La Rentrée

That back-to-school feeling is in the air and one can certainly see and feel it at NYU - the country's largest private university with over 40,000 students (click on any of the six links for previous postings involving NYU: Grad Alley, Cloud Appreciation, Light on Bobst, Waterworld, Offerings and A Tale of Two Colors). New students and their parents are being welcomed and oriented. There's the unloading of belongings from cars in front of dormitories. For most of us, regardless of age or whether one is a student or has children, this time of year brings back feelings of getting back to business - summer and summer vacations are over. Labor Day is here as summer's last hurrah. In France, where education is a national fever, this time of year is referred to as La Rentrée "a phrase which alludes to the end of vacations, the return to normal discipline, and a certain obligation to demonstrate that everybody still means business" (from the expatica website - click here to read more about this French phenomenon). The first day of school is actually referred to as "J" (for "jour"); there is a countdown of days before school which starts at J-10 (ten days before). Of course, there as here, feeling about school's start is mixed - a time of celebration or one of dread. In NYC, the weather has cooled, the sun is setting earlier and the march towards fall semester is unmistakable ...
Note: The photo was taken at NYU's Helen and Martin Kimmel Center for University Life.