My Nebraskan and North Dakotan Adventure

I arrived in Nebraska really early in the morning Monday to visit Courtney (Dan's wife) and Dan (SP07). The first few days we just hung out discovering how poor my skills are at Guitar Hero and trying to convince their cat to like me (it didn't work). Tuesday night we headed to the older part of the city which had lots of like knick-knack places and candy stores and lots of art gallerys which was lots of fun. Wednesday we headed to Omaha Zoo which was so much fun. We all sorts of animals- giraffes, gorillas, bears all that sort of things. It was lots of fun. Especially seeing all the Australian animals that were there. We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner which serves waaaaay too much food. On Thursday Courtney and I went out with one of her friends for lunch and then we hung out and went shopping.

Early Friday morning I headed to North Dakota to visit Jess Meier (SP09). Thankfully I managed to make a extremely short connection (ie running between buses) meaning I got into Bismarck 12 hours before schedule. Saturday lots of Jess's friends came over and we hung out and her mum made an amazing breakfast. On Sunday we went to Jess's church and then Jess drove me out to beautiful Medora. We hung out there with one of the guys who was on summer project in Medora and played mini golf and bought saltwater taffy. On Monday we hung out and did errands before I had to get on the bus to go to Minnesota. I am currently in Minneapolis but more on that next time.

I have just come from staying with Amanda (SP07). We were in Mitchell, SD on Friday night watching movies at her place and walking around Walmart. Then Saturday we headed out to Parkston to her boyfriend, Terry's farm. We got there and went over to Terry's neighbour's place on fourwheelers while Terry and his dad worked on a tractor. We played with Terry's neighbour's dog but it was quite mean and kept trying to bite us so after awhile we went back to Terry's house. After awhile we went out on fourwheelers to check on all the cows around the place and then we went over to the guy's place that Terry's Dad works for and they showed me combines and grain carts. That night after we had dinner,in the middle of which Terry's Dad pulled out a gun and shot a gopher out the nearby door, we went fishing in a paddock nearby. We then came back and watched the Lion King before going to bed. On Sunday we went to Terry's work and then we went and met up with one of Terry's friend Nick so I could see how a combine work. After we hung out with them awhile while they were combineing we went into Sioux Falls and had dinner before I got on a bus to go to Omaha to visit Courtney and Dan. Oh and the whole time we were there we played with this gorgeous little puppy they have called Maggie too. She's such a sweetheart. Well, that's it for now- I'll update again once I leave Courtney and Dan's.

Catch Up

So since I have only just started blogging I thought I would put a summary of life so far:

I arrived in Iowa City, Iowa on Wednesday 22nd July after 34 hours of travelling. Jessie picked me up at the airport and took me to stay with her and Nikki (both from SP09). During my time I spent in Iowa City I got to go to their Crusade summer bible study (where we taught the uneducated americans to do Tim Tam slams), we went to their church bible study and I also got to go to the county fair in Jessie's hometown. The county fair was so much fun and I got introduced to a "funnel cake" which was fantastic. We also went through all the animal pavilions and debated which animals smelt bad (I think horses smell good in comparision to other farm animals but Jessie definately didn't agree).

After a few days with with them I travelled on a greyhound to Michelle's house (SP07) in Baraboo (it's in Wisconsin) and hung out with her there. I got to hang out with her family and go into her work and watch her teach kids PE in summer school. We also hung out at her farm for awhile and saw all the animals that were running around- I even started to like her dog.

Then Michelle bought me up to see Liz (STINT07) and Luis (her husband) in Oshkosh, WI. We hung out and with her. We went to one of her friend's places and watched the EAA airshow which was really cool- there was helicopter's doing loops and everything. Then Luis and Liz made me mexican food for dinner- we had gucamole, mollete (which is like bread with refried beans and cheese on top) and meat cooked with onions. It was really good!

Anyways that's it for now. I shall update you at my nest location.

See you later

The Start of Something

So....with some prompting of a friend I decided I would start blogging. I don't make any promises to how much I will update this but I am hoping to keep a record of my travels in the states and my experiences at uni in Illinois. So whether anyone reads this or not this will be my official record of the happening's of my exchange.

I'll update you of what's happened so far soon.