I've been on vacation for the past three and half weeks in those three states, two of which are for college visits. This is going to be an extremely photo filled entry as I took around 250 pictures while on vacation; of course I'm not going to upload them all because 1) they aren't all good and 2) that's just too many pictures.
My first stop was Rahleigh, North Carolina, where I stayed with my cousins for eight days. We did a ton of things while I was there, including making lots of food and watching lots of Ugly Betty, as well as doing a 1000 piece puzzle of Time Square that glowed in the dark.
However, the main purpose of me going down there was to visit Duke. And let's just say I LOVED it. It's aestetically magnificant, it has the program I want, and the location is perfect because there are interships as well as being one of the most biochem/genetic based areas in the country.
From North Carolina, I flew back home and then less than 48 hours later I was in the car for five hours on my way to Cape May with two of my friends. This was solely a fun vacation for one week. I went to the beach everyday for a week and got super tan.
After another five hours in the car, I was back home for all of... 13 hours. Yup. Last Saturday morning I was back in the car for three and a half more hours on my way to visit my aunt.
The purpose of this trip was to visit UPenn, but my mom and I also decided to take the train into New York City and check out Columbia too. Columbia was very prestigious for me and kinda turned me off but I still enjoyed it very much. UPenn on the other hand I loved so much. It's currently a fight between UPenn and Duke for my top spot. But I'll save the college talk for another post.
2 Comments — Personal Life, Photography
It's really really really hot. Now, normally I don't complain about the weather but this year has been one of the hottest in years. I'm pretty sure we didn't even put the air conditioning on last year, but this year it's been on a couple times.
This week it's supposed to be in the high-90's the entire time, with today and Friday basically hitting 100. I was pretty much dreading this because my pool was still dirty (long boring story in which my brothers and I are just lazy) and I would have to sit inside and melt, even with the air conditioning. But thankfully it's clean! I went out this morning to check it and all I have to do is vacuum it and it should be good. Hurrah!
Now, I live in the Northest, New York specifically, and we have four very distinct seasons. In the summer it gets disgustingly hot and in the winter we get tons of snow that I love for Christmas and the first snowfall but hate all the other times, and just want it to be summer already. Two of the colleges I'm looking at make either summer or winter more extreme.
Cornell is located in Ithaca, New York and their snowfall is about... twice as much as what I get. Upwards of 6 feet of snow, doesn't that sound awesome? And the thing about Cornell is that the campus is HUGE, I mean like ENORMOUS. It's practically a city, which I don't mind since I enjoy walking, but in the winter I know it would be a nuisance.
On the other hand, Duke is located in Durham, North Carolina. They barely get snow (is that a good thing? I'm not sure yet) but it gets hot real fast down there. The humidity jumps up and you just want to live in your central air house or in the pool. However, I'm not going to be staying there for the summer if I do end up going to Duke, and I'll be coming home for Christmas break, which means I won't be escaping the snow that much. And a little side note, I'm visiting Duke/my cousins in North Carolina from July 26 to August 3, which I'm really excited for.
So yeah, just wanted to let the world know that New York has a heatwave and it's awful. I think I'll just live in my pool and drink iced tea. That sounds good.
6 Comments — Personal Life, Rambling
