Morraine!

Hammer and I in Madison

So its not Kettle, but its still pretty satisfying how many hills there are here. Rolling hills, all of the way, everywhere which makes me die sometimes but also happy. Its been far too long since I've run with a team. One person will run with me sometimes though, but hes from Grinnell. I don't know how I feel about fraternizing with the enemy (unlike some people,) but hey, you take what you can get. He doesn't run cross-country so it may be considered acceptable.

I had much fun in Minneapolis last weekend with Ellen and a couple friends from Jersey. I hope that I can get back there. Won't be too soon though because right now I'm pretty busy. The Echinacea are flowering which is a pretty big deal here in Kensington, MN.

Today I tried my first sports-bra run here. Mosquitoes and ticks frequent the trails so I've taken the shirt approach until today's road run. It would have worked out well except I wore a Camelback too which put this huge blister in my side. I've taken to running with music in lieu of people, which helps some but I reiterate: I miss you all.

Amor

A sports bra that generates energy?

This might be nice if I ever listened to music while I ran (or even owned an iPod): Harnessing the untapped power of breast motion. Still intriguing though!

PROCASTINATING.....

HI GIRLS!

Well, I have one final left on the 30th, then I am meeting the fam in Barcelona for a two week vacay in Italy and Spain! I am super excited to see them! It is definitely weird being away for so long!! I miss everyone soo much! What is everyone doing for the summer?? I hope everyone is enjoying everything so far and that everyone is being safe! I am going to try to get to the beach here a couple more times, but then I am out of here on the 1st of July! Wish me luck on my exam--I don't think it is going to be easy! Anyway, obviously, no new news here...but I just wanted to give a quick update! Love you, guys!

Jeeesssssss

Greetings from the Land of Tall, Flood-Devastated Corn and Giant Pork Tenderloins (If the pigs haven't all drowned and decayed yet)

I am back in Cedar Rapids, and currently trying to decide whether to spend my evening playing pick-up soccer, biking downtown to survey the damage, or making a trip to the HyVee to pick up some groceries, as I will, at some point, need some nourishment. The two apples, two oranges, and Korean chocolate (courtesy of my sister's recent travels), and bag of craisins that my mom sent me off with are probably not gonna cut it. I'm thinking a combination of the second two, since I'm lazy and it's like 85 degrees here and we don't even have hot water to shower with for another 2 weeks (although a cold shower might feel quite nice after an evening of soccer in 85 degree heat).

Sidenote: I have added the link to Miss Heney's admissions blog onto our lovely list on the right-hand side of this here website, in case anyone wants to see how the lovely, family-and-prospective-student-friendly Beloit summer life is treating her.

Well I am off to ...somewhere. I'll probably be back on here later tonight with photos of the downtown Cedar Rapids debris-filled wasteland. (This or facebook. Perhaps both. Although last time I tried uploading pictures onto facebook, I killed my parents' computer. This was last week. Awkward...)

Later gators.

RACING!!!

Hey you gals! Just wanted to say hi and that I miss you all. I ran in a race on Saturday in Janesville for the Rock Country YWCA, Race Against Racism 5k. It was lots of fun but small. No worries, I left with a trophy for 3rd in my age group. :) But really I wasn't doing it for a time but rather for the cause. It made me think about how excited I am for the fall cross country season. I feel like even though many of us were away this last semester blogging has brought our team much closer. That is a wonderful thing! Sending my love to you all. Don't worry, the flooding of the Rock River has been kinda bad but most of downtown is fine. But our two bridges run along the river wouldn't be possible at this point today with alll the flooding. Life is treating me really well. Can't wait to see you all!!

Love,
Alicia

Happy Healthy Feet

Ladies,
Just thought I'd share this link with you: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91661083&ps=bb3

Feet rock.

Summertime in Madison

Hey ladies! I hope everyone's summers are absolutely fantastic. Its gorgeous here in Madison, especially since it hasn't been too humid lately and the thunderstorms have let up. I'm doing really well but I miss everyone too much. Its been pretty hard making friends. My two roommates are awesome and we have a good time but other than that its hard to meet people. My job as a nanny is not exactly the best social outlet! But I DO love the kids! I have so much fun with them everyday. The two year old, Grady is absolutely the smartest kid I've ever met (don't tell my baby brother Nicki) and Annika, who's 4.75, is wonderful as well. The job reminds me that even though I'm not in college anymore, I still don't have to grow up.

If anyone is in the area let me know. I think both Karen and Julie had a good time on their short visits (back me up on this girls). We ended up being able to participate in the fabulousness of The Great Dane Brewery's Texas Speedbump IPA even though neither of them are of age. I would love more visitors. And yes, as Julie mentioned, I have been hanging out with a member of the Ripon crew. I think that Eckburg approves. We've all gone to two concerts together so far and I think Eck is okay with it. His approval may be more important to me than my own father's. Now if we can only get Julie to make out with Jim Hein...

