The 'CUSE!

For the record...

I recently took a trip back up to Syracuse to take care of some business and see people before they vacate the premises for the summer months. This was probably the weirdest part of being home so far: going to the place where I was supposed to be all semester instead of galavanting in London. I remember back in December, treading through slush on the quad to get to class at 9 a.m., and questiioning my decision to go abroad. Then, I was sleeping on a friends' couch in Queens the night before boarding the plane at JFK, overtaken by fear of the unknown and regretting my decision. In retrospect, if I would have given up on my abroad semester to spend another miserably cold and windy winter in Syracuse, I may have become self-destructive enough to venture into Thornden Park after dark. That being said though, it isn't so bad and it was nice to be back.

I headed out for the train station in Springfield, Mass. last Tuesday, where I had planned to take one of two trains to get out to the 'Cuse. After Dad and I navigated through the slums of Springfield, and watched a pregnant woman bum a cigarette off some guy, we ended up at the train station, the lobby of which smelled more like a public restroom. I got my tickets and was told that the bus would be out front of the station in 10 minutes. I had no idea it would be a bus, seeing as it was Amtrak, but whatever. So the bus pulled up and everyone who was already on it, got off to chain smoke for half an hour before we left. (None of these people appeared to be pregnant, however.) We finally got underway and my question of, how can it take 3 hours to get to Albany from Springfield when it should only take 1? was answered. We headed over to the Mass Pike, where we eventually stopped at a rest stop to pick up a busload of people whose Amtrak bus had broken down.

They all got on, and my roomy double seat immediately vanished. A huge Texan man sat in front of me, who apparently knew everything about everything. He was spewing out facts about everything from politics to peanuts. Unfortunately for me, I was really into my book, but everyone around the guy was riveted by what he had to say, and kept on encouraging him with questions. I eventually had to succumb to the iPod to attempt to drown them out. After what felt like another 5 hours, we stopped in Pittsfield, Mass. (At this point I was appalled that we were still in Massachusetts, as it felt as though we must be to South Dakota by that point.) No one even got off the bus at the stop--I could have sworn it was just so everyone but me could get off and have a cigarette. That was a busload of characters, that is absolutely for sure. So we FINALLY got to the Albany train station, a place I have become well-acquainted with in the past few years. I grabbed a coffee and settled in to read one of my stack of Vogues during the 2-hour layover. Then I got on a train (it actually was a train this time) for the second leg of the trip.

When I finally got to Syracuse, right on time the Doddster was there to pick me up. There were flowers, candles, sushi and sour Jelly Bellies for dinner...following right on the tail of the red roses, champagne and teddy bear for Valentine's Day when I was in London. Over the next 3 days, we watched the second season of The Office in its entirety, took a long walk to the park, on campus and to look at our apartments for next year and I met the parents. (Now comes the opposite parents meeting in 2 weeks for the Vermont summer kick-off Memorial Day weekend extravaganza, where Katie's boyfriend will be gracing us with his presence for a few days as well.) If spending a few days amongst Vermonters, particularly Dad, isn't enough to drive someone away, not much is.

In addition, I met with my favorite professor to talk about next semester and the summer internship prospects, and spent the next few hours running around talking to people while they packed up their offices and getting signatures to take the summer internship for credit. Then of course, there was some quality Gwen and Janis time and a trip to bubble tea. It was good to be back there for a few days. And when it was time to get back home on Friday, the train from Syracuse was over an hour late, as usual. But that's another story. More later.