I am not much of a person with an insect phobia, but let me tell you, holy sham-wow, I had two run-ins with the world's most gigantic mosquitos this afternoon. I swear their bodies alone were an inch long and super dark. So terrifying. I'm sure I'll grow used to it, but for now, I'd much rather not be considered a piece of insect meat (thank-you-very-much).
Jan and I took a walk through the town to look at the downtown. It's super cute. I managed to not take pictures (sorry!!), but I will soon. :) The library is super cute, small, and has an awesome amount of movies. I'll be getting a library card for sure. There is this cute little drug store that has a soda fountain counter, and Jan and I got rootbeer floats for $2. Super fun and super cute.
I'm probably going to have to update my resume and take it literally everywhere I can. Jim and I were going to go to this convention for small farms up in Red Oak, but he wasn't able to get us transportation up there (considering, unfortunately, both cars are in the shop right now). Which is a bummer, but it means that I'll be able to go around Shenandoah some more tomorrow to check out the town and take pictures, and look into getting work. Hopefully maybe even go into a few churches to see what's around. :)
Pretty much all of my connections in town are with Jan and Jim, but I really want to get involved in the town and meet people. Nancy and her family are super nice, but they are Mormon, and I'm not a mormon, so that means I'll really have to find a church on my own, instead of just tagging along with some relatives here, but that's ok.
I'm thinking about taking a nap. Super tired, and my back still hurts, from what, I am assuming is yesterday and all the lugging around of my violin and duffle bag, not to mention all the uncomfortable weird sitting and sleeping on the plane.
I woke up this morning at what I think was 7something to the sun shining in my room (I managed to not close the blinds last night, but that's not really an issue), but that was the time on my iPod. Then I woke up again later to Jim knocking on my door. I managed to struggle out a "mmyeah?" and he just said he wanted me to not sleep the day away considering we're going to this farmer's thing at dark-thirty in the morning tomorrow because farmers are insane and sleep only when it's dark outside. I looked at my iPod. 10. Meh, not too bad. Then looked at my phone: noon. Oh crap, time change.
Oh yeah, you know how in the South everyone drinks sweet tea, and in Germany it's beer? Well, I don't know about the midwest, but at this house, they drink coffee. The kitchen sink leaks out the pipes, and well, it takes too much effort to empty buckets, so why not just brew coffee all the time? Seems ideal to me. Their normal coffee pot broke awhile back, so Jim perfected the art of cold-brew coffee. Which is where you stick the grounds in a pitcher of water and just leave it there for hours and then strain the beautifully strong drink into canning jars for your enjoyment. So taking room temperature coffee, 2% milk (yes! they love real food here!!! we must be related or something...), and some form of artificial sweetner (that will probably melt my brain at the rate of how much coffee I've been having), I can't really say that I mind. Also? My typing speed is up by like 5000x because of all the caffeine I've consumed without real food. heh... Lunch consisted of beautifully bbq'd pork loins and grapes. And more coffee, of course.
Jan and I are going to go out on our bikes soonish to go look around town. I would like to go over to the Walmart at some point to get some things like mosquito repellant (got the first hit last night).
It's actually not as humid as I was expecting. Perhaps this is because I'm used to Mississippi, and it's crazy humid down there. The weather has actually been fairly pleasant so far. Warm, yes, humid, a bit, but with a gentle breeze. I will admit that the sunlight is more intense here than it is in Oregon. This might be because of the added moisture content constantly in the air making it like a greenhouse, or just the fact that we are farther south in the world and the angle of the sun is more direct than that in Oregon.
Lacking a surge-protector as of now, I've decided to only leave things plugged in while I'm awake and home. I'm super not into power surges on my electronics (because of the extreme thunderstorms they get in the area). Especially my computer or speaker system. Which, btw, is BEYOND awesome. I love it. I listened to some music last night, and right now I have some Nora Jones gently playing in the background. Also, because there are two canines and two felines roaming about (especially the little criminal), I've decided to mostly keep my stuff together and up high if at all possible. Just so that there is no question about my stuff getting confiscated or tasted.
I showered, which was nice to finally do. I have some rather intimidating looking blood-blisters from carrying around my black duffle all of yesterday. My back is incredibly sore. The bed is comfortable, so it's obviously not that. I think it was just all the packing and lifting and moving I've been doing for the last week. Plus sitting in an airplane all day is never the best on your mental sanity or your body. Plus, my duffle weighed like 30lbs and my violin is around 20 with all the stuff I have in the case right now (t-shirts for padding and books because they wouldn't fit anywhere else).
