Wesleyana

After running a bit behind in Huntington, Indiana, haven't gotten all of my community shopping out of the way, I had to turn my interview. Along the way, five minutes into my drive, I encountered a line of police surrounding a windmill piece. Naturally, this delayed me further. However, most of Indiana is a large grid as far as the streets go. So if you took a city block and expanded it by a couple miles, and put cornfields there instead of buildings, you have the crossroads of America.

I spoke too soon when I said that Michigan was a flat State, because Indiana was even more flat than that. Lots of farms more of the countryside, as well as a few dairy farms and lakes. A couple of beautiful bridges hungover Roush Lake in the surrounding area, and because it is so flat, the fields were prone to flooding and creating new Lake formations as well. As it is, driving through Indiana reminded me a lot of the countryside of home, but with even more countryside.

And, a government building worth taking pictures of!

When I got to IWU, I was greeted by a warm group of students and taken to the 5th floor, where my interviews would be conducted. Being a Unitarian Universalist at a Christian School was definitely interesting, but I was assured that I would fit in quite well with everybody there. I got a tour of the campus, learn some history about the school, and saw one of the most beautiful miniature chapels I had seen in my entire life. I got to the library to see the private study cubicles that grad students can use, and found out that if I were to become one of the 1% of students pursuing Doctorate Degrees at IWU, I would get my own private cubicle to study in. I would also get access to an other wise off-limits cadaver lab.

When I got to their Social Hall, I saw at least a hundred undergrads enjoying food from the cafe. The whole area was set up like a shopping complex... And the track team ran straight through it wearing not much more than basketball shorts. Everybody was hooting and hollering and cheering for them. As part of the tour, I got a complimentary coffee from their coffee shop, McConn, which is actually the second highest grossing coffee shop in all of Indiana (next to Starbucks). I marveled in the beauty of the campus 4 another couple of minutes before departing from Marion to head home.

They also had a little antique ice cream shop too!

I afterwards went on to eat at a restaurant called Payne's, as recommended to me by the admissions counselor Luke. It's a small British restaurant with great food for all occasions. Britain would definitely be proud (and little did I know, I would one day be moving there to tell them in person). After finishing a light dinner there, I hit the road for some state highpoints and home.

Hunting a Ton!

The Party Shop has been around since 1920, previously called the Coffee ranch. They switched to being called the Party Shop in 1950. They've been using the same caramel recipe since the 50s, where they have been stirring the caramel for an hour and a half at a time just to make their signature pecan caramel Turtles, caramel corn, and local caramel apples. I went in and got a perfectly crafted latte and was greeted by some of the friendliest individuals I have ever met. Information on them can be found here.

Antiqology is a building that is 145 years old, originally a cigar shop that closed in the 20s. Became such 5 years ago after being empty for 10 years, before that it was a bridal shop. Over 700 sodas on the wall. A link to this vintage store is as follows: https://www.facebook.com/Antiqology/

I thenceforth stopped by the historical center of Huntington. The director, Mark Stouder, took me on a tour, which I will detail here below.

At the beginning of my tour, he told me about the 16 county schools closed that were brought Into one school in 1966; The consolidation into Huntington North. Consolidation brought into one school. Alot of senior centers came put of it, and the old high school was torn down in 2000 for a park. There are 17000 people in the city and 3000 in the surrounding county. Vice president Dan Quail came from here. There is a Lot of history here, including items from the first settlement in 1848, and 55,000 people were here for the centennial  in 1948. Huntington also saw laborstories, warfare companies, thebLackawanna and Wabash railroads, the inner urban railroad, and several canals. During the wwr, several famous veterans came from here. Their most famous pilot came from here, Russell Hosler, and got his start as a bootlegger in britain. The Schaff Bros piano company founded in 1868 also came from Huntington. I also learned that several million tons of various lumber and limestone have come from this county.

Hotel LaFontaine was founded in 1925 and was built for 7 Million and was sold durine the depression for 400,000 dollars. The basement has an Egyptian Pool with Egyptian architecture strewn about. They also had an ornate fountain in their lobby and a huge bowling alley, a four chair barber shop, a beauty salon, and many things. Since it was situated across from the Wabash railroad station, and was built to be all inclusive. It is now a senior center with apartments after being refurbished.

Amongst other things in the museum of history, there is Sully the dog (1890-1900), a stray dog that always greeted the elementary students. There are also lunch pails, wooden rifles, chalk tablets, and mom&pop shops, a display on Kitchen Maid, a display on Markle Bank, and a display on Dr. Eviston's household medical work. There also was a tribe, the Miami indians, Little Turtle being there chief. They settled all of Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana. They eventually settled it to the government with Chief Richardville. Also from Huntington is the man who invented 911.

Right before leaving the museum, I learned from Mark that America has been at war for 222 out of 239 years of it being a country. More info on the museum can be found here.

Are then stops for lunch at Johnny's Drive-In, where I was greeted by friendly locals who gave me free fudge and bread (simply because i was a first timer) and beautiful conversation. The food was very cheap and very delicious, and because I was a first-timer, my waitress actually gave me some free cinnamon rolls to try. They can be found online here.

The Pure State

When I was sending out applications for grad school, I didn't think that I would get any offers for interviews here in the states. I especially didn't think that a school in Indiana would offer to interview me. And more specifically, I didn't think that a Wesleyan Christian University would want to interview me for school. But alas, not long after my interview in Boston, I was getting offered an interview spot in Indiana Wesleyan University on the last Friday in February.

Given that I was driving right out in that general direction, I decided to visit Michigan, the pure state. My cousin on my dad's side lives in Michigan, but I wanted to add another state to the list of states that I visited. I set my sights for Ann Arbor, because I knew if I went to Detroit, I'd be tempted to cross the border into Canada. This time around, I didn't have time to do so, so Canada will be saved for another day.

After an eventful 7 hours of driving, I arrived in Ann Arbor Michigan. Along the way, I saw Lake Erie, drove past Cleveland, saw a bit of Cedar Point in Sandusky Ohio, took some quick pictures of Toledo Ohio, saw license plates from New Hampshire, New York, and Quebec, and Alabama, and finally entered the state of Michigan. I was surprised at how relatively flat

compared to Pennsylvania.

If only I had more time to see more of the city, I would have done so. But alas, I made a quick stop and then hit the road for Indiana for my grad school interview. Detroit and Lansing are both huge cities, and there are a lot of big colleges in Michigan. One of my friends went to Hope College in Holland Michigan, which I would have loved to go to and visit if it was not 2 hours out of the way. The highest point in Michigan was 7 hours north of Ann Arbor, so that will have to be saved

for another trip as well.

After remembering how much big city driving stressed me out, I managed to find cheap parking for a buck 20 per hour. I then went to the Hands-On House Museum and Central Ann Arbor, passing some local shops and coffee shops along the way. Inside the museum, I learned some awesome things about sound, light, water, and other natural phenomenon. The whole exhibit is very kid friendly and worth a visit. There's another installment in Lancaster Pennsylvania which I went to when I was 11. Excited to say that I had visited one of the biggest cities in Michigan, I thenceforth hit the road for Indiana.

My Day Stop!

Overall, Michigan has a lot to offer. I already know that I'll be back sometime in the future. I'm not sure when, but I will cross into the peer State once more in the near future.