F & M

Guess what that stands for? Hint: it's not a bank and it's not a department store. Stands for fun and magnificent! No really, it stands for Franklin and Marshall (College). It's a quaint and beautiful liberal arts college in the heart of Lancaster, PA (pronounced LAINKester -- don't say Lancaster which we did all day!) There was not one thing about this school that Austin did not like -- from the AMAZING Olympic-sized brand new swimming pool (and you all know how much we like swimming pools!) to the nice-sized all-air-conditioned dorm rooms, to the interesting course work and finally to the warm, festive and funny students and employees. The buildings are so old and historic, but when you walk inside, you're transferred to the new and modern insides! One very cool fun fact about F & M is that they have a whole fleet of bikes that you can check out for free, and ride anywhere you want. The bikes are blue and white and say, "Franklin and Marshall" on them -- so fun! The whole entire campus is wi-fi with outlets underneath the trees!

And contrary to popular belief, Lancaster is not in the heart of Amish Country -- Amish Country is still a good 20 minutes away (and I know most of you don't have ANY belief about Lancaster because you have no idea WHERE Lancaster even is -- except for Haley's mom, Kim [see Bucknell photo below]). Anyway, much to Austin's and my surprise, Lancaster is a surprisingly hip, artsy mini-city, with lots of fun boutiques, art galleries and even some head shops (oh….are they still called that? In Amsterdam they're called Smart Shops….makes you wonder…..) The mini-city is quite diverse, and I only wish we had had more time to explore it.

Well, if Austin gets accepted to Franklin and Marshall, we will be back for a longer period of time to explore. Did I mention he's definitely going to apply there? And a couple of you have asked that Austin continue his ratings, however we are going to have to wait for the end of the trip before we complete our ratings. In fact, he's going to be adjusting ALL of his ratings, starting at Allegheny below (for those of you who are new to the blog, make sure you scroll down to the bottom of the page and start at the beginning!)

Amish sightings! Everywhere! Babs at Franklin and Marshall directed us to the heart of Amish country, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint! On more than one occasion, we got stuck on the road behind a horse and buggy with a cute Amish family inside. We stopped roadside at an Amish house for homemade root beer and homemade potato chips (I know, good-bye diet, hello poundage!) Babs also talked us into trying these things called Whoopie Pies -- like an ice cream sandwich, but the middle isn't ice cream and it isn't cold (not like an ice-cream sandwich at all, I guess!) Anyway, it comes in all sorts of flavors and the Amish women make them -- they're very yummy and rich, and I got to get acquainted with my old friend poundage again!

Okay, tomorrow we are off to Dickinson College. We don't know what to expect anymore -- we read the Fiske and Princeton Review books on colleges, and sometimes they seem to be correct, and other times they seem to be completely out-of-sync. My advice (yeah, in my INFINITE wisdom) is to take them with a grain-of-salt. Nothing beats the on-campus experience.