Time to catch up
So I’ve been really horrible about this whole updating thing… Therefore, in order to satiate those who have been eagerly awaiting to hear about “my life as a grad student” I am going to give you the SUPERMASSIVELJPOSTOMG1!123.1415927 Here goes:
With the parentals I drove (read: my dad drove) ~1500 miles across the Western US to get to Montana. It was a loooong trip, not helped by the fact that I felt I needed to be studying for my proficiency exams and so never felt comfortable doing fun reading or watching the scenery. Ugh. Some thoughts I had while crossing the West:
Kansas:
Since the last time I drove across Kansas (about three years ago) the windy wide open spaces have been populated with wind-farms. Kansas has hills (…something not many people know…:-p) and the 200-foot-tall wind turbines dwarf these hills (hey, I never said Kansas hills were tall…) It’s really quite impressive to see. We also stopped to see the similarly impressive 24 x 30 ft Van Gogh Sunflowers replica in Goodland, KS, the sunflower capitol of the world, or the US, or something like that…
Colorado:
As you head across Eastern Colorado, you think for a while that you’re still in Western Kansas (the flat part of Kansas). There’s almost nothing out there. So after awhile your eyes start to linger on the western horizon, hoping that you’ll spot something to break the monotony. Eventually, if it’s the afternoon, you’ll start to see thunderclouds piling up on the horizon…and you start to think, “I bet those clouds are over the mountains!” You watch a little longer and suddenly you see a looming silhouette of haze that doesn’t match the shadows under the clouds. Huzzah! Mountains at last!
Now that’s all well and good these days in cars that zoom across the plains at 75 mph; cars that can lithely navigate the gentle curves of I-70 as it forges up to the Eisenhower Tunnel and into Summit Country. However, as the lumpy haze of Pike’s Peak solidifies and merges into a wall of mountains, many of them towering over 14,000 feet, I can’t help but imagine how pioneers coming out West and facing this barrier must have felt. I have a feeling it went something along the lines of, “Oh sh*t. We have to cross that?!!!?!?!”
We stayed in Estes Park at the YMCA of the Rockies where we’ve spent many a summer vacation. I have so many memories surrounding this place that the simple hollow clomping sound your shoes make on the steps up to the “parkitecture” registration hall bring back waves of nostalgia. Alas we did not stay in a cabin as in my childhood, but the lodge room we had was nice, even if the hallway did have a slight horror-movie-feel to it. (Very long hallway with equally spaced incandescent light-fixtures creating distinct sections of light and dark - I half expected to see a creepy child on a tricycle in it a la The Shining (that scene which coincidently was actually filmed in Estes Park).
Another note - Estes Park tap water is the best water I’ve ever tasted.
On our way out of town, we took the highway through the Big Thompson Canyon. There was a really serious flash flood that thundered through the canyon in the 1970s, just after my parents had driven through on their way to Estes Park. There used to be all these incredibly quaint cabins and motels and stores, very 1950s rustic. A lot of them were lost in the flood, but some survived, including the Glen Comfort Indian Jewelry Store. The outside isn’t much to look at - basically a ranch house by the river with a storefront added to the front. We’d stopped there for the first time three years ago and found it was a quite spectacular place inside. Most of the jewelry was waaaay out of our price range (we’re talking multiple thousands of dollars), but it was all gorgeous and all authentic. The two gentlemen who ran it were characters, both in their 80s and still going strong. One’s father had actually been in area quite early on; these were truly “old timers.” Well, this time we drove past, hoping to stop again and drool over the molded silver and meticulously-set stones, but it was closed. It was sad to realize that one (or both) of the owners must have died. In a place so young (especially compared with the East Coast - Estes Park truly began as a resort town in the relatively recent 1909) old timers like the jewelry store owners have been there almost since the beginning - and it’s rather melancholy that we’re losing that connection with the place’s inception.
Wyoming:
There was a whole lot of nothing in Wyoming.
Well, that’s not quite true - there were a lot of wide, sweeping vistas, a massive storm system that covered almost the entire state, “passive solar-powered restrooms” (just so long as it’s not a passive-aggressive solar-powered restroom), lots of road closure barriers (to close the interstate during the rather frequent blizzards), “sneet” (snow + sleet) on a hillside outside of Buffalo (it coated the road like soap - very slippery), and dark storm-clouds that seemed to emanate from a single peak reminiscent of Mordor’s cinematic treatment.
Inexplicably all the radio stations seemed to only play Simon and Garfunkel.
Montana:
When we entered the state we passed milepost 551 on I-90. This state is freakin’ huge (especially considering I-90 enters the state from the south before curving to become an east/west corridor again; it meets up with I-94 about a third of the way through the state). I did some quick navigator addition and calculated that the main east/west corridor of the state crosses some 700+ miles of Montana. Wow.
