People in Syracuse don't seem to be bummed that they aren't in Seattle

Well, here is how things are, and how they will go.

If Chris gets a Fulbright, I think we will go to Georgia. If not, we will go to Syracuse.

Syracuse ended up being a good city to spend time in. Much smaller than, o, say, Seattle, but infinitely larger and more real-feeling than Oxford, it felt pretty good after 2 days of variously driving aimlessly and being shown around.

We started out at an awkward B&B in the neighborhood of "Little Italy," and from there went to poke around in the pleasant, but isolated-feeling pocket of Armory Square, where a walkable portion of Syracuse's downtown has been economically resucitated. There are good restaurants and some bars there. The store-fronts of designer shoes and menus priced in whole-dollar amounts made me feel bleak and poor. I couldn't imagine living there, I felt slightly under seige as I do in Oxford. (Me=jerk?) It was the Saturday before Easter, and few people were out & about. We had dinner at Ambrosia, where the Sushi & Italian menu made my eyes water. (The food was *really* good, though).

We also walked out of Armory Square and north a bit, into a part of downtown by Clinton Square (Clinton Park?), where there were large windy spaces and tall, ornate bank buildings. Lots more restaurants, closed. Streets sunny, empty.

Drove east on James street into Eastwood, walked into the Palace Theater and looked into the repeating reflection of selves in round mirrors on opposite walls. Noted the walkable downtown initiative. http://walkeastwood.org/ (Cool).

Went back to the B&B, discovered this very, very interesting website: http://www.syracusethenandnow.net/ put out by the Preservation Association of Central New York. ((Huh!))

On Sunday, we met with one of the CW Professors, B.Smith, who gave us the nickel tour of SU. The Creative Writing program sounds really, really good, and many of the things that the University is doing -- trying to influence downtown redevelopment & such -- piqued my interest. Oh, and there is an alt-weekly -- one of the oldest independent (er, alternative) papers in the nation, apparently. The New Times.

Visited a few neighborhoods where a lot of students and grad students live, all happily less, well, intense than Oxford OH off-campus student haunts. I think Chris and I both have a tiny crush on Westcott, and will probably try to find an apartment there if we can.