Goodbye Hawkeye

For those of you who are not aware, Iowa is the hawkeye state. Iowa City is especially steeped in the black and gold spirit since it's the home of the U of I Hawkeyes. I recall as students when we lived here 10 years ago being shocked by the amount of hawkeyes you see everywhere. Everyone seems to be a fan. I mean everyone! What a sense of community that brings. And on game days the streets are completely void of traffic during game time. If you walk your dog around the block and there's a touch down or some other exciting play, cheers can be heard from inside all the homes at one time. If you should choose to go anywhere near the Kinnick stadium on a game day- good luck getting back. Iowans are true to their team. I will miss the feeling of going about my non-hawkeye business on a game day. There's just a lot of excitement in the air and me- likey!

There is just something about the people here that is enchanting. They are unassuming, relaxed, easy-going, chatty folks. Many of them are obese, although more and more I see them in good shape as well. I will state for the record that I felt overweight in Korea, but here I feel skinny a lot of the time. That's another reason to like Iowa in my book. The flooding here and how folks have reacted and helped one another out is a real testimony of their good hearted nature. No looting, no letting this thing lick them, they are getting back to work and helping each other out.

Troy and I have been blessed to have been here 2 times. Troy had someone at church today come up to him and say "so when will we be seeing you here the next time?" If it weren't for the horrible weather we'd be back as soon as the army would let us out. But this was one of the worst winters on record, and the spring storms have made 500 year history- so we'll just be saying our good byes now. You can't beat the people though. They will be missed. Good bye Hawkeyes!