In addition, Madison is the most wonderful place. I'm the happiest I've ever been. The Farmer's Market on Capitol Square, the giant arboretum and endless bike paths...what else does one need in life?

Love and miss you all.

Positives

• CLS is here, so I now see more than ten people a day.
• The summer residents don't have ID cards until tomorrow, so I snuck into Commons for a massive dinner. I stole two peaches and didn't have to do the dishes. It was a big deal.
  
• Today was neither humid nor rainy and my running shoes were dry for the first time in a week.
• Marta "M. Dawg" Casey is in town. My boss is not.
• The Rock River hasn't flooded downtown Beloit, yet.

It's not much, but that's the update from here. Let's get on a log. Stutz was talking about going GoogleCalendar like the guys, but I don't have enough initiative to figure this out (read: I'd rather be playing cribbage... with myself). Hope you're all on dry land. Big love, etc.

The Longest leg of my roadtrip

Hola chicas-

Here I am, at the bottom of a ski hill on a moraine in Kensington, MN: population 270. It has been quite the journey to get here with stops in Cleveland, Chicago, Wilmette, Rockford, Beloit, Madison, Minneapolis but the longest leg of my journey actually was in Iowa, basically, most of the state with Brain, Gager, and Eckberg. It was quite the journey, complete with the biggest truck stop in the world, an awesome concert, a tour of Iowa, and a return to Rockford at 5:30 AM. We crossed the Illinois border four times. See: beloitdistance.blogspot.com .

Following that adventure, I drove up to Beloit to see the lovely Miss Heney, unfortunately no Gramster because of a job, but then to Madison for Hammertime. It was quite the ridiculous night in Madison with some of the odd Ripon crew- interesting story actually, I'll tell you sometime.

So now I'm out in the middle of nowhere, Minnesota with hills and Echinacea. Echinacea is my plant of study, and even though I've been working for four days I close my eyes and immediately see those pubsecent, three veined leaves (not flowering yet.) Its pleasant, and not tooo far from Minneapolis but still a decent chunk of change in my gas tank. Regardless of the cost, I will be heading there tomorrow for a four day weekend when I'll FINALLY get to see ellen and mari knowles and yaaaay.

Love you guys, miss you tons, can't wait for Ice Age!

Evacuated.

So the flooding got INSANE, it kept rising past the predicted levels, cresting later and later, I think reaching the 1000-year level. Nuckin futs. I believe it crested yesterday at 32 feet. Anyhow, Coe College was for the most part safe, except for its physical plant building, but is without power. They moved us all to Cornell in Mt. Vernon about a half hour away, expecting to keep us there for a few days, then received word that Coe would be without power for at least 2 weeks. So they sent everyone home, if they had a way to get there, and Cornell offered to house anyone who did not have a place to go for as long as needed (bless their heart). Latest news, though, is that we should have power to the whole campus within 2 or 3 days of the water receding from the phys plant building, so the time frame is looking better: http://coecollege1851.org/

SOOO for the time being, I'm here in Chicago again!! I may be visiting Beloit. I have yet to hear from Helen, though - 2 days ago she sent me a text saying they haven't been able to leave their house, but I think she should be ok. I haven't been able to get a hold of her since, but I'm hoping that's just because she hasn't been able to charge her phone. I'm about to dig out Who's Where and find her on the map. Everyone pray for all the 4,000 evacuated families in Cedar Rapids, plus all those elsewhere! I'm not even religious.

Edit: See the guys' blog for an entertaining story by Gage about a very Eckburg-esque expedition to an Iron & Wine concert in Iowa City that I was supposed to attend.

FLOODING...RAIN...AH

Hey ALL!
So life in Beloit and work in Janesville might just get a little more exciting this summer. They are preparing for the Rock River to crest and then flood in the next couple days. Needless to say I am tired of the severe weather, lots of rain, and possibilty of sandbaging. Karen, you stay safe girl. Hopefully the flooding here won't be as bad as it is in IOWA.

I am doing really and loving interning at the Boys and Girls Club in Janesville, luckily the bus between Beloit and Janesville has saved me some money on gas. But my experiences here so far are priceless and really rewarding. I am designing and implementing programming for the children. These children come from disadvantaged backgrounds and to say that their lives are disadvantaged is an understatement. Already, I have delt with issues of neglect, abuse, crime and such. Despite all up against them the Boys and Girls Club has been a safe place for these kids to come to and just be kids. Hopefully in the next couple days I wont have to make them fill sandbags for a community service activity. You never know though...

