T minus two

[sen_no_ongaku]

Posted in the hall: "$35.00 charge for cleaning up bodily fluids in laundry room." Ah, dorm life.

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I considered simply staying up all night last night, but caved in at 2am. Awoke at 4am, taken to Logan at 5am by the very generous indeed thomascantor for a 7am flight, launching 10 hours of airplane travel -- all of which went quite smoothly. Picked up at the airport by a fellow who just got his Bachelor's here, making me feel a bit old. Seems like a good guy. Reminiscent of Edward Norton, only my height.

I'm here quite a bit early; orientation is on Wednesday morning, so I'm left to my own devices in the meantime. A couple of other composers are arriving today as well, but I haven't met them yet. Most will be coming in tomorrow.

The dorm in which I'm staying, Barnhart, is at the outermost corner of the UO campus. I'm on the top floor, in a room which is actually fairly nice as institutional housing goes. It's bright, clean, and the furniture makes the room feel very open, somehow...and includes a chair designed to be leaned back in. And I certainly wish I had my own bathroom at college. Also, there is an Ethernet port. I'm not sure whether this will be good or bad for me; I don't want to have the option not to be social. Either way, my roommate isn't arriving until tomorrow, so I have some leeway to laze about indecently and examine prurient material at my leisure.

After unpacking and settling in a bit, I took a walk around town -- sized it up, got a feel for what will be my daily walk to the Music Center, on the other side of campus. UO is reminiscent of U of Chicago in a very specific sense: a very lovely campus bordered by (in Eugene) fairly seedy suburban areas. As I mentioned, I'm on the edge of campus, and out of my window I can see the turnoff onto an interstate. Cheap motels abound, and I expect, if I were to examine them closely, that some would offer hourly rates.

I didn't feel up to eating in a dining hall for the first time in 7 years, so I opted for the safe option: a Quizno's sub on what as far as I can tell is UO's Spring Street (sorry, non-Williams folks), though I'm sure that's something of a misapprehension, as UO is much bigger than WC. However, Paul (who picked me up) tells me that Barnhart Dining Hall is the finest on campus. I shall find out soon enough whether that's a relative or absolute judgement.

Right now, it's bright daylight outside, but I'm exhausted. Feeling a bit isolated and adrift, having been the first to arrive and spent this first day here mostly by myself and exploring. I won't be able to sleep until the sun goes down, but I think I'm done with the world outside my room for today. The physical one, anyhow.

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On a sidenote, I find it interesting to note that, not unlike yaoobruni, I feel compelled to post "what-I'm-doing-this-very-moment" updates only when cut off from my support network.

Comments

[tenwaxmen.livejournal.com]

Ah conferencing. My MO is usually to try to find a group of local graduate students and suggest lunch or beer. Good graduate students will choose both.

I also like to join smoking circles at conferences. I don't smoke, but it's a good way to meet people.

Of course, once you've been to a few conferences, you'll start running into drinking buddies from previous conferences, and the whole thing snowballs.

[sen-no-ongaku.livejournal.com]

I like the implication that bad graduate students go both hungry and sober.