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So I've been in Iowa for about four days now, and I have to say... it is absolutely beautiful. You don't get scenery like this on the coast. But I still couldn't live here... you drive on the highway and there's 50 miles of farm in between each town. And the towns aren't necessarily large. I like my east coast, where one town sort of becomes the next town. You don't feel so isolated. But for a few months, this may be very refreshing.
The town I'm in is called Amana, and it's like stepping back into a little frontier town from a 200 years ago. They don't allow any chain restaurants or stores in, in order to preserve the heritage and all. All of the stores make their goods right here, and you can technically buy anything you need here in town. There's everything down to a broom store, where they make their own brooms. There's a wine and cheese factory (and by factory, I mean a house, and they happen to make wine and cheese in it). There's a store that home-makes all their own chocolate goods. It's definitely unlike anywhere I've ever lived. It's cute.
The drive out here was... long. I broke it into two days, so it didn't suck too much. I stayed the night in between in Louisville, with Nik. I miss him!! It was so good to see him again... though if I had it my way I'd have seen him for longer.
The theatre is also cute. They renovated an old, historic barn building... and it's actually a pretty nice proscenium stage with a 300 seat house. Not only that, for being so in the middle of nowhere, they usually sell out! I guess everyone from Des Moines and Cedar Rapids come here for their theatre.
The housing is pretty nice too. We live in a house together that used to be a bed & breakfast, so each room has a bathroom attached to it. My roomate and I share a bathroom, so it's not bad at all. There's cable, and wireless internet. The kitchen is decent, and we all also get a free mini-fridge and microwave in our rooms. The common room has a HUGE TV, and there's another one in this cute loft area. So all in all, they house us pretty well!
I've been through two days of rehearsals for the children's tour. It's going to be a lot of fun. We're doing sort of a "revival". Their kids tour is run differently than many... they have a theme and a writing contest for grades 1-6 all over Iowa, and then choose the winning entries to turn into 10-minute plays. Some of what the kids write is pretty impressive, not gonna lie. So for this tour, they had 800 entries from all these kids, and settled on 8 winners. They did this tour in the spring, and in the fall we're reviving it. Turns out I'm taking the place of Emily Pucell, for all you Appleseeders...
I'm singing in some of the skits. I'm singing solos in two of them. *Gulp* Makes me a little nervous, because Emily is a soprano, so some of her stuff gets up to the top of where I'm comfortable singing, but I've decided to say screw it. I'm just gonna do it and have fun with it. I don't have time to be self-conscious... We only have a week of rehearsal, because the tour starts on Monday!
All in all, I'm happy I came out here. I missed Jessie a lot, so I'm really glad I got to see her again, and work with her. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. :)
The town I'm in is called Amana, and it's like stepping back into a little frontier town from a 200 years ago. They don't allow any chain restaurants or stores in, in order to preserve the heritage and all. All of the stores make their goods right here, and you can technically buy anything you need here in town. There's everything down to a broom store, where they make their own brooms. There's a wine and cheese factory (and by factory, I mean a house, and they happen to make wine and cheese in it). There's a store that home-makes all their own chocolate goods. It's definitely unlike anywhere I've ever lived. It's cute.
The drive out here was... long. I broke it into two days, so it didn't suck too much. I stayed the night in between in Louisville, with Nik. I miss him!! It was so good to see him again... though if I had it my way I'd have seen him for longer.
The theatre is also cute. They renovated an old, historic barn building... and it's actually a pretty nice proscenium stage with a 300 seat house. Not only that, for being so in the middle of nowhere, they usually sell out! I guess everyone from Des Moines and Cedar Rapids come here for their theatre.
The housing is pretty nice too. We live in a house together that used to be a bed & breakfast, so each room has a bathroom attached to it. My roomate and I share a bathroom, so it's not bad at all. There's cable, and wireless internet. The kitchen is decent, and we all also get a free mini-fridge and microwave in our rooms. The common room has a HUGE TV, and there's another one in this cute loft area. So all in all, they house us pretty well!
I've been through two days of rehearsals for the children's tour. It's going to be a lot of fun. We're doing sort of a "revival". Their kids tour is run differently than many... they have a theme and a writing contest for grades 1-6 all over Iowa, and then choose the winning entries to turn into 10-minute plays. Some of what the kids write is pretty impressive, not gonna lie. So for this tour, they had 800 entries from all these kids, and settled on 8 winners. They did this tour in the spring, and in the fall we're reviving it. Turns out I'm taking the place of Emily Pucell, for all you Appleseeders...
I'm singing in some of the skits. I'm singing solos in two of them. *Gulp* Makes me a little nervous, because Emily is a soprano, so some of her stuff gets up to the top of where I'm comfortable singing, but I've decided to say screw it. I'm just gonna do it and have fun with it. I don't have time to be self-conscious... We only have a week of rehearsal, because the tour starts on Monday!
All in all, I'm happy I came out here. I missed Jessie a lot, so I'm really glad I got to see her again, and work with her. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. :)