It's the start of my last semester, and I'm already looking forward to it ending. Mostly, because the end of this semester brings my first big-girl job, a salary, and summer. Unfortunately, it also brings the end to my extremely casual wardrobe and the beginning of a single lonely life in a large city.
Fortunately for me, a few of my good friends are staying in the area, and hopefully a few more will find jobs in the area as well. Even the single thing might not be completely true anymore. *sigh, happy*
One thing still stands, however. Being in the middle of a complete wardrobe transition sucks. I am down to three pairs of jeans (unheard of!) and now I'm needing to wear nicer pants to school. On the shirts side, I'm somewhere in the middle of lots of black/neutral business-casual tops and U of M t-shirts and sweatshirts. It's an odd combination. I want my jeans back.
School has started pretty well, I'm taking two labs (yes, I'm a masochist I'm aware), a polymers course, two design courses, and a wine tasting class. Fortunately one of the labs is only an A term course and will be done in about 6 weeks, and one of the design courses will then step up as a B term course. So far, they all look interesting but also look like a fair amount of work. Something I'm used to, I guess.
...
I tried sushi for the first time last week, on a date (at least I think it was a date?). The guy I was with seemed fairly knowledgeable about it and I liked it for the most part. Unfortunately, I found out that I'm not a huge fan of crab while attempting to eat my massive California roll. Everything around it was tasty- it was a bit weird getting over the sensation of putting a slab of raw fish in my mouth at first.
This year, I finally made a resolution. I want to get out of Argyle more often. Doesn't matter where, as long as fun or friends or both are involved. So far, I've been keeping up on the promise to myself- going to Becky's for Scrubs/Cribbage night, hanging out at Joe's, and likely wearing out my welcome at Chris' house. Trivia night at the Big 10 is still a weekly thing, and hopefully I'll get the chance to go to more bars across campus and Minneapolis, not just the same ones in stadium village (even though they are fantastic staples).
It's not that I dislike Argyle, it's just that I'm getting tired of going to the same apartment every night and either watching a movie or TV, or playing rockband. As fun as those are, I do feel bad that I'm over there more than I should be.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Quintessential College Experience
Recently, a friend and I took a road trip to Arizona to watch the Gophers football team lose to Kansas State in the Insight Bowl.
Having never been though any of the states we went through, with the exceptions of Iowa and Texas, it was most definitely an interesting experience. A rough overview of our trip follows:
- Iowa was boring, we were thrilled to make it to Nebraska and away from the Danish Windmill.
- Lunch with Tyler in Omaha, after that Nebraska sucked and we were happy to drive through most of it in the dark.
- Colorado is not a magical place where the terrain instantly changes to mountains, however we were able to finally see the Rockies in the distance for a couple hours as we drove towards them.
- Stop at Mile High stadium, I unsuccessfully attempt to break into the stadium. We manage to break into the hall of fame.
- Stop at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, thanks to a hint from a friend. Best. Stop. Ever. Absolutely gorgeous, we contemplate going hiking in the Rockies instead of going to the football game.
- Made it south to Albuquerque, drove through potentially beautiful landscape in the dark.
- Driving through New Mexico was also boring, with the exception of the "Indian Village" tourist trap, with reminders every 0.2 miles, and the multitudes of casinos.
- There was snow in Arizona, we weren't sure how that happened until we realized we were at altitudes of about 6000 feet.
- We decide to take a picture with a cactus, we find one however a low lying barbed wire fence stands in our way. I make the brilliant decision to jump the fence.
- Cacti hurt. Also, their needles are hell to take out of human flesh without getting it stuck to other parts of one's body. Cactus: 1, Beth: 0.
- Shortly after taking said picture with cactus, we realize the low lying barbed wire fence ended about 20 feet from where I made friends with the cactus. We walk around the fence.
- The decent into Phoenix was gorgeous, amid palm trees and cacti.
- We check into our hotel, and nearly get lost on our way to battle of the bands. Turns out that about half of the streets are apparently not important enough to be put on maps.
- After battle of the bands, we make it to a brewery on the ASU campus. Two guys buy us drinks all night. Later, we ditch them. girls:1, men:0.
- Bowl game day: we go to the tailgating party and realize not many college age students made it down to Tempe. We go to the game and miss the student section. We do the cheers by ourselves anyway.
