Cold Country

A few weeks ago I went on a college visit to Cold Country Northern Illinois University. We went up to visit mainly because my aunt Izzy is going to school there and we missed her, but also because its that time of Junior year (I-am apparently-needing-to-make-some-important-life-decisions-right-now-so-let's-visit-colleges).

The first thing I noticed about NIU?

The temperature.

It was freezing. 

I'm a particularly warm-blooded creature, and much to popular belief, growing up in Illinois hasn't produced a love of winter in me. In fact, I hate most aspects of winter - most importantly snow and coldness. So NIU wasn't off to a great start. 

However, it did follow up with two really nice aspects. 

My aunt Izzy -

 - and really good food. 

I decided to re-evaluate my initial decision of NIU that I immediately made after stepping out of our toasty van. Besides having my aunt Izzy and really good food, the restaurant we were in was just really cool. 

After we got done eating, we drove away from campus to go shopping near Chicago. I spent a good $120.00 on clothes and earrings. I think I have a serious problem with buying earrings. 

After we got done shopping, we went to IKEA, which was probably the scariest shopping place I've ever been to (excluding WALMART at three in the morning). 

Seriously, though, IKEA was huge. 

At first it was really creepy in IKEA because it had the feelings of a deserted hospital, but then I turned my camera on and it was acting really creepy. All blurry and stuff.
But then I hit it and the blurriness stopped.

And then there was this wall of babies.
Slightly unnerving.

But then I started to realize what a sweet store we were in. If you haven't been to IKEA, it's a really big store with a nice acronym name. Every level is huge and has so much stuff. The level we were on had mock-rooms. The sweetest bedrooms ever.

Like, come on. Going into IKEA made me want to redecorate my entire life.

I really really really want this for some reason. It makes me happy.

Anyway, I was prancing around IKEA snapping photos  . . . and then I discovered:

The Shopping Cart Escalator.

Genius.

After we finally left IKEA (empty-handed, I might add) we headed to the hotel. Izzy and I were going to try to watch Walking Dead, which every human being needs to be a fan of, but something happened.

It happened while I was in the shower, so I escaped.

My little sister Addison was being cute as usual and then  . . . she threw up. All over the hotel couch.

It was pretty gross.

Nevertheless, we all managed to get some sleep before the tour of NIU the next morning. We woke up to a rainy, cold day. The tour went fine and it was a nice bus tour of the campus. They don't have a creative writing major though (which I think I want in a college). I don't think I'll go to college there.

Even though I don't want to actually major in creative writing, I still want to be able to take as many creative writing classes as I can. (I'm thinking of double-majoring in English and something from Health Science). NIU only had 6 - and two of them were non-fiction classes. Nope.

Overall, it was a good trip. I got to see Izzy and spend time with my family. I got some new earrings. And some awesome sweat pants.

Plus, I got Noodles & Company.

Trip made.