Academia In Spartanburg

It's recap time! What a whirl-wind week. And now I need to gear up for DC on Monday. So much stimulation, so much to take in, in such a short time. But let's start from the beginning. On Saturday night I went over to my grandparents to sleep and then wake-up and have my grandfather drop my mom and I off at Newark airport. Our flight was at 8:30 and of course we got there early and had to wait for o so long. I get so antsy sitting like that. O and a side note. I still have not gone in one of the new X-Ray scanners! I was specially approved by TSA with a yellow card, to just go through the metal detector and not take off my outerwear or shoes. Awesome! No radiation 😉

We landed in Greenville, SC around 10:20ish and then it was time to grab our little rental Ford Fiesta and hit the road to our hotel in Spartenburg. My mom requested early check-in but of course that was a no go and we couldn't check-in. We decided to just head out to the Wofford campus and start our day...after lunch of course. We ended up at Fresh Market. Might I say that place is foodie heaven! Organic specialty food everywhere. The produce was all spectacular and flawless. And the best thing...they had...PSPs! When I saw those purple sweets I pretty much died right there. Too bad I couldn't get any 🙁 I did pick up 2 organic Honey Crisps though. They were perfect! For lunch we grabbed massive salads at the salad bar which were delicious, simple and quick.

Then we were off to the campus. When we tried to pull in to the main gate it was roped off, every entrance was roped off for that matter, but we finally found an open one further down the road. We found out the Alumni Association was holding an Easter Egg Hunt/outdoor picnic. There were little kiddos, families, rides, and thousands of plastic Easter eggs all over! I pilfered an egg from the roped off areas for the hunt, but inside all there was was a mint. So I threw it back, haha, not worth it 😉

We continued to just wander around the campus. It was definitely not what I expected. I am not really sure what I expected, but, it was just different. The buildings were beautiful though. The senior apartments were like beach front condos! All of the buildings were closed though without an access card. And all the students were still not back from Spring Break (they came back the next day though!). The rest of Spartanburg was also basically closed down. I am pretty sure Sunday's are "go to church and then stay in the house all day" days. Nothing was opened and the town looked like something from The Walking Dead.

(Loved this door!)

(See, these look like beach houses!)

(Every building had a porch! Such cute Southern charm. I could not get enough!)

It got up to at least 90 degrees on Sunday. Insane! I was actually hot. I really thought that would never happen again after this winter. The flowers were also in full bloom around campus. So even though I will miss the Cherry Blossoms in DC this year, at least I got some of these pretty white flowers instead!

Then it was time to eat! You all know I don't eat out and in the last 5 years I have only eaten out at Sweetgreen in DC last June. I am horrified of eating out. Food safety, food allergies, I just can't handle it. However I finally settled on a City Range steakhouse and grill. I called ahead, made reservations, and loved their Southern kindness and accommodations with food allergies. When we got there, the place was empty and we got seated right away. They had a full gluten-free menu plus this special Ultra-Fit menu which has tons of healthy options. Basically it was a dinner I would make at home. Perfect portions, low sodium, and completely safe! We ended up eating here both Sunday and Monday for dinner and always received our food in just 10 minutes; the service and staff were really great. The first night I got the Lemon & Fennel Roasted Trout with braised fennel, grilled lemons, and asparagus served over parsnip mash! It was excellent 🙂 I actually am not a huge fan of fennel or parsnips, but the dish just sounded so good. I threw caution to the wind and was blown away! I was so happy with my choice. The fennel and parsnip mash gave the dish this perfect little sweetness. The fish was cooked perfectly and so was the asparagus. Slightly crunchy, just how I like it!

