Yale trip, day 2

Omg, you guys. I love, love, love, LOVE it here! Everything is so beautiful and collegiate! The buildings are all 300 years old and look like castles. The leaves are changing colors because New England has a legitimate fall season. And Dunkin Donuts exists here!

I want to move here. By "here" I mean probably any city in New England. This is my favorite kind of environment. I feel so comfortable here, and I've only been here for a day. I really like that you're not required to smile at every stranger you pass. I know, I say this stuff every time I get out of the south. I'm such a Yankee at heart. Would anyone be too sad if I never came home?

My only problem with this place is that it was already dark at 5 pm. Lame!

Anywho, we got to sleep late this morning, and it was wonderful! I ended up getting out of bed around 11, which was earlier than anyone else in my room. Once I finally coaxed Marissa out of the room, we did the obligatory Dunkin Donuts thing. We sat at the window bar so we could watch New Haven over coffee. It was so picturesque, and I wasn't even creeped out that passersby were watching me eat!

Next we had about 30 minutes to explore Yale, so explore we did! We walked through Cross Campus, and I was like a kid in a candy store. Everyone looked so smart! There were people sitting in circles on the lawn, just like you see in movies (or on Gilmore Girls, as the case may be). I was such a nerd. I took pictures of Yale kids while squealing, "Look at them, sitting around looking all smart, talking politics and shit!" Marissa tried to burst my bubble by claiming that they were probably just talking about Facebook, to which I replied, "Let me have my fantasy, damnit!!" :-P

Then it was time to rehearse with Camerata (my choir that was invited to sing here at the National Collegiate Choral Organization biennial conference) in Hendrie Hall, where the Yale Glee Club rehearses!! Again, I was a total fangirl, taking pictures of the hall and creepin' on the Asian kids with violin cases. The Glee Club has group pictures from every year on the walls of their rehearsal room, just like my other choir has. So cool! We rehearsed for 2 hours, and toward the end the president of NCCO came in and said we sounded wonderful and that he couldn't wait to hear our performance. Omg!

Marissa and I raided the Yale bookstore after the rehearsal. I bought myself a sweatshirt (as usual) and pajama pants, and I got shirts for Grant and Lane. Now, equipped with Yale campus maps like the tourists we wish we weren't, I think we're going to find some dinner and see some nerdy Yale sights. I'll finish blogging when we get back.

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Well, after sitting around for an hour trying to pick a place to eat, Marissa, Cara, and I settled on Ivy Noodle, a decently legit Asian noodle house. My vegetable fried rice was really good, but my shrimp dumpling noodle soup was a little strange. Then we decided we wanted some ice cream, so we let Marissa's blackberry lead us several blocks in the cold weather to an ice cream shop that no longer exists. We did find ice cream eventually, and I came out with a cone three times larger than I was expecting.

Then I got to go touch the toe!!! We looked like morons trying to open the gate into Old Campus. After we tried pulling on it to avail, a girl came up behind us and used her key card. Facepalm. Then, after checking the names on a few statues (which was tricky in the dark), we found Theodore Dwight Woolsey. I touched his shiny toe while Marissa took a picture, and it was a glorious moment in my life. We knew we looked super-touristy, so any time a student passed I turned to Marissa and said something like, "Yeah, that guy's class is sooooo hard! I haven't even started my paper yet." Bahahaha. Then it took us forever to find an exit gate that was actually unlocked. We were really smooth.

By the way, does anyone else think it's funny that Harvard's motto is "Veritas," while Yale's is "Lux et Veritas"? It's like, oh, you've got truth? Well, we've got light AND truth. Hah! Nothing like one-upping your rival using Latin.

Now I'm blogging alone in my hotel room wearing nothing but my new Yale sweatshirt and pajama pants while everyone else is in Costas' room watching Die Hard. And now I'm done blogging. See you tomorrow, I hope!