Friday, August 26, 2011

Bienvenidos a Aggieland!




In the well over a month it has been since i last wrote here, many things have happened. I of course apologize for the extended absence, and hope that I can better keep up with this thing they call a blog.

The Aggieland Water Tower and the Sbisa Dining centre
As of August 11, 2011, I have lived, breathed and eaten (literally- the wind came up one day and blew dust in my mouth) everything that is Aggieland. I attended fish camp, a whirlwind four days of yelling, sweating, laughing, yelling, sleeping yelling and cheering. I have shopped in this town of College Station until i thought that i could walk it in my sleep. And, most importantly, I spent four days on the road with my dad, driving all the way from Calgary, Alberta Canada to College Station, Texas, USA. Dad has long since flown home, and i am left with nothing to do but write to you all about my most recent and by far my largest escapade.
The Academic Building in the middle of campus. The gentleman standing in front is Sullivan Ross,
affectionately referred to as Ol' Sul Ross or Sully. He is a past president of the University, and if you place a penny at his
feet he will grant you good luck on your exams. I believe that i have about ten dollars I will be converting into pennies! 
First, a little history of the school. Texas A&M was founded in 1876 as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, or TAMC (I have also learned that they are not so good at acronyms here). It was an all male school with mandatory enrollment in the Corp of Cadets, and it had only six students in the first year. They slept in tents on campus and attended class in makeshift rooms. From these humble beginnings, TAMC became TAMU, and while the A&M doesn't really mean Ag and Mechanics anymore, the letters where kept in the title for posterity. Now a bustling school of 49,000 students, male, female, white, black, international, out of state, corps members and civilians, TAMU has become a universally renowned school of research, a centre for the arts and culture of the western countries, and a place where countless students and alumni call home.

This is the Century Tree. I don't exactly hos old it is but, man, this is one old oak tree. Superstition states that
if you walk under the tree with your true love, you will be together and happy forever. But, if you walk
under it alone, you will remain alone forever. Needless to say, I steer pretty well clear of this tree for the
time being. However, that little bench has seen more proposals than the top of the Eiffel Tower.

No comments:

Post a Comment