random thoughts on traveling - part one, the towns

I was thinking about how hard it is to keep everyone up to date on this insane month of interviews and then I remembered about this thing! I don't want to write too much about specific sites since this is public and all, but I thought I could at least let you know about my general traveling impressions and ridiculous things that happen when you are constantly at airports, in planes, in cities you don't know listening to radio stations that are pre-set into the rental car, and using newfangled devices like GPS. (Yes, I said newfangled, and no, I am not a grandma.)

I started out my trip in Pittsburgh, and let me just say, what a sad, sad town that is. When I first got there, it was nighttime. On your way downtown on the freeway, you pass a lot of sad looking strip mall filled suburbs. But then! You drive through this tunnel, and when you come out, you can see downtown and all the rivers that surround it, and it's really quite stunning. But then! You wake up and see it in the daylight. It just sort of felt like a ghost town. I really can't describe it well. It felt like the city had MDD (Major Depressive Disorder). In general, I liked the site. People seemed friendly and very happy.

From there, I went to Minneapolis. If it weren't for the winter weather and the general crappiness of where it is located within the continental US, I think I would really dig Minneapolis. It was snowing when I landed, and was SUPER cold. I took a Super Shuttle to my hotel, and on the way, we dropped of some ladies in this residential neighborhood. It didn't even look real! It was total Fantasyland style, all these cute little houses with their Christmas lights and general adorableness. It was probably the first time I ever really understood why people from cold ass places want to have snow on Christmas. It was rather charming! There were also some cool little parts of town near the University that I could get into if I lived there. But the weather is brutal, so so brutal. I have never been so cold in my life. On the ridiculously short walk to the car from the Mall of America, (Oh, don't worry, I will get to that!) it felt like the blood in my face had actually frozen inside my veins. I think it was like negative fifteen degrees with the windchill if I am remembering it correctly. I liked this site too. Again, everyone seemed really happy, but very busy. This site would be a lot of work fo sho!

Then, I got to come back to Cali. Thank goodness. I stayed in Whittier with Shana, so not much to say on that end, except that it was obviously fun as hell! As for the site...wait, does it even matter?!? It's in Cali! So, by default, LOVE! Seriously though, it's a good campus/program, and I can obviously see myself there. C'mon life plan and personal happiness!

I left Shana's yesterday (boohoo!) and came to Salt Lake City. The flight and drive to my hotel are a whole other story. SLC is BEAUTIFUL! Seriously people, do yourself a favor and come see this place. There are mountains right outside my window! So pretty! I drove around a little this morning, but I don't think I went to the nicest part of town. It was sort of a weird area. I hope to do some more exploring this afternoon when Melissa is finished with her interview, and will hopefully have more to share. I don't have this interview until tomorrow, so no thoughts on the site yet.

now for the ridiculousness of travel...