NDSU Like a Student Again
In an effort to use up leave, I've joined my wife for a couple weeks at NDSU, where she is working with a science summer camp. We are learning to navigate the campus and to function in this unique subculture. It is a bit like being in a low rent spa (although, I've never been in a low rent spa or a spa for that matter). Like students again, we are bunking in the high rise dorms of Pavek Hall with three meals each day at the nearby food service. There is a bit of deja vu in this place that I remember visiting sometime in the late 1980's when friends stayed here. I remember these high rises being new and looking in awe at the spacious rooms with a private shower and toilet for every two rooms. The height of luxury. Nearly 30 years later, they show the same wear and tear that I also exhibit. Also, I don't remember college food being this good, but then, I took much for granted in those days and free meals become more cherished as one gets older.
I've been passing the time by helping my wife in addition to working on some things for work (the job never stops) as well as doing the Bill Gatesian thing of trying to push through a few books. Gates is famous for reading a stack of books during his vacations that help to set his intellectual course for the coming year.
NDSU Library, where I briefly worked in the early 1990s looks much the same with a few upgrades and more computers. "The Cave" as we used to call it still harbors a subterranean quality no matter which of the three floors one is on. I think the low slung front area could be reworked with an airy, light filled atrium thrusting itself into the sky that would transform the rest of the building from a brutalist box to the center of the campus. This occurred to me while I passed several hours browsing the great collection of books in a reading area near the front. It would make this the true center of campus.
The campus is crawling with the annual Future Farmers of America convention. I always wanted to be part of that organization, but for some reason there wasn't a local group when I was growing up. How many of the 1000 or so here will actually become farmers?
I've been passing the time by helping my wife in addition to working on some things for work (the job never stops) as well as doing the Bill Gatesian thing of trying to push through a few books. Gates is famous for reading a stack of books during his vacations that help to set his intellectual course for the coming year.
NDSU Library, where I briefly worked in the early 1990s looks much the same with a few upgrades and more computers. "The Cave" as we used to call it still harbors a subterranean quality no matter which of the three floors one is on. I think the low slung front area could be reworked with an airy, light filled atrium thrusting itself into the sky that would transform the rest of the building from a brutalist box to the center of the campus. This occurred to me while I passed several hours browsing the great collection of books in a reading area near the front. It would make this the true center of campus.
The campus is crawling with the annual Future Farmers of America convention. I always wanted to be part of that organization, but for some reason there wasn't a local group when I was growing up. How many of the 1000 or so here will actually become farmers?
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