(no subject)
Nov. 17th, 2002 07:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
microbieFinally, back at home. I enjoyed my weekend in New York but I'm also glad to be alone again. The dissertation defense went well and of course she was successful. Her daughter is a chubby three-month-old and growing fast (already doubled in weight). Visiting with Andrea was nice- she had some other friends visiting, too, so we went out to eat in Times Square and walked around a bit (they'd never been). Unfortunately it was cold, windy, and rainy, so we didn't do much sightseeing.
That's the short version.
I hadn't been to the campus of Stony Brook in at least two years. It is an excellent graduate school but a mediocre undergraduate school. When I left, a new university president had just taken over and wanted to improve Stony Brook's image. This included spending $50,000 to dig a brook through the center of campus, so that the State University of New York at Stony Brook would actually have a real, stony brook. Inside the Life Sciences building most areas still looked fairly decrepit- leaky ceilings, malfunctioning elevators.
People in the department were nice to me, much nicer than I expected. No one was interested in my job but they didn't criticize it, either. My former housemates were nice, too. I keep using "nice" because they were more than polite but not exactly friendly. The people I had befriended when I was there were all just as they had been before. It was weird to be reminded that I did actually have people who liked me at Stony Brook. I used to invite people over for dinner often, and one of my frequent dinner guests was a guy from Turkey. He remembered that I used to ask him about Turkish cooking and gave me a cookbook that his mom had sent to him. I was really touched that he would remember such a thing about me.
My ex-boyfriend and I also had a good chat. He is the one from Jordan, and his dissertation is on evolution in Arab societies. I thought he was going to try to get a Ph.D. by surfing the Web for six years, but as it turns out he spent last summer collecting human DNA in Jordan. Again, it was strange to be reminded of our familiarity with one another after not speaking for three years. I was glad we were able to tease one another without worrying about hurt feelings.
There are times that my past feels almost like a dream, and I'm not sure if it actually happened. Sometimes it is hard to believe that I have lived other places and known other people. It's pleasant to realize that I did in fact experience these things, that I was there and had some impact or at least left a memory for some people. I'm glad that I had no negative feelings while at Stony Brook. I didn't regret my decision to leave prematurely and I didn't resent or dislike anyone anymore.
I'm sure there's more I could write about, but this is probably enough for now.
That's the short version.
I hadn't been to the campus of Stony Brook in at least two years. It is an excellent graduate school but a mediocre undergraduate school. When I left, a new university president had just taken over and wanted to improve Stony Brook's image. This included spending $50,000 to dig a brook through the center of campus, so that the State University of New York at Stony Brook would actually have a real, stony brook. Inside the Life Sciences building most areas still looked fairly decrepit- leaky ceilings, malfunctioning elevators.
People in the department were nice to me, much nicer than I expected. No one was interested in my job but they didn't criticize it, either. My former housemates were nice, too. I keep using "nice" because they were more than polite but not exactly friendly. The people I had befriended when I was there were all just as they had been before. It was weird to be reminded that I did actually have people who liked me at Stony Brook. I used to invite people over for dinner often, and one of my frequent dinner guests was a guy from Turkey. He remembered that I used to ask him about Turkish cooking and gave me a cookbook that his mom had sent to him. I was really touched that he would remember such a thing about me.
My ex-boyfriend and I also had a good chat. He is the one from Jordan, and his dissertation is on evolution in Arab societies. I thought he was going to try to get a Ph.D. by surfing the Web for six years, but as it turns out he spent last summer collecting human DNA in Jordan. Again, it was strange to be reminded of our familiarity with one another after not speaking for three years. I was glad we were able to tease one another without worrying about hurt feelings.
There are times that my past feels almost like a dream, and I'm not sure if it actually happened. Sometimes it is hard to believe that I have lived other places and known other people. It's pleasant to realize that I did in fact experience these things, that I was there and had some impact or at least left a memory for some people. I'm glad that I had no negative feelings while at Stony Brook. I didn't regret my decision to leave prematurely and I didn't resent or dislike anyone anymore.
I'm sure there's more I could write about, but this is probably enough for now.
