Fun in the snow

Yes, that's right. I said snow and it's barely October. Global warming around here has turned into global freezing. Granted it didn't snow in Cedar Falls, it snowed in Madison County but.....

Anyway, this was the first time that I had been out of Cedar Falls in almost two months so it was a welcome change. I went with UNI's Cultural and Intensive English Progam (CIEP) and I had an absolute blast. The best part of the day might have been when all of the Saudi boys realized that it was snowing outside so that meant that the temperature was a wee bit chilly. It was absolutely priceless. Of course, their horror of the temperature did not deter them one bit from having a bare-handed snowball fight when we took a bathroom break. I wonder who threw the first snowball.....

We started off with a bus tour of a couple of the bridges and some of the surrounding countryside. I feel no remorse in saying that we had the worst tour guide ever. He was old, he didn't say anything interesting and even I had a hard time concentrating on what he was saying. The only thing that saved him is that the Saudis and Asians have a great deal of respect for their elders. Poor Bob, the bad tour guide. You could tell that he really loved his county but when you talk in a monotone voice about how corn silks propagate kernels of corn, I'm afraid you'll loose even the most polite person's interest.

We got to see the famous Roseman Bridge that features prominently in the movie, Bridges of Madison County, and also the Holliwell Bridge, the longest of the bridges in the county. The rest of the time was spent wandering around the local festival with Siyan (Chinese), Renee (Chinese), and Bin (Korean). We ate a lot of food and took a lot of photos because that's what Asian tourist seem to do, take pictures. It was a lot of fun and it was great to see a small town through another's eyes. When you are used to something, you take it for granted and I need to remember that I do love this area of the country even though I don't want to live here forever.