Furthering My Education

After Christmas I flew down to Arkansas to visit Boyfriend and his family.  He grew up on a rice farm in a rural area.  Needless to say this is VERY different from my upbringing in suburbs outside of major cities.  I'd been to Arkansas a couple times with my college roommate (aka Boyfriend's sister...), and it's always been a very enlightening and amusing experience (for me and them).  The first time I went to Arkansas I had to ask what grain bins were.  Another time in college, my midwestern/southern roommates collectively decided to refuse to explain chicken fried steak to me.

Itty bitty plane like the one I took to Arkansas.  Apparently not many people fly to Arkansas.

We spent a day driving around the farm, where Boyfriend had a great time getting his truck super muddy.  (He found this more entertaining than I did, especially when I had to watch him scrub it clean the next day.)  I had a lot of fun with the rusted out ancient equipment on the side of a field.  I also got to drive a tractor, only to be laughed at because I was so excited about it.  Boyfriend also "made" me climb to the top of the grain elevator.  Heights don't really bother me, but climbing up the ladder was scary.  Good thing the view from the top was pretty nice...  Then we took his dad's dog (who couldn't quite make up her mind whether she liked me or not) out on a tramp through some pastures and around the rock quarry.  I'm calling it a tramp because it was more than a walk given the terrain and mud, but not really a hike because it was mostly flat.

Eagle's nest

Beaver dam

Fourche River (Pronounced "Fo-shee."  My French teachers would die.)

 

 

Check out my beautiful donut!

We ate a couple meals at his grandparents' house, where I worried about offending his grandmother with my ability to clear the 3 lb plate of spaghetti and meatballs she put in front of me.  I love his grandparents - they're great, but I have never even tried to eat so much spaghetti before, nor followed it with a piece of super rich (and delicious) pina colada cake (complete with lots of rum!).

On New Year's Eve we drove up to St. Louis, where we paid a quick visit to G-Pa before hanging out with my other college roommate and going out to First Night for New Year's.  Once we could drag ourselves out of bed we spent the rest of the very long day driving back to Pennsylvania (with a pit stop in Columbus, OH to say hi to my old labmates!).  Later today I'll head back to Tucson, via both Chicago and Dallas...ugh.  But hey, the ticket only cost me 12,500 frequent flyer miles and $5, and Boyfriend doesn't have to drive three hours round trip to get me to the airport.  Looking forward to the warm weather!