I recently had the opportunity to visit University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for the first time. Every March, they have a day called "Unofficial," an (unofficial) holiday which is an early celebration for St.Patricks Day. The day consists of wearing green, meeting friends and partying all day (starting as early as 5 a.m.). Most students take part in this in one way or another, and many people even come from out of town for it; I was lucky enough to be one of those people that experienced it.
As someone who is always in Tempe, proudly reppin' my Sundevils, visiting another school was interesting; I spent a day in, what was basically, a foreign place to me, a different college town. And while ASU is still my home, there were things about UIUC that I absolutely fell in love with. So here's a little appreciation post for the Illini, and some of the things I loved about y'all's school.
1. Unofficial
How can I write an article about visiting UIUC on unofficial weekend and not have it first on the list? The concept of an early St.Patty's day, and just the way y'all celebrate it, was awesome. I bought green weeks before I came, I was super excited, and I love how it's such a tradition in Champaign.
2. The food
Illinois is, of course, famous for food such as pizza, and it definitely did not disappoint. From the tons of food places on Green St. to the $2 pizza I bought (and then became obsessed with), it definitely did not disappoint.
3. The geotags
Yes, I'm serious. I mean the snapchat geotags. UIUC and Champaign had the coolest geotags, and I'm sure I annoyed every person on my friends list with the constant stories I posted just to use the geotags.
4. The campus
Seeing a campus as spread out at UIUC was interesting to me. While ASU is extremely large, it's still laid out in the sense that everything connects; UIUC, on the other hand, is in all different parts of the town, and while I would very easily get lost, I thought it was a nice change.
5. The Frat Houses
Frats are my guilty pleasure, and one of the things that makes me most sad at ASU is the lack of frat houses. We literally drove around the frat houses at UIUC, obsessing over them from outside, and one day, I will go back and visit 'em.
6. The "and a half" houses
Walking into the wrong house on accident, we quickly learned that some of the houses in Champaign have "and a half" at the end. For instance, 604 and 604 1/2 both exist. This is, for sure, the most absurd thing I've come across. But also the funniest. I can only to hope have a house one day with "a half" at the end.
7. The boys
Yes, I'm admitting this shamelessly: I obsessed over the U of I boys the whole time I was there. Y'all are cute, 'nuff said.
Thanks for having me, UIUC. And see you again, hopefully soon.
