There's also one in Brooklyn

We're only two weeks in, but I've still had moments when I've missed Dobson, my lovely quirky dorm from last year. My freshman year I found no better way to fall asleep than listening to the incoming student's voices echo in the courtyard. I loved seeing how many lights were on while others frantically typed papers, like myself. Even when it seemed Debbie was trying to ignore my very existance, I never felt alone during the evenings will the rest of the DOB out my window.

Ryle is bigger than Dobson. Much much MUCH bigger. I look out my window and see, not other students desperately trying to procrastinate, but the perpetually lit windows of the main lounge. After 10:30, students have to enter the building through the back, so I can't listen to the smokers joke and laugh as I drift off. Sure, I might hear the occassional passing in the hallway, but it's not at all like last year.

However, I have a tree.

This tree obviously isn't mine personally. If I was in charge of its well-being, it'd probably die in a week (though I didn't kill the foster plants....which I only mention to discover I never posted about them in the first place because that was when the network was down. I sense a second Vintage Toast. Anyway.). But, it is right outside my window, and--if the hole in my screen were bigger--I could touch it easily. Instead of falling asleep to people, I wake up to birds and (even better) squirrels. I might miss my reaffirming "Place in this World/Never Alone" (and any other song titles you can think up that talk about connection...ooh! "Rainbow Connection!") evenings, but it's awful spiffy to wake up like Cinderella.