Skytop.

Living in Syracuse is sort of like living in a walled city. You don't want to venture too far out, because there's so much going on at any given time. The walls sort of appear when you're on the interstate and realize that going to far means running into a toll booth. If you turn around immediately after entering the toll booth and try to come back, they charge you the maximum. No bueno.

Anyway, if Syracuse is like a walled city, then the university feels like walking in the sky. Granted, Ole Miss feels like heaven on earth, but up here, you feel like a denizen of the astral plane itself. Maybe that's just me as a grad student talking—having ascended from undergrad. Walking up University Avenue presents a distinctive path; the steps leading up to the quad and the clearing between buildings gives the sense that, in the middle of this city, you've entered the inner sanctum. From any point on the campus, you realize that the campus is—literally—elevated above the rest of the city; you can look out across the city on one end and across a valley at the other end. I was given a crash-course walking tour a few weeks ago. All the while, I was in awe. This feeling of being in the clouds while on campus is heightened when the sky is overcast. Certainly, this feeling will be elevated further when snowfall besets the campus.

I'm quite literally in love here. The best feeling is knowing I'm in the right place.

Orientation happened today, and the reality of the program set in. It will be intensive. It will not be easy. It will require long hours. Most of all, it will be immeasurably rewarding.

I've met new people, made new connections... almost like freshman year again, in a way. We're all relatively eager to get to know each other; our group has become fast friends in a week. We already have our inside jokes (this took no time at all), we've already declared the banes of our existences, and we have all made the solidarity to suffer through our collective (and sometimes individual) challenges.

Yeah, I miss Oxford. I miss my old friends. More than that, I miss my brother.

Pretty soon, I'll travel beyond the invisible walls of this city. There's a lot more to see.