Athens, Ohio

Not Athens Greece, but it's still a really great place.
After several days on the road and a few days getting acquainted with the town, I sent Dad off to the airport in Columbus this morning, and I am now free to enjoy graduate school on my own.
Well, not quite on my own. In the incoming class of actors there are eight students. A small number, but it does not include all the directs, playwrights, and designers who will also be joining us. A primary order of business for the eight of us actors was to get to know each other, and we've already gone out together a couple times. They all seem to be really great people and I'm excited about working with them. We have five men and three women (one of which is my housemate, Marissa, who I adore), and we range in age from 22 to 34. My classmate Jon and I are the 22-year-olds, and I keep joking that we're the babies. Jon also recently completed his undergraduate and is from Montreal.
The town, campus and countryside are lovely. Yesterday, Dad and I drove the forty minutes to the West Virginia border and had lunch overlooking the Ohio River, as we had over the Mississippi a few days prior. I included some photos of the river as well as campus and town. There are very endearing old brick roads all over the downtown area which is only a short walk from my house. These roads, along with the old Victorian houses make Athens feel very quaint. The neighbors are so welcoming and gentle here that it all feels a little back in time.
Marissa, a New Yorker of ten years, and I, a recent North Portlander, both commented on our walk home from campus today that although we would simply ignore the sound of sirens at home, here them seem out of place, and make us turn our heads wondering what had happened.
That final photograph I uploaded was meant to illustrate one more point about Athens. It's quite a party town for the young frat boys, and evidence of that culture is everywhere. Luckily, I will be spending so much time in Kanter Hall (the theatre, of course) that I imagine I will miss a lot of the party life. Fine with me!
I'm sending you all my love from Ohio. As my Portland friend, Michael Buchino, informed me, "you can't say 'Ohio' without saying 'hi.'"