It Is Official...

I'm in Stony Brook. Even as I traveled, it seemed that with every plane I took, going further East, things became more bizarre. Simply meaning it wasn't like home.
 I started traveling with my dad at 1:30 AM Alaska Time from Squarebanks and arrived in LaGuardia, NY around 8:45 PM Eastern, then arrived at our hotel in Stony Brook around 10 PM. It was 16.5 hours of traveling time, but at least I had something familiar, my dad.
The culture on Long Island is pretty different from Alaska. There are good people and nice people and bad people and mean people everywhere. Also I genuinely believe most humans are driven by the same emotions and needs, so in this respect it's not so different. But rather it is in the way things are accepted, perceived, dealt with, and organized.
The size of Stony Brook University doesn't phase me. UAF was of comparable size and built on two hills. But here I am not being able to have a microwave or an electric kettle in my room. Having to get a work order to debunk the beds (because I'm pretty sure we don't have a third roommate). When the hotel driver brought us to the completely wrong place and there were no sidewalks to walk on (in fact is was a loading bay in which he disposed of us), the building we walked into we were shooed out. I insisted to the woman that I knew this was not the right building, however there are no sidewalks, I just needed somewhere to walk through with my big luggage. Finally, we settled that.
But at UAF, we were allowed microwaves and an electric kettle. We bunked and debunked out own beds, not without recruiting some taller people. If I walked into a building with luggage, I would be directed and helped, not shooed out (although, I think this was perhaps a fluke. Most people would have helped at SBU).
Today was long and tiring and if I had my choice now I'd click my heels and scream "There's no place like home!" But I know it will get better. I will learn my way around; the Island and the culture. I'll have fun, meet people, maybe even make friends. Sometimes you have to force feed yourself the words: This is what you want. This will be good.
And sometimes you choke.