"What the hell are you doing in Tallahassee?" is one of the most common questions I get when I say where I currently live, only to lose first place to the strong competitors of "Talla what?" and "Where in the world in that?". Indeed. I also – on occasion – ask myself what it is I’m doing here and how things came to be.
Thinking back, it didn’t involve too much thought. My university in Hong Kong offers a 6 months scholarship to go anywhere in the world to get some research experience away from HK, and I’ve been meaning to do that for quite some time. It wasn’t till I was told that being a 4th year PhD I’m no longer entitled to university apartments that I seriously started to look into things. My visit to APS2012 in Chicago during May and the few meetings I’ve had with professors I’ve corresponded with via email before that brought up a few options, the most promising of which were Chicago, Ann Arbor and, yep, Tallahassee. I already visited Ann Arbor last year, and although Chicago was brilliant and does have some of the best universities and researchers in my field, I guess I was looking for something a bit different. I just didn’t realize how different it is till I actually came here.
Tallahassee is a small and quiet university town that for some historical reason serves as the Florida capital. Some of the people I asked seemed to suggest that it has something to do with being in the middle between Jacksonville and Pensacola – the prominent Florida centers pre the Orlando-Miami tourism monstrosities.
Either way, it’s small, but it’s the capital, and so – despite it’s size – it makes a decent effort at providing the locals with a bit of culture. Having Florida State University helps a bit, so you can atleast expect the weekly football extravaganza where the FSU team kicks ass of some poor team that was forced to visit. FSU also boosts the local music and performance scene with student based performance, and naturally, the students make things livelier so there’s a good selection of food venues and nightlife.
But, it still has a bit of a small town mentality. How so? visit the museums.
First up, the so called "Tallahassee Museum", which in my humble opinion should perhaps be called the Tallahassee Mini-Zoo…
So, yeah, it has animals. The animals are suppose to represent the Florida nature, but I think it’s more about keeping kids busy…
Dinos. Yes, they were here too, don’t argue.
The Tallahassee "Museum" tries to show a bit of the life that was Florida back in the days…
Yes, ancient toilets. "Kids, this is how grandma and grandpa did poopoo and peepee when they were your age". Ahmm….
But, seriously, the coolest thing about this "Museum" is the "tree walk" when you climb up the trees and walk or omega between them…
They call this "Tree to tree adventure", and it’s something worth doing.
Aside from the animals, the tree adventure and the ancient toilets, there’s nature…
and it looks good, you gotta hand it to the Tallahassian Gods.
In case you’re in need of a map…
Going to be here till March 2013. It’s been a month here already and though I miss the big crowded hectic city of HK and have a real hard time with all this fresh clean air and this healthy quiet life I’m beginning to slowly adjust to things here. It’s growing on me…
You keep exploring new things, you are very brave, wonderful life. Good thingking, but I can’t see “snake ” even pic, It’s the most hate thing in world, even can’t see pic! I might have nightmare this night…… too bad!
lishu – thanks, i hope you’re right. to me it all seems pretty ordinary. it’s only when i look back and think about the things i’ve done that i realize i shouldn’t take it for granted.