College

Where'd I go the past two weeks? Well, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't just being lazy. Though that's not why I was gone for so long. I was visiting colleges. I went from my home here in North Carolina to Washington DC (there were no schools there, but I wanted to see it again). From there, I was supposed to go to Philadelphia. Car trouble ruined that. However, I must give a shout-out to all of the people in the city of Columbia, Maryland. That's where the car broke down, and the people there were all so nice! Everyone went out of their way to help. Anyway, having missed my appointment in Philadelphia, I was New York bound. New York University didn't really impress me. Neither did New York City. I had such fond memories of loving NYC, too. I just don't know. Maybe it was because the coolest thing I did was go to Nintendo World, but I had already been to the Pokemon Center. I did get myself a Zorua plushy. I like him. And it prompted me to order the cutest Umbreon plush online from Japan. I think he was meant to be a Halloween ornament.

But I digress.

From NYU I went to Boston where I stayed in a Holiday Inn across the street from the TD Garden. I was surprised to learn that they had no merchendise in their store for Joe Corvo (for those who don't know, he was a hockey player that my Hurricanes traded to Boston last season, Boston let him go during the summer, and Carolina picked him back up). I visited Emerson University. I was impressed with them and they'll be hearing from me again. I went to a Red Sox game that night which, according to my brother, is a huge deal. Is it really on people's bucket lists to go to a game at Fenway park? The next day, I got to Boston University at 11am for an information session. I wasn't impressed by well... anything, really. most of what the tour was about was engineering or some other science. Not my chosen major, acting. It was pretty interesting that one of my favorite movies, 21, was shot there and not actually at MIT. I did notice that one of the hallways we were in looked ridiculously similar to a hallway in the movie before that fact was revealed.

From Boston I headed back to New York. To the state, anyway. Ithaca, New York was a pretty cool city. Cornell University is known around the nation as one of the best schools there are. They know it there, too and the person at the head of the information session was really arrogant. Most of the information given was if you can get in. And what wasn't was how you have to be perfect to get in. Because Ithaca would basically be nothing without the school, there wasn't much else to do. So Niagara Falls became the destination. It was close to Ithaca so the logic behind it was basically "why not?" I hated not having a passport. Canada was right there. I could see it, and I couldn't go it. I also paid a visit to the Seneca Falls Casino, but apparently you have to be 21 to enter the gambling floor, but not to play Keno.

From there, arrangements were made to go back to Philadelphia by way of Pittsburgh. I stopped in Buffalo and visited the First Niagara Centre. That was pretty cool, though I wasn't able to see where the Sabres actually play. All I really did in Pittsburgh was go to the Consol Energy Center where I scored some dirt cheap Jordan Staal merchandise (he was traded to the Hurricanes, so the Penguins were getting rid of all his stuff). That includes a jersey for just $75 and a t-shirt for $5. The Sharpies in there were $4 for a bit of perspective. I had a fairly good time in Philadelphia. The FYE that was right by the hotel I was at had an enormous anime section. I bought two DVDs of Get Backers (it's a great anime that I'll add to my list of great anime). The University of the Arts in Philadelphia also impressed me. They are definitely on the top of my list of schools so far. I also took a stop at the Wells Fargo Center on my way out of Philadelphia mostly because the Flyers are my second favorite team. They sure were welcoming. The entire place was closed and the only place to get any Flyers merchandise was at the NBC Center (a food court for the three professional arenas on that one lot) which was ridiculously overpriced. T-shirts were $42.

I have two schools left to visit. High Point University in High Point (shocker!), North Carolina (it's near Greensboro) and John Abbott College in Montreal. I've already visited HPU with my high school, but I'd like to look at them again. They were impressive.