You know you're in the Midwest when grandma drives a big fancy pick-up truck, kids drive beaters and blast country (often trucks), everyone walks everywhere or rides coaster bikes, giant semi's loaded with corn are headed to the ethanol plant, bugs are weird and everywhere, and no one locks anything -- ever. It's quite the culture difference. I guess it's a good thing that I planned on it being different and readied myself for a change.
One could say like it's almost a midwest version of the Peace Corps. Kinda in a home-stay way. Good thing I'm not offended by dogs, insects, or dirt. :)
So, I actually really want to go to bed, but I figured I should probably post something now because if I don't, I probably just won't at all.
I got up this morning at 6am struggled around to pack up Kim's sleeping bag (I hate leaving it everywhere...) and got the rest of my personal things together. Put on some clothes and went to say goodbye to Kim. She got up, which really took me by surprise, but it meant a lot to me that she came to the airport with me to say goodbye there. Then we loaded up the car and headed off. The airport was decently busy with people. The typical morning hustle and bustling about of people with far too much luggage to handle normally and TSA security officers at every turn. The longest wait was probably for security. I really didn't care. I had plenty of time before my flight and wasn't concerned about getting through immediately. Then, knowing that my gate was C21 (why so far???), I began to mosey my way down the C concourse towards my gate. I, of course, took all the walking sidewalks I could (which are actually moving, not walking, because as we all know, sidewalks, don't actually walk of their own volition). Stopped at Wendy's for breakfast, contemplated coffee, but oddly enough, decided against it. Then I continued to mosey on over to the gate where I waited for about 10 minutes before boarding.
The flight wasn't actually that bad. I managed to sleep through a good portion of it. Strangely waking up just as we flew over Bend, again over the Steens Mountains, and then again over the Grand Canyon (that was a surprise, haha BAM!!! canyon!). Phoenix is hot. Need I say more? Yes. It's hot. And it's dry. It's pretty, but in a really different way. I liked it, but not in the sweater and jeans I was wearing from the previously drizzly Portland.
...anyway
The Phoenix airport is quite a bit larger than PDX, and I always manage to forget this, still not sure why. Anyway, had to walk from the A gates to the B terminal, which wasn't that big of a deal (more walking sidewalks). Got lunch and boarded my flight pretty much directly without any additional waiting. I found out post getting completely on my flight that we were supposed to check our bags that were of normal carry-on size and only keep our "personal" items with us, but I just managed to walk past that dude and got both my bags on. Really, I didn't really realize it and also, I guess it may have crossed my mind, but I basically didn't care. My duffle bag still fit under the seat *boosh* which was an exciting discovery. That flight seemed to be longer. Maybe because it was hot in the plane, I was hungry (ate my Quizno's), and generally done with flying for the day. Plus, the sun was super reflective on the wing of the plane into my window, which was lame.
I did take a few pictures of the first flight. I was basically too lazy after awhile to even just struggle with my bag to get it out. No worries, I'll try not to let that hinder my picture taking again.
After getting to Omaha, I got my bag and waited for about 15 minutes outside the airport for Jan and Jim to arrive with their relatives whom they were getting a ride with (unfortunately, the car they were using to get their other car fixed with, broke down on their way to check up on the one still in the shop. most unfortunate).
So it was Nancy (sister-in-law to Jim), Robbie (teenager), Jan, me, Jim, and Rachel (7-9, super fun, adorable, and obsessed with reading, cats and dragons) in the van. Nancy and Robbie had Karate there in Council Bluffs, but on our way, we stopped at The Mall of the Bluffs to get some food at Panera, no less. Then we stopped back at HyVee (which is like the mid-west version of Winco, I've decided) and got some groceries. On our way out we got some pizza. $1/slice. I got italian sausage. I swear, it tasted exactly like the pizza we used to get at MidValley Market after doing our laundry (with coke slushies). Such a memory trip, and so good.
From there (around 8:45pm) we headed down to Shenandoah, which is about an hour drive, or so. The quintessential giant, dark red sun set to the west. It's flat, yes, but it's pleasant. Maybe that's because I've decided that I'm doing to enjoy this trip, but maybe also because I've been away from anything like this for so long and have readied myself for a change. But I guess you could also say that I really needed something different. Long stretches of road, gentle rises and falls, endless corn, millions of deciduous trees. Every thing is super spread out, and huge. Between the parking lots, the roads, and the buildings themselves. Massive. Because they have the space. But also? the roads are beyond crappy. Especially in the Omaha/Council Bluffs area. If you were in Oregon, you would wonder if you got lost on a weird back-alley that's really someone's old driveway. But no, that's the interstate.
