bubble part one

The bubble continues to exist despite establishing myself outside it. I like that, Katie! Like the tree falling in the woods: I don't have to be in the bubble for it to be there. This is a very good thing, because I can always go back and have it seal around me again, for short amounts of time. This was the first since I graduated.

This is not to say that the place hasn't changed. I'd heard a lot about changes from current students and those that had visited before. I visited most of the places on my list, and some that hadn't been on it.

One of the most different was Thayer dining hall. It was mostly closed down for extensive changes, but the building itself was open, so we walked through what we could. Corey was disappointed at the lack of the FoCo runway: FoCo was totally closed off, being used as storage while other places were being redone.

No more Blend, or Remix, or whatever people don't call it anymore. No more Kitchen Sink for Scott.

Homeplate was still open for the interim students, but not at the hour we were there. Remember the dessert demos? The Sunday Brunch? It wasn't left unscathed, however.

The first feeling I had when I saw the Homeplate seating area was one of space. That's because that elevated step is gone and the half-wall enclosures are gone. No more nooks, booths, cozy feeling. Instead: rigid rows with no personality. A second FoCo.

You may also notice the solid wall on the right side. There is no longer a FoCo-Pavilion-Homeplate circuit. Presumably the Pavilion is still there, but there was no way to get to it with the FoCo doors locked. The recession in the wall is only a couple of doors, possibly restrooms.

This was one of the weirdest things: The stairs leading down from Topside have been walled off. The stairs are still there, I guess, but there's no way to get to them. We later went up the other stairs and found lots of construction. It also turned out that the stairs pictured actually go from nowhere to nowhere. There doesn't seem to be any reason for this whatsoever. It's not like they're taking out the stairs in order to create room: why build the wall in that case?

There were also a couple tanks of helium in the Thayer dining entrance. H-croo was active and probably needed them for whatever they were doing with the crowds of trippers there. Too bad we couldn't play with them.

In a mild state of shock and disappointment, we headed off to other parts of campus.