Skipping Ahead

So it's my second day on campus, in class, etc. etc. I must admit that CUA has a beautiful campus. There isn't a particularly unified architectural style on campus, but there's certainly no Science Complex/Clapp Building (probably b/c they haven't gotten anyone from MSUB to design a building for them)
There are buildings on this campus that are just as old as Main Hall and others, such as their University Center, which i'm currently seated in, that are pretty brand-spanking-new. Some buildings have an extremely Gothic revival sort of twist, while others are pretty modern looking. It's definitely brings an interesting dynamic to the overall campus. I think my favorite building so far i haven't even been in yet. It's the architectural studies building. I may like it because it reminds me of an art building, and when you walk past in the evening when it's quieter on campus you can smell sawdust and see students at work.
There's also a Basilica on campus. It sort of dominates the campus skyline... if you can really consider it having such a thing. It's the first thing you can see of campus two stops before you actually reach the Brookland stop. I didn't take the opportunity to go inside of it yesterday to snap pictures, but the interior of the building is quite impressive and decadently decorated with mozaic tiling. There's so much gold and azure in there, I can't even come up with an accurate way to describe how dizzying and overwhelmingly gaudy it feels. That was my impression of it a few years ago at least. I'm obviously going to have to check it out again and see if i feel any differently about it.
(alright, just stole a picture from someone else on Flickr, if you want to see it: http://bit.ly/upY2h it's an HDR, so take the colors with a grain of salt, that style of photography tends to over-emphasize colors and make things appear a little surreal)
I haven't really spent much time exploring campus just yet, but hopefully i'll collect some more images to share in the near future. I'm feeling a little shutter-shy because i haven't really eased into campus life yet. Don't feel quite at home just yet, but i hope that will come with time... or i'll just obnoxiously behave like a tourist and take pictures anyway.
To touch on my program briefly, I've had the craziest roller-coaster ride with what is going on over the past week and a half, and that in itself has been exhausting.
The Irish Studies Program was established shortly after the institution itself was established. We're talking a 100 year old program, established by the Ancient Order of Hibernians, although at that time it was established as a Celtic Studies program, idealizing early christian Ireland and the folklore of that time. 15-20 years ago the program was given an endowment from an elderly lady (who my professor, Dr. Coilin Owens) said was slightly crazy, and has been receiving funds from that estate since. Over the summer, the two major players in the program, Dr. Christina Mahony and Dr. Bob Mahony, went their separate ways and left the program in ruins. As my current adviser puts it, this is the last year any new students will be starting the program, and as far as i can tell those students consist of me.
It's quite bizarre to me to go from a budding program at UM, that has people pushing for it to survive and grow, to a program that has been established for such a long time but has been left to fall apart. I thought i was getting tired of the same courses and things being offered at UM, only to go to a school where they really aren't offering anything at all.
My plan at this point is to do 15 credits here over this year (two courses this semester and 3 next) then to do the internship and study-abroad in Dublin in the Fall. I have a meeting with my adviser today at 2:30, and am hoping that together, we can make some kind of game-plan in that regard.

I keep forgetting what a great experience getting to live in the DC area really is at this point. I have been so focused on trying to figure out what's going on with school and this program that i haven't been able to soak it in. I'm going to take the opportunity this weekend to tour around some places a little in DC. Or at least that is my hope. I would love to get out of the city and get away from everything, but don't know if that's going to be such a wise plan right now. Maybe in October i'll have an opportunity to go out and take in some more rural surroundings. I'm really looking forward to seeing the fall set in on the Appalachians. you can count on some more photos then.
I do have other photos to share from the past few days, Metro images, DC images, but i'll go back in time, posting them this weekend, then flash forward to include images i plan to take this weekend.

Ever closer

So throughout my travels the past couple of days, i have made attempts to find postcards. I love postcards, i like getting them and collecting them. i have a huge stack of them stocked up in one of the bins in my car at the moment from various cross-country trips or visits to various places all over. Haven't been able to find much. I think it's kind of sad that people are obviously much more interested in sending pix messages on their phones or saving up their digital pictures to send via email or post on Flickr. I guess it's a little sad to me. I'll hunt some down and send them anyway.
Little-known fact, West Virginia is nicknamed The Mountain State. Find myself laughing a little at that, but I must admit that I find the Appalachians to be quite beautiful. People talk about how when you come from the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians, you'll be sorely disappointed because they are just slightly over-glorified hills. When you reach them, that's really what they seem to be as well. Big Hills, yet as you begin to get into them, as the interstate bobs up and down over them, you start to appreciate how amazing they are.
There are certain points in the highway where the road has been cut a good 500 feet down from the crest of the mountain and the cars are dwarfed by the towering rock walls on either side of the road. It's actually quite impressive. The mountains are so thickly wooded that you only occasionally catch a glimpse of the area beyond. Little pieces of farmland where the trees have been cleared to open up pasture, towns that have been built up into the sides of mountains. There's a definite charm to it all.
Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia... Just one more state to go. At this point, I'm eager to get my things out of the back of my car and sleep a lot in my own room. Road tripping across the country has been fun, but i'm ready to get on with things.
The adventure is moving into the next phase.

