Mr.Black and Mr.White

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." - Aristotle

I feel the quote above is a good reference to the theme of my letter (of sorts) to Christina.

Dearest Christina,
  Have you ever really truly loved someone? And I'm not talking family, or pets. I'm talking in terms of a person who you would give your life for, but at the same time would want to spend the rest of your entirety with? I don't think either of us can say we have, in fact I'll be the first to admit that. And I don't know if I really want to find that person. I don't know how I would handle those emotions, it would ruin everything, at least form my perspective. Perhaps when your in love you don't see things the same way. Being in love shouldn't be a bad thing, it should be a good thing.
  Obviously, well I hope, you're not in love with either of your 'paramours'. This is the cue for the Aristotle quote. You just need to do what you believe is the right thing FOR YOU. If there is anything I've learned about having anxiety is that sometimes you cannot please everyone and thus need to center on yourself and what is healthy for you. They can just deal. If dating is what you are interested in, why not do a little something with Mr.Hipster? Just spell it out that this whole grade difference will stop you guys from having a long relationship. Then you can hop over to Mr.Chest, if he gets into St.Olaf. (which seems like a sure thing according to you)
  Again, I would like to apologize about the awkwardness that ensued this morning. I had just closed my computer and was walking down the hallway when I came upon you two, and I was not strong enough to walk away from this juicy attraction right in front of me. I must admit, I KNEW he liked you the moment I read about the NPR outside by the car thing (having had a few similar late nights). It seems that night brings out confidence in boys. All dramatic things happen while the moon is out.
  Here are my two cents on the issue. Mr.Hipster needs to get his ass up off the couch and TALK to you, because nothing gets done without conversation. Thus, I might have to start bringing around a stress ball so I won't slap him in the face. Also, I never remember being introduced to him by (I'm not even sure who he said) so I'll just call him a LIAR, which is true if you were in the girlfriends shoes.
  Man, this letter started off so nice and formal, and now here we are. Perhaps I can salvage it?
  Yours,
        Elizabeth

A visual for those of you not there.

So, St.Olaf

I, not being Christina, am now just blogging about my visit to St.Olaf. I saw her and it was awesome! I also saw Kim (mother) and Austin Sovell.

I guess I don't have to feel to bad because Christina is writing a hood-like essay for school. The only work she's done in a week for school, according to her. Personally I think she needs to just turn it in and deal with it.

So, St.Olaf, why I crawled out of my hole to blog about. I need some inspiration for blogging, any tips?

BAD Liz, yet again off topic! Okay, so the school was gorgeous! It also had the best free food, there were buffet tables all over the place, you literally walked into a room and there was a buffet table. No other school has done that. Though they did brag about their nationally ranked number one food. All according to Newsweek.

 What I really enjoyed was that the dean of the school talked at the beginning of the whole thing. It was nice to be welcomed like that, gave you the feeling of beine wanted as a person and not as another paying student.

 Ah, yes! A picture of the library. My favorite thing to see at colleges. Not the best (U of M is number one so far) but I can see myself doing homework in there. Plus the tall windows give off the feeling of  being in one of those older libraries.

Me having issues with my iphone camera

 What I wasn't a huge fan of was how far away everything was from each other. Reminded me of camp a bit where we walked all the time. It's not a bad thing, getting exercise, but in the winter running across campus (and in the windy rural area) will not be fun.

Another plus, all four years you live on campus. I really like that, a sense of community and such, cookies for St.Olaf.

I saw this door and just had to share it with ya'll

Edward and Bell, but with (I'm assuming) student faces with lab glasses on, go Bio!

And again, but now Jacob has joined the mix. I think the girl looks like a mouse, right?

Importance of wearing glasses, chemistry! (blerg!)

Reminds me of the houses in Count of Monte Christo

By far the best part was the gift shop where I got socks that say 'uff da' (so Norwegian) and there were Norwegian like things all over the place! Oh, how I love Norway! Plus, Harry Potter in NORWEGIAN! My favorite! I have the first one in English and Norwegian, but seeing the others in Norwegian totally made the trip. (I'm so studying it what ever collage I choose to go to)

Macalester

I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived at Macalester college that it was founded on Scottish roots. Being scottish I loved that little tid bit. They also give free bagpipe lessons to students and they have scuba diving lessons where you can be certified. It would be so cool to be suba certified.

 I really liked the school, pretty and felt like a college. They also have a big interest in international students and going over to countries and working with students.

There was one wired thing.

I told you in my post about the U of M that I look at bulletin boards. Well, I looked at a lot here, they seemed to be all over the place and only about boys giving sperm to sperm banks and therapy/anorexia studies to sign up for. Very...odd.

The lime green one in the center says 'cocaine users with attention problems!'

What creeped me more was that people had taken the numbers from the little number lists.

University of Minnesota

This is long in the works. I know I told Meghan that I was going to make a vlog about it, but then...

