Homecoming, part the second
Aargh! Too much work. Never got back to blogging what we did in October.
After we were done at UMass, we headed back over to Northampton, because that was where Elora knew places to eat dinner. I was a little surprised at Northampton, I have to say...I've seen a few college towns, but Northampton was a bit more built-up than I expected. I was sort of expecting a quaint New England town, but the area around the restaurant, anyway, was somewhat urban. The restaurant was called Fitzwilly's, and Elora said that she and her friends used to go there from time to time, not often, though. She specifically said she went there after finishing her undergraduate thesis, which is certainly something that deserves celebrating. I honestly don't remember what I ate, but I know I had soup, because just wanted something warm after getting well chilled at the game.
After that, Elora wanted to share with Sparky one of her favorite indulgences from college, something called the "mudslide," which is evidently an Oreo-cookie milkshake. I'm not sure where she used to get them before, but we visited a new-looking Student Center, which was very modern-looking with all the curved steel railings and glass and such. I didn't have one myself, but Elora and Sparky said they were quite good.
The next morning, we took some time to look around Smith before hitting the road for home. As we learned at PSU a few years ago, Sunday morning really isn't the best time to tour a college, because nothing's open and nobody's around. Although it is small, Smith definitely looks more like what I expect of a college...nice green space in the middle surrounded by ivy-covered buildings, big old library, more modern-looking science buildings on the outskirts. We couldn't get into the computer science building, which is probably to be expected, although we did look around one engineering building, and didn't see anything but classrooms. Oh, and mauve-colored stairwell, which was evidently a thing back when Elora was there.
We also went to the music building, where Elora used to practice, since she was still in a bit of a band-ish mood from the previous day. I think Sparky found that marginally more interesting, in the sense that he wasn't completely bored. Near the music building, there's a very pretty lake with a nice waterfall -- I think more college campuses should have waterfalls; there's a nice ambiance to it. We walked around the athletic fields near the lake too, which seem to have been upgraded some since Elora was there; it looked like a very nice place to go running or play intramurals or something.
The last stop was the library, because Elora wanted to show Sparky the copy of her undergraduate thesis, plus that meant playing with the library's computers. Turns out that Elora's thesis was in the engineering library, so we had to troop back over there, but it's a very nice building, with high ceilings and lots of ambient light, which I like in a library. We eventually found the thesis, and several of her friends' theses as well, which is always a nice boost to the ego. I certainly looked for mine, when I went back to PSU.
And that's about all there was to it. Smith did very nicely fulfill the image of "small New England college on a gorgeous fall day," so I'm happy with that. I was also somewhat pleased that of the various students we saw wandering around (not early, but as we prepared to leave), very few of them were on cell phones. A few years ago, when I took some classes at the local state college, I noticed that almost all the students were on their phones as they walked between classes, so it's nice to see that not everybody does that.
So that was the Massachusetts trip, but that was only part of a rather hectic week in October.
After we were done at UMass, we headed back over to Northampton, because that was where Elora knew places to eat dinner. I was a little surprised at Northampton, I have to say...I've seen a few college towns, but Northampton was a bit more built-up than I expected. I was sort of expecting a quaint New England town, but the area around the restaurant, anyway, was somewhat urban. The restaurant was called Fitzwilly's, and Elora said that she and her friends used to go there from time to time, not often, though. She specifically said she went there after finishing her undergraduate thesis, which is certainly something that deserves celebrating. I honestly don't remember what I ate, but I know I had soup, because just wanted something warm after getting well chilled at the game.
After that, Elora wanted to share with Sparky one of her favorite indulgences from college, something called the "mudslide," which is evidently an Oreo-cookie milkshake. I'm not sure where she used to get them before, but we visited a new-looking Student Center, which was very modern-looking with all the curved steel railings and glass and such. I didn't have one myself, but Elora and Sparky said they were quite good.
The next morning, we took some time to look around Smith before hitting the road for home. As we learned at PSU a few years ago, Sunday morning really isn't the best time to tour a college, because nothing's open and nobody's around. Although it is small, Smith definitely looks more like what I expect of a college...nice green space in the middle surrounded by ivy-covered buildings, big old library, more modern-looking science buildings on the outskirts. We couldn't get into the computer science building, which is probably to be expected, although we did look around one engineering building, and didn't see anything but classrooms. Oh, and mauve-colored stairwell, which was evidently a thing back when Elora was there.
We also went to the music building, where Elora used to practice, since she was still in a bit of a band-ish mood from the previous day. I think Sparky found that marginally more interesting, in the sense that he wasn't completely bored. Near the music building, there's a very pretty lake with a nice waterfall -- I think more college campuses should have waterfalls; there's a nice ambiance to it. We walked around the athletic fields near the lake too, which seem to have been upgraded some since Elora was there; it looked like a very nice place to go running or play intramurals or something.
The last stop was the library, because Elora wanted to show Sparky the copy of her undergraduate thesis, plus that meant playing with the library's computers. Turns out that Elora's thesis was in the engineering library, so we had to troop back over there, but it's a very nice building, with high ceilings and lots of ambient light, which I like in a library. We eventually found the thesis, and several of her friends' theses as well, which is always a nice boost to the ego. I certainly looked for mine, when I went back to PSU.
And that's about all there was to it. Smith did very nicely fulfill the image of "small New England college on a gorgeous fall day," so I'm happy with that. I was also somewhat pleased that of the various students we saw wandering around (not early, but as we prepared to leave), very few of them were on cell phones. A few years ago, when I took some classes at the local state college, I noticed that almost all the students were on their phones as they walked between classes, so it's nice to see that not everybody does that.
So that was the Massachusetts trip, but that was only part of a rather hectic week in October.