I should probably tell you a little about grad school...

I haven't posted since the move to Binghamton, so I guess now is as good a time as any.

In short, things are going fairly well. I had a move down to the apartment that was a little stressful because the directions that Mom got were bad and I ended up calling Evan to find out where the hell I was/was supposed to be going. When we got to the apartment, they actually put me in the wrong room at first, which was actually SMALLER (if that's possible!) than my Babbit single. Despite these trials, I was finally moved in to the correct apartment with my own bathroom and three very nice roommates. Kay-Ann was the first one I met - a senior biological anthropology major originally from Jamaica who now resides in Florida. Amy, the other senior in the 4-bed 4-bath, is a major I can't remember and she's from I don't know where, but she seems like a really effective person so I like her despite how little I can manage to remember. Kenya, who moved in unexpectadly (we didn't know we had a fourth until she moved in) is from Staten Island and her mom (Beverly) is very funny. She's a transfer student, a sophomore, and a foreign languages major. They will all be good roommates, I think.

I spent the first week doing the orientation activities - I took the placement exams, of which the history was real hard and the theory was REAL easy; I went to the orientation picnic at Bruce Borton's house, at which I realized that Steve Brooks (who went to my high school) is in my program as a double bassist and I met Thomek and Jenean and Sun-jin (who arrived from Korea the Friday before orientation week and whose English proficiency increases geometrically by the day because it needs to). I probably met some other people but, you know, I didn't care too much then for reasons that will become clear shortly. We had a luncheon the next day as well, when we found out what's what and finally got a handbook laying out our requirements for us.

These are the classes I'm taking this semester:
English Diction (M/W 9:40-10:40)
Music History and Research 1 (M/W 4:40-6:05)
Vocal Literature/Repertoire (T 11:40-1:05)
Piano lessons (T 3:30-4:15)
Voice lessons (time as yet to be revealed)
Vocal studio class (W 3:30-4:30)
Piano studio class (R 7:30-8:30)

If my hopes are fulfilled, I will not have class on Friday and will thus have my weekends open for visiting friends in other places.

Now, to describe the locale which is Binghamton. The Binghamton area is described as the tri-cities area because in addition to Binghamton proper it is composed of three "cities": Vestal, Johnson City, and Endicott. I live in Vestal, which is the nicer suburb-like area. I live in an apartment complex that surrounds a Consumer Square-esque shopping area with foods and other things. Downtown Binghamton is like Utica. Exactly. Period. The university is about five minutes down the street from where I live, along a strip containing every chain store and restaurant you can possibly think of. Anything I need is within ten minutes of where I live. Going to the store and seeing the locals here is again, exactly like Utica, if you take all the Utica trash and replace them with low-income farmers and their families. Also, I'm pretty sure every young wife in Binghamton is pregnant. Every time I go into a store there's a pregnant woman shopping there (of course, I haven't gone to the abortion store yet...) and also Wal-Mart has special parking for pregnant women.

As to the people at the university, my judgment is this: the professors = great, the students (in general) = not worth a whole lot. Let me clarify. I find the professors I've met to be professional, intelligent, accomodating, genuinely nice people who want to help us learn things and who aren't about to waste our time. I am appreciative of this. I feel the same way about the office staff: the ladies have been nothing but sweet and friendly. This will be a great place to try to improve myself because it feels safe and I will actually get the help I need! Awesome! As for the students, the graduate program for the most part contains people I like a lot, particularly Jenean (VP like me), Steph (percussion), Steve (double bass), Thomek (composition), Abigail (VP), Jess (VP) and more recently Danielle (piano). I also like Emily (history) but I don't see her very much, and when I do all I can do is admire her hair, which changes frequently. Jim Roberts (English grad student), of Whitesboro fame, lives a couple of buildings over from me and I was fortunate enough to run into him in the common space and have him join me for tea and conversation in my kitchen - much fun!

As for the rest of the people I see around campus...the best way I can describe them is that there's no light in their eyes! I'm sure you're familiar with the sense you get about ingelligent and/or effective people. There's a kind of look they have, something about their eyes, that lets you know there's thinking going on. The gleam peers out at the world and says "I understand and can react to you, and not just stumble through you by way of habit or learned custom." At Hamilton, because of the ridiculous competition for entry, one found this look everywhere. Intelligence, even it if was used improperly or divorced from its most effective social behavior. At Binghamton, depressing though it may seem, many eyes I see are blank, especially in the undergrads. They came to Binghamton because they're supposed to go to college and because their parents (or they) won't pay for private school, or they couldn't get in. It is depressing. Also, the party school reputation of the SUNYs is quite at home in BingU. Drinking, smoking, every night...and not the work hard/play hard Hamilton sense, in the "I won't go to class tomorrow or ever because life is one big party" sense. It is vaguely depressing. Thankfully my roommates do not subscribe to this kind of philosophy, or at least not in the apartment (which I appreciate!).

The facilities at Binghamton mark it as a state school in a way that nothing else I say can. The pianos are old - they're the kind of pianos we would try to avoid having to play at Hamtech - and they're not grands, either. The practice rooms open to everyone contain uprights that are terrible and terribly abused. The practice rooms under lock and key for vocal students contain less crappy uprights, and the practice rooms under lock and key for piano students contain semi-crappy grands. I scored a key to the piano rooms, and I haven't yet played a piano that doesn't have sticky keys. It is frustrating to have a department that's exemplary in every way except for the facilities needed to keep it running. Argh.

All in all, the people I like I see most during the week, because a lot of them aren't around on weekends. This leaves me free to travel and maintain the friendships I have with my Hamtechies and my home peoples. I also can't help but feel like Binghamton is just a 2-year stop on my way to somewhere else, and that making good friends almost isn't worth it for the short time that I'm here. Of course, if I'd had that attitude for my last two years at Hamilton, I wouldn't be friends with Evan, Julia, Annie, or Hayley now. It's a tough transition, though easier than I thought it would be. I'm closer to home (and therefore also to Hamilton) than Boston, and it is nice to come through and see my family. I like that a lot.

The Bing is the place where I will be for awhile, minus the weekends which are mostly travel time. Watch out guys - I'm building a life I like!