jadepea

I’ve been to Indiana. I like my home state Illinois better, but the Indiana dunes were cool and fun to climb, and Lake Michegan was cool to swim in (just remember to wear sunscreen…I burnt my entire back and had marble-sized blisters, I kid you not.)

Was here, and some stuff was touristy, but it was cool anyway.

I was here visiting a friend, and it seemed a nice enough place. Lots of trees. Would like to return.

I don’t know Wilmette well, I just live nearby in another town, but I’m a fan of beautiful/cool/unique architecture, and as Wilmette is a wealthy town there’s a lot of cool houses to gawk at.

Someone posted pics of the temple—it’s stunning in person. I stumbled upon it while driving down Ridge road and my jaw dropped and I probably nearly caused an accident the way I was rubbernecking.

I don’t recall if there’s anything to do, but if you’re hitting the north shore Chicago suburbs and are passing by, do so if only for the awesome houses.

I tried college at University of Iowa for a few months. College didn’t suit me, so I went home to Illinois, but I missed Iowa City afterwards.

I’m not sure what it is about it that makes me like it so much…it does have a nice downtown with a lot going on (it’s a College town). And the houses are fabulous. And I like the hills; I grew up in Illinois so I’m used to flat, flat, flatness everywhere and the hills of Iowa were cool and gave it a nice feel.

Iowa City is a town I wouldn’t mind living in for a long period of time if I had a nice job. It has lots of trees, some parks and bike trails, the Iowa River.

Carol Stream always struck me as a slightly dodgy town, but then I grew up in the very safe and proper Wheaton next door, and when I was living in Carol Stream I lived in a low-income area that had crime.

Some parts don’t seem too bad; they’re more of the new middle class type with cheap new apartments and houses going up, and some development and the like.

The library sucks, and is tiny.

Overall, I think Carol Stream is just a town that grew up between other Chicago suburbs…I never felt any “culture” about it. I don’t even know where the down town area is, if there is one. It’s just full of people who seem to have ended up there because the housing was a bit cheaper than the surrounding areas.

The good things are that it’s safe, quiet, and if you’re in a poor situation as a young adult, Wheaton has a VERY good youth outreach program (see http://www.outreachcommunityministries.com/ —they’re a christian organization, but they don’t preach at you if you’re not interested and they’re very nice).

The bad things are that it’s a very religous town with churches everywhere you look, very republican, very traditional, and very boring. Aside from Cosley Animal Farm (which someone posted pics of) and the Prarie Path (which is excellant to bike on), there’s not much to do…you always go somewhere else to do things.

The most interesting thing is, despite being very religious and republican, it has the headquarters of the Theosophical Society of America ( http://www.theosophical.org/ ) which is this weird occult/alternate religion place. Why they’re in the middle of a mostly christian town, who knows, but they have an interesting metaphysical bookstore for the New Age types and those studying religion as their majors at Wheaton College.

Evanston is a cool place. It’s very intelligent and artistic; you can see it in the people and in the architecture. Downtown it’s a cross between a city city (such as Chicago), and a suburban downtown area. There’s lots of things to do—resturants, movie theater, parks, shops, music. It has good transportation, with lots of buses and the el and the Kenosha to Chicago Metra train.

I didn’t grow up here, but I moved here from a less cool Chicago suburb (Wheaton, a very staid republican & religious town).

And of course there’s Northwestern University nearby.