Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad-ison

That's the view from one of the administration buildings on the UW campus toward State Street, the Library Mall and the capital building. Yes, they have more than one mall area on the campus, but we didn't explore too much of the campus beyond where Emily will be going to school.

State Street is this stretch of road from campus straight up to the capital building where they have many little bohemian shops from the feminist book store to a couple coffee shops to an honest to god habedashery where I will visit sometime soon. They also have a psychic there which I think I'm going to visit too (I'm intrigued after Diana's interesting trip in New York). Also, State Street was where the Jimmy Johns and Chipolte was, so come school time being in...it's going to be chock full of people wearing red shirts with "Wisconsin" written on them.

Check this out too. Here's the front of the Student Union building:

Yes, Student Union, as in the place where you'd go buy food and drinks and the like. This building doesn't really scream "food joint" does it? But hey, I don't mind. They also serve beer there. But, you have to have two forms of ID in order to get it (your driver's license and some special ID purchased through the student union).

Also about Madison, parking there will be a bitch. I didn't see many parking garages, and there is no such thing as student lots except for many, many places to chain bikes and park scooters (yep, scooters...there's even a Vespa dealership in town).

Another interesting thing about the town, the northwest corner of the Madison area is sprawling country with some serious mansions and a state park. I'm talking Gone With the Wind kind of mansions with two layers of balconies on the front of it. If there isn't a grand staircase to carry a southern belle up, then that's a wasted house I think.

A strange thing, I didn't see a single Wal-Mart in town. They have a super Target, a whole bunch of grocery stores (Copps, Cub, Whole Foods). The town seems to have a lot of vegetarian options too (even advertise it in the window with little stickers) and seems like one big thriving liberal populus right in the middle of dairy country.

Of the apartments we saw, we visited on place I like to think of as Xanadu because it is a pristine complex with two pools, lots of yard space, fitness center, two tennis courts, community grills and the apartments are spacious. It's not close to campus, but it's gorgeous. We saw another place where the landlord had blood on his hands when he showed up (probably from shaving I guess, his hair was sopping wet too). Also about the bloody handed guy, he was talking about the application process. He kept saying, "I don't want to say the wrong thing" in terms of who they wouldn't rent too, so I'm pretty sure he meant minorities, though which group I'm not sure. The apartment was in a nice, quiet residential neighborhood near the lakes, but again, not too close to campus.

We looked at four other places. Two in the ghetto, two close to campus. Of the ghetto ones, one place was a three bedroom, but the landlord said that if we only wanted a one bedroom, she'd lock the other bedrooms and charge us a lower rent. Of course, we'd still have to heat and cool those rooms we'd be locked out from. The other place didn't have a dumpster, but instead we would put our trash in the basement in numbered cans because, as the landlord said, "We got a guy who does the trash." So because I'm watching too much of The Sopranos lately, it stinks of mob involvement.

The two campus places weren't bad. One, the lady really put on a show for us in trying to oversell how friendly they are. Then she only showed us the "show" apartments. They also have a lot of rules there, including quiet hours. Yes, quiet hours, like a fucking dorm. The other place, that's close to the ghetto, and it has a bunch of halls that snake around the building, many staircases, lots of unmarked doors...honestly, it feels designed by a Dungeons and Dragons kind of thing with its maze like quality. That isn't all bad because maybe it has a minotaur or David Bowie with a bunch of puppets at its center. That place too was certainly "lived in" as in dirty, but the manager was really friendly. Plus, it was obvious a lot of students live there because one place had Tibetan peace flags outside their apartment.

On first blush, I like the place. It should be interesting living. Oh, and I fell completely in love with this bookstore on State Street called Avol's Books. They have a lot of interesting used and rare books there. I didn't snoop around the rare books too much because we needed to get a move on for an apartment viewing, but I found some stuff all throughout the place I liked. They also hold poetry readings there, book club meetings, and weekly story time in this little area painted like castle. What's really interesting is this strange apartment complex right next to the bookstore called The Canterbury Inn. It's fully furnished apartments for high rent with murals from the Canterbury Tales painted on the walls. Click that link back there for more info and pictures.

We'll be heading back in a few weeks to seek out more apartments in the Isthmus/eastern area of Madison where it is allegedly very nice.

viva el mustache