Joy is logging in to my school-to-be's computers and registering my laptop and wireless card so that, even though classes don't start for two months, I can open up my powerbook anywhere inside CMU's campus-wide wireless network and have 2Mbps net connectivity.

Tomorrow will be surreal (and by 'tomorrow' I mean Tuesday, since my flight arrives in Pitts at 11pm Monday). On one hand I know the area so well, as conveyed through texts, maps, and a dozen vignettes from a dozen different Pittsburghers' experiences. On the other hand I've never been there, and therefore can't know what it's like.

It reminds me of when I went to 'CalSO' (Student Orientation) at Berkeley back in '91. I'd already chosen Berkeley as my college, but I had yet to set foot in it, so the 3-day orientation (with my mom alongside) was my first Berkeley experience. The odd part is that I still vividly remember being dropped off by the cab, in the morning, in the rain, between Soda Cory Hall and North Gate, and finding our way up to Foothill. Later in the week, I remember walking over (and taking a picture of) the bridge between the Faculty Club and LeConte (the one that has 'MDCCCCX' on the arch).

I clearly remember these images and the primative mental topologies associated with them, but the odd part is that they don't match up to the Berkeley I found once I lived there. It's as if they're out of phase, as if I was viewing them from a different perspective (and I suppose I was, temporally as well as mentally).

I'm really curious about the CMU I'll discover this week. Even once I get back, I'll be interested to see if this will be the same CMU that I'll know after living there 6 months. I'll gain more fidelity in my mental map, to be sure, but I wonder if this weeks experiences will connect to the later ones or if, like my CalSO experience, it's an island of its own, with similar landmarks, but on a different plane...

More than anything though, I hope 4 days is enough time to find a good apartment. I'm bringing my camera and the aforementioned powerbook, so you can expect further bulletins to follow through the week.

Have a good one!