The good and the bad.

I've been in Madison twice so far this week, starting my new job as a McNair advisor. After hours, I've been exploring the campus and have discovered a few things.

There are many good things, including:

1. Almost every restaurant, kiosk or deli that I go to has at LEAST two vegetarian options. These are not watered-down versions of meat entrees. For lunch today I had vegetarian sushi - delicately fried tofu stuffed with barley noodles and wasabi. Mmmmmm.

2. The University Bookstore has a stack of discount paperbacks. I tell myself that I'm actually saving money, because for every purchase at the bookstore, I get a coupon for $2 off of parking in the city ramp. So, today I spent $25 to save $2.

3. I have not seen a single polyester pantsuit so far. "Dressed up" seems to mean khakis and a polo shirt.

There are some bad things as well:

1. Physical exercise is inevitable. My office is at the top of this mountain, euphamistically called "Bascom Hill". It's a 45 degree angle of terror for my fat ass. Also, the campus is huge, so today I think I walked about 5 miles in search of the elusive "Union South" building.

2. With the liberal atmosphere comes a fair amount of nutjobs. Today there was a woman strumming her guitar and singing about "evil spirits" and how she'd like to pray for all of us. She was giving out free Bibles. Freakin' fundamentalist.

3. Parking. Today's bill = $8.25 (minus my $2 coupon, of course). 'Nuff said.


But, all in all, I'm convinced I made the right decision to go back to school.

Dengue update: Masud got out of the hospital today, although he did sound like he was dying when I talked to him this afternoon. The doctors must know what they are doing, right? They wouldn't let a dying man out of the hospital, right?