(no subject)

This is going to have to be quick, because it's midnight and we need to be on the road by eight tomorrow.

After I posted Monday night, at two AM, we were awoken by a fire alarm that went off for no apparent reason. It was deafening and very unpleasant, and we had to wait until the firemen had searched the building thoroughly before we could go back to bed.

Tuesday I visited Brown. I was told that I would love it by several people, so I guess I had high hopes, but it still seemed pretty meh. My tour guide was a frat boy, which might have had something to do with my disappointment- he went into enthusiastic detail about how integrated the fraternities and sororities are with college life, and that's really not what I'm looking for. Plus, they made a big deal of this satisfactory/no credit thing, which doesn't sound like my cup of tea either.

Tuesday afternoon, we took the ferry back to Long Island and I spent the evening hanging out with Leah, Blair, and Blair's boyfriend Mike. We made a fire and toasted random things (not, sadly, including non-gelatinous marshmallows), then Mike left, Blair went to sleep, and Leah and I watched the second half of the third season of Scrubs.

Yesterday Blair and I took the train into the city to see Spamalot, which was excellent and hilarious. If you get a chance to see it, try to nab seat B101. We went to the giant Toys R Us and rode on the Ferris wheel, then met up with Aunt Amanda, Ken, Blair's parents, my friend Rose (otherwise_nyc), and Rose's husband Francis for dinner.

Today I visited Columbia with Rose and En (ennienyc). En told us all about how Columbia and Barnard have changed since she was there, as well as several slightly disturbing stories of stalking boys from her dorm room. On the tour, I ran into Sky King's daughter, which was completely unexpected. Sky is one of the juggling people Mom knows, and I met her daughter (Krista, I think is her name?) in Portland at IJA this summer. She couldn't stay to chat, but seeing her at all was kind of surreal.

Rose took me to visit her boyfriend Jon, who is definitely quite a catch. He told me about going to Vassar. Then Rose and I went to Chainsaw's house for a very pleasant evening of games and socializing. Telephone Pictionary was fun, and watching En attempt to clue "leather pants" in an odd version of charades was extremely entertaining.

I got on the wrong train to get home (silly me, thinking that a train arriving at 10:59 might be the 11:03 train) but managed to get back here eventually. Tomorrow I'm visiting Sarah Lawrence, Vassar, and Bard. Turns out I will be here for the Haystack on Saturday, but of course all the teams are filled up by now. I hope I can make the dinner.

Oh, and I don't believe that crap about New Yorkers being cold-hearted and cutthroat. When I got on the wrong train, four people plus the conductor made sure I got to where I needed to be.

Final colleges of the trip

Aunt Amanda and I took off bright and early to get to Sarah Lawrence for the ten o'clock tour. Our tour guide was a bit over the top, but I really liked the college. They don't do tests, and instead of finals, you have to write a 15-20-page paper for each class. Also, we were warned that standardized test scores are disregarded entirely in the admissions process. Not that my scores are bad, but I like that attitude. The college in general reminded me quite a bit of Reed.

We had to leave the tour a few minutes early to get to Vassar. I didn't get to spend nearly as long as I would have liked to spend there, and we only went to an info session, not a tour. It was enough to give me the sense that I would like the school, but not enough that I could write a "Why Vassar" essay or anything. And their financial aid doesn't look good.

Then came Bard. Holy crap. I admit that after a few tours, colleges start to seem a bit alike, but not Bard. The most unique thing about it is the Learning and Thinking workshop, which is two weeks before the beginning of official classes that the freshmen spend reading, writing, getting to know each other, and getting used to campus life before being dumped into the semester. It was going on while we were there, and the students all looked happy. There were a lot of other things I liked about it, too, not least of which was the flexibility shown by the admissions representative (as opposed to Columbia, where they practically threatened to throw my application in the trash if I include any kind of supplemental information whatsoever).

After the tour, we ate dinner at the Roasted Garlic Restaurant. The food was awesome, and I talked to a Bard sophomore who gave me his e-mail address. Then we drove all the way back to Long Island, where I discovered that Drew (the dog) had gotten into the chocolate I bought on Wednesday. Most of it was white chocolate, so he shouldn't get too sick, but I'm annoyed with myself for leaving it where he could get it. It was good stuff.

All three campuses were absolutely breathtaking. I never knew that New York was so beautiful.