The strangest thing was seeing all the tour groups wandering Harvard Yard. Were they there when I was an undergrad? They must have been. Was I so myopically focused on my own little world that I blocked them out or were they so ubiquitous they became part of the scenery? Maybe they were simply more noticeable this time because classes hadn't started yet, the students were still AWOL, the Yard barren of frisbees, sunners, and study groups lolling on the lawn. And so an odd time to visit, the place inhabited mainly by ghosts from my past rather than flesh and blood people.

Well, except for those tour groups.