Ann Arbor
Big House
November 16, 2002
Ann Arbor is like one giant fraternity row and coming from a university at which
many fraternities are looked down upon as "buying friends" it was culture
shock. With the University of Michigan comes a pride that you are now a part of
a long-standing history.
The city and university are not me; I simply didn't belong and have no interest
in trying to belong, because I felt it takes a true effort to belong instead of
finding your place. It felt like a giant business school and if that's where
you want to be, then this is where you belong.
We went to the Wisconsin-Michigan game and the atmosphere in the Big House is less
than big. Part of it is that there is no second level so noise just leaves instead
of being echoed throughout the stadium, but another part is that students seem to
be more about going than watching. Its like an image that you need to portray: that
of a football fan; as if every freshman must take a class on how to be a Michigan
football fan. The students don't seem to be football fans so much as being fans
of being football fans.
Outside the student section there was a cross-section of fans from rich alumni to
average Joes who just love Michigan football. Wisconsin had a chance to tie it near
the end, but the disappointing season continued with a dropped pass in the end zone
on 4th down.
The highlight (since Wisconsin lost) was a trip to the Big Boy for dinner, which
was like any other diner. Big boys are all over the place here, however they went
extinct in Wisconsin years ago, if they ever even made it that far west to begin
with.
Big Boy