Nate Knows Nada

This is my first time at Princeton, so I thought I’d walk around the campus a bit today.

It’s absolutely lovely. This is very much a college town, and the campus has a coherent, idyllic feel to it in a way that Harvard does not. Lots of trees, big fields and open spaces, and variation in building style. Princeton reminds me of UC Davis, in an Ivy League way. (THAT might be the first time those two schools have been linked in that way.)

And dinner tonight before our workshop begins tomorrow was also quite fun. I do enjoy getting together with these people; they’re the very few with whom I can talk about HIV as a political scientist, using our language and analytic methods. Plus they’re just generally nice, congenial, and collegial.

Number 17: Upon attempting to walk through the metal detector, the “security guard” tells you that no shoes are metal detector “safe,” so you’ll have to remove them. All right, it’s one more step, even though you’ve been through other airports where they let you leave your shoes on. (This leads me to believe that “security” is a relative term–why might shoes be safe on one flight but not another?) Then he lets the woman behind me leave her clogs on (which are easier to take off than my shoes).