I left Orcas yesterday morning, had a real nice ride w/my friend Trish to Mt. Vernon, (we watched Grey’s on the ferry ride, the episode where Meredith has her mom’s ashes at the hospital). Then I caught the Greyhound (oh the hours upon hours of my life I have spent on Greyhound buses) and got into Olympia yesterday evening. I’m sitting in the computer lab at Evergreen, waiting for my campus visit to start in an hour.

The cool thing is, on Saturday, my last day to get mail on Orcas, I got a package from Evergreen that I thought was going to be a guidebook or catalog, and it was, but it also was an acceptance letter! And I got a small scholarship for academic achievement to help offset tuition. So, that is good news so far! That makes two colleges that have admitted me so far (the other being Portland State, and my India program is through them, and I had to apply to get in in order to get credit/financial aid for India, so I’ve been accepted there since August). Two yeses, four to go. I guess I’m off to a good start, and it was really nice to see some payoff from all that work I put in, before I left.

I had a great, great time doing tarot readings and hanging out w/my friend Tracy last night. She is one of my favorite people ever. We used to share a house on camp for a magical winter, and now we see each other about once a year and it’s always awesome.

Very first impressions of Olympia/Evergreen: It’s woodsy, which is a major, major plus in my book. Coming into the city on the bus, we rode through miles of trees. I like that. And then this morning, taking the bus to campus was the same thing. Very green. Lots and lots of trees. There is also nearby ocean, right on, gotta love that. People seem friendly and aware.

I always notice what sort of things I overhear on public transit in a place. I guess that really started last year when I was on the east coast visiting schools. I noticed what sort of conversations were going on around me. A friend of mine who I visited went to a very good school, yet on the buses around campus, the talk was some of the most petty, shallow crap I have ever heard, I mean I would have thought I was in middle school. And it was consistent every time we rode that bus, and students were rude. As a contrast, when I was visiting Emerson, the conversations I overheard were about projects (film, art, writing, music), political discussions, intelligent conversation. People seemed animated and passionate about what they were doing, and they were much friendlier.

So this morning I paid attention on the bus, not just to the fact that we were passing through woodsy landscape, but also to what was going on in the bus around me. And people seemed friendly and talkative, and were having discussions about classes and programs, they seemed engaged, which is cool.

I do wonder if Olympia might be a bit too sleepy and small for me, not different enough from Orcas in a way. That’s my biggest concern. I’ve been thinking about leaving Orcas since 2006, and sort of feeling like I don’t quite fit in with the culture there, like it’s too New Age-y for me, even though I read tarot cards. I’m just craving something that’s pretty different from Orcas, though I do love the island. Trying to keep an open mind. Later today, I’m doing all sorts of school activities, including sitting in on a class on environmental health, public policy and social justice, taking a tour, and going to an info session. I hope it’ll give me a good flavor of the school so I can get a relative feel for how I would fit in here, and whether it is a good fit academically.

I will try to blog often, on the road!

~EJ