Yes Michigan
Monday, January 30th, 2006It is not as exciting as Tanzania, I know. But I still get excited when I get to go back to Michigan, especially back to my alma mater, Michigan State University. Mark and I were lucky enough to get tickets to Saturday’s basketball game against Penn State (thank you, Jennifer!) so we made a weekend out of it. First we checked into our house in South Haven, then got up Saturday morning and drove to East Lansing. It was my first trip back to the MSU campus in over five years. Some things have changed - new constructions, football stadium renovations - but I was still able to find my way around. Before the game we walked around campus and I made it a point to visit some of my favorite spots. Walking along, or sitting on a blanket and - ahem - studying alongside the Red Cedar River were two of my favorite pasttimes when I was a student at MSU. The river still adds a quaint, scenic touch to the campus landscape. From there we walked over to Breslin Center for the game. It was rather ugly early on. The Spartans were not looking like the 12th ranked team in the nation but Shannon Brown and Drew Neitzel caught fire in the second half and we ended up beating Penn State by a score of 69-60.
Another of my favorite spots on campus is the Dairy Store. No visit to MSU is complete without enjoying a giant cone packed with delicious, creamy, made-on-the-spot ice cream. On this afternoon I had Strawberry Cheesecake; Mark, Amaretto Cherry Chocolate Chip. Yummy! We walked around campus a bit more then decided it was time for an early dinner. We headed over to the Traveler’s Club International Restaurant and Tuba Museum in nearby Okemos. It is an interesting little place - nothing fancy - and the feature is a new menu each month focusing on a different part of the world. January’s feature? Africa. The main dish on the menu? A vegetable stew from Tanzania. It was like they knew I would be fresh off a trip to Tanzania and that I would be in the restaurant in January. While the stew is probably wonderful, I opted for something a bit smaller: a falafel sandwich. It was fabulous. The whole time we were there, I kept thinking to myself, Why didn’t I ever know about this place when I was going to school here? I would’ve hung out there all the time.
It was back on the road to South Haven shortly thereafter where we enjoyed a relaxing evening, and back to Chicago on Sunday night. I’m already looking forward to my next weekend adventure, a jaunt I needed to plan to try to quash these post-Africa blues: Seattle in two weeks to hang with a couple of my Kili buddies.