Princeton
August 23, 2006
Today…
It’s pretty easy to get past airport security. All you need is carry-on luggage w/ zippers that are in odd places and the zippers are hidden. Take, for instance, my backpack, which has a zipper hidden in the front. I made sure to throw away all of the water bottles we had in our baggage before going to Philly, but I forgot to throw away the one in there. Because of this, my backpack was searched after I put it through that baggage check machine (what the hell are those things called, anyway?) but the guy didn’t find the water bottle. I discovered it in the hotel… freaky.
1) So I woke up in Philly, took hotel van to get a rental car
2) took car to NJ to see Princeton
a. Princeton city
i. Beautiful place! Not where I’d want to go because it’s kinda in the middle of nowhere. Lovely town though. Lots of trees, greenery… mom said it was heaven for her. She’d want to retire in Princeton. She saw the Princeton campus and said “I’d be happy being a janitor here”
b. tour guide
i. he did a decent job- he covered his bases, put in anecdotes here and there, made us laugh every now and then… though it seemed like he was trying to show off his school more than show how much he loved it. I really didn’t get the sense that he *loved* his school. The enthusiasm wasn’t there- his presentation skills were fine… and he didn’t bore me. I guess that’s good.
c. Architecture
d. Huge buildings… *great* architecture, lots of ivy… gorgeous campus overall. Lots of little architectural details, which I L-O-V-E. gargoyles make me super duper happy. Princeton had MONKEY gargoyles! Ahahhaa. The had this gargoyle of a monkey with a camera. Brilliant.
e. the admissions guy
f. ok so I didn’t like the admissions guy or the admissions room for the matter. The room screamed… well… ‘WE’RE RICH!’ with the leather seats and this HUGE hall with GIGANTIC paintings of past Princeton presidents or important people or whatever. And the guy really dissociated himself from his audience- he was up on his pedestal, doing his thing… he didn’t talk *down* to people. He’s a nice guy, totally. It’s just that the large, imposing room with the luxurious furnishings and us feeling like we’re in a lecture hall… it just didn’t feel *warm*. It felt blah and purely informational. However, I think Ann is super duper lucky- Princeton is one of those few colleges where the majority is undergraduates and the concentration is on the undergraduates and it’s an *amazing* place to study. It just doesn’t fit me. Lol. I did get to visit it, though! And I’m very jealous- I hear the dorms are phenomenal. Not to mention everything else.
g. financial aid
i. um… so dad talked to them about his heart problems and wanting to retire and stuff and they said something about how they’d take that into consideration- well of course they can since they have so much grant money to give away… but anyway, I doubt I’ll apply to Princeton.
3) took car to Culpeper
a. nothing happened on the way. We got there really late and crashed.
4) went to hotel
a. I pissed off at Dad for being a nagging complainer about all aspects of life, as always.