A weekend in Iowa

As I began college, I made a goal to visit all of my best friends from home at their schools. Not only would I get to see their universities, but meet their friends, see where they live, travel the campus, etc.

So far, I have accomplished Northwestern (Becca), Georgetown (Kara), DePaul (Irina and Elizabeth), University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign (Meredith, Anastasia and all of GBN), and now, Iowa State with Helen!

After looking through plans for the rest of the semester, this was the only weekend I would have time to leave and visit Helen at Iowa State! I drove north about 4-5 hours Friday morning through nowhereville USA...the unestablished areas of mid-Missouri and southern Iowa. I drove on the 63, which is not even a real highway, for about 200 miles and the funny thing about country roads is that they go from 70 mph to 20 mph in an instant. First, it's a divided highway that you're flying at 90 on, and then it's going through Macon, Missouri and driving by a Sonic and if you're lucky, a gas station or so. So I definitely can say this drive enhanced my worldly and rural experiences.

I arrived in Ames to Iowa State University, but campus wasn't roaring this weekend since they were playing their rival (University of Iowa) in football at Iowa City. I still got to see the college town where 65% of residents are students and staff of the university, and it's interesting to compare "college towns." Ames, although just a city in Iowa, seems more suburban than Columbia and although a lot of the accommodations are similar, the way it is laid out just makes it seem more foresty/large brick homes-like. It was interesting!

I stayed with Helen in the ADPi house and took a tour there, met her sisters, and the Linden friends which was fun! We went to an amazing barbecue restaurant for dinner, went out, took a tour of campus and the architecture and design center and just enjoyed some quality time! Pictures to come. Here are some highlights of the drive (you get these when you're in the car alone for 9 hours, and can only drive stick shift and talk on the phone simultaneously so much)

• I felt this way going to U of I, but I love driving through places and seeing counties and town names that you hear about but don't think actually exist. I saw towns with a population of 75 and just giggled. Yes, I'm from Chicago.
• The Missouri-Iowa border has about 20 fireworks stands. How do any of them make business if they are all right next to each other? And only so many people cross from Missouri to Iowa daily? I have no idea. If it wasn't so early in the morning on both of my trips, I probably would have bought fireworks since I never have but always have wanted to. There's always Indiana :)
• Road signs on the 63 basically made my day, and helped. After hearing my Thea Stephanie tell me a story of her trip to Kentucky when she picked up a hitchiker because she felt bad, I almost picked up hitchhikers. It would have been really sketchy and I obviously avoided doing so for safety reasons, but it was really tempting until I saw the highway sign that said "DO NOT PICK UP HITCH HIKERS." It reminded me of cautions that might have gone over my head but in the grand scheme of things, they're people trying to get somewhere too. I know it probably isn't worth the risk of strangers and the overall creepiness, but it could have been a good deed if taken the right way.
• Highway sign #2: Sanitary landfill. I'm sorry, but I personally do not believe that any plot of land that's a landfill will be sanitary. You are dumping your trash in there. Why even advertise it as 'sanitary?' Because it's cleaner than the incinerators in Mexico? Okay Missouri and Iowa. You keep your garbage nice and sanitary in large hills on the side of highways and make yourselves feel better by calling it clean.
• Highway sign #3: *photo of horse carriage* SHARE THE ROAD. So I laughed upon seeing this...until I laughed even more when I actually saw an Amish man and a horse carriage next to me on the highway. I'm in no way mocking the Amish and cultural norms, or the cultural norms of this region, but solely the fact that on a highway with a 70 mph speed limit, there's horses right next to you. It's pretty amusing.
• Helen's roommate has a car so she will probably get to experience the same drive (I hope so!) and come visit Mizzou sometime second semester! Woot!

So in the future, I'm planning to visit Michigan (Stacey), Notre Dame (Kalyn), Arizona (Hannah), Colorado-Boulder (Jessie) and Penn State (Anna). I'm seeing Emily and the Mexico crew in Boston at Hellenic this Thanksgiving break so that's checked off the list :) This might sound unrealistic, but don't worry...I already have projected times and weekends planned so it's going to happen.

Another goal that arose was to visit my best friends at school in their hometowns. This one is almost done too! Another east coast trip, Minnesota, maybe Tennessee sometime and Kansas City over Thanksgiving break and I'll be done! This isn't thought of as accomplishing a list although it might appear so....it's taking trips, traveling the world, meeting exciting people and seeing friends, coming off in list form.

I have a really busy week (surprise) per usual so look forward to spontaneous survival updates!