Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Mmmmichigan!

Alrighty, Michigan.

I arrived in Michigan late Labor Day night (er, early September 2nd, really) and stayed until very early Saturday morning, September 6th. It was a pretty relaxing week, overall, now that I think about it....Basically my entire visit to Michigan can be summarized by a few interesting activities:
*Watching a decent number of movies
  • Life Size (twice)
  • Office Space
  • some weird Munsters immigrate to the U.S. movie
  • a movie about an woman adopting her niece after the parents' sudden death and thus falling in love with guy who threatens her job as famous chef (name being...?)
  • one about saving the world from aliens, with Will Smith, whatever that's called
  • The Family Stone (one of my favorites!)
  • and probably more that I can't think of at the moment...
*Attending a MSU Block and Bridle meeting for the free food (lol) and meeting some of Benjamin's cool, awesome friends.
*Visiting/touring a real dairy for the first time. ...Benjamin's friend, Gail, and her roommate, Erin, work at the dairy (at really strange times, like 2:30 a.m.) and live in the nearby Hog Shed (house with strange name on dairy grounds? idk.). Because I'd never been to a dairy before or been very up close and personal with dairy cows, he convinced the girls to give me a tour. It was so much fun! The girls even did the whole little flight-attendant-acting-out-the-process drama. Quite entertaining. I only wish I'd had my camera. And, a few days after the initial tour, we went back for home-made mint chocolate chip ice cream! It was divine! ...The home-made beef jerky wasn't so bad either. ;-)
*Adventures driving Benjamin's car alone, in East Lansing...all for gas and goodies to make a very tasty Cajun Dinner! ...Yeah, I made jambalaya using the Zatarain's mix that comes in a box (I'd brought it from home), and easy king cake (using cinnamon rolls and food coloring-dyed sugar). Danielle (Benjamin's roommate), Gail, and another female friend of his joined us to enjoy the goodies. Of course, I cheated, because none of it was made from scratch, but that's okay. Their Cajun food experiences can only get better, right? hehe.
*Biking across the Michigan State campus only to sit through a very foreign (to me) genetics class. ...Biking as a form of transportation is definitely a new phenomenon, in my world, but apparently one that I should get used to, as I don't have a car here in Idaho. As for the class, I played sodoku the entire time and listened to Benjamin, Gail, and the other classmate friend of theirs, crack jokes the whole time. It was an interesting experience, to say the least. :)
*Thursday night Bull-a-thon. ...It's apparently tradition within Benjamin's circle of friends to go bowling for free every Thursday night from 8-10 at the bowling alley in their Union's basement. (Bowling alley in the basement? craziness. ...to be fair, LSU has one too...lol.) It was actually a grandly fun experience; I had a good time meeting everyone and really liked all of their friends. I'm only sad that I won't be able to hang out with them all again. (The name, I think, is based off of the fact that these are all "ag kids," but I could be wrong...)
*A very late night and VERY early morning departure from Detroit. ...Yeah, my flight was scheduled to leave DTW at 6:45 a.m., and since East Lansing is two hours from Detroit, we had to leave very early. We asked Gail to ride with us to Detroit because I was worried that Benjamin might fall asleep at the wheel on the drive back to EL, so we left Benjamin's apartment at 3:25 a.m., picked up breakfast (yes, a 24-hour McDonald's near campus?), and met Gail around 3:35 a.m. ish. They made coffee, and then we were off to the airport! I DJ'd the ride, using Benjamin's laptop, and it was just a grand ole time...as much as it could be for 4 o'clock in the morning, lol. At last, the pair dropped me off at the airport, saying their goodbyes, and that was the end of my Michigan experience... :-(
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Travels and arrival, settling into Idaho will come next...
'Til then,
-Lauren

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