The Bowdoin Experience Begins

[tyrson]

O ye familiar scenes, ye groves of pine
That once were mine and are no longer mine
Thou river, widening through the meadows green 
To the vast sea, so near and yet unseen
Ye halls, in whose seclusion and repose
Phantoms of fame, like exhalations, rose
And vanished, we who are about to die
Salute you; earth and air and sea and sky
And the Imperial Sun that scatters down
His sovereign splendors upon grove and town.

~"Morituri Salutamus" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, made for his 50th Bowdoin reunion, 1875


When I begin to approach the campus, the overwhelmingly massive pines greet me on either side of the road, broken only by the white stone of the gates and brick buildings of the individual schools.  There aren't many educaional places that have such scenery as I enter.

My base of operations at Bowdoin is in Cole's Tower, which is - you guessed it - a tower.  We're on the second floor (surprisingly NOT in a basement).  Every morning the crew checks what's assigned to them before going off to do said tasks.  The environment is relaxed which is what I would expect for college in summer.  Even in spite of this massive project of which I have been contracted out for.

I have finally managed to nail down the procedure that I am to be doing 3 times a day on average - go to site, save old info, switch out new computer, bring down old info, make sure it all works.  The process is actually fairly simple once I got the hang of it, and I tend to adapt pretty quickly.

The people here are friendly as well.  This is a very diverse IT staff, and I feel very comfortable with that.  It just seems like there's a greater general respect for everyone when it's this way.  I suppose it's a reflection of the college in general, too.  Faculty and students alike here are laid back and relaxed in terms of personality and how they deal with things.  It's definitely comforting to deal with a majority of "thank you!" rather than a majority of "um, how much did you say it was?"  It's one of the things I sorely miss from my MPBN days.

I walked to the nearby Hannaford yesterday instead of dining on campus (something I'll likely repeat today).  The walk around the campus is very nice and with the grand canopy of trees combined with the low student traffic in the summer, allows any stress and hardship to just slip away. 

I really think I'll enjoy the 9 weeks spent here.