I actually have really liked spending the summer so far in Beloit. Transitioning from being in India has been made easy by all the love and support I have in my life! Yesterday I got to see Julie H. finally :) and the other Julie should be making her road trip stop here soon! Exciting!! I will also be visiting Hammer next month in Madtown! :) Hope your finals go well Jess. Everytime I look at the news now I have so many important countries and U.S. states to check out. California, Wisconsin, Iowa, Spain, Australia, Illinois. AH. Can't even keep track of it all...so keep the updates on all your lives coming. And can't wait to see you guys!

Love,
Alicia

FINALS IN SPAIN = NOT FUN!

So, I have officially done no work all semester, and now we are all pedal to the metal to get our studying done for finals! It's not fun, and I want to go to the beach! Karen! I hope you have a canoe or something--where's Dana when you need her? Haha! It has been raining here a ridiculous amount too--but we are not close to flooding yet! There was an oil spill--speaking of catastrophes! I think it is all cleaned up now...which is good..for more reasons than one--but I really just want to go swimming!

Emily F is coming in tonight to spend a long weekend--we are going to go down south for some better beaches and warmer weather. I am really excited to see her and run with her! Running has kind of been a shit show for me lately. I got sick and then I got sicker, and now I am just out of shape--slowly getting back into it as my poor little body will allow! I have high hope for running in Ecuador though! The school is at 10,000ft--so I will get some good high altitude training in if nothing else! The Euro is still killing all of us over here! Please, dollar--regain your strength!! It's said--you are pretty hard pressed to find a meal under 15-20Euro--that's around 30 dollars!! Oh, America!

Anywho--Karen this post was for you, but now that you got your worms, it sounds like you don't really need it!! I hope EVERYONE is doing well--keep us all updated on summer fun, flings, and findings--like the alliteration?? Okay--looove you all~

Jess

FLOOD!!!

Hoo boy. So apparently all the rain and storms we've been having is causing quite the ruckus:

City expands evacuation to match 500-year flood map

All the bridges downtown crossing the Cedar River are closed, so the interstate is the only means of getting around there, and exits are closing... Coe College is JUST outside of the evacuation area. Madness, just madness! Plans are not looking good for the Iron&Wine concert in Iowa City tomorrow, Julie...Although the interstate south should be ok. We'll see. Funny thing is, just across the street from us, and thus just inside the evacuation area, is St. Luke's Hospital. Uhh..how do you evacuate a hospital? Good luck with that, folks.

In other news, our worms finally got shipped in today, so we should be starting some actual research soon! (If our supervisor can make it in to work tomorrow - she lives across the river. Ruh roh.)

Darling it's better down where it's wetter, take it from me...

Later gators.
KB

Corn corn everywhere

Just kidding, there really isn't any corn in sight, I'm pretty close to downtown Cedar Rapids. Although there is a lovely statue of it downtown, ear and husk and all. Oh, Iowa.

So basically I don't have a roommate and, being used to a suite of 4, it's a little weird. So yes, Heney, I am bored!! I have things I could be doing, but really who wants to teach themselves Dan Fogelberg's "Leader of the Band" on guitar when I could be reading about what all of you are up to??

The research is going a little slow right now, since the worms don't get shipped in until the middle of next week, so there's not a whole lot for us to do. We're basically going over some techniques and uh...getting the afternoon off, like today. (But that's because our supervisor and one of our group members are sick.) Buuut as soon as we get the worms in, we'll be extracting some DNA and sequencing!! Hooray. But sadly, we'll have to sacrifice some worms to do it... I think we ordered more than we need, so maybe I'll get to keep some as pets. Then we can play with them, Anne! ;-)

Well, time to go try to occupy myself until my dinner date with Helen Pope tonight!! (I think I'm going to actually train this summer, out of sheer boredom. I mean, not that I don't usually...ahem.)

Also, what does everyone think about the new colors? I can add some pink if you'd like. Last time it was just a little bit, uh... too much pink. But if I'm overruled I can change it back.

Road Trip: I-90W

Ugh. Looks like I'll be doing my run in northern Ohio tomorrow night. 1300 miles is an ungodly long drive, but I'm looking forward to running some different turf between The Green Mountain State and Beloit. Stopping in Chicago for the Blues Fest this weekend. Resurrected my cell, so ring me if you're in Chi-town and don't mind hanging out with my mom-- Donna's a nice girl.

For the love of Karen Baumann (who, if I'm not mistaken, is bored in Iowa), please post your summer stuff on this thing: rave runs, wicked blisters, road races, whatever you've got.

See you in the middle...

I'm BACK!

Hey! So I am back in Beloit now for the summer! I got here on Friday and I still trying to adjust to the time difference! AH. Anyway, I wanted to say I am sorry that I wasn't good about always posting on the blog but I assume you all understand. India was fabulous and such a journey for me but I am not going to lie when I say it is nice to have electricity again and drinkable water. :) Can't wait to catch up with you all and see many of you throughout the summer. Good so much to talk about!

Love to you all,
Alicia