Revisiting the Past

Yum! extremely sweet treats. A cinnamon snail and a cinnamon crispy :-) I ate them both while taking pictures of tulips.

You too can proudly display your Dutch heritage!

More Dutch stuff.

If you didn't know any better, you'd swear you were across the pond in Amsterdam. Minus the prostitutes of course.

Tulips!!!!

I'm sitting in the Smokey Row Cafe in Pella, Iowa where I spent four years of my life during college (minus the three semesters that I studied abroad) and it's a bit of a weird experience at the moment. I knew very early on that I had selected the wrong college, not because the education was bad but just based on the conservative tendencies of the

town. You could escape it somewhat by staying on campus (college campuses tend to be a bit more liberal and open-minded) but not really. Every year at Central we had some sort of drama relating to some people hating on another individual or group based on race, religion or belief system. The president of both the study body and the campus ministries came out of the college. He could no longer be the president of the religious organization of the student body. The theatre did a (historical Greek) play that depicted phallic images. The house of the director had pumpkins thrown at it. A lot of verbal discrimination went on towards the minorities (especially the hispanics). Some of them left and the campus became a less diverse and interesting place. Little things like that really bothered me in college because I try really hard not to judge people based silly little things like race, religion or belief. As long as you don't bother me, I will leave you alone and let you have your opinion.

So I come back and the town is so idyllic that it's hard to believe that things like that would ever happen. For those of you who don't know, Pella is a place that takes great pride in its Dutch heritage and this is visible all throughout the town. The public buildings and businesses have to be built with a Dutch storefront, there are Dutch bakeries with tasty treats, Dutch lace is on display in windows and there are tulips EVERYWHERE. And it's weird. I don't hate it any more. I almost wish that I were still back in college. Everything seemed so easy in college. Life sure is a funny roller-coaster.