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Alumni Weekend?
May. 10th, 2009 12:39 amSo I'm still on the fence over whether or not to go to Alumni Weekend this year; the housing deadline is Monday so I should make up my mind soon.
It's certainly a great time for seeing people one doesn't get to see often; the flip side is that so much is going on that I think it can be difficult to really spend the one-on-one time with people that makes for good conversations. I think I could do better on that front, however, by simply not trying to do as many organized things (this not being a 2006 reunion year, I have no desire to march in the class parade or go to Alumni Collection, and I might skip the Mozart Requiem reading this year too). Also, AW seems to be the one SWIL event where there's likely to be critical mass for an Advanced Roundsing.
On the other hand, I don't know if I can really deal with being away for 7 weekends straight. Assuming I head down on Friday, I will literally have returned from UMass Amherst the evening before. I expect to be quite busy with work at that point, trying to get everything ready for my REU student's arrival before I head off for my brother's graduation and to England. So I'm a lot less inclined to head for Philly right around lunchtime Friday than I was last year. And if I head down Saturday morning, is a ~ 24 hour trip really worth it?
I have enough Amtrak Guest Rewards points saved up to take a free ride down on Amtrak, and even to take it on Acela Express. With that it's still a long trip, but I tend to be productive on train rides. Flying is maybe a possibility, albeit a more expensive one. I'd probably try to get a Southwest flight to PHL from Manchester, although with that the added travel time to MHT starts seriously cutting into any time savings.
There's a 3:15 Acela Express departure from South Station, getting into 30th St at 8:07, that I could think about -- that or the one leaving roughly an hour later.
It's certainly a great time for seeing people one doesn't get to see often; the flip side is that so much is going on that I think it can be difficult to really spend the one-on-one time with people that makes for good conversations. I think I could do better on that front, however, by simply not trying to do as many organized things (this not being a 2006 reunion year, I have no desire to march in the class parade or go to Alumni Collection, and I might skip the Mozart Requiem reading this year too). Also, AW seems to be the one SWIL event where there's likely to be critical mass for an Advanced Roundsing.
On the other hand, I don't know if I can really deal with being away for 7 weekends straight. Assuming I head down on Friday, I will literally have returned from UMass Amherst the evening before. I expect to be quite busy with work at that point, trying to get everything ready for my REU student's arrival before I head off for my brother's graduation and to England. So I'm a lot less inclined to head for Philly right around lunchtime Friday than I was last year. And if I head down Saturday morning, is a ~ 24 hour trip really worth it?
I have enough Amtrak Guest Rewards points saved up to take a free ride down on Amtrak, and even to take it on Acela Express. With that it's still a long trip, but I tend to be productive on train rides. Flying is maybe a possibility, albeit a more expensive one. I'd probably try to get a Southwest flight to PHL from Manchester, although with that the added travel time to MHT starts seriously cutting into any time savings.
There's a 3:15 Acela Express departure from South Station, getting into 30th St at 8:07, that I could think about -- that or the one leaving roughly an hour later.
