jesslyons

My family is from outside of Naples. In order to get my Italian citizenship I need to go track down a bunch of birth, death and marriage certificates in a town hall I’m told probably burned down in a village whose entire population consists of people I’m related too. It looks a little unlikely at this point, but I’m being hopeful (:

A GREAT place to go snorkeling or diving. I found the reefs here to be in much better condition than a lot of the ones in the Caribbean. Absolutely beatiful.

Really beautiful, but unless you have money, it’s not really worth your time. Aside from expensive restaurants and shops the only other thing to do is go to the beach – provided you can afford a hotel room. It is nice to take a drive through and just look at all the ridiculous mansions made out of clapboard.

to visit my sister at the Academy with my family. We usually stay right in Annapolis. The city is very clean and well preserved. Although on the more expensive side, it’s a super cute town with some nice shops and restaurants – and perhaps most importantly it’s a very convenient train ride to Washington.

A lot of people enjoy it and it probably has a lot to offer that I didn’t see, but overall I thought it was a lot of hype. I can see it being really entertaining for others though. I would definitely never want to live there!

The beaches, although cold, are very beautiful. With 360 days of sunshine if it wasn’t so damn expensive I’d move there in a heartbeat. I’m also a big fan of Sea World and the zoo.

If you’re into gambling. For myself, I’m not a big gambler or drinker so it wasn’t that big of a deal, although I do like looking at all the different hotels and the dinner shows and night performances.

but if I could do it over I would have chosen grad school someplace else

If you’re looking for a good education, and some name recognition (especially in the Northeast), you really can’t beat it. The education I received here is way better than the one I got as a grad student at a well know liberal arts school. A few pluses: Troy is cheap to live in and the local atmosphere is starting to pick up to. Unless you’re an immature guy who is going to complain about the ratio at a tech school (ratios at ALL tech schools are bad) and ignore the fact that there are also two all female schools within 15 minutes, then don’t come.

All the comments on Troy are accurate in some way. Troy was originally a bustling industrial city and when my mother was in her teens she would often take a bus over to Troy to go shopping. But after the factories started pulling out Troy when on a downhill slide from which it is just starting to recover. I attended RPI (in Troy) for 4 years and spend a lot time there now since most of my friends and my boyfriend chose to stay in Troy after graduating. The city has changed SO much. 5 years ago you couldn’t find a place to get a coffee, now there are numerous coffee shops and restaurants to stop in, along with some cute boutiques, a book store, the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall and numerous antique shops and art galleries. In fact, Troy is the oldest standing Victorian community in the world, with most of the architecture being the original turn of the century.

If you’re thinking of visiting I strongly suggest you come on the last Friday of the month, known as “Troy Night Out.” All the local shops and restaurants stay open late, as well as the art galleries. Or Checkout the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall for a concert. It has perfect acoustics and it used by Yo-Yo Ma to record.