Amherst Campus Center (side view) site of many memories
UMASS PVTA stops here and Performances are here too
Pretty NE Foliage
New Smith College Art Museum
Friday, October 26, 2007---Went to bed after midnight and asked my sis to get me up by 5:30am! I wanted to catch the 8am to NOHO. I was able to get up, reheat some breakfast (eating the brown rice and turkey loaf -my recipe my sis made).
The bus ride was good. I got to do alot of sudoku and I did take a nap as well. The foliage was not full blast but I did see some colors getting closer on such a pretty sunny day. I got in at 10:30am and then went straight to the PVTA stop in front of the Academy of Music. It now costs for people $1 each way. Students and staff at local colleges just have to flash their IDs. I remember when I was attending school I just got on and off.
I did see some new establishments in town such as ZEN but the old institutions Spoletos, Faces, Packards, Fitzwillys, and Taipei and Tokyo were still around. Even seeing Pearl Street, Sylvester, La Florentinas, Pleasant Street Cinama, Spaghetti Freddys (were comforting to see for me). Of course Thornes and Herrell's were great to see too!
Went and drove by the old "Dead Mall" which is dead no longer with Target, Old Navy and Walmarts! New business around and Trader Joes and Staples too! I noticed a ton of the old frat houses were leveled and now a big patch of grass! I was shocked when I saw it around UMASS en route to Amherst Center.
I got off and went to wander around Amherst College. I was waxing nostalgic and it was cool. The library and I saw some new buildings, and I never saw the Robert Frost statue. I guess I never meandered around the campus really other than the Library, Campus Center and Valentine and some dorms to see my friends like "哥哥 Mike".
I went into Amherst Mead Art Museum. Free admission but I had to submit my backpack due to some small items. There is a cool book exhibit (theme thread within 10 museums and I got to get one free postcard). Very small but had a photo exhibit, a house part with older paintings and some varied pieces. From there I wandered to the campus center. Still bright yellow and I had to waltz by the ASA office. I noticed an ad for a APA forum at Amherst the following day. (If I had not had a meeting, I would have been inclined to attend. C'est La Vie!)
I went over to some dorm area where DAILO stayed during his sophomore year. Then headed over to the Emily Dickinson Museum. (I later learned really open in 2005 but intermittently before then). I did feel less bad when I heard that because I thought I didn't know much about it when in school in the area.
I did feel bad I had never visited Mead until this day. But not as big as the Smith Art Museum though. Very cute in its own right.
I made it back for my dinner /meeting and I met some people at the Alumnae House (I had to go to the Autumn Inn to drop stuff off). The walk from JMG was not bad. It did rain a bit but I had forgotten my umbrella. In the end it was fine, I had a nice dinner, heard a nice speech about risk by a professor at Smith Floyd Cheung (English/American Studies). I loved how he weaved his personal experiences-both teaching and his own into his presentation. It was to prospective students for a program "women of distinction". I liked the title of that program.
It was still early and I headed into town around 7:30pm got some stuff and of course at Faces (where I got stuff only THEY have). Did the circuit around town with some rain coming down here and there.
I head back to Autumn Inn after having another dessert at La Fiorentina (I did find it disappointing) after having many types of desserts around the world. I guess I have outgrown it.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2007- I had a nice breakfast but saw that it was raining heavily in the morning. Breakfast at the Autumn Inn consisted of hardboiled eggs, waffle (it was cool using the waffle maker), OJ and some oatmeal. I was told to avoid the overly sweet muffins. Chatted with others who were going to attend the same meeting I was heading to and one of them drove us to the Alumnae House. (Thanks alot IJ! Hope you got back safe to NYC.) This is where I met Ji. I had heard alot about her from my big sis. Very cool gal!
After a few hours (10am til 3pm) of discussing how to plan this weekend in March, we got many decisions made which was great! (Thanks Gladys and Betsy for all your hard work!). The lunch was good with some different sandwich options, chips, drinks and sinfully deadly baked goods. (I loved them while at Smith but now I just took a brownie and called it a day).
Thanks to NMiller for the awesome posters (and for remembering our conversation) I want to frame mine!
Afterwards, I called "Mer" and changed our meeting spot to the Smith College Campus Center (opened in 2003) as the Art Museum was closing in half an hour. We caught up on life and I got a mudslide for old times sakes ($3.60!). It was not the same! The Campus Center is ultra modern and cool, though I heard not everyone is enamored with it. I enjoyed it and our campus center was Davis (which I don't really think of as one). Too bad the Campus store was closed at 3pm (I thought it would be at 4pm).
"Mer" had to get back and I was able to hang out with Ji a bit more. She is very interesting and she lived in China and studied Chinese and was an EAS major. (Go EAS!) I think I amused her with my smattering of Korean knowledge. (I find I have that tendency to do that).
Due to the poor cell phone reception, I had to borrow Ji's cell, she was kind enough to let me use it. After seeing my friends, we wandered around NOHO (in the dark) and went to Spoletos for a nice meal.
*Tonight is game 3 with the Sox in Denver after winning the two first games at Fenway! Go Sox!
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