![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I also went and found the university. Google maps was really useful - when I asked for directions, up popped the number of the appropriate bus, and how much the fare was ($1.50, compared to our excessive $1.75). So when I got off the highway bus, I toddled right over to the waiting #16, together with all the book- and backpack-toting passengers.
They're not kidding about UCSC being hidden among the trees. Redwoods galore
with buildings squeezed in amidst them and the other evergreens
(I also like the potted plant perched on the Corbusian balcony rail.)
and this was my third photo on campus:
It's extremely hilly - even for a Cornellian - so there are both paths and elevated walkways, which sometimes cross:
and where there is a bit of flat land they try to have a reminder that nature was here first, like a few boulders between the bookshop and the ATMs:
Unfortunately, although there are some less than attractive pieces of modernist functionalism
(the art studios, obviously designed to be hosed down),
as seems to be the rule on modern campuses, the library is the single ugliest piece of brutalism - and it was being torturously renovated, to boot. My route to it involved a detour on a catwalk with carpeting covering the slippy bits.
In contrast, the dorms are very nice. They are grouped in colleges, and a lot of thought has gone into making these attractive enclaves, with touches of whimsy
gardens and even quadrangles
in one of which I found a pond and met my first koi.
They came over to say hello and swished about hoping I would throw in a treat, and I was making silly faces at the big dark grey guy when a lady whom I took to be faculty came up behind me and recommended them as good eating. Excellent white meat, she said. I politely demurred.
To my surprise, there are also points where one can see the Pacific spread out below one in all its stupendous blueness:
- both with and without enigmatic modern sculpture. (The sign on the base simply says something to the effect of "This thing is more fragile than you think.")
A rather nice campus, if a bit far out of town for my tastes. And in addition to the county buses they have runabouts plying the circular road that runs through most of it. With wheeled stretch banana slugs depicted on the side. I didn't sample the fare in any of the dining establishments I passed, but noted that there are lots of cafes and at least one pizza place among them, and there were people tucking in with relish. The library will get a return visit, especially since the lady on reference was eager to help.
They're not kidding about UCSC being hidden among the trees. Redwoods galore
with buildings squeezed in amidst them and the other evergreens
(I also like the potted plant perched on the Corbusian balcony rail.)
and this was my third photo on campus:
It's extremely hilly - even for a Cornellian - so there are both paths and elevated walkways, which sometimes cross:
and where there is a bit of flat land they try to have a reminder that nature was here first, like a few boulders between the bookshop and the ATMs:
Unfortunately, although there are some less than attractive pieces of modernist functionalism
(the art studios, obviously designed to be hosed down),
as seems to be the rule on modern campuses, the library is the single ugliest piece of brutalism - and it was being torturously renovated, to boot. My route to it involved a detour on a catwalk with carpeting covering the slippy bits.
In contrast, the dorms are very nice. They are grouped in colleges, and a lot of thought has gone into making these attractive enclaves, with touches of whimsy
gardens and even quadrangles
in one of which I found a pond and met my first koi.
They came over to say hello and swished about hoping I would throw in a treat, and I was making silly faces at the big dark grey guy when a lady whom I took to be faculty came up behind me and recommended them as good eating. Excellent white meat, she said. I politely demurred.
To my surprise, there are also points where one can see the Pacific spread out below one in all its stupendous blueness:
- both with and without enigmatic modern sculpture. (The sign on the base simply says something to the effect of "This thing is more fragile than you think.")
A rather nice campus, if a bit far out of town for my tastes. And in addition to the county buses they have runabouts plying the circular road that runs through most of it. With wheeled stretch banana slugs depicted on the side. I didn't sample the fare in any of the dining establishments I passed, but noted that there are lots of cafes and at least one pizza place among them, and there were people tucking in with relish. The library will get a return visit, especially since the lady on reference was eager to help.