Nov 22, 2005 09:03
I'm almost home. I have one more stop after this, and that's a fun stop.
Currently, I am in Chicago. But I don't know enough about it yet to write about it.
So we're going back in time. All the way to last week. I can't believe how much time has more or less stopped making any sense in the past three weeks. Some things that feel like they were so long ago were yesterday and things that feel like they were yesterday was back at the beginning of the trip.
Last Monday I arrived in Boston. After getting lost for quite some time (although I'm told that if you drive in Boston, you have to get lost), I finally came upon my hotel...and a very sketchy neighborhood. Tuesday morning I decided to take the T to get to New England School of Law, since I'd been told that parking there is non-existent. I walk for quite some time, and never find the T stop I'm looking for, so I essentially have to walk 2 miles in a half hour to get to the school. And I still manage to make it on time. But it made me realize how bad my neighborhood was in, and how uncomfortable I felt. I took the school law tour and was not too impressed. It is far too urban of a campus for me...in fact, that's just the problem: it's not a campus. It's a building that looks like it could easily be an office building. And I'm looking for something more than that in a school. So NESL got knocked off my list. After the school visit, I actually found my way to the T stop (turns out I didn't go far enough!) and walk home, only to decide that I need to go and move to another hotel. Which I did, and it was pretty cool because it was right next to Fenway Park. And when I say right next to, I mean literally. If I had the room across the hall, I would have been staring at the stadium. I met up with Emily that night, a friend from college (wow, I feel so old saying it like that), and we discussed law school and life over some Irish fare (hey, I'm in Boston, I have to go to an Irish "pub").
Wednesday I make my way down to Boston College and unfortunately really liked it. It's unfortunate because I don't think there is much of a chance of getting accepted to that school. That night the Black Keys were playing in Boston, and conveniently enough they were playing at this club right next to Fenway Park. Which means right next to my hotel. It was nice and convenient and an awesome show (like always).
I took off from Boston on Thursday, and stopped for lunch in Providence, Rhode Island, which is quite a cute little area.
Then I drive into New York City. And my first impression was that it was the worst place in the world. A hint to future travellers: if you are going to NYC for the very first time, DON'T DRIVE! I think my impression would have been much nicer had I not driven. The strangest part is that considering it is a city with such huge skyscrapers, somehow they manage to hide the skyline quite well until it is right there in front of you, staring at you in the face. It is quite intimidating (maybe that's the point), especially at dusk when the building lights aren't really prominent yet which makes all the buildings loom over you like dark giants ready to engulf you. Which is exactly what happened. Somehow I made it onto Manhattan. And just as suddenly I made it off Manhattan, on the way to Long Island. So about 45 minutes later I managed to turn around and back onto Manhattan, only to try to find my hotel, but the one way streets beat me. Another 30 minutes later I somehow found my hotel. At that point I'd already had a nervous breakdown and convinced myself that New York City was the worst place in the world.
I was supposed to stay until Sunday, but I couldn't stay that long. I was lucky that I managed to stay two nights, but I wanted to see a Broadway play.
Friday morning Raleigh and I hung out in Central Park for most of the day. I didn't even bother visiting Cardozo, because I knew I would never be able to spend three years at that school. I couldn't even stay three nights in the city. I also turned that day into a good opportunity to do laundry. That night I saw The Producers. How much more of an appropriate play can I see? A play that makes fun of Nazis? It was made for me. And I was probably laughing louder than anyone else in the theater. Which I think kind of annoyed the guy sitting next to me. Sorry if you don't get all the jokes buddy...
So New York wasn't an entirely miserable experience, but it definitely wasn't liveable. So I took off, and gave myself a nice lazy day of driving and spent the night in Clearfield, PA, which really isn't worth noting.
I found myself in Cleveland on Sunday. I figured I have time, I'll go visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. However, I got to the RR HoF around 1:10. The Browns kickoff was at 1:00. The Browns stadium is right next to the RRHoF. Needless to say, I turned around and headed out to the hotel. And, oddly enough, I didn't mind Cleveland at all. I went out for a nice dinner, I was staying in a really comfortable area. Yesterday I went and visited Case Western Reserve, which is in an absolutely beautiful area. I really liked the school a lot. Go figure.
I made it into Chicago last night, after a quick stop in South Bend (to complete my family's Christmas shopping, a Notre Dame coffee mug for my parents). And, once again, I got lost. One way streets really are not my friends at all.
I decided that I should have asked for a GPS system as an early Christmas present, before I took this trip. Ah, if only I had realized that beforehand. It could have saved me a lot of grief and frustration while driving through cities.
At least I think I have realized why I'm not a city person. And driving/getting lost has a lot to do with it. I normally have a very good sense of direction, so when I do get lost everywhere, it really frustrates me. I'm not used to getting lost. Unless I do it on purpose to explore an area, but that's a completely different story.
Well, I'm about to visit DePaul. I drove by the building last night on my way in, and I think it's going to be too urban of an environment for me, but I don't want to rule it out before I've seen it. However, at this point in time, I think I have narrowed my decision down the three (and a half) schools. And I even know the order. So now all we have to do is hope that I'll get into at least one of these three. But here's the standing:
1. U. of Minnesota
2. U. of Denver
(2 1/2. Boston College. It's 2 1/2 because I doubt I'll get in.)
3. Case Western Reserve
Tomorrow I'm headed up to Milwaukee to spend Thanksgiving with Ben and his family. Well, at least we aren't datng anymore or else it would be really awkward meeting his entire family (including his parents) for the first time. Although it's still going to be awkward figuring out sleeping arrangements and stuff, because he is staying in a hotel with his dad, his mom is staying on the couch of her mom's apartment, and I think I'm going to stay in the same hotel as him and his dad (they do take dogs), but we were trying to figure it out last night and it just sounds really weird.
Not weird, an adventure.
Maybe that should be the motto for my trip.