I forgot my charger to my video camera up in Alaska this summer and I didn't realize it until a few weeks ago. And my family is very messy up there, and not very relabel (I still love you!) which means i'll never see that charger again. I have been bumming one off of Mrs.Drew the past few weeks, but for school projects.

No video sorry.

But I can still talk about how much I loved it!

Tip: When I go to schools I look at bulletin boards to see if I would want to do anything on them. The social aspect it a huge part in picking a college. It could be great for your interestes, but if there is crappy people then their is some other college that can give you both. Believe me, there is a ton of colleges out there.

 The rooms were the best i've seen so far. Air conditioning, heat, cable, and wireless internet. The washing machines can also text you when they are done with your clothes. It's pretty awesome.

My Grandpa's building!

This is the main square where they have a annual snowball fight. The college has a ton of clubs to join. Like the sweatpants club, where you only wear sweats because your sick of wearing only jeans in high school. Or the 'Hi my name's Mike' club. You don't even have to have the name Mike to join. But the BEST part of the whole trip was that they have a college quidditch team. They were flown out to New York to play in the championships last year. Apparently a cross country player dresses in all yellow and runs around the college campus playing as the golden snitch. I so want to join!

Mom, Dad, and Gretchen came with me. The above photo was taken inside a completely green building on the campus. It was fun walking around with them, we had lunch afterwards and it was a good Saturday. I really liked the college, a lot more then I thought I would. I was happy with that surprise.

St. Kates

The moment I step into the oldest building at St. Kates I'm transported to Paris, France this summer. I'm not joking, the place looks like all of the old buildings in Paris. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but that mixed with 70's inspired buildings make the whole campus remind me of Webster, S.D. which ins't a good thing.

French like

Webster always feels like it's trying to hard to fit in with the modern times. Their always a step behind what's really happening. I can't completely explain it in words, but I know it when I see it.

Then the cafeteria. The food, great. I had penne noodles. What creeped me out was that it looked like a cafeteria at an old folks home. No joke. There was carpet on the floor and big comfy chairs, which could hold a frail old women, or a vastly overweight man.

Reminded me a bit of Harry Potter, it was a 'bridge' between two buildings

The lady who I met, and talked too, was so nice. She was blown away by me (her words not mine) and kept saying she really wanted to work with me. There is a ton of scholarships that I would be able to apply for and one English teacher created a class where all you do is talk about the seven Harry Potter books. (Are you freaking Christina?!?!?!?!)

Apparently the lady who founded the school built the building in the middle of the road because she was one to 'stick it' to the Man.

Two sisters, who wouldn't get along, designed this building. The founder lady split the building in half and now it has stairways that go no where.

It's very conservative, being an all girls school I don't know how it couldn't be. The tour was MUCH better and more in depth then the St. Thomas one. We (Mom, Dad, and I) had a private tour, it just happened to end up that way. The girl was from California, I bet she isn't ready for the Minnesota weather. What gave me a red flag was her saying, "Yea, when a girl brings her boyfriend on campus everyone is like 'Woah! You're a boy!'."

A dorm building, small rooms

I don't know about you, but I don't want to be completely deprived of boys, or as Sarah put it during Health today, "Boys are a big reason you go to college." This was followed with Clair nodding her head in agreement.

rorys going to yale

All pictures below are from the episode where Rory goes off to college. How appropriate, considering my situation right now.

St. Thomas

This past Saturday Mom and I went to visit St. Thomas. I am looking at a handfull of colleges around the twin cities, but St. Thomas was the first one I was going to officially tour. It wasn't on the top of my list, but I had herd good things about it and Mom had gone there for her French teaching degree so I thought, Why not?

Hot Chocolate from a coffee shop close by

We started our tour at one of the cafeterias. And I happened to see Bailee from Video last year. I'm kinda' surprised she got in. Mrs. Drew says it's because her mom is Ms. Minnesota and has gotten every kind of boob job imaginable, so she can get Bailee into anything. Anyway, I waved to her and it looked like she was having fun.

 

 

Then one of the admission councilors talked for a bit about the school. That was interesting. This is where I started to perk up. We don't need a certain amount of language years to get into the school, but we need to pass level three of a language given at the school. There is Spanish, French and German. The normal three. Then there is sign language, Italian and Gaelic Irish. I'm most interested in the Gaelic, don't get me wrong, Spanish is the bomb, but I think trying something different would be super cool.

My tour guide showed Me, Mom, and this girl and her mom around St. Thomas. The campus is beautiful and there is a new wellness center and a cool looking mail room and amazing food. I just fell in love with it.

 

St. Thomas arches, you aren't a Tommie until you have been kissed under the arches at midnight.

And this is my first college visit, one of five. Now I need to figure out if I'm in love with St. Thomas or just college in general.

Updates each time I visit one, this Saturday St. Kates.