the return

typography — could be interesting. it’s only one term, so i don’t think it’ll kill me or my interest in letterforms. the supply list could be a pain in my spine.

history — any lady who loves history and rides a motorcycle to work must be pretty cool. the rest of class had a serious freshman/high school vibe, except the balding guy who’s self introduction was my name is x and my passion is jesus christ.

japanese — repeat of the high school vibe. i don’t know if it was the shitty tiny desk/chair hybrids(the ones with half a goddamn desktop…) or the feeling of animosity towards the start of the class. that class and history just felt awkward and unfomfortable. i imagine once we get past the first term and weed out the undedicated it will improve, same as my french classes got more and more enjoyable the longer i was in them and the better i got to know my long-time peers.

of course, this presumes that i make it past the first term. then again, there’s no final, so if i can keep up with the lesson plan i should be allright. just have to remember i’m doing this for purpose.

yoga — i seriously did not expect(although i probably should have) to be one of four guys in with probably 40 girls. shit. they also didn’t seem too happy with me, but i think that might just be generalized unhappiness with life and not ‘why is that guy here’… again, wait and see. could be really good, could be fucking awful.

bookstore — ouch. not so bad though. i had a break because all my classes got out early so i hit the bookstore between typography and history, found my books, waited in line for half an hour, and lugged them around the rest of the day. at least i can (hopefully) leave the two heavy-ass ones at home and just bring the light ones.

once i get all my art supplies and need to carry them around i’ll need to either switch to a big backpack for everything, or just get a second satchel for the excess, divide the weight between the two shoulders. if i had a car, i’d be set, but oh well. even if i could drive, i doubt i could afford the tiny tiny car in wired this month, or that i’d feel safe driving it around. or be able to find a parking spot.

so again, what i really want is for sylvania to be in downtown. i like sylvania’s campus alot actually, just not being way too far to walk. psu i could walk to if i wanted, or walk to lloyd center, take the max downtown, and walk up broadway/the park blocks from pioneer square.

of course, i could transfer to psu in a couple years if i wanted to.

and sylvania is largely very nice. it’s fairly big, but not so big that there’s thousands of people around. most of the buildings have big walkways around the second floor as well as the first, so there’s plenty of quiet spots even during busy times. and since i get there at 11 and hang around until 8pm, by the last couple classes the place has quieted down quite a bit. i got out of yoga early and was able to pop across the way and up on the second floor walkway on the campus center, which has a fantastic view out over(whatever is out southwest of there) and some amazing sunsets.

the campus is just good looking. it has architechture i like, both modern window-heavy design and 70’s concrete/window mixtures. lots of classrooms have outside door access straight onto the walkways, which is very cool. you really get to walk around campus to get between classes.

psu, there’s some nice naturey areas, but none of the park blocks is really covered over. the walkways on the first levels as sylvania are covered by the upper ones, and the uppers ones are shaded by overhangs. so both get shade, and both will be dryish when the rains come.

psu had no shade and no protection from the rain. so while they also had more indoor space, you really spent alot of time in hallways. i always wished while i was there that they had more of the concrete skybridges going around campus, providing both an elevated route and some shade/rain protection across the park blocks.

sylvania is like that everywhere. most of the second level walkways have connecting bits, so you can almost circuit the campus without going downstairs. the campus isn’t exactly tiny, but it’s compact, and the walkways are offcenter to each other, so it doesn’t feel like a street.

essentially, i really really like the design of the campus, with the exception of it being so far away from anything. you’d need an hour and a half to get into downtown and back on the bus to get lunch, that doesn’t quite compare to psu being on the bus mall.

still, i like the campus. how it holds up in the rain will be interesting to see. depending on wind conditions, it could just be wet concrete everywhere, with no inside space to escape into, and thus miserable and cold EVERYWHERE except in the classroom.

just like psu, only without as much hallspace for students to hide in.

so i can’t give a solid good or bad assessment to my first day back. some parts were good, some weren’t so good, some worry me, some give me hope. wait and see. it’s only one term, three months. if i can tough this out, go for six. if six is okay, go for nine. at that point, i’ll have a year of japanese and a year of history, plus some electives. i can plot whether to try for a degree in general studies or just keep on with japanese and whatever else fits. or switch languages, add a second language(probably russian), take up computer science or architechture, or god only knows.

one kickass thing; i ran into my buddy matt from KB! i last saw him before i left for alaska; he wasn’t working at KB when i got back and i never got around to looking him up. surprise surprise, if i was a morning person and had flipped my schedule around, i could have ended up in history and japanese with him.

apparently he and his wife took the viewpoint dad suggested about college, which is that essentially, it’s a place that the real world can’t affect you for four years. the economy sucks, but you only need enough income to cover the difference in your loans. it’s great.

actually, he put it as ’somewhere that george bush can’t touch me for four years’ but you get the idea.