Driving on a thruway for several hours has got to be the most monotonous and boring thing on earth. Except perhaps driving on a thruway for several hours in Kansas. The road just keeps going on and on forever, and after a while your contacts start to freak out, and you forgot your sunglasses at home and it's bright and sunny outside, so you have to constantly squint. Then you start to zone... and count the white markers lining the road. At least in New York, it's not FLAT most of the time. I would die in the midwest. I'll keep my glacier landscape, if only for the sake of sanity and as a source of complaints when using a bike as a mode of transportation.
Of course, when the other cars are speeding, you're yelling bloody murder at them for doing so, all the while using it as an excuse to drive fast. When they're not, you're yelling at them for driving so damn slow. Of course, it doesn't help being in a vehicle with zero reverse (brother had to PUSH the car out of the parking lot) and poor acceleration (jam that accelerator down, baby!), with the wheels needing minor re-alignment.
I was ever so happy to get off at Weedsport, home of the Most Insane Varsity Cross Country Hill Ever(TM).
At any rate, I visited Rochester Institute of Technology yesterday and today for some event called "colleges and careers" or something like that. (And not yet three hours after returning home, I have forgotten.) Yesterday there was a tour and the whole welcome rigamarole. There was actually an excellent performance by an improv comedy group which was somewhat unexpected. Then picked up a few new friends through dinner, which was decent, and had a ball of a time with karaoke, etc. afterward.
Today I attended four sort of "information sessions," so to speak, which I'd picked in advance -overview of CS, computer engineering tech, women in engineering, and the physics of music and optical communications. On Friday I was actually suprised over the number of girls that seemed to be there, though I soon found out that the vast majority of these were actually there because they were interested in things like graphic design, animation, and other sorts of art. So, for the most part I was the only or one of two girls in my sessions (except WE). There were something over 600 students there, I believe.
Overall, I'm really impressed with the school. I wasn't too sure whether I'd like it or not, but it's pretty nice. Though the "patented brick colour" fact made me cringe a little, the campus is modern and a decent size. They have their share of neato modern art, including a giant steel sundial that actually looks something like a crossbow and an infinity sign sculpture. They also require co-op work for a good percentage of their programs, which is a definite plus, imo. For CS, you graduate in 5 years with a full 12 months of (paid, non-minimum-wage!) work experience at a REAL JOB. First two years are regular classes, then 3rd, 4th, and 5th alternate between work and school.
They also have a decent hockey team, okay food, and a helluvalotta snow in the winter (yes!). Dorms aren't big and aren't air-conditioned, but they're not rundown little dirtpiles either. And they of course have wireless. And played excellent music in the athletics and dining halls.
A definite possibility.