there's definitely a smith bubble. it isn't the real world. despite our awareness of what's going on, we're very shut off from the real world. it's jarring to go home to new york for breaks.

i really like smith, but if i could change one thing... well, several. see, we used to have dining halls in all the houses, until carol christ came around. she decided that this made the houses too clique-y, and got rid of a bunch of dining halls. there are still a good number of them, with varying menus at every meal. however, i know that when my house goes to eat across the street, we all sit together anyway. this goes for most other houses, to my knowledge. the clique-y-ness has hardly been avoided. for that matter, it's less cost-effective, believe it or not. that money could be put into something else, such as scholarships and financial aid, or library acquisitions.

the other thing i'd like to change is laundry. i like to be clean, so it should be free.

smith can sometimes feel too small. it's way bigger than my high school -- there were about 100 graduating people in my class -- but at the same time i feel like there's only about two or three degrees of separation between people. i mean, when you think about how many people you've indirectly made out with...

anyway. the other amazing thing about smith is the town of northampton. your perfect college town, with great food and shops. you can get pretty much everything you need, and if not, hampshire mall is a 20 minute bus ride away, and it has a target.

i've also mentioned the houses. we don't have dorms. the houses vary in size. for instance, i live in PARSONS complex, which is really composed of parsons house and parsons annex. there are 40-something people in the house, and 20-something in the annex. a lot of the time, i feel as though house-pride is way stronger than college pride. the house communities are generally pretty good, and it actually feels like home. i love my house, which is, by the way, PARSONS HOUSE.

i like the classes, overall. lecture classes are nice because the professor won't usually know your name, and you can skip them when you're stressed over other stuff.

i'm an art history major. i generally don't like art history classes, though, so that kind of blows. i feel like everyone in them is pretty damn pretentious and sucks up way too hard to the professor. i do love art history though, and the museum is another one of the great things about smith. i'm from new york, and i'm used to the metropolitan museum of art (aka the met) being my second home, so smith's museum provides a nice comfort.

depending on the size of your class, professors will know your name. if it's a big lecture class, then don't count out on it -- then again, this can also be pretty nice, because then it's easier to skip that class and go unnoticed, which is good for when you're really stressed and think you could use your time more productively than listening to patrick coby going on about plato.

but smaller classes are of course, nice to have too. i really like getting to know the professors outside of class, and or just saying hi and having them say hi back around campus. it's always good to have a faculty tie, especially if you don't like your advisor that much.

in terms of hard or easy, classes vary, but they're not impossible.

a lot of people can't dress themselves. it's kind of pathetic. sweatpants to class is okay once in a while, but honestly, pick up a copy of vogue and get your shit together. this is one of my biggest issues with the smith student body: i just want to put them on What Not To Wear and have tim gunn beat the crap out of them. i mean, what are we, twelve? can we stop shopping at hot topic? we're adults now, let's start acting and DRESSING like them.

on a more positive, note, however: one thing about any smithie is that you should never make any assumptions about her(/him if applicable, you shouldn't even assume a gender). everyone will surprise you in one way or another.

they're generally full of themselves and care too much.

i avoid them.

in terms of athetic events, performances, and other such things, smith students are generally very supporting of each other. if it's the first rugby game of the season... you can expect a lot of people to be there.

parties. smith parties are generally not that great. a lot of people just drink with their friends (yes, even underage!). the drug scene is a little less open. pot is pretty popular.

on the other hand, there are plenty of people who choose not to drink or do drugs, and engage in sober fun. i just don't really know them. but there is always plenty to do... like go out to a movie, go out to dinner... go to the smith parties... your homework will always be an option.

a lot of people consider smith to be the lesbian school. they also think that we get really up in arms about everything. i suppose you could use the five college scooby-doo analogy. smith is velma; mount holyoke is daphne (though smith used to be daphne); amherst is fred; hampshire is shaggy. (umass was never included to my knowledge).

that we're all gay, that we can't dress ourselves, that we're really intense