Hello everyone! I'm sitting here contemplating things in the fading Iowa afternoon, trying to organize a photographic setting for my blog this summer. There will be other things to photograph along the way, but this provides the basics. I've spent all day lugging things in and out of deserted dorm buildings, untangling electrical cords and puzzling over the titles of Frenc books in the small library down the hall. Sorry, I should have mentioned that I'm living in the campus French house for the summer, since the school rents it out to students working at the college. Luckily, I found a copy of On the Road by Jack Kerovac and have been reading about travelling West for the past few hours. How pleasantly appropriate. This week I'll be trying to establish living in Grinnell outside of being a student, what with grocery shopping, a full-time job, and no classes. Yet I'll still be entrenched in academia, spending most of my days at the library or discussing the minutia of tedious scholarship with my mentor. Well, tedious to some. In any case, I have pictures and will be happy to caption them for you. Just like old times, isn't it?
Here is my room. Every small section of my life seems to start with taking a picture of a new room. This one is quite nice, more like a bedroom than a dorm room. Makes sense; this is French house.
Here is the house from the outside. Sits in the shade of that tree all afternoon, which helps alleviate the heat. It's never too hot, mind you, this isn't Nashville. I'm on the second floor, farthest window to the right. It's set back a little from the other three.
I had to go tie up some loose ends in my old room, so I took along the camera to show off my campus in the summer. Just never come here in the winter. This is the main street dividing north and south campus. The building just up the road is the JRC (Joe Rosenfield Center), which serves as a dining hall, mail room, academic building, and a home to student publications and government. Probably won't go there much except to check my mail. In fact, most of the following pictures aren't great for establishing a setting because I won't be on this part of campus this summer. It's all dormitories, and I'll be sticking to the library and academic buildings further south.
Quick shot of my street. I'm further down on the right. Most of the houses are used by the college, and it's facing the campus, so I'm basically on campus for the summer. The building peeking from behind the tree is the ARH (Alumni Recreation Hall). I've never seen alumni recreating there. It does, however, house all the language departments. Thus all the language houses are across the street.
Finally, this is the field in the middle of north campus. That's the JRC on the right, and the east campus dorms, my former home, are the white buildings straight ahead. It was really eerie to walk around campus with no one around. It was like the beginning of 28 Days Later. Less zombies, though.
And that's that. Tomorrow I'll be all over campus trying to figure out payment and proposals and generally getting organized, so perhaps more pictures. Night!
