Meg

Okay, I said two posts so you’re getting two posts. Last week’s post focused on less cheery subjects but it is over and done with now. Time to get on with making those memories I was talking about. Let’s start with the first weekend of the semester. My very first American Football Game! Those of you who are friends with me on Facebook might want to skip this bit – I think you got enough videos and posts from me to be getting on with for now. Saturday 30^th August was a gorgeously sunny and baking hot day. I donned what little Iowa apparel I had acquired in my short time here and went to the stadium to meet friends.

Unfortunately plans (and mobile phones) don’t always work the way we think they will so I never actually found the people I had intended to meet. I soon bumped into some guys I had met a few nights before – and it was probably better this way as they at least could explain what was going on. I was told off repeatedly for calling it a ‘pitch’ rather than a ‘field’ and apparently it is normal to take off your shoe and wave it in the air every time there is a kick off. It is an unbelievable atmosphere. We were playing the University of Northern Iowa and both teams brought impressive marching bands and cheerleaders. They kept the crowd cheering for the entire game. Kinnick Stadium can hold 80’000 people and they take it very seriously. The wigs, the striped dungarees, the passive aggressive t-shirt slogans… I even found myself feeling invested in the game!

Both teams brought all 60 of their players and swapped them around constantly throughout the game. When they all pour onto the pitch like that it is easy to see how someone decided to give Iowa the name, ‘The Swarm.’ I feel quite proud that I did it properly (mostly). I didn’t stand on the bleachers as I found a better viewing spot in one of the walkways. But I stood for the entire match, all 3-4 hours of it. I ate a hotdog and shared some unnatural coloured popcorn with the guys. I sang the Iowa Fight Song and called out the ‘I’ in I.O.W.A every time we scored a goal – touchdown, sorry. Standing in the sun for hours meant I came home with rather luminous shoulders. They only stopped glowing pink a few days ago.

I didn’t really know what to do with myself on Labor Day (I also didn’t really know what Labor Day was until I Googled it). I had planned to go shopping with my friend Rachel but unfortunately we hadn’t realised that there are no buses whatsoever. We were rather stranded in the city. So we went to Pancheros, a Mexican fast food place, and had really really good quesadillas. Then we walked up and down every street and spent about an hour walking the aisles of an organic food market, getting excited about the strangest products and sniffing all the soaps in the beauty aisle. We spent some time searching for a park that supposedly had swans, but we found no such place. We skulked around the Campus Recreation and Wellness Centre for a while, feeling intimidated by the fitness junkies and falling in love with the pool where you can watch movies while floating in rubber rings. In the evening we went to The Mill, a local bar with a back room that is used as a venue and watched the locals playing at the open mic night.

If you’ve perused my Timetable post you’ll know that I get Fridays off. So I spent one Friday afternoon happily perched on a sofa in the back room of the Java House coffee shop listening to their Java Blend event for the week, the seven piece Jazz band known as The Dandelion Stompers. Every week they have some sort of performance on a Friday afternoon that is recorded and broadcast on local radio. If I’m ever bored on a Friday I’ll know where to go.

I have had my first cinema trip since being here. I went to a tiny independent cinema downtown called FilmScene. It is so small that it only has one screen and can probably hold 30 people. I went with my lovely new Welsh friend, Lowri, and we saw this beautiful film called Boyhood. The same actors were filmed over 12 years in order to genuinely capture the growing up process of the main character who was 6 when filming began. It stays with you for a long time after you have left the cinema.

Perhaps one of the best things that I have done since getting to Iowa is join an organisation called Global Buddies. Essentially international students are paired with a domestic student and you meet up once every few weeks to do things together. We’ve only just been assigned our buddies so we haven’t had the one-on-one meetings yet. But every Thursday evening the entire group meets up to socialise and it is some of the most fun I’ve had here. The first week was simply talking and getting to know people – we dominated the outdoor seating area at one of the local bars and stayed till closing time. The next week we had a BBQ in one of the parks. Tonight was a game night. About 35 people all playing one giant game of trivia. Naturally it was chaos but it was brilliant fun. I won a very snazzy T-shirt.

We spent a while just chatting and with the assistance of an American and a Brazilian girl I have finally managed to master playing ‘Cups,’ the craze that swept the world when Pitch Perfect came out in cinemas a few years ago. When the numbers dwindled to about 20 we spent an hour playing a cross between Musical Chairs and Never Have I Ever. Nothing gets people talking like Never Have I Ever! I seriously look forward to Thursdays. They’re my favourite days.

Now I’m getting settled and more comfortable with how things work here I’m ready to start thinking about doing activities slightly further afield. I’m starting small with a shopping trip to Coralville which is just a few miles away. Baby steps. Soon I hope I’ll be spending weekends away from Iowa City and exploring other parts of Iowa. I’m very excited.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 12th, 2014 at 3:57 pm and is filed under General, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.