TRAVENTURE 2: Purdue University, West Lafayette

Think about the biggest rivalry you know.

Dodgers vs. Giants. Coke vs. Pepsi. Montagues vs. Capulets. Harry Potter vs. Voldemort. The Snuggie vs. Forever Lazy.

Now multiply that rivalry by 10 ... and then you've got Indiana University (IU) vs. Purdue.

Both my parents are IU alum, so I've been hooked on the school for as long as I can remember.

After graduating from sippy cups to plastic restaurant cups, I finally made it to the highly prized IU sports-commemorated cups. I watched my first basketball game in Assembly Hall while I was a preschooler, and I participated in IU softball camp on weeknights throughout high school (a three hour drive each way).

Safe to say, I was born and raised as a Hoosier.

Last weekend, however, I visited West Lafayette, home of the Purdue Boilermakers. I had been there a couple of times before, but never spent much time on campus. A few of my friends go to college there, and I made the trip to visit my friend Alan who is staying there for the summer.

Despite my restrained IU pride, I had a wonderful time.

The most surprising part was that I found the campus to be beautiful and the area not quite as unfriendly as I had imagined. Who would have guessed that such a dismal-sounding place (Purdue) would turn out to be so fantastic?

In fact, while my friend gave me a tour of campus, we ran into not just one, but TWO wedding parties taking photos. We also came across a plethora of sunbathing students and toddler-touting alumni. To top off the tour, I even drank out of the Lion Fountain Memorial, which is rumored to give students good luck before an exam.