For the past few days I have been contemplating starting a blog about my latest adventure. I'm not sure how long it will last or how frequently I will post, but I think it will be good to have a place to share my experiences and record things I want to remember later. It's funny, I usually don't spend much time customizing my blog but I decided to play around with the colors. Guess what I ended up with....UMN (University of Minnesota) colors---Maroon and Gold. Completely unintentional. Maybe it's a sign...
Wait a second Al.. You're in Minnesota?!! Yeah, so for all of you who may not have heard, I moved to Minnesota!! There, now you know. I'll be starting a PhD in Sociology at the University of Minnesota in just a couple of weeks now. And yes, I'll be here for a looooong time.
I've been in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul are right next to each other and therefore basically make up one big city, aka: twin cities) since Sunday. My family and I made the 15+ hour drive on Saturday and finished it up Sunday morning. My parents and Jared stuck around until Wednesday. We did a lot (A LOT) of errand running and then some fun stuff too--Minnehaha Park, Mall of America, Dinner with cousins, exploring. I got a new bed, dresser and desk out of the whole deal so I'm pretty happy about everything. My parents were a great help. I'm really glad I had them here with me.
So Allison, where do you live? Good question. I live in a neighborhood called Prospect Park. If you type it into Google Maps it will show where my neighborhood is. So far I love the neighborhood. There are lot of really nice houses---not like nice houses in a development that are look the same. Different houses! I went by one today that looked like it could be from colonial times with bright red barn doors and then I walked by another not too far from it that was basically a cube and looked very modern. And the gardens! There are gardens everywhere. People seem to let their gardens grow and sometimes it does look a little unruly, but it's also really nice, almost jungle-like. I especially enjoy the streets where the trees make a sort of canopy so I really feel like I'm in the jungle. It's a great neighborhood for walks!
You'll notice if you do look up Prospect Park that it isn't very far from the Mississippi. Now, who would have ever thought I would be living on the Mississippi? Not me. I didn't even know the Mississippi came up this far. Supposedly it starts in Wisconsin... There is a really nice pedestrian/bike path that runs along the river and it's probably a 10 min walk or less for me to get to it. Awesome. There's stairs that you can go down so that you're right next to the river too.
What's your house like? I live in an apartment building. It's really nice, a good-sized first apartment I think. My bed room is big enough to fit a queen sized bed, desk, decent closet and still feel spacious. We have a small kitchen and eating area and a living room with a couple couches. You know, normal things that apartments might have.
So you have a roommate? Yeah, she's awesome! Her name is Meghan and she had been looking for someone to move in, so I was lucky enough to move in to a fully furnished apartment with someone who knows the area. She's been a big help with everything so far! I did find her on craigslist and no, that's actually not weird at all.
Hmmm....what else? Ahh yes, the U. So the University is split between the East Bank and the West Bank (and there's also a St. Paul campus). The Sociology building is on the West Bank. Most of the happenings are on the East Bank---student union, undergrad classes, stadiums, fitness center, etc. I got the chance to explore a little today with my cousins wife (see reference to cousins above) (she's awesome too, btw). I took the light rail to campus. The light rail is basically just an above ground subway train. The green line just opened in June and that is the line that runs near my house. I can take it all the way to downtown Minneapolis if I want, but the East and West Bank stops are only 3 & 4 stops from my station.
Yesterday I tried my hand at driving. I didn't go during rush hour and I didn't go very far, only to the U so it probably wasn't typical city driving. Anyway, I got to make a legal u-turn (very exciting) and I decided I am never driving to campus because parking is ridiculous (hard to find and expensive).
At this point, I feel like I could be in New York somewhere. The weather is pretty similar--although the summer here is more like it should be in NY. It's been in the 80's here the past couple days. There are trees and other vegetation that I might see in NY. Yeah, that's kind of it...but what I mean to say is that I don't feel like it's really been a huge adjustment besides it being a city. It doesn't feel foreign. Being in a city is really cool for a lot of reasons. I haven't been in many (or really explored many), but Minneapolis just seems to have a lot of parts to it that can be very different from one another. And there are a ton of people to watch, people that also can look very different from each other.
Wow, I think that's enough for today. I will try to get some pictures up in the near future. Next week is my last week off before orientation so I am hoping to do some fun things that I can blog about :)
As they say in Minnesota,
(Yeah I haven't figured that out yet).
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