Briefly making up for not being able to blog and drive at the same time...

Today was my first day in Boulder, CO. I stayed with another awesome couchsurfer and his roommates last night, all of whom go to the University of Colorado and love it. Paul hosted me on basically two hours notice and with all the hospitality you would expect at a four-star hotel (for free, of course). It was really nice to sleep in a bed, because the night before that I slept in my car at a truck stop outside Kansas city. Boy was it cold when I woke up...but I have a good sleeping bag, which is all you really need to survive in this world. It took me 1 full day to get across Kansas, which is the biggest, flattest, most boring state. I entertained myself by comparing the number of working pumpjacks to the number of dead ones. From what I gathered, it seems that about 1/3 of the oil wells in Kansas have been pumped dry.

Before I got on route 70 I was in a tiny coal town in Kentucky called Jenkins. I stayed there three nights with an amazing girl, Tory, and her mother Susan. Susan is a landlord and pro bono doctor for low-income Appalachians. Tory shared the driving with me to get there. She has a BS in Marine Bio and Environmental Science. Tory took me on a hike up one of the many mountains that had its top removed to extract coal and provide the rest of us with electricity. When the coal companies have taken all they can, they fertilize and plant Kentucky Bluegrass (lawn grass) where the greatest tree diversity in the US existed before. The top of the mountain that has been removed is dumped into the nearest "empty" valley causing unimaginable air and water pollution, not to mention weakening the already delicate structure of the catacombed mountains. But the coal companies build beautiful roads (to expedite the transportation of coal), golf courses the locals can't afford, and baseball fields for the high schools. This is their carte blanche to irrevocably destroy Kentucky's otherwise beautiful countryside. The visual result of this practice is that when you look over the state from a very high point half the mountains are short, flat-topped and brown and the others, the protected ones, are lush, green, pointed, characterful. Tory and Susan assimilate Kentucky with third world countries. Many people still have no plumbing and their sewage goes directly into the creeks causing serious public health problems. There are no jobs. There is no organic food. There is Wal Mart. Kentucky is the saddest place I have ever been.

I took a day trip to Boone, North Carolina to visit Appalachian State University. My impression was that the town was small, mostly overrun with chains, though in a beautiful location nestled in the mountains. The school buildings are new and brick, though tasteful. The campus is condensed, over-landscaped, and packed to capacity with 15,000 students (almost the size of Northeastern) who are mostly from North Carolina. Admissions seemed disorganized and appearance-focused. I asked them where I could find ASU's sustainable research farm. They had not heard of it. Then I went to the information desk and asked. They had not heard of it either. Turns out you have to drive to the next town you get there (I got this information from ASU's webpage). I was directed to go talk to a professor who would be able to answer my questions about the major. When I got to his office his secretary told me he would be in a meeting all day, but gave me his email address. When I started talking to some students who were working the Info desk I received an avalanche of information that admissions was not able to give me. But I only got it after loosening up their tongues with friendly banter, and when I asked about the nature of ASU's population the descriptor I received was "sorority bitches." Both students I spoke to were transferring elsewhere.

I am very glad I visited because it made me realize that ASU was not quite what I thought it was. In fact, it was hardly any different from Northeastern. So I don't have to apply there.

I went snowboarding in the Rockies today. It was a beautiful day, though a little icy and my knees are bruised to prove it. Tomorrow I'm visiting Naropa and CU Boulder.

Ciao!