ivy league tourist

Hello! This is my first blog post from Providence.

I've been here for 3 days already, the first two days were very lonesome, as it was a long weekend and I didn't know anybody, I don't have a phone or a computer, and it seemed like the 9 days until class starts would be an eternity of lonesomeness. My first day I just walked around all day on "College Hill" in Providence, mostly around Brown University. Brown and RISD buildings are clustered together, but Brown classes start today, so there was a lot of activity, whereas RISD starts in one week, so it's very quiet around there. There were a lot of parents saying goodbye to their kids:



Just as my parents had done the day before at the Vancouver airport, which seems like a different stratosphere of socio-economics realities:




But yesterday, I was able to meet with Amaury Poudray, another exchange student from France. Since I have no phone or email, I could only connect with him through the old technology of door-knocking. We walked around a lot, since I was here one day earlier than him I had so much more wisdom to impart such as where the best coffee shop is and where the interesting streets are. It was nice to connect with someone, I didn't feel so lonely. Amaury taking a photo on Thayer Street:



The houses here are really old Americana, lots of brick, clapboard siding & real working shutters. I learned from a house owner named Peter who was watering his flowers near the sidewalk that these old houses are the Federal style, most of the houses I have seen are built in the early 1800s.




Here is a shot of a house built in the 1790s - really nice wide plank flooring (Don't forget to click on the images to enlarge them) -



My room is okay, pretty dirty though! A lot of dirt on the window sills and the bathroom floor is crunchy with dirt - I felt so envious of Amaury's place all clean and furnished. I still need to find a bed, this is one from the apartment for guests to sleep on. I woke up the other night thinking I had a kidney disease, but it was only the futon frame sticking into my back.


My roommate Thomas letting me in the apartment for the first time. I still don't have keys though, so annoying.


Well, that's a lot of photos, but it's been three days, so there is a lot to show. I'll probably be posting something new everyday. I'm looking forward to the farmer's market tomorrow in a quad at Brown - I'll have to figure out where that is. Now that my camera is empty of photos, I can start filling it up again for tomorrow's post!