The wonderful world of SEASONS!

So one of the great things about having seasons is the seasonal activities. One of which being Cider Mills! Last Monday my roommate Kate and I went to a couple of cider mills. Shortly after I moved here I started hearing people talk about these cider mills and the more I heard the more I wanted to go to one. For one, I heard they had cider which the grocery stores also have but it doesn't get better than getting it straight from the source and I also heard they have homemade doughnuts and well, lets me honest once I heard that I was hooked on the idea. We had a little break from school and took advantage of it by going to not only one but TWO cider mills. They were great! From the first one I got three doughnuts, some cider, and some corn kernels to make popcorn with. The first one didn't have a whole lot going one since one of their big things is apple picking and apparently we were told the apples fell early this year so there were no more on the tree. We were a little bummed but were able to find another cider mill not to far away that was a little bigger. The second one had some fun picture spots, a little farm type thing, and a store where I bought another doughnut. We were also able to watch the whole doughnut making process which was cool. Bottom line cider mills are great and would be a very fun family activity. I kept wishing I could bring all my cousins and family there, to bad we don't have them in California!

Doughnuts fresh out of the maker. They were soooo good.

Making doughnuts. YUM!

Bags and bags of apples. I had just got a bunch at the store so I didn't get any but they all looked great!

Michigan roads in general are pretty crappy but they also seem to have a lot of dirt roads which have LOTS AND LOTS of holes in them. We had to go on one of these lovely dirt roads to get to the cider mills and I was cringing the whole time. This picture does not do it justice but seriously it was like being on the Indian Jones ride at disneyland. I was feeling very bad for the mini.

Leaves Leaves Everywhere...

These past couple of weeks have flown by. School has picked up, the Michigan vs. MSU game came and went, and the weather has definitely been changing. The past two weekends have been extra sunny which has been a very nice surprise from mother nature considering that during the week it has been around the low 50's high 40's. I find myself as I go about my daily life wondering how I am going to do certain things and how much more time they are going to take once winter comes. My roommate Courtney and I were talking the other day and she graciously informed me that every so often your car door freezes shut... yeah, WHAT? I feel like I already wake up far to early in the morning on internship days and now to be told that I will have to take extra time driving to internship to ensure I don't wreck my car and I will have to start my car a good 15 minutes before I leave and get all the snow off of it. Did I mention we have to shovel the snow off our sidewalk (we also live on a corner which means we have double the side walk). Wow winter is going to be very time consuming. I have already planned out my life so that I only have to leave the house by car on the days that I have internship. I will just have to do all my shopping and everything else on those days as well.

On a happier note, fall here in Michigan is absolutely beautiful. There are leaves everywhere and I mean everywhere and by now most of the trees that are going to change colors have and they are amazing to look at. I tried to take some pictures to show all you Californians since we don't really do the whole season thing but really the pictures don't do it justice.

And now on to the Michigan vs. Michigan State game. Well, as I have mentioned before football here is insane, but I hadn't seen anything until the Michigan Vs. MSU game. There were THOUSANDS of people here. There are so many people here that it wipes out the cell service and if you are anywhere near the stadium good luck using your cell phone. There were over a 113,000 people in the stadium that day and the energy was out of this world. Unfortunately we lost so I can't even imagine what it would have been like if we had been doing better. Here are some pictures from that day.

This cute man was standing outside of one of the many entrances into the stadium. This little sign says 1 ticket. He was just so cute I had to get him in a picture. Also, like this man it seems like people only every shout out the amount of tickets and fail to say if they are looking for them or selling them. Maybe I am just not educated enough about the world of scalping but I am always very confused.

It is kind of hard to see what is going on here but that car is in the front yard of some frat house and the car is painted green and white (Michigan State's colors) and says MSU all over it. People were taking turns with the sledge hammer and well you get the picture....insane but awesome.

This is pretty much what the streets/slash houses looked like: people, music, and lots of beer.

These last two are obviously from within the stadium. It was a fun game despite our loss.

Fairy doors, cupcakes, and being thousand of miles from home...

This week was probably the hardest one I have had here in Ann Arbor. For a few days, I was overcome with the fact that I am thousands of miles from home and from anyone I know and anyone who really knows me. It has been hard to accept that sometimes I am going to feel lonely and there is no aunts houses to go to and hangout with cousins, or dad's business to go and read people magazine at, nor are there those "places" like the cross and the beach that bring comfort. I am not very patient when it comes to accepting that making good friends and finding those "go-to places" takes time. I since have snapped out of the lonely feeling and have decided to really work on accepting that these things take time and that maybe in the mean time I am supposed to learn something from this whole "alone" feeling.

On a brighter note, this Friday I discovered an "Ann Arbor" thing that is quite interesting. My roommate Courtney and I were on main street walking to the cupcake store after having a lovely dinner at the Brewing Company when I spotted what looked like a tiny little door in a wall. Some people were crowded around it and I really didn't think that much of it, mostly because I was very caught off guard by it. At some point I said something to Courtney and she ever so casually said, "Oh it's a fairy door".......ummmm what? I asked question after question wondering what the heck these things are for and why in the world they exist and all she kept saying was "I donno, they are just fairy doors." On our way back to the car she took me to another fairy door sight.

In this particular case the fairy door is right next to the big door however this is not always the case.

And here it is up close. Still I am wondering WHY in the world these doors exist. From what I have read so far a man in 1993 discovered these fairy doors in his house that was over a 100 years old when he did some remodeling. Since he discovered them people have put their own fairy doors in various places. There will be more on these fairy doors because I am determined to go on a little fairy door hunt.

I also must confess in this blog post that I have become a cupcakeaholic. It is an addiction I plan to do nothing about. Today, Kate and I went to our favorite cupcake store Just Baked and were pleasantly surprised to find a "All cupcakes $1" sign out front. Since we were already going to spend around $6 on cupcakes, we decided to buy 6 and wow was that a good choice.

Anyone who comes to visit me I will buy you a cupcake!!!