I Love You Ms. Mong (& Other Chapel Hill things)
This past weekend, Coley and I went on a little weekend trip to Chapel Hill, North Carolina! We’ve been talking about taking this trip for ages, probably since we first met, and he insisted that UNC Chapel Hill’s campus put my very own Indiana University’s campus to shame. It was only a two hours drive from Charlotte, so it made sense to finally make the journey to his alma mater when he came to visit.
Coley’s flight into Charlotte just had to be on the day that North Carolina decided to storm its heart out. The whole week leading up to Coley landing in Charlotte, I had been telling him that he was probably going to have to Uber to my house because there was no way I would be able to drive to the airport.
But me, being the best girlfriend EVER, studied Google Maps all week and when it was time to make the journey to CLT Douglas Airport, there was no looking back. And then, it started to pour. And then, I literally could not look back because I couldn’t see anything.
Honestly, I don’t know how I made it to the airport because half of the time I was driving blindly and just hoping I was staying in the lines. I parked the car, ran into the airport, and hoped that Coley hadn’t already called an Uber home.
In my luck, Coley’s plane wasn’t allowing passengers to get off because of how bad it was storming so I guess I got there just in time. Once Coley was allowed to get off the plane, we stayed in the airport longer than Coley’s actual flight time waiting for his baggage to arrive.
Eventually, we made it out of the airport and grabbed dinner at Bojangles five minutes before it was supposed to close. The rain had finally stopped, and we were finally on our way home.
The next day, we woke up early to grab coffee and then hit the highway for Chapel Hill! We stopped in my neighborhood of Southend so Coley could try out one of the cute coffee shops here, Not Just Coffee, and then it was time to get driving.
Once we were finally at our exit to Chapel Hill, I could tell Coley was getting excited. He hadn’t been back since he had graduated, and honestly, I was excited to see everything too! We made our way up the hill, and suddenly we were on campus.
Coley was more than ready to give me a tour of the place, and our first stop was Coley Street.
One of the first things Coley ever told me about his time at UNC Chapel Hill was how when he was in college, there was this little street than ran behind the geology building. Apparently one day, he went on Google Maps to see if it had a name and it didn’t, so Coley decided to email Google Maps and let them know that the street was ACTUALLy called Coley Street.
So now if you go on Google Maps, it is officially called Coley Street. We’re just waiting on a real street sign to be put in now LMAO.
After getting a quick tour of the geology building where Coley spent most of his time at school, it was time for the best part: to go look at Carolina merch! We headed over to the UNC equivalent of TIS Bookstore, and was immediately flooded with air conditioning and Carolina blue.
Coley picked up a new hat to wear that had a nice little picture of Rameses on it, and I grabbed a cute Carolina blue shirt with sleeves lined with a curly edge. After thoroughly looking at everything the store offered, it was time to go venture out into the campus.
Although my heart is with Bloomington’s campus, I definitely can see why Coley was unimpressed when he came to IU for the first time. UNC Chapel Hill is BEAUTIFUL. From its brick walkways to its very traditional architecture, it looks like a very classic university, and I am into it.
My favorite part of the whole campus was being able to not see any confederate statues. The students at UNC recognized how horrible it is to have that kind of symbol sitting in the middle of the quad, and they decided to topple that statue themselves.
After our own walking tour of the campus, I realized that I was overheating and immediately needed air conditioning LOL. Coley and I headed off to get lunch somewhere in town and ended up eating at a Cuban style brewery where I smashed on the best sandwich ever.
After lunch, it was time for more self guided tours around town. One of the funniest parts on campus is the building that looks COMPLETELY out of place on UNC’s campus. Coley went on to explain that the people that had built that specific building had gotten University of North Carolina mixed up with University of Northern Colorado, and so now UNC has this random school’s architecture on their grounds LOL.
After more driving around and looking at basically everything that we could, we decided it was time to check into our hotel and find a pool. Unfortunately, our hotel didn’t have one so Coley and I decided to be creative and see if we could use UNC’s outdoor pool.
With some luck and fanaggling, we were able to enjoy the day and cool down at the pool Coley would go to all the time while he was at school! We spent the majority of our time playing water basketball and floating around.
At some point during our time at the pool, this little girl ran up to us while we were just sitting around in the water and said, “I’m Beatrice!” We said hi to her and then just as enthusiastically she said, “This is my lunchbox,” pointing at her lunch box. Then she ran away like little kids do.
I kind of thought nothing of it but next thing you know, this little girl comes swimming up next to us when Coley and I are playing basketball. We ended up playing with Beatrice for a solid hour and we learned that she’s a big sister, she’s four and a half years old, and she’s learning how to be a better swimmer!
Halfway through playing with her, her parents who were also floating around in the pool with her little baby brother came up to us and just gave us their baby to hold?? I was confused but also like yes please. Lol, highlight of the day.
We ended up leaving the pool after being there for a bit and headed to go eat at Coley’s favorite place in Chapel Hill, a Mongolian Grill place called Ms. Mong. Y’all. . . this place pops offffffff. It was SO GOOD. I genuinely don’t understand how this place makes such good food but I’m not questioning it.
I think the saddest part of the whole trip was when the next day came, I had to throw out my leftovers from Ms. Mong because I knew they would not survive in the hot car all day. Rip.
Our second day in Chapel Hill consisted of a lot more house sight-seeing, exploring random southern shops, and meeting up with Coley’s friends from college. I hope I can visit again soon because honestly, Chapel Hill is beautiful but the heat . . . I cannot. Maybe I should go back in the winter time where it’ll probably be a cool 65 degrees lol.
And although I love (love love love) Indiana University and will forever rock that cream and crimson, maybe they can take a few notes from UNC’s campus. Like maybe making cuter dorms that don’t have mold in them? That would be great.