Bloomsburry Farm (09/15/12)
Last
weekend we made a small trip to the Bloomsburry Farm (http://bloomsburyfarm.com/). Located north-east of
Cedar Rapids it took us about 45 minutes
to get there. Together with the family of Jan’s colleague we spend a nice
morning in the corn maze, the hunted barn and drove pedal cars. Of course, most
the fun had little 3 years old Kyle. Feeding goats, donkeys and chicken was
quite an experience for him. After our “bath” in the corn box we finally got
some lunch and went back home.
Thanks to Gina from the international Studis & Programs I now have a prove of the ongoing crazyness at the State Fair even better than the article in the Braunschweiger Zeitung:
The original video can be found here: http://screen.yahoo.com/iowa-state-fair-foods-on-a-stick-30366712.html?pb_list=809f7f41-46e5-4104-9eba-e0702551faaf
Madison (09/01 - 09/02/12)
It is Labor
Day weekend and due to one extra day off Jan and I decided to use the time for
a little trip. After my first Megabus experience to Iowa City on Friday we went
to Madison, Wisconsin for two days. It took us about 3.5 hours to get there.
 |
| Route via Gmaps.com |
And guess
what: it is as empty in Wisconsin as in Nebraska or Iowa (at least the parts we
were traveling trough). The difference between Iowa and Wisconsin? In Wisconsin
they have more cattle and less corn fields…
We made a
short break at the border between Iowa and Wisconsin. There at a place called “Eagle
Point View” in the town Dubuque we had a nice view to THE river in the US: the
mighty Mississippi.
Arrived in
Madison we started our city tour at the “Taste of Madison”-festival (see extra
post) and went finally to one of the Sherman Terrace at lake Mentoda, one of
the two big lakes in Madison. After a small rest at the waterside we decide to
get to our hotel and making some plans for the evening there. And when we
passed by that residence on the highway I was just like “oh…my…god…!” It was
just like in bad movies a shabby building next to the highway. But ok, it was
just for one night and at least in the inside it wasn’t thaaaat bad… but we
could not imagine how this hotel got so good rates at the online platform.
The next
day we went into the capitol and were very lucky because Jan discvovered their
offer of a free tour through all the different rooms. We saw the Office of the Governor,
the Hearing Room, Supreme Court, Senate and Assembly. Fortunately it was Sunday
so all of these rooms were not in use and we were allowed to walk in. We also
had a great view over Madison on the observation deck, I think you are all now
waiting for some images of that so have a look at the following.
Question: how
can you get more food on a festival than there already is on all kind of
festivals? The Answer is easy: just put nothing else on it. That is exactly
what the people of Madison did on the “Taste of Madison” (=> official link).
Round the
beautiful capitol of Madison 84 local restaurants presented some of their
special meals. All of it was round up by different stages with a lot of music
acts from silent country music to wild heavy metal. To give you an idea of what
was going on there I would like to give you just some pictures and a video from
the observation deck of the capitol.
Henry Vilas Zoo (09/02/12)
Before we
had to go back to Iowa we visited the zoo in Madison. It was not that big and
spectacular but also they didn’t charge us an entrance fee (so this is a recommendation
for all of you who will ever go to Madison…).
For all of
you here is something really special: thanks to Olli I am able to show you that
even in Braunschweig the local newspaper was reporting about the State Fare and
their “specials” of food. Now that’s kind of weird, isn’t it?
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| Left corner on the title page of the Braunschweiger Zeitung, 08/25/12 |
Located in Des Moines it seems like this is THE biggest event in the
state of Iowa. In conclusion you could see and/or get there food (on a stick),
animals from small ones like ducks & chicken, food on a stick, a lot of
stuff for apartment facility, food (surprise: on a stick), agriculture,… Oh and
did I mention the food on a stick?
It is really ridiculous; everything that you can and cannot think of was
there put on a stick and most times deep fried. Here is a list of everything we
saw there: egg, pork, chop, beef, steak, chicken, chicken legs, chicken wings,
fruits, salad (!), hard dipped apples, bacon, bacon dipped in chocolate,
cheese, ice cream (hey, that’s one thing supposed to be on a stick), hot dog,
corndog, and finally: oreo cookies, deep fried!
Right at the beginning we had kind of a onetime experience: there was
this exhibition of old telephones and how they
worked. After some minutes I recognized two parents with their small son. He must have been around the age of 6 and was
very confused about this old technique. He couldn’t understand why the whole
device was so big or the function of the small wheel for dialing. “It is like
the numbers on the touchscreen, but you have to turn the wheel…”
But anyway… we had a really good time while walking around the
fairgrounds and watching all the exhibits. Of course we saw the famous butter
cow (and yes, it is really made from butter, the whole sculpture), and people
like the Iowa Pork Princess, Iowa Honey Princess and last but not least the Iowa State Fair Princess. Sorry, but I can’t
take this so serious. I know that even in Germany there are such contests for
finding these “VIPs” and I can’t understand why.
There were also some very cute moments. For example there was a hall
with new born animals. They showed some lamps, piglets, calfs, chicks, … Have a
look at the next picture. Is there anything better than the love between a mom
and her little baby?
As
already mentioned there also a lot of animals. Unfortunately a lot of
the big ones like horses and cows were already on their way home when we
reached the stables. The left ones had some “nice” signs at their box
with
announcements like “Purpose: Beef” and some fresh shorn sheep with
clothes
against the breeze from the fans. So have a look at this one. This one
told me: “I am Batman!” even though it did not wear a black cape...
The one
left thing I HAVE to report about is: competitions.
If you
wanna have an idea of how many contests there are, have a look at this video.
It shows you the women which is responsible for organizing the food contests
and how proud they are about them.#
Beside the
food contests there are so many others and of course some of them which earnestness
I would question. I probably will never get the sense of putting a gallon of
corn in a glass or a bundle of grass…
Perhaps this trip is supposed to be one of my first highlights of my
exchange. I think I will remember all this impressions for a long time…
My first trip to Iowa City (08/10&11/12)
First
weekend after my arrival. As I have planned, everything was set up at my
apartment; only several small things left to do at UNO. So I was able to go on
the trip to Iowa City to meet Jan again. And how can I put it? Driving down the
road is sooooo boring. It goes just straight ahead, on and on for something
around 4.5 hours. One hill up…one hill down…another hill up…and down again… It was quite difficult not to fall asleep.
Once I reached at Iowa City we went Downtown and had a view at the
sculptures of “Sand in the City”
The other day we went to the farmers market and afterwards to Lake
McBride where we made a cruise with a paddle boat. It was really nice…sunny,
not too hot as the former days.
On Sunday we went to the Iowa State Fair. But that is supposed to become
an own post…
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