We saw prairie dogs just outside the Battle of the Little Bighorn National Historic Site (Custer’s Last Stand).
The type of mountains here are different from the Rockies in Colorado. In Colorado half the state is a smooth plateau inclining slightly up towards Denver and then the mountains rear up to form a seemingly impenetrable wall all the way to the south and all the way up north. In Montana, mountains seem to take the form of islands - there are sweeping grasslands…and then all of a sudden there’s a little oasis of massive, snow-capped peaks. One such detached mountain range was identified as the Crazy Mountains. Hmm.
And then we made it to Missoula, which I will describe in more detail shortly.
First, let me admit that I kind of love the city of Missoula. Sure, it’s not quaint and cute and ancient like Williamsburg is, but it has its own most excellent vibe - it feels like a college town first and foremost - something that Williamsburg hasn’t been since Rockefeller got CW up and running. There are funky and artsy shops, second-hand stores next to higher-end boutiques, a shop that sells teas (oh so many lovely teas) and spices by the ounce, and numerous coffee shops, not to mention several eateries. Also, bars and clubs actually exist here (not always a good thing, but it does mean that the place feels alive on a Friday night). The university draws enough bands and theatre that entertainment should be pretty lively. Plus, there are miles of trails within an hour’s drive of the city and there are many more if you make the 2.5 hour drive up to Glacier National Park.
The university is compact. It has some pretty buildings…and some atrocious 60s architecture - but it’s all right there at your fingertips. The library has old books on the shelves (that you can check out!) - I found one from 1806. It has a more library-like feel than the newness of Swem ever had, like you could truly just get lost amongst the books. The chem. building has recently been renovated - clean bench-tops, floors, hoods, great indirect overhead lighting, plus all the labs have ginormous windows letting in lots of natural light (and views of the mountains). After spending a year and a summer doing research in windowless dungeons of laboratories, this is a huge plus.
The bus system is good and people seem to use it a lot. The town seems to be eco-friendly - many of the buses run on bio-fuels, there are recycling bins everywhere, and the restaurants do a lot to buy local produce. Plus there’s an absolutely fantastic farmer’s market. Downtown, for the most part, has kept the chains out whilst not being reduced to a main street of empty storefronts. All your box chain stores are outside of town on Reserve St. The neighborhoods around the university are tree-lined and quaint, with only a few buildings clearly used as student slums.
My house is very nice and very new. The development is built in a cute style with a central green and alleyways to get to the garages. My room is cozy and under the eaves. My housemates are relatively friendly - if somewhat absent most of the time.
With the parentals I drove (read: my dad drove) ~1500 miles across the Western US to get to Montana. It was a loooong trip, not helped by the fact that I felt I needed to be studying for my proficiency exams and so never felt comfortable doing fun reading or watching the scenery. Ugh. Some thoughts I had while crossing the West:
Kansas:
Since the last time I drove across Kansas (about three years ago) the windy wide open spaces have been populated with wind-farms. Kansas has hills (…something not many people know…:-p) and the 200-foot-tall wind turbines dwarf these hills (hey, I never said Kansas hills were tall…) It’s really quite impressive to see. We also stopped to see the similarly impressive 24 x 30 ft Van Gogh Sunflowers replica in Goodland, KS, the sunflower capitol of the world, or the US, or something like that…
Colorado:
As you head across Eastern Colorado, you think for a while that you’re still in Western Kansas (the flat part of Kansas). There’s almost nothing out there. So after awhile your eyes start to linger on the western horizon, hoping that you’ll spot something to break the monotony. Eventually, if it’s the afternoon, you’ll start to see thunderclouds piling up on the horizon…and you start to think, “I bet those clouds are over the mountains!” You watch a little longer and suddenly you see a looming silhouette of haze that doesn’t match the shadows under the clouds. Huzzah! Mountains at last!
Now that’s all well and good these days in cars that zoom across the plains at 75 mph; cars that can lithely navigate the gentle curves of I-70 as it forges up to the Eisenhower Tunnel and into Summit Country. However, as the lumpy haze of Pike’s Peak solidifies and merges into a wall of mountains, many of them towering over 14,000 feet, I can’t help but imagine how pioneers coming out West and facing this barrier must have felt. I have a feeling it went something along the lines of, “Oh sh*t. We have to cross that?!!!?!?!”
We stayed in Estes Park at the YMCA of the Rockies where we’ve spent many a summer vacation. I have so many memories surrounding this place that the simple hollow clomping sound your shoes make on the steps up to the “parkitecture” registration hall bring back waves of nostalgia. Alas we did not stay in a cabin as in my childhood, but the lodge room we had was nice, even if the hallway did have a slight horror-movie-feel to it. (Very long hallway with equally spaced incandescent light-fixtures creating distinct sections of light and dark - I half expected to see a creepy child on a tricycle in it a la The Shining (that scene which coincidently was actually filmed in Estes Park).
