Back In Town (Dif. Town, Same Tune)

Typing up the title, it was telling me that I already had a post entitled “Back in Town”. That wasn’t originally going to be the title for this one, but I decided to continue the tradition. Last time I was talking about “home”. This time around: Ithaca.

I took the first place I looked at. Three-hundred dollars a month, for a large room in a small house. Utilities, high speed internet, and a washer all included. There are two other roommates — one I’ve met (he seems alright), and another one who will be getting back in town at the end of this month (she’s in Colombia during research or something). Three bedrooms upstairs, and an open, flowing dining room / kitchen / living room downstairs. It’s a narrow house on a small street — it only goes on for two blocks, and one end is barricaded off. The house neighbors a church — Zionist such and such (a quick Google told me that it’s a strain of Catholicism originating in Africa (thought so)). The neighborhood does seem to be heavily black. Change from Freiburg? I suppose, but largely inconsequential. The bigger change is that I’m most likely the only undergraduate on the block. I’m thinking the majority of students live on their respective hill, although I’ve known people who live downtown (all of the cooler heads, naturally).

It’s downtown Ithaca, about squarely in the middle of things. The walk to the Commons is probably ten minutes (although sorry, it’s freezing and I’m not attempting it till it gets warmer!). Wegmans is probably fifteen, twenty minutes. Great location, me-thinks. Of course, I do have the Honda with me.

Like I said, my room is damn large, although the previous occupant / sublet-er (/owner?) has left a few rubber bins of belongings behind, stowed in a corner. I can afford it; with all of my stuff moved in, the room still feels sort of bare. It’s also pretty nippy in the house, and more specifically, my room. I just received a voice mail from the woman, and she said they “usually keep the thermometer at 65.” Not that I’ve seen a thermometer, and not like my room feels anything like 65 (the rest of the house is a good five to ten degrees warmer), but whatever. I’ll leave my door open, make sure the windows are closed (a few were cracked when I first got here), and wear an extra layer. It’s a good temperature to sleep in, and it’s been unusually cold these past few days.

EDIT: The temperature thing has been solved, the radiator was off during the night, and this side of the house is an addition, with a different thermometer, which was set at 60, now pegged at 65.

Wait a second, what am I talking about? Yesterday, and the day before, I was walking around in short sleeves. I had spring fever, it hit sixty something! But that was back home, and in the time that we left there and finally arrived at Ithaca, the temperature dropped dramatically. How depressing. Anyways.

Today, besides just idling in my room doing nothing, I went up to Pyramid Mall, to Best Buy, and bought a router. The house has Roadrunner, and it’s damn speedy, but I wanted to set up a wireless LAN, like I had in Freiburg. I got really use to having (wireless) internet on my laptop. What a luxury. Setting up the router and getting my laptop online was effortless, although the house computer’s CD-ROM drive doesn’t seem to work.

It’s begun to snow once again. I’m still debating whether or not I should sit in on German 202 tomorrow. I need to take a placement exam, and my expectations of getting into 202 are pretty low. I’ll probably just go tomorrow to make an appointment to take the exam, and see if I bump into my German professor. Then Tuesday I have my first classes. Four classes on Tuesday and Thursday, three of which are writing classes, all of which are right after one another. Those two days are going to be hell, but having the rest of the week free will be redemption.

Oh wait, I really need to get a job too.