Iowa preview trip: Days one and two

It's been a while since I last posted, but I promise it's for good reason. Remember the last entry? That was the evening before the family left for Washington state, and although we've been back at base camp for several days, I've been too lazy to post anything.

First: Iowa. Iowa was so much fun! I flew in to Cedar Rapids, which is the emptiest airport I've ever seen outside of promotional photos for redesigned terminals (cough--LAX). Brooke picked me up from the airport, and we had an excitement-filled ride back to her house.

I enjoyed staying with Brooke and her family. There was a small mix-up the first night involving chicken broth in a broccoli-cheese casserole, but I was pretty full already. Her mother and sister are both nurses, so I was safe in the knowledge that if anything potentially life-threatening happened, I'd have help nearby.

Day two was Iowa City! Brooke and I drove there in the rain. It started pouring so hard that we couldn't see out the windows, and I was convinced that we would have to pull over and wait it out. I was concerned that this was going to be a staple of my time in Iowa, but locals assured me that it was really uncommon. Just my luck. We dropped by the site of my future apartment (nothing overly interesting, but not bad), and detoured around the campus.

By the time we got to the university library, the weather had changed, and we walked around the university in disgusting, sweaty heat. It was also an orientation week, so there were clumps of incoming freshman wandering around who tried to look comfortable, but failed. I really wish I'd gotten a photo of one of the groups--they were all clutching folders to their chests and looking nervously from side to side.

I won't bore you with the details of getting my student I.D. card, which is pretty spiffy (gold background with a photo of yours truly, an image of the Old Capital, and shiny lettering on the front, and two stripes, one black and one gold, on the back). We also ran into Herkie, the mascot! He was directing traffic.I got to look around the English-Philosophy building (where I'll most likely be spending 30% of the rest of my graduate years--the library gets 60%), and--to be honest--it was kind of creepy! There were no overhead lights, and when we first got to the English floor, we saw a woman coming out of an unlit section of hallway. The "lit" section had dim side-lights, no overhead illumination, and a dearth of people. We could see people looking at us confusedly through the windows.Our parking time was running out, so we left after a few minutes to walk around downtown. It's pretty lively! Some students supporting clean energy approached the two of us. Unlike solicitors here, they were very polite. And not bad-looking. We ate at a small noodle place that's very similar to Noodles & Co., and ran across an adorable vintage shop called The White Rabbit. I can already see that it will be very hard to resist spending money there.

It was still very hot (100% humidity!), and we were both exhausted, so we drove back to Brooke's and spent the rest of the day there.