So yeah, I stink at keeping up. Sorry!! But you know how sometimes on TV shows they will do a quick rundown of the entire season just in case you missed anything epic? Well that's what I'm going to do! Ready? Okay!
June went something like this:
"I have a test today. I have a test tomorrow. And there's a good chance I have a test on Friday as well. And just when I think I have accomplished something, I realize I have 2 tests next week as well...Sleep? Whats sleep? I vaguely remember that being part of a fairytale I heard once..."
In July, a number of things happened:
1. Iowa showed me the meaning of the phrase "hot and humid." Seriously, at one point I was walking home from class, and I realized the air was so thick and wet and hot that it felt more like water than air! I was so uncomfortable and could hardly breathe- I knew I needed a massive adjustment in perspective if I was going to survive. So I stopped, closed my eyes, and imagined I was in the pool at my family's hot springs. I swirled my arms back and forth through the air like I was treading water, and tried to pretend that I was just taking a nice hot soak before going in for a massage... it helped a ton! Of course, then I REALLY wanted that massage- oh well. :)
2. I sawed a person's head in half in anatomy class. I am not kidding. Forgive me if this sounds a bit morbid, but holy cow, that was cool! I am continually blown away by how amazing the human body is- and by how much more courage I have in dissecting cadavers than I thought I would. Later in August we got to attend a special funeral ceremony to honor all the people who had donated their bodies to our school, it was pretty neat.
3. I found a reason to dislike the trees. It seems like everywhere you park in Iowa City, its under a tree. Which sounds great initially- shade and all that. But those trees are sneaky!! They wait for you to park, and then they start showering this awful sticky powdery stuff all over your car! Its like coating the windshield in a combo of hairspray and dust- I don't even know where the stuff comes from, but its like every tree in the city has a massive stash of it that they cant wait to dump all over unsuspecting vehicles. Stupid trees. The car wash got a lot of my money this summer, and still my car never looked clean...
August:
August was fun! Finals week came, and it was a total breeze compared to the craziness of the rest of summer semester! I moved to a new apartment (pictures to come later) and got two new roommates, who I think are awesome. Moving was a crazy ordeal, since I had three days after my summer lease ended before I could move into my new place. So I was homeless for the weekend. Ended up renting a room at the medical frat house, which is in this giant creepy brick mansion. I loved it! It had all sorts of interesting nooks and crannies and odd sounds in the night- I was imagining all sorts of ghost stories while I studied. Delicious fun!
And I got to go to the Iowa State Fair. Now that was an experience. If I'm ever asked to summarize Iowa culture in 3 words or less, I know exactly what I will say: Corn, Pork, Butter. Thats it.
Holey moley! I have never seen so much corn, or so many different types in my life! It was actually pretty cool. We went to the Ag building, and I wa
s so fascinated by all the corn on display that I kept pausing to take pictures, and I swear everyone in the building was looking at me like I was from outer space. Might as well have tattooed a giant TOURIST sign right across my forehead- you'd think I'd never seen corn before.Then we got in line to see the butter cow. Yes, I said BUTTER COW. 2000 lbs of butter made up this amazing statue, and apparently I came to Iowa the right year because this wasn't just any old butter cow- this was the 100th anniversary of the butter cow! They even had a replica of the original one right next to it... and I couldn't help but wonder how many batche
s of chocolate chip cookies you could make with all that... :)There was also a big butter-carving contest every day (for the purpose of training future cow-carvers, no doubt!) and there was even a big stand selling... get this, fried butter. Seriously! they like rolled up a stick of butter in some dough and sugar, and then deep fried the thing in more butter! My curiosity was peaked, but I was unable to sample this heart-clogging-confection because the line was way too long! So yeah, apparently Iowa is butter happy. And I don't fully know why- I thought Wisconsin was th
e big cheese when it came to dairy in the midwest... (haha "big cheese," get it? yeah I know, bad pun :)last but not least: Pork. Really quick, try to imagine every way you have ever heard of eating pork, and then triple it! That's what they had at the fair. Pork on a stick. pork on a bun. fried pork. roasted pork. BBQ shredded pork. Countless pork possibilities- the aroma was floating on the air everywhere we went. As a side note, I also saw 4-day-old piglets. They were cute, and somewhat delicious looking given the smell in the air...
Anyway, that's my bizarre summer in a nut shell! And now its fall semester- back to school and all sorts of different craziness. Which I will catch up on later... I hope ;)
