1. Homestays of infinite awesome

So Rachel D. and I had a homestay almost each night of the trip, aside from our stay in St. Louis. We were very lucky and had homestays that were AWESOME and some that were simply nice. All around, it was very good. :-)

Friday: Our first homestay was in Vinton. The family lived out in the country and had their own indoor pool, including hot tub. We got to go swimming for an hour and a half. They had about 20 mini-inflatable beach balls and Rachel D. and I made up games with them, like obstacle courses. We also raced back and fourth across the pool on these floaty-things. After that we got to play Wii bowling, petted their cat and then we went to bed. We slept in their daughter's bedroom (since she was away at college in NYC) and discovered that she had autographs from a couple members of the Harry Potter cast and pictures with James and Oliver Phelps (the Weasley Twins) among others. It was a lot of fun and it was really nice to visit with them! Our host-family gave us each a plaque (left overs from his daughter's graduation party) that has the poem "To Risk" by William Arthur Ward.

Saturday: Our second homestay was in Ankeny. They were a quiet couple, all their kids had moved out. We politely visited while eating ice cream, then watched the end of the NASCAR race and played with their cat. Our host parents went to bed shortly after 11pm and Rachel and I watched the Doctor Who episode Blink and then went to bed. It was a nice, quiet homestay, since we were both tired and sore from swimming on Friday.

Sunday: We stayed in Indianola, and we got in late so we only really got to visit with our host mom, because our host brother went to bed after helping us carry up our luggage. This stay was the most interesting of all I think, because we made our own lunches and then took up our host-mom's offer to watch TV, but she controlled the remote, and always muted the commercials. We watched a really old episode of Law and Order: SVU. This family had a little Maltese dog named Rico, who we had to feed cheese, so that he wouldn't think we were "invading." Rico also barked for an hour and a half after we turned out our lights and tried to go to sleep in the beds that were too short for both Rachel and I.

Monday: This was our night in Kansas City, and I met our host mom still recovering from a rush of tears, since I conducted my senior farewell of Nearer My God To Thee. Our host mom gave a hug to both Rachel and I and said she was glad to get one of the "crying seniors." Our host mom was a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines, but was on medical leave because she tore the ACL in her thumb while skiing in Colorado the week before. Her husband and 9-year-old daughter were so fun to visit with. :-) We all sat and ate brownies and talked about the weather, band traditions, the concert, and Susan Boyle. They also had two dogs, a 10 year-old chocolate Lab and a 3 year-old Schnoodle and they were super friendly and fun to play with. Our host-dad made us popcorn on the stove and Rachel and I sat by the fire and watched the History Channel. They had a big double bed for us to sleep in and it had a green shiny comforter. We had fun reenacting that scene from The Sound of Music where Maria checks her bed for spiders.
















(Yes we are nerds.)

That morning there was fresh fruit, croissants, bagels, toast and cereal for breakfast and our host-mom repacked our lunches, claiming we didn't take enough food. After they dropped us off Rachel was going through her newly packed lunch and discovered that our host-mom had included a $20 bill in each of our lunches! It was kind of awkward, but super awesome. She really didn't have to do that, but it was really nice to find.

Tuesday: This was our night in St. Louis and we stayed in a hotel. It wasn't very eventful other than I accidentally kicked Rachel in my sleep and when we woke up, I had all the blankets and she had all the comforter.

Wednesday: We stayed in Ballwin, Missouri. Our host family ran their own private wine and spirits company. Our host-mom's husband was away giving a Bourbon-tasting conference. We got back to her house about 9:30 at night and she cooked us hotdogs, hamburgers and macaroni and cheese while Rachel and I played with her two little Shiitzus, who looked like Ewoks. It was really nice to visit with her, especially since I had just finished my Beer and Society class. She had a lot of interesting stories. (Including the fact that her husband sang barbershop.) :-) After dinner our host mom went to bed and we watched TV and then went to bed ourselves. For breakfast I finally got to have COFFEE! I had missed it! She also had yogurt and fruit, (which was delicious) cereal and coffee cake.

Thursday: We stayed with a family in Mt. Ayr that had never volunteered to host kids before. They were super nice! They lived in a 100+ year-old farm house and had a daughter in 5th grade, who played trumpet. They all really enjoyed the concert and we all had fun discussing different aspects of the WCCB. Rachel and I were pretty tired and we just watched some TV. Our host-mom asked us when we wanted breakfast in the morning, because she was going to make us a "real country breakfast." And boy, she did! There was homemade biscuits and sausage gravy, hash browns, scrambled eggs, bacon and sausages and homemade blueberry muffins! I had at least one of everything... It was SO GOOD!!!!! We found out that our host-mom loved to cook and at one time, owned a local restaurant in town, so she was really excited to cook for us. :-) Rachel and I got to sleep in an old, metal farm bed that had the softest mattress... It was so nice! You just melted into it.

Friday: We made it home about 12:45 am and got to sleep in our own beds.


So yeah... Like I said, all of our homestays were good... Some just more awesome than others....