Greetings from the Garden State!

New Jersey has such nice sounding nickname--The Garden State. It conjers up such beautiful images--i think of a garden with plants and little critters--so peaceful. But I just wonder where these peaceful images are in this state. I'm in Hoboken at the Stevens Institute of Technology. For those of you who aren't familiar--Hoboken is right across the Hudson River from Manhattan. In reality I'm in NYC. Hoboken really is a neat town. They've got great little shops along Washington Street and the view of lower Manhattan is second to none. But New Jersey is a piece of work.

Driving is different here. They do not believe in blinkers on the New Jersey Turnpike, which takes a little adjustment. And the lines of the interstate really don't mean anything either. Its more like a free for all of driving. Hilarious, though! Its fun to drive on the NJ Turnpike.

Now let me tell you about my motel room. I am staying at a Super 8 in Hackensack. I chose this because it was the cheapest room I could find ($70) that was within 30 miles of Hoboken. When I arrived at Super 8 on Monday evening I was excited to know that they have free wireless...but is standard with my travels...it was broken and didn't work in the rooms. The lobby is located in a little hut that is about 100 yards in front of the building with the rooms. When I called about the internet they told me that he internet worked in the lobby and I could come use it there. So....I did. I was in the lobby for about 2 hours and it was rediculous what I saw. There were about 25 guys that came in over the course of the 2 hours asking for rooms. But not in the standard way....at first I thought I was making this up, but then I realize, YEP! I'm hearing exactly what I thought I was hearing. The guys were coming in and getting rooms for 3 and 4 hours. When one of the guys asked for condoms I was like "yep, I'm staying at a whorehouse". So YES...I'm staying at a place that charges by the hour. I should have known when the billboard outside the Super 8 said "Midnight Special". The next day I found out that the place is surrounded by two strip clubs and an adult bookstore. How in god's name to I pick these places? I've taken it with a grain of salt and found humor in it. Later that night I went back into the lobby to do more work and I found it entertaining to see who was coming through the door.

Stevens is the most mediocre chapter I work with. They're just so complacent. I would rather work with a chapter that is undeniably bad, than a chapter that is this ho-hum. They rank right in the middle for grades, they don't do anything really spectacular and they don't do anything terrible either.

One more night in the Super 8 and then I head back up to Binghamton, NY early tomorrow morning.

-T