Another note - Estes Park tap water is the best water I’ve ever tasted.
On our way out of town, we took the highway through the Big Thompson Canyon. There was a really serious flash flood that thundered through the canyon in the 1970s, just after my parents had driven through on their way to Estes Park. There used to be all these incredibly quaint cabins and motels and stores, very 1950s rustic. A lot of them were lost in the flood, but some survived, including the Glen Comfort Indian Jewelry Store. The outside isn’t much to look at - basically a ranch house by the river with a storefront added to the front. We’d stopped there for the first time three years ago and found it was a quite spectacular place inside. Most of the jewelry was waaaay out of our price range (we’re talking multiple thousands of dollars), but it was all gorgeous and all authentic. The two gentlemen who ran it were characters, both in their 80s and still going strong. One’s father had actually been in area quite early on; these were truly “old timers.” Well, this time we drove past, hoping to stop again and drool over the molded silver and meticulously-set stones, but it was closed. It was sad to realize that one (or both) of the owners must have died. In a place so young (especially compared with the East Coast - Estes Park truly began as a resort town in the relatively recent 1909) old timers like the jewelry store owners have been there almost since the beginning - and it’s rather melancholy that we’re losing that connection with the place’s inception.
Wyoming:
There was a whole lot of nothing in Wyoming.
Well, that’s not quite true - there were a lot of wide, sweeping vistas, a massive storm system that covered almost the entire state, “passive solar-powered restrooms” (just so long as it’s not a passive-aggressive solar-powered restroom), lots of road closure barriers (to close the interstate during the rather frequent blizzards), “sneet” (snow + sleet) on a hillside outside of Buffalo (it coated the road like soap - very slippery), and dark storm-clouds that seemed to emanate from a single peak reminiscent of Mordor’s cinematic treatment.
Inexplicably all the radio stations seemed to only play Simon and Garfunkel.
Montana:
When we entered the state we passed milepost 551 on I-90. This state is freakin’ huge (especially considering I-90 enters the state from the south before curving to become an east/west corridor again; it meets up with I-94 about a third of the way through the state). I did some quick navigator addition and calculated that the main east/west corridor of the state crosses some 700+ miles of Montana. Wow.
We saw prairie dogs just outside the Battle of the Little Bighorn National Historic Site (Custer’s Last Stand).
The type of mountains here are different from the Rockies in Colorado. In Colorado half the state is a smooth plateau inclining slightly up towards Denver and then the mountains rear up to form a seemingly impenetrable wall all the way to the south and all the way up north. In Montana, mountains seem to take the form of islands - there are sweeping grasslands…and then all of a sudden there’s a little oasis of massive, snow-capped peaks. One such detached mountain range was identified as the Crazy Mountains. Hmm.
And then we made it to Missoula, which I will describe in more detail shortly.
First, let me admit that I kind of love the city of Missoula. Sure, it’s not quaint and cute and ancient like Williamsburg is, but it has its own most excellent vibe - it feels like a college town first and foremost - something that Williamsburg hasn’t been since Rockefeller got CW up and running. There are funky and artsy shops, second-hand stores next to higher-end boutiques, a shop that sells teas (oh so many lovely teas) and spices by the ounce, and numerous coffee shops, not to mention several eateries. Also, bars and clubs actually exist here (not always a good thing, but it does mean that the place feels alive on a Friday night). The university draws enough bands and theatre that entertainment should be pretty lively. Plus, there are miles of trails within an hour’s drive of the city and there are many more if you make the 2.5 hour drive up to Glacier National Park.
The university is compact. It has some pretty buildings…and some atrocious 60s architecture - but it’s all right there at your fingertips. The library has old books on the shelves (that you can check out!) - I found one from 1806. It has a more library-like feel than the newness of Swem ever had, like you could truly just get lost amongst the books. The chem. building has recently been renovated - clean bench-tops, floors, hoods, great indirect overhead lighting, plus all the labs have ginormous windows letting in lots of natural light (and views of the mountains). After spending a year and a summer doing research in windowless dungeons of laboratories, this is a huge plus.
The bus system is good and people seem to use it a lot. The town seems to be eco-friendly - many of the buses run on bio-fuels, there are recycling bins everywhere, and the restaurants do a lot to buy local produce. Plus there’s an absolutely fantastic farmer’s market. Downtown, for the most part, has kept the chains out whilst not being reduced to a main street of empty storefronts. All your box chain stores are outside of town on Reserve St. The neighborhoods around the university are tree-lined and quaint, with only a few buildings clearly used as student slums.
My house is very nice and very new. The development is built in a cute style with a central green and alleyways to get to the garages. My room is cozy and under the eaves. My housemates are relatively friendly - if somewhat absent most of the time.