Top and Bottom 10's

Well, it's been almost a month since I've been in the land of the Hoosiers. I have yet to get an answer from anyone on what a Hoosier is. No one seems to really know what it is or the origin of the word. So for now I'll just settle with Hoosiers being students at Indiana University.

In no particular order, here are my top 10 and bottom 10 lists for things here in B-town (that's what everyone here calls Bloomington, I promise). I hope that in time, the bottom 10 list will disappear and the top 10 list will get longer. After 4 weeks, I not so sure it will happen. I'll be totally honest here.....I struggled to come up with the Top 10. The bottoom 10 came without hesitation.

Top 10
1. Midwesterners are nice people.
2. A cute stray cat lives in the hall outside my apartment. I want to adopt it.
3. Big-Ten college towns = cheap furniture (can be questionable though, I'll be careful).
4. My stats class is easy. That might move to the bottom list next semester though. We'll see.
5. Proximity to cool places like Chicago. I haven't gone yet, but my list of places to visit is getting longer every day.
6. Dinner group has saved my life in terms of getting to know people (and saves me $$). Thanks guys!!
7. People here RECYCLE!!!!! YES!!!!
8. Student housing is Pet-friendly. :-)
9. Trees everywhere.....it's like living in a forest. There aren't any leaves on them now, but I'm sure it will be awesome in the Spring and AMAZING in the fall.
10. I hear the park near my apartment shows movies on those cool blow-up screens on summer nights....FOR FREE!! Free is good.
11. (I had to include this, even though it's a top 10 list). The local strip club near my apartment, Night Moves: A Gentleman's Lounge, always has catchy phrases on it's marquis. When I got here it was "Wanted: More Nice Girls". We got a new one today "We Have Our Own Stimulus Plan". Apparently people wait with anticipation to see what the new sayings are. You gotta love the small towns.

Bottom 10
1. Ice.
2. Wind.
3. One-way streets.
4. No Clean Air Act....people can smoke indoors here!?! I guess California and Utah have spoiled me.
5. The lack of snow-plows.
6. Parking at IU is not free.
7. Lack of family and friends. I really miss everyone.
8. Football in Indiana? Ha, yeah right!
9. Slower pace of things at school. I shouldn't complain but I'm used to being super busy.
10. No office space at school. I'm less productive at home as it's always easy to find other things to do that are more interesting....like taking a nap.

So there they are. I keep telling myself that I will like it better here when the weather gets better. I'm sure I will. This winter has been yucky. And I think I will like it better when I move this summer. No more neighbors standing outside my door and smoking. In fact, my roommate and I checked out an apartment complex today that quickly moved to the top of our list. It's still under construction so it will be brand spankin new when we move in in August.....hopefully. The other great thing about it is that our upstairs neighbors are in our branch. It will be good to have friends so close.

So overall, the jury is still out on my first month in Bloomington. But it gets better every day. The sun was out and shining on Sunday. It was about 47 degrees....I wore shorts while I did laundry. It gave me some hope for a great future. :-)