School days

I'm in my third week of school now, but thanks to national and religious holidays, I've only had a few classes. I'm taking two classes this semester: One focuses on the critics and defenders of American democracy and the other is based on comparing U.S. policies with other industrialized countries. Both seem fairly interesting, even after working all day.

Stony Brook is a pretty school. It's smaller than I'm used to (about 22,000 students compared to MSU's 45,000), but a lot of people at my orientation were overwhelmed with its size. Being a fairly new university, the campus has a modern look to it, resembling something like Western Michigan University or Grand Valley. But for some reason, despite receiving some really high marks in national ratings lately, people don't seem overly excited to be there. As a girl in one of my classes put it: "It's cool to hate Stony Brook." I'm not sure why. Maybe because it's a commuter school. Maybe because the sports teams aren't very popular. Or maybe because no one really knows what a Seawolf (the mascot) is. I like it, though I'll always be an MSU girl at heart. My first few weeks have been nothing like my first days at Michigan State, where the fight song and school spirit were basically implanted in your brain. Although, I suppose I'm in a different playing field than the freshmen I drive past on my way to class. This is grad school. Part time. At night. There isn't much time for learning to love a new university.