New Job, New State

Well, I've started settling in here in Iowa. I had a great friend help me move in and it didn't take long, or was too hard. I spent 2 days in Calmar, Iowa with my friend Kayla (the friend who helped me move) to learn some stuff about Iowa. My anthropology nose was sniffing some stuff out, so I wanted to remark on it before I talk about my new home.

So, beer koozies are a big deal here. It is pronounced Koo-zy, not cozy, like I have always called them. They are those beer holders that keep your can or bottle cooland are soft. People here get them for all sorts of events, especially weddings. They will have their name and the date of the event screen printed on to the devices. It helps to know whose beer is whose, like those wine glass charms keep people from drinking your wine. They may keep your drink cool, but they aren't used because you are sipping on one beer all night; people here drink a lot. There is an alcohol culture that is at work.

A second thing I learned about NE Iowa is about a thing called "touring". Touring is basically drunk driving down unpaved roads. It is considered fun because people here also are allowed to "have one for the road" or literally served a beer on their way out the door. The only reason this is allowed to happen is because there are so few police and sheriffs around. You are unlikely to get pulled over on the unpaved roads, and people will just take them and get lost. Usually a car full of people, not just individuals. We didn't go touring, but it is so common it has that term associated with it.

Thats mostly what I learned in NE Iowa. So, now onto my place in Dubuque.
I think I really scored with this room I am renting. It is right on the bluff. From the front room, you can see both Wisconsin, Illinois, and downtown Dubuque. We sit right on the bluff. We are at the very edge of the bluff and while our street address is 3rd st., because of the hill, you can't get to the house from 3rd st. You have to go down an ally behind the houses.

The house was built in 1906 and has been cared for. It isn't as nice as many of the restored victorian homes on the bluff, but it has been cared for and is quite nice. My roommates are Kandy-the house marm. She is the one the lease is with, but she rents out the rooms. She runs the house and I like that she is direct. I need her to keep harping on me to keep the lights off, but I like her and she is clean and wants to keep things nice. Her boyfriend is, well, i forgot his name already, but I think it is Matt. Then, just today, I met Jeremy, the other guy who lives in Wisconsin, but rents a room during the week so he can work at a factory in Dubuque. I met him only briefly, but we talked about deer hunting. In Iowa, the season starts this week.

The house may be haunted. When I have more evidence of this, I will make this argument, but for now, it *may* be haunted.

The landlord lives next door. Paul and his wife used to live in this house, but they restored a house next door. Paul was a 4th grade teacher and his wife was a nurse. They are both retired now. I really hope they are democrats but I'm not sure. Mostly because they had a picture of Sara Palin on their fridge, and I'm not sure if it was humorous, or they actually like her. We already talked about having a street Christmas party in December because the couple also owns the house on the other side of them, and a new tenant just moved in. The woman is a teacher herself now, and was in one of "Mr. K."'s grade school classes.

I live in the "quite" room. It is the quietest of the rooms and I have plenty of closet space! I have been sleeping on a inflatable mattress, but I will get a better one next week when Kandy gets a new bed and I get her old one.

So, that is my new house. I will post pictures from the deck of the view later.

I went to the UU Fellowship on Sunday. I met some nice people there and can't wait to get more involved. I might even sing in the choir, not because I am good, but because I am so bad I hope to improve. They knew the woman I will be working for. They spoke highly of her. I hear she is the mayor's wife and a very kind woman. I look forward to meeting her so she can suggest more books for me to read.

So, I also started my new job today. I am at the orientation now. I came through the Land of Lincoln. I'm not officially in Chicago, but I plan on going to get some pizza on Thursday night, before going back to Iowa. I'll probably do some site seeing too.

Before I left Dubuque, this morning, I stopped by my new office. It was fancy. The office is in a restored old building in downtown Dubuque. The office is new and classy. It takes a fancy electronic key to get through the doors, when it isn't open. I get an office (no window of course) and I got a name tag. People were really nice in and around the building. I talked to the maintenance workers who were still doing some work no the place. They were also setting up for Christmas, and the place will be spectacular this weekend in time for the Festival of Trees. People there were wearing suits. It kind creeped me out. Not because it was bad, but because it was so fancy. When I think VISTA, I think of dirty work like building stuff and walking the streets. Maybe it was just Monday, but ooh-la-la, people were classy. The first quote I need to put up in my office is one to remind me that the real work I want to do, can't be done in an office. There will certainly be important office work, phone calls, e-mails, and meetings, but I look forward to having an out-of-office experience.

I love anthropology and plan on using it in the job. Anthropology is a field science.

So, this is it so far. I have to say, it is sure nice to be surrounded by people who love volunteering, service, and who are so committed to solving poverty. Not as many extroverts as I would have expected, but a lot of the capacity building of VISTA jobs are thinking and writing, so that may be some of the reason for it. Also, the line was so long at registration that it sucked a lot of the energy of folks.

On that, I will mention something I felt good about. So, the lines really did take like an hour to get through. I had made it through the first line, and heard rumors there were cookies at the end of the line. I had some very nice people from Michigan, who held my spot while I went to explore. I was just going to get cookies and water for the people I was talking to, but when I got to the cookies, and thought of all the other hungry folks in line, I just grabbed the whole tray of them and took them down the lines of the people I know had been waiting so long. I had to make 2 trips because it was so popular, especially by folks who had been traveling and were hungry. I'm glad I did that because I think it made people a little more calm about the line, and there were some legitimately hungry people. We were all waiting in a line, not even sure if it was the right line, and of what would happen when we got to the front of it. I hoped it help people feel like they were in a good place and someone was concerned about them. But enough of me patting my own back.

G'nite.