The next night I did a little mixing and matching. I chose the Coriander Dusted Grilled Chicken with seasonal veggies and a plain baked sweet potato! Again this was outstanding! The potato was obviously baked in the oven and had that caramely sweet gooeyness. I am to lazy at home to roast my sweets in the oven and just use the micro. So this was a welcome treat! I could have used more veggies though...haha veggies = life! I have also been craving grilled chicken now all week since this meal! I can't wait until summer is here so I can try my hand at grilling! I also had a thing for their water. You know how when most restaurants give you water, it tastes like gross tap water. Well I don't know what kind of water they use, but it was delicious! I sucked down 3 glasses each time, haha! Yes, I get excited about good water 😉

If you ever find yourself in Spartenburg (or Greenville, they have a location there too!) definitely go to City Range! So besides some great and safe eats (I survived with a happy tummy!), I also had my official Senior Specialty day at Wofford on Monday. I got all dressed up in my "fancy" new dress I ordered, haha. Look a once-in-a-blue-moon-selfie! Even though my face is covered 😉

My day started with a microeconomics class, then a session with the study abroad adviser, then the official campus tour, and finally my special meeting with the dining hall service head. I was the only girl in my group for the tour it was 5 other boys who were all from the Carolina's! Haha, the lone Jersey girl 😛 It was cute though. They all had on Polo shirts and Sperry's, khaki shorts and belts. They were all gentlemen and held the door and things like that. O the South 😉 Everyone was so sweet down there. It is such a completely different culture and attitude from the hustle and bustle of the NJ/NY area. People need to calm down up here and learn to be a little more kind!

When we went to the dining hall for out meeting, we also were able to grab lunch there. I still played it safe and just built a huge salad. This one was actually even better than the Fresh Market salad from the day before, haha! But nothing compares to the wonders of a Sweetgreen salad! The dining hall staff sounded pretty accommodating too which is a great plus. They even had a special gluten-free toaster 😉

The only bad thing about Monday was the fact that it was super cloudy and getting ready to rain all day. Plus it was chilly (60 degrees maybe) so walking around campus in a dress was not very fun. The rain did hold off though until it was time to go to the airport, of course! Torrential down pour while we were at City Range so we had to wait to get in the car and head to the airport. Then my mom had a freak-out because we got stuck in traffic heading to the airport (from an accident due to the rain). The time kept ticking down and we still had to drop off the rental car, print our boarding passes, and get through security. Luckily we got there with plenty of time. The rain let up, thank god, because we ended up being on a Prop Plane! These things are so dangerous. Whatever you do always avoid flying on a propeller plane. And they are so loud! Our seats were right next to the propeller and I had to hold my ears practically the whole time.

We did survive though and then it was time for our lay-over in Charlotte, NC. The flight to Newark was at 10:20pm so we had to wait over 2 and ½ hours. At least the Charlotte airport was massive! But that also meant we had to walk about 5 miles from terminal E to terminal C. I totally have shin splints today from all the walking I did during our trip. (Due to wearing flip-flops with my dress on Monday). Time for those compression socks! The plane to Newark was packed, but it was a huge jet. I slept the whole time on the plane since it was way past my bedtime, haha! Then we couldn't land at the airport for at least 20 minutes so we ended up circling around Newark over and over again. Finally we landed after 12am. We then had to hop on the Air Train to get to Terminal B and pick up our taxi. We got back to my grandparents after 1am and I finally just crashed. Sweet, sweet sleep! I still woke-up at 5am the next morning though, haha! Needless to say, it was a whirlwind weekend. But I am glad to have been able to finally see Wofford and the surrounding town. I think I know where I want to go next year for school, but I will leave that emotional post for next week, so stay tuned!

Well there you have it. A really quick crazy recap of my trip. I hope you enjoyed the wonderful guest bloggers I had on this week. Thank you again to Janae and Kristy! You are both wonderful! I hope you all are having a great week, we are so close to the weekend! I wish I could have gotten up a special Easter recipe post this week, but alas, I had no time to cook 🙁 I do have something in mind though, it might just come a bit after the fact. 😉 I'll see you back here tomorrow for the Finisher. Yes I still have tons of great reads for you even though I was away. I can never stay away from reading blogs no matter what I am doing, haha!

So tell me:

Have you ever been to South Carolina? Yes! But I always went to Myrtle Beach, this was the first time on the opposite side of the state completely away from the beaches. I was a little sad to not see the Palmetto Trees 🙁

Have you ever flown on a plane at night? The lights are so pretty and interesting! It is crazy what our world looks like from up above!

**Linking up my recap with Amanda's Thinking Out Loud!**

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