On Iowa!

Hello from Hawkeye Country!

I made it up here to my apartment in North Liberty Thursday and moved myself in! Now I'm ready to be a Hawkeye, I suppose. Thursday was spent getting situated, and then Friday was the beginning of "On Iowa" for me. First, I met with other off-campus students for lunch and an info session, and then there was a Tippie College of Business open house. Following this, we met with small groups and learned more, sat in a lecture hall and learned more, ate supper in the IMU, and then went to Kinnick Stadium for our Class of 2016 picture and a kickoff. There was a program for us, and we got to hear the marching band play.

Do you see me there? I'm at the top of the I, towards the middle-left. The one in the yellow shirt...

Today I didn't have to be at campus until 1:30, but it took me a full two hours to find my way. You see, my usual parking lot doesn't have bus service on weekends. After waiting there for 10 minutes with no luck, I drove for the Hancher lot without knowing where I was going (bad idea!!). Finally, I pulled off, looked at a map and found Hancher, drove there, waited 20 minutes for the bus to come, and finally got in to campus. I had similar difficulties getting out later on. Didn't think to look at a map and it took me a detour or two to get back to 218. But at least it gave me something to do!

As for the actual continuation of On Iowa, we met again in our small groups and did some other activities, and then went to an activities fair at Hubbard Park where we looked at different student organizations, etc. I met a girl from China in my small group yesterday so we spent the afternoon together until we left in time for supper. It is neat to have so much diversity on campus and to meet so many different people!

I finally made it home in time to make supper-the most real meal I've eaten in my apartment-and then was looking for something to do when I found an unsecured internet connection here. So, of course I had to get connected again! :) And that leads me to the present! Hopefully all will go well here at Iowa this year! Thank you all for your prayers and support.

SOME SIDENOTES

Speaking of being a Hawkeye, I spent some time this afternoon talking with a Chinese acquaintance of my Chinese friend. She was confused about why everything said "Hawks" and "Hawkeyes" so I tried to explain that it was our mascot and that Hawks is short for Hawkeyes...she seemed to be pretty confused! She said her roommate had emailed her and at the bottom she always wrote "Go Hawks", but she didn't know what it meant. 

Earlier on, I was talking to the first Chinese girl I met, who I will now name Lu for comprehension purposes. She was confused about the word "like" and what it meant when people said it in the middle of their sentences and how to use it in a sentence. Ok, Americans...answer me that one! I tried for a while to explain it, but I couldn't help her...

It's really interesting to meet people from different languages and cultures and we can really learn a lot! :)

My Future Home :)

Today when I got done working I found out we were going up to visit my new apartment for the first time in North Liberty! I will be living with a friend who works up there. We brought up my desk and a dresser (that we ended up bringing home) so the boys could help with the lifting and also see the place. Every step of getting ready for college seems to make me look forward to it more and helps the nerves settle! Here are a few pictures my mom took of the place while we were moving things in.

The outside...not much to see! It is in a seemingly peaceful neighborhood!

Dad is setting up the desk in my bedroom...you can't see much here but there really isn't much to see yet since nothing else is here.

Fireplace :)

Billy exploring my empty bathroom. It's very spacious!

The living room.

 The kitchen-lots of cupboards and storage space here! There is also a washer and dryer in the apartment.

Magic

Hello again,

I am happy to be back and blog. The vacation was a blast and I would be happy to repeat everything that Stephanie posted. Just kidding. I will actually just give you my opinion of the best part. I think the funnest part was Universal Studios Orlando Islands of Adventure. It was fun to go on the rides. Dad even lost some pounds to go on the Harry Potter ride. I would say my favorite ride was the Hulk Coaster. You can see what it is if you search. Also the Hollywood Rip Ride RockIt. It was fun. Mom didn't like it though because her hair got messed up. All in all I am back home and ready for the boring times. I have unpacked. Please disregard other posts about me not being unpacked. I also have gotten a magic trick and it is amazing to astonish people with amazing things. I may post a video later of me doing my trick.

P.S. I would like to celebrate my second post and Stephanie going to college. She will no longer need her bed which means it is up for grabs.

Home Again

Yep...we are once again home! We left shortly after nine, stopped once for lunch and gas and then again at the new Hardee's in Burlington for supper (nobody felt like making supper when we got home). Nothing extraordinarily exciting happened, though we did take a few pictures from the road! In the end, I believe either Mom or Billy won the license plate game (found the most state license plates) with Jesse, Travis, Justin, and Jonathan close behind. We listened to two whole stories on CD and Jesse claimed to be hungry every twelve minutes.

We stopped to eat at Hardee's and got home at 6:45...so I suppose if we try to be technical, the vacation lasted precisely 10 days and one hour! Now we are in the process of unpacking our many belongings. Actually, no. Dad and Billy are looking at the mail, Johnny is reading the paper, Travis and Jesse are playing with their Hardee's toys, Justin is downstairs playing or something, I am blogging, and Mom is unpacking.

So...here we are, home at last! What a week it has been! And now, some photos from today's drive...

I think this is supposed to show that we are in Kentucky since we missed the welcome sign.

St. Louis Gateway Arch

Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals

We passed the church in Taylor, MO

Travis and his bubble gum (ewwww....)

Funny smile from Jesse

Funny smile from Jonathan

Back in Iowa (a great place to be)!!

...And back in Mediapolis! It's great to be home!

Departing Tennessee

Next time I post we will likely be home! Unless I find internet access on the road somewhere...

We are planning to leave in about 10-15 minutes from our hotel, be on the road for about nine hours, and get home at around supper time! I can't believe we are almost home and vacation is almost over. We had a lot of fun spending time together and seeing all kinds of things! I will try to post when we get home safely.

P.S. If you revisit the post from Saturday (On the Road Again...), I just added some photos from Chuck E. Cheese's!