For my third trip on my college adventure, I decided to drive up to Indiana, Pennsylvania and visit the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. I was excited for this trip because I have always heard how IUP is such a great time and I never have been there. So after about forty-five minutes of being on the road, I pull onto campus.

One of the main things that I enjoyed about IUP was the surrounding area. What surrounded the college was a small town with streets that were overwhelmed by trees and little shops and places to eat. In a sense, the scene reminded me of state college, only it was a lot smaller. I made my way to campus and found pretty much what I found at every other college, nice buildings, green grass, and a lot of busy people. One thing that struck my attention is that a lot of the campus buildings seemed to be connected, or at least close in proximity.

At this point I was disappointed, I had found nothing new from any of the other colleges that I have visited and I was already there for quite some time. I knew that it was now time for me to explore the atmosphere of IUP. Then, an idea hit me. There is an IUP chapter of the fraternity I belong to, Sigma Tau Gamma, so I thought I would go check it out. If anything, the "frat guys" would have something interesting for me.

I use the term "frat guys" as a joke because everyone has a label for people who belong to fraternities and I can tell you that people who are in UPJ fraternities are not "frat guys". I always pictured fraternities to be like the movie Animal House and at Pitt-Johnstown it is nothing close to that. With that said, the local Sig Tau chapter at IUP was more like what I originally imagined a fraternity might be like.

I pulled up to the off campus house and proved to the brothers that were in the front yard that I was a member. Each of them had an alcoholic beverage in there hand and were watching people wrestle in the yard. I started talking to some of the brothers and I found out that they pretty much do stuff like this on a nightly basis. After finding this out, I asked them how they got any work done. One of them replied laughing, "It's IUP," which gave me possible insight into the how difficult the academics are.

After spending some time at the house, I was walking back to my car thinking that I may have had a better college experience had I gone to a school like the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. It was almost at this exact moment that a couple of kids on a porch started yelling profanities at me. I was dumb-founded until I realized I was wearing Sig Tau letters and these kids were from a rival fraternity. At this point, I came to the conclusion that maybe UPJ Greek life, where everyone is friends and RA's watch over parities, isn't the worst thing in the world.

Once again, I found it time for me to depart from campus. So I walked away from all of the fraternities and headed to my car. As I walked through the small town I thought to myself that Indiana might be a nice place to live. As for the school, if the academics are easy and the parties are fun, their isn't much more you can ask for as a twenty year old.