I'll start with the city itself. Insanityville doesn't look anything like it did in February. Tall verdant trees block away most of the lake coastlines, with cousins bursting out all over the city. It's summer here in every way. Hot, muggy weather persists in making me keep my dual ceiling fans on all the time--and window cracking is a must (at least for the windows without spiders trying to get in).

While I did work over at Mt. St. University, megolithic schizo giant it is, I was still surprised by how large and dynamic Mad Town seems. Every hour of the day there are students doing something: getting drunk, yelling obnoxiously, roving about in desperate party packs, and generally making asses of themselves. My apartment is surrounded by sororities, you see, so my perception might be a little colored.

Downtown itself does have some class to it. There's a college facsimile of a place in LA called 3rd Street, where a pedestrians-only road stretches for 5-7 blocks, boasting every restaurant and useless peddler's shop known to humanity. People bustle in isolated bunches just like New York. You almost always see people in pairs or larger groups, though, with the individual people quietly blending into the background. The ones that do stand out, though, are the occasional musicians and even more occasional bums, which are vital for the kind of place this is. Hell, my only friend in this city so far is a guy called Timmy that begs for beer money--not food, beer. He's a nice guy, what can I say?

The biggest drawback of this place--and I'd imagine any large university--is that finding interesting people is extremely difficult. I'd half-heartily tried the first week I was here, but I mainly ran into your average Wisconsinite beer drinking assholes, the obnoxious kind of greeks, and local college fare. There is this big thorough-fare section in-between stores that has the kind of people I tend to like more, but I need a good excuse to hang there--and I haven't found one yet. I figure when I situated some more I'll go there to read or something.

So far it's just the lack of any friends that's the biggest drawback to living here. I don't usually feel lonely, though, since all of my 'net friends are usually out and abooot.

All things considered, though, this place isn't half-bad. I've found some fantastic afghani and mediterranean places to eat, for one, and rediscovered that I am the hooked-on-crack bitch of red bratwurst; can't get enough of it. On top of that there are some nice quiet places to go around here, like over at the marina at night, out along the really far away piers. Kick-ass little forest bounding through campus as well; reminds me of the arboretum I went to in Oberlin. So does the monolithic university library ("The Tomb"), funny enough.

The part that's surprised me the most is the whole grad. student thing. I've only had my (moderately boring) stats. class so far, but it seems like I won't be as pressed-to-the-wall for time as I thought I'd been; of course I should kinda take the other reading-intensive course I have before saying that.

Yeah, I only have two "real" courses, stats and the study of the brain and emotion. Grad. students take alot less in the way of classes to focus on research. The research part is nothing to sneeze at: I gotta learn me the crap outta immunology and a field called behavioral genetics in the next two months. I want to write a mini grant for the National Institute of Health, you see, so that my ass can continue getting funding and I don't have to assistant teach classes for pennies.

More surprising still about the grad. school thing are the people. I'd gone to an 'old grad students meet new grad students' dinner thingy for the psych. program, with me expecting it to be a semi-formal mosh-pit of pretentious jackasses trying to one-up each other. Instead, most of the other grad students I met seem like genuinely nice and thoughtful people; there a few strutting wankers, but they amuse me. I was the most overdressed person there, sporting my heel-eating formal shoe wear, reasonable slacks and this very pale aquamarine long-sleeve. Since we were all sub-divided into three huge tables outside, I decided to mix around rather than sit in one place, with some others taking suit after me. I picked the brains of the older grad students on all the real questions, which basically amounts to something like: 'how much horseshit will I have to deal with here, in terms of people being egotistical children?"

Thankfully, none at all, it seems, not from the other grad. students and not from the faculty.

The faculty just impress the hell out of me, not so much for any leaps of brilliant insight as the way they treat us grad. students. Over at Mt. St. University, for example, I was taken for granted; so taken for granted that most of the undergrads thought I deserved much better. Over here at Mad Town University, though, I'm treated with respect, like I'm an equal. Hell, Dr. Crisco has to be one of the most understanding and thoughtful people I've ever come across. He's universally loved by his colleagues for his fairness and brilliance. This is a man who, if he asked me, I'd likely follow into Hell. I'm amazed I found him as an advisor, but I'm incredibly happy I did.

The other grad student of his, Sara, is looked on in a similar esteem by her colleagues. We haven't been able to meet and discuss grad. things (since she's my mentor), but she's been just as encouraging.

And The Lab we work at is well-oragnized--really well-organized. After having dealt with the no-budget horseshit of Dr. Zivago and having to buy all our shit through obscure catalogs, I found out that there are people at The Lab that do that. There's even dedicated personnel who do some of the immune testing over there.

I mean, it's not a shoe-string operation! It's an actual LAB! Where serious work can be done and people in-charge are competent! It's like night and day with Discordia/The Zivago lab. Not that running Dr. Ziv's lab was a waste, far from it, but it'll be nice not having to coordinate all the research and administrative stuff.

I'll get to the Crypt coffeehouse and some other places later. I want to go read some more immunology and maybe another stats chapter so I don't have to on Wednesday.

I'm actually excited about all of this. Doesn't feel like I'm in school and I don't really know anyone here, but I feel this sense of genuine, whole-hearted optimism.

I like it.

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