Bennington: First Week

So...I actually, really, truly haven't had time to post. I saw a lot of you guys on my drive across the country (sorry Jennie, I'll see you soon!) which was really nice. I'm so glad that you got to know Ben better. Then I got to Bennington. My first impression was of rolling meadows full of wild flowers, stands of trees, and lots of really cool architecture. A security guard (the security guards are really quite the characters here) insisted on driving in front of me to show me where Longmeadow was...so I followed behind him for about a half a mile, then turned down a driveway to a little cedar shingle house where I have a very tiny, cozy room. I live here with five girls and one guy. Four of the girls and the guy are post-baccs with me. One of the girls is a fifth year Bennington student getting her masters in early childhood education. The house has a big kitchen with two fridges, our very own FREE washer and dryer (hallelujah!) and a nice big living room that is too dark for us to want to use in the middle of summer.

There are only seven post-baccs this year, so the five of us girls living here are the main group...there is one other girl living off campus in a barn with her basset hound. She's a Navy pilot and has a masters in strategic intelligence. The rest of us are your run of the mill Oberlinx2/Colorado College/University of New Hampshire/St. John's liberal arts girls.


Jeanne, who's front and center in this photo, is Steven Shalwitz's cousin. Weird, huh? I really love living with these girls. I think that having them around is going to help me stay motivated, and also provide me with a little bit of community so that I don't feel like I'm drowning in a sea of chemical equations, which, by the way, I already am. Anyway, I started classes last Thursday and since then have developed absolutely the worst allergies I've ever had. Terrible. I thought I was going to stop breathing the other night and made Carin promise me that if I ran in motioning that I was choking, that she should call 9-1-1 right away. I have been on a cocktail of Benadryl, Sudafed, Tylenol, and this nose spray the doctor gave me all week, and it almost makes enough of a difference, but on Monday and Tuesday I really was just about completely useless...not the best way to start out this program academically. Even today, when I had a test that lasted three hours, I had a splitting headache and the sniffles all the way through.

In summary, this last week I have learned a LOT of chemistry, I'm living in a house that I really like with a group of nice, laid-back girls I really like, and I really miss Ben. That's it! Oh, and I'm soooooo tired.