One of the best things about returning to Northwestern after studying abroad Winter Quarter was seeing friends and acquaintances I had not seen in months. Yet I was perplexed by the question repeatedly posed to me: Does it feel weird to be back?

Is there supposed to be something weird about returning to a place where everything stayed the same? There simply is not much at NU that ever changes – for better or worse.

Have there been changes more drastic than the lines at the Mark II Lounge getting a little longer? Anything different on campus more noticeable than the inexplicable grouping together of some of the vegetables in the stir-fry line at Norris University Center?

A weekend night at NU continues to be about as eventful as the day after you get your wisdom teeth pulled. There is certainly nothing unusual about trying desperately on a Friday night to find an alternative to various a cappella shows (not that there is anything wrong with them).

Freshmen still act as though they have discovered MP3s for the first time when they realize some people say “smoke out” instead of “smoke up” or vice versa. This conversation is only slightly more riveting than the extremely controversial pop-versus-soda debate.

There is nothing strange about going into dorm rooms again and seeing nearly as many prints of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” and “Reservoir Dogs” posters as there are telephones. It was far weirder living in the dorm the whole year last year, especially after the kid across the hall stuck a candy bar on the wall by my door, surrounded it with masking tape and wrote “art” underneath.

An Associated Student Government election defined by acrimony, whining and alleged rule violations was hardly something new. Imagine how effective student government would be if the student body cared as much about ASG as ASG cares about censuring its senators and getting them to apologize for spending $18 too much.

The basketball courts at Blomquist Gymnasium and the Sports Pavilion and Aquatics Center remain as segregated as schools before Brown v. Board of Education. As was the case one afternoon last week, there are often 10 white players on one court and 10 Asians on the court next to it.

The initial discussion section of any quarter, with the requisite introductions by every student, continues to be the most entertaining session of a given course. This quarter there was the student who told his professor that he had no idea why he was taking the course, other than that the professor for an alternative class grades too harshly. Another professor, in response to a student’s disclosure that he had studied abroad in Scotland (coincidentally in the same program as I had), exclaimed, “You call that studying abroad!”

Above all, nothing is weird about where students continue to spend much of their time between classes. Was there ever a time when the majority of campus activity did not take place either next to a rock or under an arch?

You see, it’s not so weird being back because nothing has changed. I mean, it’s not like the administration started building on the Lagoon or anything. Now that would be weird.