<p>so, Im at smith! Ive been here since the 26th, and I honestly LOVE IT! I really lucked out. I had been talking to some spring transfers online, and we met up at orientation. I have a great group of transfer friends, and smith is wonderful! Thanks for your help, everyone!!</p>
<p>Supercow, that's great!!! May you have a productive and happy time at Smith.</p>
<p>Supercow...great news! Congratulations! All that worrying you did before...and for what? Glad to hear you found friends quickly and that you feel Smith is a good fit. Keep singing Smith's praises for all to hear!</p>
<p>{{{I honestly LOVE IT!}}}</p>
<p>I have been thinking of you. Im so glad youre happy. Youve made my day.</p>
<p>SC...which house are you in?</p>
<p>I live in wilson on the quad. Most of my friends live on elm street. My roomate is great, and Ive met a lot of amazing people. I am smiths biggest fan!</p>
<p>SC...sorry to keep bothering you, but how do your friends like Elm St. Those houses seem to have caught my D's eye.</p>
<p>
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I am smiths biggest fan!
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</p>
<p>Does this mean you now forgive some of us for having been so enthusiastic?</p>
<p>{{{but how do your friends like Elm St. Those houses seem to have caught my D's eye.}}}</p>
<p>Talbot House residents participate in many house games and traditions each year as well, including "assassins" and "mortals and fairies." </p>
<p>Its not bizarre as it sounds and very of fun to play for the 1st couple of weeks of school.</p>
<p>So far, my D is looking at Elm St. or quad houses. If quad, any particular ones stand out in your mind? Scales seems to be beautiful in pictures, although I have not seen it in person yet.</p>
<p>You might find this amusing.</p>
<p>{{ Emerson House has a special role in what is one of Smith's best traditions, Mountain Day. Every fall, the president of the college chooses a beautiful autumn day to cancel classes, giving students the opportunity to enjoy the foliage and the weather. No one knows when Mountain Day will be until the president has the bells rung early in the morning to signify that classes are canceled. After the bells finish ringing, Emersonians blare the "1812 Overture"
<a href="http://www.smith.edu/sao/reslife/houses/emerson.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.smith.edu/sao/reslife/houses/emerson.php</a></p>
<p>Just found out this morning that Bette Freidan (sp?) went to Smith. Smith sure does have lots of amazing alumna.</p>
<p>{{Just found out this morning that Bette Freidan}}</p>
<p>I listed the article on the Smith main page--5th down from the top.</p>
<p>i lived in cushing for a year and had a good time--a plus is the in-house dining room (emerson, comstock, wilder, morrow, wilson, and king and scales are other quad houses that have in-house dining, and you can get to a dining room from jordan without going outside). </p>
<p>king-scales and comstock-wilder were renovated much more recently than the other quad houses and their common spaces, at least, look like fancy hotels--it's that nice! the others are, shall we say, homier. But for me, that was good--i wouldn't want to feel like i couldn't walk in with snowy boots or plop down and watch tv on a comfy couch.</p>
<p>Very long, interesting article about Betty Friedan in today's main section of the Los Angeles Times. Talks about the swirls and contentions within the womens movement as it was born and matured; some of the intramovement arguments still echo at Smith today.</p>
<p>More than that. Friedan's work actually grew out of a notes/survey she did for her Smith Class of '42 15th year anniversary. She noticed that, as she remembered all her intelligent, gifted friends from college, most all of them defined themselves by their husbands, kids, voluntary activities, etc., but not through their own quests and accomplishments. Friedan's work is both a backward look at Smith, the impetus for the major changes that took place at Smith in the late 70s under Jill Ker Conway, and the twists and turns regarding women's place in the world that we see today. I think it is hard to overestimate the importance of her achievement.</p>
<p>"Yes" to all of Mini's foregoing. </p>
<p>Btw, Mini, yesterday we saw to operas by Puccini at UCLA and I'll bet $100 that you never sang in one of the two. (Got back home at half-time, so the day was balanced, if not perfectly so.)</p>
<p>Actually, I have never sung in either, though I would LOVE to be able to sing the part of Lauretta (as would most singers), but my nasty little Y chromosome gets in the way. ;)</p>
<p>Following the second performance of the opera, the head of the 5-College Early Music program (who supervises my d.'s STRIDE), asked her "what next" for her work. She looked him straight in the eye and said "publication"! He jumped with delight (apparently, he had the same idea), noting (he said to me) that the first publication of the opera (just some of the vocal parts) was done by a Smith professor in the 1940s, so it is fitting that the new one should be done by a Smith student! He is sending for a facsimilie of the original (which is in the historical library in Florence). D. is excited! and her Italian is turning out awfully handy.</p>
<p>Thought I'd mention something that was funny! At the curtain calls, while the applause was huge, there were clearly "fan clubs" for the singers from each of the colleges in different parts of the audiences. So when the Holyoke women took their bows, one part of the audience erupted, to be followed by the UMass folks, and then the Smith folks. No Amherst or Hampshire singers, though the 3 recorder players and several other orchestral players were from Amherst. It was pretty humorous. (The artistic director is a visiting prof at Vassar!)</p>
<p>Mini, you cheat: you looked up the program.</p>
<p>I did not care for "Suor Angelica;" as a piece set in a convent, it makes a wondeful recruiting tool for Judaism. [I still have a hard time swallowing that opera plots make ballet plots look taut and rigorous in comparison. There's some connection between this and Italian military prowess, I feel sure.]</p>
<p>The other one, "Gianni Schicchi," was a lot of fun, if more of a pre-sitcom artwork.</p>