I have spent the last 3 months living in Amherst, Massachusetts, close to the university campus. Life in a small college town (and this certainly qualifies, having one university and an elite liberal arts college in town, with several other colleges close by) has a rhythm determined by the academic year. Today is the first snowstorm, and we shall see early tomorrow whether the campus is closed. It marks the end of a long autumn full of pumpkins, apple cider, Halloween, Thanksgiving and all the other traditions of this part of New England.

UMass has been voted Best Campus Food in the country by Princeton Review for the last four years, there is abundant music on campus, and life is pretty good here it seems. Of course the weather is not great in summer or winter and it is too far from a swimmable beach for my liking, but nowhere is perfect.

Apparently 40% of residents have a university degree. Conversations on the sideline at soccer matches seem to revolve around quite different ideas from those in Auckland! In the small street we are living in can be found the sister of Harley Flanders and the great-grandson of G.W. Snedecor. Again very different from our milieu in Auckland.

It has been a tiring but very rewarding visit overall and I hope to return soon.