- Minnesota loses. Big surprise.
- Block party afterward, we begin our quest to find cute boys to kiss at midnight.
- Styx was awesome, period.
- We wish everyone back home a Happy New Year at 11 PM
- Begin the trip home, again reminded of all the casinos and indian villages.
- Texas can't pronounce Spanish correctly, makes Ruth angry.
- Oklahoma sucks almost as much as Nebraska. Also, Oklahoma City is a dump.
- We are astounded and confused by crossing the "North Canada River" in Oklahoma. Three times.
- The Ozarks were kinda pretty, would be better in spring or fall due to the multitudes of deciduous trees.
- Called Heinzen in Arkansas, didn't reach him until Missouri, for the sole purpose of making fun of the South.
- Drive home found the only precipitation we saw on the entire trip: freezing rain. 7.5 hours into a 6 hour trip, we finally make it back to Minneapolis, hoping to never hear Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Lady GaGa, or Nickelback ever again.
The trip was amazing, and I'm so happy that I went. It was nice to see the interior of the country, and make fun of some of the quirks we found in each state. I can see now why a long road trip is the "quintessential college experience".
Having never been though any of the states we went through, with the exceptions of Iowa and Texas, it was most definitely an interesting experience. A rough overview of our trip follows:
- Iowa was boring, we were thrilled to make it to Nebraska and away from the Danish Windmill.
- Lunch with Tyler in Omaha, after that Nebraska sucked and we were happy to drive through most of it in the dark.
- Colorado is not a magical place where the terrain instantly changes to mountains, however we were able to finally see the Rockies in the distance for a couple hours as we drove towards them.
- Stop at Mile High stadium, I unsuccessfully attempt to break into the stadium. We manage to break into the hall of fame.
- Stop at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, thanks to a hint from a friend. Best. Stop. Ever. Absolutely gorgeous, we contemplate going hiking in the Rockies instead of going to the football game.
- Made it south to Albuquerque, drove through potentially beautiful landscape in the dark.
- Driving through New Mexico was also boring, with the exception of the "Indian Village" tourist trap, with reminders every 0.2 miles, and the multitudes of casinos.
- There was snow in Arizona, we weren't sure how that happened until we realized we were at altitudes of about 6000 feet.
- We decide to take a picture with a cactus, we find one however a low lying barbed wire fence stands in our way. I make the brilliant decision to jump the fence.
- Cacti hurt. Also, their needles are hell to take out of human flesh without getting it stuck to other parts of one's body. Cactus: 1, Beth: 0.
- Shortly after taking said picture with cactus, we realize the low lying barbed wire fence ended about 20 feet from where I made friends with the cactus. We walk around the fence.
- The decent into Phoenix was gorgeous, amid palm trees and cacti.
- We check into our hotel, and nearly get lost on our way to battle of the bands. Turns out that about half of the streets are apparently not important enough to be put on maps.
- After battle of the bands, we make it to a brewery on the ASU campus. Two guys buy us drinks all night. Later, we ditch them. girls:1, men:0.
- Bowl game day: we go to the tailgating party and realize not many college age students made it down to Tempe. We go to the game and miss the student section. We do the cheers by ourselves anyway.
- Minnesota loses. Big surprise.
- Block party afterward, we begin our quest to find cute boys to kiss at midnight.
- Styx was awesome, period.
- We wish everyone back home a Happy New Year at 11 PM
- Begin the trip home, again reminded of all the casinos and indian villages.
- Texas can't pronounce Spanish correctly, makes Ruth angry.
- Oklahoma sucks almost as much as Nebraska. Also, Oklahoma City is a dump.
- We are astounded and confused by crossing the "North Canada River" in Oklahoma. Three times.
- The Ozarks were kinda pretty, would be better in spring or fall due to the multitudes of deciduous trees.
- Called Heinzen in Arkansas, didn't reach him until Missouri, for the sole purpose of making fun of the South.
- Drive home found the only precipitation we saw on the entire trip: freezing rain. 7.5 hours into a 6 hour trip, we finally make it back to Minneapolis, hoping to never hear Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Lady GaGa, or Nickelback ever again.
The trip was amazing, and I'm so happy that I went. It was nice to see the interior of the country, and make fun of some of the quirks we found in each state. I can see now why a long road trip is the "quintessential college experience".
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