Well, here it is. My first blog. I’ve had the niggling idea to create one of these for a while now — I just needed an excuse good enough to actually make me do it. Class credit is a good motivator.
For those of you who aren’t my family and friends, I’ll give you a little background. I’ve lived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, basically my whole life. This is my first time living out-of-state, and I’m dreading the climate shock awaiting me this winter. See this?
This is what happens when you mix Alabamians and snow. Also, this:
Because Roll Tide, that’s why. (As a side note, this ESPN ad is based on a lot of truth.)
But so far, the weather here has been one thing: predictable. I’ve been in West Lafayette for 15 days; it has rained for all but one of them. However, it’s nice to step outside and be drenched due to a rain shower instead of humidity. I’ve always said that Alabama natives are born with gills — breathing is like sucking air through a wet blanket. So even with the rain, the air has been practically dry and dusty, compared to what I’m used to. Therefore, when a nice (yet extremely misguided) lady in Meijer’s welcomed me to Indiana, saying “Enjoy this hot, humid weather!”, I looked down at my dry, cracked hands and the bottles of creams, lotions, and oils I was buying in an effort to keep my skin from achieving Grand Canyon status…and genuinely laughed.
Aside from the weather, though, Indiana looks a lot like home — “home” as in, the rural South (i.e., where a lot of my family lives). My apartment complex is surrounded by a soy bean crop, a cornfield, a pond, and a trailer court (or mobile home community; whatever they’re called here). I was a little surprised by this familiarity… then I took my best friend to Chicago for her flight home. On the way, we saw windmills and fields as flat as a lake for as far as the eye could see.
And then, less than two hours north, this:
Yeah. I had a definite Dorothy moment: I’m not in Alabama anymore.
However, home is a place to which you can always return, even if it’s only in spirit — and if there is one thing Alabamians have in abundance, it’s spirit.
But West Lafayette is home for now, and I’m learning to like it. Even if it is raining. Again.
Bama Boilermaker 