Weekend part two (yeah I know it's really late)

I WROTE THIS TWO WEEKS AGO. I HAVE JUST FINISHED IT.

So, back to last weekend.

After leaving Mo and Olivia, my father and I drove up to Connecticut College. I studied some more for my APUSH exam in the car, but I think I was asleep for most of the ride.
This is really weird, because I just wrote all about this in Japanese for a writing assignment. Okay, continuing with the English version of my weekend...
We got to Connecticut College. It was a bit secluded, because it seemed separate from the neighboring town, if that makes sense. But some of the material I've received from the school tells me about New London and how great the area is, so I'm assuming if I had spent more time there I would have noticed it. We were there on a Sunday night, so there weren't many people around. A few here and there, but I'm assuming everyone else was inside finishing up weekend homework or something. We stopped in the admissions office (which was supposed to be closed, but the nice people inside still let us in for a bit) and picked up a course book and some fliers about certain majors. The campus was quiet, but very nice. I feel like if I had been able to attend a tour I would have a more definite view of the college, but for now I'll just have to go with my observations. I feel like I am not making sense in this post. Moving on. After walking around campus, we went back to the car and drove up to Amherst. Once again, I attempted studying, but ended up sleeping. I like sleeping in cars.
We made it to Amherst at around 7 and checked in at a hotel. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the hotel had free internet, which meant I could take my online history test in the hotel room and not in a Panera or something, because I still felt sick and I didn't feel like sitting in some booth in a public building for an hour trying to take a test while at the same time attempting not to throw up. I ended up laying on my bed with my laptop taking the test, which was surprisingly relaxing. I did okay- I got about a 90%, which is nearly double my first try. My dad picked up some restaurant matzoh ball soup for me, which was of course not as good as my mother's, but it was still pretty good. I didn't really do much else for the rest of the night. I wrote a bit-
Oh wait. Maybe this is a good time to announce something. So I've kinda sorta been doing NaNoWriMo without telling anyone. I don't know why I didn't tell anyone; I guess it's because
a) I am really busy with school work and I didn't really want to get too into it and neglect my other work, which I admit, is more important
b) It is basically the blog I don't want to post online, and I didn't want to talk about the story with other people just yet, so I figured by not telling people I wouldn't have to avoid that, and
c) on that note, I have HUGE issues with people reading my writing. I was trying to avoid having to show it to people.
So now it's out. I'm extremely behind and probably won't finish, but I wanted to try it.

Alrighty, let's go back to talking about COLLEGE :)
Monday morning, I woke up at 7, showered, etc., and at about 7:30 my dad and I went downstairs for breakfast. The hotel breakfast was decent, considering I've had some pretty bad hotel breakfasts in my experience. The tour wasn't until 9, and we were pretty early, so we stopped by Target to get some mini-DV tapes, as I had brought my video camera but forgot the tapes. We then made our way back to the college, where we parked and walked up to the admissions office. My first impression of the college was that it was really gorgeous with these large old buildings scattered around the grounds with this spectacular view of the Holyoke Range past the athletic fields. The admissions lady was really nice, and our student tour guide was awesome and funny. In the beginning of the tour, she asked where we were all from, and I found out there was a girl who not only lived near me and went to a nearby school, but had friends taking the course my mother teaches at her school. WAY too small of a world. However, she was really nice and I had a great time on the tour talking to her.

Here are some of my favorite things about Amherst College
1) Amherst doesn't have credit requirements. Ergo, Latin for therefore, I may never have to take math or science again in my life. The tour guide herself told us when we were going through the science building that having never taken a science class there, she couldn't tell us much about it. I had a silent and internal joyous freak out when I heard this.
2) Speaking of classes, I was looking through a course book from the school. Holy crap. I want to take EVERYTHING. I used to say I wanted to study Japanese and English. Recently I decided I also wanted to study psychology. After flipping through the book, I decided I wanted to study anthropology/sociology, religion, music, women's studies, the list goes on and on! Everything was so fascinating, and for the first time I was reading about classes I wanted to take rather than classes I could possibly understand and pass, with the slightest chance of actual enjoyment.
3) It was in this cute little college town with these little independent book stores and coffeehouses in walking distance from the college. There was also a Target, Barnes and Noble, and a few other major chains down the road, in the off chance of needing something not found in the town.
4) I'm pretty sure it has a Quidditch team
5) I love the weather
6) Did I mention I may NEVER have to take math again at Amherst?!

