Perceptions and People

So a Shadow, a Farmgirl, a Pilgrim, and a dark Alice in Wonderland visited the cloisters late last night. With the Halloween spirit hanging heavily in the air, creepy, scary, and downright ridiculous were the words of the night.

Visiting the cloisters with other people as well made me feel safer, since I visited them during nighttime once before, but it was still too quiet and eerie. There was inexplicable creeking of the castle, and the darkness of the grassy area of the cloisters was gloomy. But even with all that gloom, the cloisters became a place full of laughter and joy once my friends arrived and we played music and did silly dances and took funny photos. So I guess that the perception of a place really changes when surrounded by people - I usually associate places with the people that are there, and thus infuse the places with the energy the people bring with them.

On a side note: I noticed that Thomas Hall's facade included what looked like Baltimore gneiss (it was dark - that's what I could tell from the limited amount of light there was), which tells me that it was one of the older buildings on campus, since the other 2 older buildings, Merion and Taylor, also have Baltimore gneiss, but the rest of the buildings on campus have Wissahickon schist.