the car up the mountain, as opposed to hiking up the side, so it was much less tiring on such a hot, sunny day. I also collected a lot of maps and brochures, which will be fun to read.
Which reminds me, I still have to read two acts of Othello for tomorrow. I was going to read it over the weekend, but as you can see, I was very distracted.
Also, my visited campuses ranking list thus far:
1. Princeton (what a surprise...)
2. Amherst
3. Middlebury
4. McGill
5. Williams
6. Dartmouth
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Princeton: Just Another "Perfect"
Tea and Avon and I visited Princeton yesterday, as part of Tea's fourth (fifth?) college visit, and Avon's and my first. Tea's mom drove us, and on the way there, we were confused by the GPS directions, which stubbornly refused to comply with our wishes, so we spent quite some time on the road.
Nevertheless, we got there successfully (albeit after the info session had already started). Avon had brought a notebook with her ("This is going to be my college visit notebook from now on!"), and among some of the first things she had jotted down was "pretty town." This was absolutely true. Princeton (the town) was gorgeous to look at, especially since we visited in the spring and on a beautifully sunny day. The town wasn't too large, but there were plenty of small shops and parks.
We spent a while trying to find a parking lot, when Tea said, "Hey, look, a student!"
We all stared at the student, who looked fairly normal. "They're not aliens," Avon said. "Just normal people."
After our first spotted student, we saw several more who looked just as normal. They seemed really sociable as well, which was something Avon liked. We found our parking lot and rode the shuttle bus to Clio Hall, where the tour was supposed to start.
Inside Clio Hall, there were two floors (that we could see), one for graduate students, and one for undergrads. We went upstairs to the undergrad area, signed our names on the sheet, took a booklet that introduced the school, and sat down on the couches. The booklet gave us some basic information, such as academics, admissions, and room and board (including a very fancy flowchart to explain the junior/senior boarding/eating plans). Tea had also taken a diversity booklet, but there weren't any specific numbers or percentages, just general comments on how Princeton is a very, very diverse place.
Soon, a bunch of other people entered the room, so we figured that the info session that we had missed was over. We followed everyone downstairs, where our tour guides were already waiting. Thus began our tour of Princeton, which, judging from what we had seen already, was bound to be breath-taking.
Our tour guide was a freshman, planning to major in French, and believed walking backwards was a form of exercise (which, according to Crabtree, is much easier than jogging forwards, but I haven't experienced that myself), so she didn't talk much about the science departments (which was what we were most interested in, since all of us are science-oriented people) or the athletic facilities (not much of a loss here for us). However, she did mention lots of interesting bits about the history of the school, such as how the Yale architect carved his face into the chapel on campus or the numerous Woodrow Wilson residencies while he was at Princeton. She also did a splendid job pointing out the gardens and buildings, including the campus library, which is mostly underground and resembles an iceberg.
We finished the tour around noon, so we decided to eat at one of the dining areas on campus to see what the food was like. The cafeteria was pretty much similar to our school's cafeteria (except with a few more selections and bigger), but the main difference was portion size. People in Princeton must eat A LOT (is this proof that they're aliens in disguise after all?), because the meals we bought were humongous.
So, my opinion of the school overall?
It's in a pretty town (as Avon noted), decent size and not too isolated, and it's not too far north or too far south, so the location is nice. Buildings looks gorgeous (stone walls and copper roofs). Academics are definitely great, but there's also a lot to do around campus, and there are plenty of choices in general. I am not looking forward to the 80+ pages senior thesis (but I suppose it isn't that bad, if countless Princeton alums have survived it thus far), but I definitely wouldn't mind spending a lot of time in that library.
And, of course, the most important factor.
Can I get in?
Nevertheless, we got there successfully (albeit after the info session had already started). Avon had brought a notebook with her ("This is going to be my college visit notebook from now on!"), and among some of the first things she had jotted down was "pretty town." This was absolutely true. Princeton (the town) was gorgeous to look at, especially since we visited in the spring and on a beautifully sunny day. The town wasn't too large, but there were plenty of small shops and parks.
We spent a while trying to find a parking lot, when Tea said, "Hey, look, a student!"
We all stared at the student, who looked fairly normal. "They're not aliens," Avon said. "Just normal people."
After our first spotted student, we saw several more who looked just as normal. They seemed really sociable as well, which was something Avon liked. We found our parking lot and rode the shuttle bus to Clio Hall, where the tour was supposed to start.
Inside Clio Hall, there were two floors (that we could see), one for graduate students, and one for undergrads. We went upstairs to the undergrad area, signed our names on the sheet, took a booklet that introduced the school, and sat down on the couches. The booklet gave us some basic information, such as academics, admissions, and room and board (including a very fancy flowchart to explain the junior/senior boarding/eating plans). Tea had also taken a diversity booklet, but there weren't any specific numbers or percentages, just general comments on how Princeton is a very, very diverse place.
Soon, a bunch of other people entered the room, so we figured that the info session that we had missed was over. We followed everyone downstairs, where our tour guides were already waiting. Thus began our tour of Princeton, which, judging from what we had seen already, was bound to be breath-taking.
Our tour guide was a freshman, planning to major in French, and believed walking backwards was a form of exercise (which, according to Crabtree, is much easier than jogging forwards, but I haven't experienced that myself), so she didn't talk much about the science departments (which was what we were most interested in, since all of us are science-oriented people) or the athletic facilities (not much of a loss here for us). However, she did mention lots of interesting bits about the history of the school, such as how the Yale architect carved his face into the chapel on campus or the numerous Woodrow Wilson residencies while he was at Princeton. She also did a splendid job pointing out the gardens and buildings, including the campus library, which is mostly underground and resembles an iceberg.
We finished the tour around noon, so we decided to eat at one of the dining areas on campus to see what the food was like. The cafeteria was pretty much similar to our school's cafeteria (except with a few more selections and bigger), but the main difference was portion size. People in Princeton must eat A LOT (is this proof that they're aliens in disguise after all?), because the meals we bought were humongous.
So, my opinion of the school overall?
It's in a pretty town (as Avon noted), decent size and not too isolated, and it's not too far north or too far south, so the location is nice. Buildings looks gorgeous (stone walls and copper roofs). Academics are definitely great, but there's also a lot to do around campus, and there are plenty of choices in general. I am not looking forward to the 80+ pages senior thesis (but I suppose it isn't that bad, if countless Princeton alums have survived it thus far), but I definitely wouldn't mind spending a lot of time in that library.
And, of course, the most important factor.
Can I get in?