So yeah. I loved it.
After the tour, we hopped back in the car and drove to Middlebury. Well, we actually got lost first. Middlebury is in this really secluded part of Vermont, and we had to drive through mountains and such to get there. This was my initial turn-off (is that a word?) for the school. Eventually we got there, and like the other two schools we stopped in the admissions office first. The lady there was a bit rude to us, and then this other guy came over and tried to help, even though he seemed a bit clueless. At this point, I was hungry, tired from being in the car for so long, and now a bit annoyed at the lack of help from the first people we encountered. My dad and I walked around campus a bit, and yes it was a very nice campus, but I just didn't get a very good feel for it. Even at Connecticut College, while there was basically no one outside, the few people we saw were very nice and considerate- one girl walking by asked if we needed help, and the people in the admissions office (which was supposed to be closed) were also very nice. I didn't get that sense from Middlebury. My dad and I agreed that it felt cold, and I'm not talking about the weather! I also didn't like the area very much. We ended up leaving hungry because we didn't find anything in the town we wanted to eat. I have since crossed off Middlebury from my college list.

And then we drove home.
I pulled out my math homework in the car, but got through about half a problem. Instead, I just looked out the window and slept as we drove. And drove. And drove. It was possibly one of the longest car trips I have been on. I remember stopping at an Italian place in NY for dinner, but honestly, a lot of this part of the trip was a blur for me. One of the things I remember distinctly, though, was the signs we passed. I saw signs for Boston and NYC, and signs for my friends' towns. I was constantly passing exits for places I wanted to go, but could not. It was a bit depressing. The closer and closer I got to home, and the more large green signs bearing names of cities in which I would rather be passed over my head, the more miserable I got. It's not that I am unhappy with my home, family, friends, and school. I just need to get away. I feel like I am already ready to move on to the next adventure of my life, and the suburbs of Northern Virginia are not where I want to be now.

At around midnight, I woke up to my dad pulling into a rest stop, parking the car, and mumbling something about getting shut-eye for a bit. I was still half asleep, but after a few moments, I realized that I was now wide awake in a car at a rest stop in the middle of the night next to my sleeping father. Of course, the first thing I thought of was being raped by truck drivers, but obviously that did not happen. Instead, I remembered I still had a Numb3rs season 2 DVD in my laptop, so I pulled that out and watched it for a bit until my battery died (I had been writing for NaNoWriMo in the car and drained the battery doing that). However, around then my dad woke up and we drove off, getting home at around 1 AM. I vaguely remember bringing in everything from the car and dumping it on the kitchen table before stumbling upstairs and falling asleep.

Tuesday was somewhat uneventful. I did homework. Nothing crazy.
Though I am now remembering the one somewhat interesting thing I did on Tuesday. I decided to meet Gloria at a library between us- one I had never been to- so I could get some physics help. I copied down the directions, but I tend to be pretty directionally-challenged (I think everything is left...). I barely found the place, and that was after some awkward turning around in parking lots and getting honked at by other cars. Getting home was worse. I had barely any gas left and I kept getting turned around and confused. Eventually, I pulled into a parking lot and called my mother, and hysterically told her my situation. She calmly pulled out a map, and I did the same (in my spazzing, I forgot I had a map in the car) and she helped me through the phone figure out where I was and how to get home. I figured it out, but it was not a good experience. It's just another reason why I hate driving.

In general, though, it was a pretty incredible weekend. There were some extreme ups and downs, but all in all they averaged out to the positive side. Yeah, I'm posting this a week and a half later. Deal with it.