erina89

I went to OSU for a year, so I practically lived a hop, skip, and a jump away from Short North and downtown. Columbus seems like a nice, fairly safe, place to raise a family and the economy is growing. However, for the most part I found Columbus cookie cutter and sprawled. The Short North Arts District is very cool and Victorian Village is beautiful. Once you get into downtown it’s dead and bland (except for the Arena District). I didn’t get a chance to visit German Village, but I plan to whenever I go back. Columbus is a fairly homogeneous city, although there is a large Somali refugee population (which is cool since there isn’t a large population of East Africans in the US). Columbus also seems to pride its self on malls. Especially Easton (a huge, very nice lifestyle center), Polaris (which I found overrated), and Tuttle (nice, but a just a regular ole mall). I think what sets Columbus apart from other cities in Ohio is its growth and newness. However, it lacks character and I don’t really miss it. It would make a great weekend trip though so it is not completely “not worth visiting”.

I’ve actually been to Chicago before, however, the first time I was too young to remember and the second time my parents and I drove around looking for downtown and we ended up getting lost in the projects. And let me tell you: Chicago projects are much different from the ones where I live. ANYWAYS, when we finally got downtown we couldn’t find any parking (it cost like, $10 in the lots). However, while driving around I saw that downtown Chicago was gorgeous and lively. However, we had to leave because we were only in the area for a short time and we needed to commute back to the suburbs to get to our hotel (and Chicago traffic was horrible).

Well, I’ll be in Chicago in a few months to do a college visit and I CAN’T WAIT! I’ll actually be able to explore the city.

I went to New Orleans once about 9.5 years ago. I had family on the Gulf Coast and the city is only a couple of hours away from where they lived, so we decided to go and visit.

I was 8 years old, so there were a lot of things that I couldn’t do (like drink on Bourbon Street). However, I remeber it being a unique and amazing place. We were definitely made aware of the danger in the city and they craziness of it all (it seemed like there were a lot of strip joints!). New Orleans certainly had a rich culture though. I remember a group of kids tap dancing on the street and the sounds of jazz. I remember that I LOVED the architecture, the porcelain figurines that my parents bought at a street fair, and the taste of alligator jerkey.

I really hope as New Orleans recovers from Hurrican Katrina, it doesn’t completely lose its soul. Yes, there was poverty and corruption and of course poverty and corruption sucks. However, I hope it doesn’t become a bland, over-gentrified playground for Trump and his crew.