MANY THE MILES

I was really jetlagged yesterday. I didn't finish my blog. It's a lot of info, because there were so many experiences.

This is my post from yesterday
Today was my first day to look at colleges in the States. I was really tired, but I had 3 cups of coffee so I survived. :) Coffee is really big in college anyway so you get the college scene just by sitting in a starbucks. ;)

Tufts University

First I had an information session at Tufts. The woman was really great and nice! She actually summed up all my questions in one speech and it was really personal and it was a really open and international feeling. I felt that it was very liberal arts. You could design your own major and there were a lot of interdisciplinary courses. They have a whole department just on courses that don't fit in any major. They get teachers for one semester and teach the greatest and weirdest courses ever. That is really my thing. So they would be teaching the bone structure in the evolution of a certain kind of monkey from 1500 to 1590. Really specific or they would teach things like a documentary class where you all get a camera and you get one semester to make a documentary and as teacher you would get Tufts alumni who are well-known filmmakers in the US.

After the information session we rushed over to Boston University, which is a campus in a city. The campus was not really spread out so that was nice. Usually universities are really spread out all over the city. At BU the campus is in one district. First we had an information session and it was mostly numbers, numbers, numbers. I don't really remember any of them and it was such a bad info session. I've made it a tradition that I ask one question (minimum) per information session. Someone from the admissions office was there and a student from BU. It was like they were performing on stage. It was a little fake and not really genuine. So I wasn't really impressed.

Boston University (internet)

After that I was a little lost in translation, because I was really confused by that. Then we went for a guided tour around campus. The student that led us around was nice, but the campus wasn't great. The buildings looked kind of rundown and the school is divided in colleges (like oxford and cambridge). I don't like that, because you divide the school. We also saw a model dorm room. And it was sooo small. I have never seen such a small room in my life. You can't even walk around in it without hitting into someone. ;) The campus sometimes was pretty, but it wasn't mind-blowing beautiful. It was a big campus so I must say that after the tour it was a 'no'. I just couldn't see myself walking around there, walking to class. I could see other people walking around there, but not myself. And that feeling is stronger than anything. We had a bagel for lunch! My first bagel since I have been back! :) And the coffee so good here! I totally forgot how much I liked coffee in the States. Boston is a pretty city. It's the most historic city in the US, because it was built by the English. So all the revolutionaries have been buried here and the independence war started here. The first shot was fired here and Martin Luther King went to BU and the Boston Tea Party happened here. It really reminds me of a European city with skyscrapers just dropped in it at really strange locations. I went to the university bookstore and I bought a notebook with Boston University on the cover. Just to have something to write all my notes.

Tufts University

After that we went back to Tufts University just to look at the campus. It was really a beautiful campus. All the leaves were gold red and it was such a pretty place. I went to the college library (really important to me) and it was magnificent. I've never seen such a great big library and everybody had a macbook. Next to the library was the student union where you could sit and talk, drink a cup of coffee and study. We bought coffee and we sat down at a table where a girl was studying and we talked to her for a while. And she was really happy about Tufts and really genuine and really friendly. She was not negative about the college at all. After that we walked around campus and apparently it was coming out week, because there were gay flags everywhere!

We went out to dinner and got a full guided tour by a friend of my dad through Boston and it was really great to see all the historical buildings! I walked so many miles today. My feet were so painful. We're going to have a lot of good exercise on this trip. ;)

Boston University

When we came home I was so tired so I didn't finish my post. Today I'm meeting up with a student from Boston College (there are no tours on Sunday) and after that we're near Harvard University so we'll take a quick look there. Just to see the campus. I really liked Tufts because you had a nice campus feeling, but you're only ten minutes away from Boston. I'll keep you 'posted'. ;)

MANY THE MILES - SARA BAREILLES