Because i forgot to yesterday

Somewhat artsy image from yesterday. Oh road trippin'. Today's full blog to come later...

Day 2

As promised, here's a photo of the front of our hotel from last night (right). Not a great image of it, but i hope the idea is there. The picture on the left is of the door down the hall from us. Not only did those people neglect just using the 'do not disturb' signs provided by the hotel, but that visor is actually made of leather. I know, fancy, right? i thought it was a belt at first... which i must admit i think would be just a tad more classy than the hat, but you can't win 'em all.
So moving on. Minnesota didn't provide much excitement for the remainder of our time there. Little bit of traffic congestion around Minneapolis/St. Paul, but that's about it. General statement i would like to make about Minnesotan drivers: there are a lot of assholes among them. They tailgate like nobody's business and have a pretty clear disregard for other drivers on the road. I remember the first time driving though MN, there were two beater vans that came flying past us on the Interstate. Not kidding either, the speed limit is 65, we must have been pushing 80, and these two POS vans just flew by going 90 or so. A little ways down the road we passed them again, as one of them was pulling off of the highway because they popped a flat and the other was tearing off after them to help. Probably doesn't sound all that irksome or bad-mannered explained via blog, so you'll just have to take my word for it. Bear it in mind until you find yourself driving across the 10,000 lakes state and when that car behind you starts to bob and weave and ride your ass, then you'll get it.
Next, we found ourselves in Wisconsin, the Cheese (and beer) state. It's actually a fairly pretty state. The landscape is a little rough and overgrown, green all over (kind of can tell from the picture to the right, but that's obviously a well-kept field on a farm, so it's not exactly filling the rough part of my description). Wisconsin's a pretty classy state, sports a lot of billboards and one giant resort attraction called The Wisconsin Dells. You can stay at a Giant Lincoln Log style hotel, complete with water park. Things were not boding well for the Dells and their water parks though. Next we drove into a crazy storm, crazy defined by stormwatch coloring it bright red, as though to say, "there's a shit ton of rain in this part". Not so much fun, but after that we made a stopover to visit the scary mouse (left) and a cemetary in Windsor, WI where my maternal grandfather's family is originally from. The green field picture is actually taken across the street from the cemetary. My great grandfather, Cassius "Cash" Byron Chamberlain is buried there among many other members of my Chamberlain side. He died when my grandfather was young in a test flight outside of Miles City, MT, attempting to turn the plane around after it started to fail. Charles Lindberg was quoted to have learned to wing-walk from my great grandfather and he was a recognizable figure in the early days of popular and commercial aviation.
Illinois on the other hand, is not particularly green or wildly foliaged, it's flat, wide open plains... oh, and it has wind power farms. Huge ones. Not sure if some of you have not seen the pieces of one of those windmill-things, but they're ginormous. of course some pieces were parked at the rest stop on the opposite side of the highway, so i have this lovely photo shot through my windshield. Admire the corner of my GPS and the edge of the windshield before you appreciate the huge pieces being carried via semi. Impressive? i think so.
Tonight we're staying in Bloomington, IL, Tomorrow is a more impressive push to West Virginia. We'll see what the road has in store then...

details details...

I came up with some other bullshit to impart from the road. For those who thought i've been deprived of getting to see any sort of roadside attractions, you should thank your lucky stars that North Dakota caters to the lazy tourists who would like to see things from their car before deciding to drive to the attraction and pay exorbitant entrance fees to see rather kitschy and boring things. So here's a couple of things i got to see from my car.
Home on the Range (above left): i'm guessing that this is someone's functioning ranch. It's maybe 11 miles in from the western border of North Dakota. We were kind of thrown off by the giant green roadsign that read "Home on the Range 1 mile" Had to stop and ponder that one. I've driven through ND three other times and haven't noticed that one before. Well as we drove a little further down, we saw the words written on the hillside. Yea, that's about all we saw. Still a little hazy on what exactly it was. Maybe next time i'll stop. you never know.
We also saw the world's largest buffalo, metal sculpture, and dairy cow. The last of which is the only one i actually managed to snap a picture of from the car (above right). Last summer when i hydroplained while driving through a rainstorm, it was quite near to the cow. Don't have any particular sentimental attachment to the cow, just remembered that tidbit.

So right now we're in St. Cloud, MN at Travelodge. As we were pulling up oustide, Maureen and i both looked at the building thinking, is this it? either it was going to be super creepy and overrun with bugs and rodents or it was a lot nicer than we'd ever have imagined a Travelodge could be. Has a sort hacienda look to it, with a nice large drive-up with an awning over it. I went inside to check in and the interior was interesting too. The desk clerk was an interesting character. She told me she dyed her hair blonde recently, but that she's actually a brunette and that she wasn't sure she could pull that off etc etc. She was quite entertaining and talked at me for a while. Told me that the Hotel used to be a Bar and restaurant about 12 years ago. There's still the foot-rest bar under the counter at the check-in desk. It's two stories and has an interesting staircase that runs up from the lobby. I'll have to take some pictures to share in the morning. It's really quite an interesting place.
alright, more tomorrow. hopefully.