Going Back To College

Andrew and I had a chance to relive our glory days... well, at least the carefree feeling of being back at school when we visited my cousin Andrew at UMass-Dartmouth.  Sidenote: Oddly enough, both of the Andrews in my life have always been called just that, no Andy or Drew's for them. However, my cousin Andrew told us that somehow, he has been given the nickname of Andy at school, so I'm going to refer to him as that because 1) this post is all about Andy at school and 2) it will differentiate him from my husband Andrew.

Joining us for the ride down were my lovely sister Amy and our friend Phu, although both were in the process of recovering from colds and coughed the whole way there and back again. I guess I can't complain too much because Amy drove us in her sweet ride and we didn't end up getting sick after the weekend, haha.

Back to UMass-Dartmouth, the first thing we noticed when we arrived on campus is that it's very gray. It could've been the overcast weather, but really, all the buildings are the same monotone shade of gray. It was nice to see a pop of color from the welcome banner.

 

Andy met us in the parking lot and walked us to his dorm, which you guessed it, is gray as well.

Here's the freshman himself, opening the door to his room. I had to get a picture with the door because 1) doesn't the themed name sign totally remind you of your own college days (some things never change) and 2) I had to laugh because I went to school sooooo long ago, it was before iPhones existed so it was funny to see them being used as the theme for Andrew's floor: 

A look inside Andrew's room. I have to point out, at the risk of embarassing Andy, that it definitely smelled like a boy's room. Not like a really stinky smell that made you think it was time to do laundry, but just the moment you walked in, if you were blindfolded, you could tell it was a guy's room. We were amazed at how spacious it was, even more so because Andy doesn't have a roommate at the moment:

What you see Amy and Andy munching on in the picture was my "visit from home" gift for him - a tin filled with homemade chocolate chip cookies. Nothing fancy (besides a pinch of sea salt) and I thought it would be the perfect comfort food for him to share with friends (if he were so inclined):

Touring the rest of campus, I was struck by the simple layout of the campus. All the classrooms, dining halls and the student center are located in the middle of campus, which is surrounded by one loop of a road and offshoots for all the different parking lots and dorms. The most striking part of campus is the radio tower next to the student center. And, it even has bells that ring every 15 minutes!

My favorite part of campus, and the only area that had a lot of color was the outdoor ampitheatre - I think it resembles a labyrinth and I can imagine how cool it would be to listen to outdoor concerts here:

Clearly, the rest of the group was as enthralled as I was by the grass:

Finally, responding to Andy's pleas to spare him from dining hall food, we whisked him off campus and began our search for a good restaurant.