On the drive back, I noticed what appeared to be a lot of roadside reflectors. 'Must be for the ditch or something,' I started thinkin--- NO!!!! those are FIREFLIES!!! If you would have seen me, I'm sure you would have laughed your head completely off. I was literally staring out the windows, jaw dropped for a good 20 minutes.
Once we arrived at the house in Shenandoah, Jan showed me that she had already gotten the air mattress set up for me in the side bedroom. Super sweet of them. Their house is kinda in a sad state, currently, because of the moving thing, but that's the way moving always seems to be. I know it was that way for me just a few days ago (and yeah... the upstairs is still a mess). Then we had some chicken salad (oregon-style... you know, lettuce, chicken, and cheese with dressing? not some weird mid-west craziness of chickeninwhatlookslikepotatosalad) out under the carport with some candles.
Also, with two dogs upinmygrill all the time, I've decided to get over my college pet-less whatevers and be completely covered in dog slobber and hair 24/7. It's going to happen no matter what I do anyway. Not that I really mind though.
After salad, Jim and I took the dogs out for a run on some coaster bikes and rode out to the farmhouse. Due to some official house-closure issues, I think the move-in date has been shifted til the 26th orsomewherearoundinthere. But I can't complain, and I'm not upset in the slightest. I'm glad I can still help them move, although I am sure it is awkward all around for everyone living in a mostly-packed house, and with me being a guest in it. The farmhouse is super cute. It's really nice, dark, and quiet out there. Just across the street from the airport with lots of room for the dogs to run around and do whatever they please. Plus, with it being dark and away from the city, there are 10,000 fireflies
(well, that's awkwardly too large for the blog window. oh well. just listen that's the purpose of it)
Then after the bike ride, I watched a movie about this tragic climbing event on Mt Everest with aunt Jan. It made me really cold. Didn't help that my jeans and converse were already wet from walking around the wet grass in the future garden area of their farmhouse property. (my feet are currently still cold, for the record, as i write this).
OH!!! might I say that it's hot an humid here? Not quite as humid as I was expecting, but then again, it is only what, day one? yeah... and only June. I'm not letting myself think anything but hot-and-humid thoughts, haha.
There's an interesting balance to the last week of term. Finals and all it's stresses of studying and freaking out and exam taking. The eating, snacking, bumming around and movie watching. The late night adventures with friends from the last year. But here's the thing, you have to study AND pack AND say goodbye to your friends all at the same time. It's a ridiculous amount of stress.
There is also an interesting balance to packing. The ruling out of things unnecessary, excess shirts are a toss, that book? you can get it at the library (are you even going to read it anyway?) and you really don't need that anyway, you never, ever use it, you dork. Things like that. But then, after you get what you decide to take, you have to fit it all in your suitcases. Fit it just right, so things don't leak or wrinkle, or break or bend. Just enough padding on the outside, and just enough so the zippers still close reasonably well. After you get things you want it, you continue to rule out other items, and then realize something else in that far reach of your back closet is something you really should take. Once you have everything you think you'll need in your bags, then comes the real test. Will it weigh the right amount to get through the system without charging you extra?
Well, according to the scale, I'm right at to under weight for my checked bag. Here's to hoping that I won't have to add anything else and the scale is correct.
It's kinda hard to imagine that I'm fitting my life in a few bags for the summer. I mean, were I traveling to Europe I would so and totally take so much less stuff. But alas, I am just going to Iowa. The other nice thing about "just going to Iowa" is that they have wal-marts there. So if I forgot anything or need anything? It's right there, no problem.
The other thing is that: This is it. I'm going to Iowa. It's really happening.
But also, as much as I wish this would be my last packing attempt, it probably won't be. Also because I might need those clothes... depending on what I'm planning on wearing for the next (heh) 5 days.
Also? Here goes to flying with the violin. Yet again.
I'm assembling a list of things to take with me to Iowa. I realized I have to pack for Iowa before I can pack for the summer/storage. craaaap. means I have to pack like.... today/tomorrow.
I can't believe it. One week from today, I'll be on my way to Shenandoah!
well... technically, I'll be about 8 hours away from my departure flight, but still.
weird to think about!
I can't believe I'm going to be spending my entire summer in Iowa. I'm nervous, but really excited! I'm really looking forward to getting out of Corvallis and Oregon for awhile.
