Iowa and Favorite Movies

Hey! We are officially in Iowa. I started at John Deere on Monday and am getting used to my new life in Davenport. Today I traveled to Dubuque, Iowa for work. It is a small river town about an hour north of here. It is a pretty little town set amongst hills along the Mississippi River. The rainy weather today reminded me of a trip to a Kelso, Washington which sits next to the Columbia River and frequently has rainy weather.

I enjoy going through these small towns because I find each of them interesting. Why does it exist? Why do people stay here? Why is there such a large, new parking structure in an old factory town on the Mississippi that isn't growing while Provo is in dire need of new parking and can never seem to repair its decaying curbs and roads?

Well, one thing I do miss are mountains! I know that Dubuque's hills sure help, but I need some mountains in my life! My supervisor at work is a self-proclaimed small town girl, and I am a definitely a West Coast boy. Oh and $1.49/gallon milk! I don't know why milk costs $2.30/gallon here, but it's cool.


Another new area in my life is the fact that we have restarted our Netflix subscription again after a break these past few months. Megan is awesome because she lets me pick a lot of what we watch. If you know me well, you know I haven't seen many movies. I find most movies really boring and predictable and a waste of time and money. However, Netflix lets us find movies we normally wouldn't be able to find.

Last night, Megan and I watched "Not One Less." It is in Chinese with English subtitles (which is good because their funky accent, lazy pronounciation, and sloppy tones make it hard to understand at times). I don't want to give it away, but it is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time! Then let me know when you've seen it so I can talk to more people about it. I really enjoyed the scenes where two Chinese people would argue and I would think to myself, "That's exactly how it works! It just goes in circles and the same things are said over and over!" I was also very honored to know that such arguments exist between two Chinese people and not only between a white person and a Chinese person! I wasn't being treated differently for being a missionary.

I love foreign films because the kids are cuter and the predictability is much less than an American film.

I've rambled enough, I'll let you go.

Jordan

Hawaii

Hey Everyone,

In case you didn't know, Hawaii rocks. Maui rocks more, and it rocks the most if you are married when you visit Maui. We had an awesome time and went to the top of a volcano, went snorkeling, hiked around and in waterfalls, cliff jumped, relaxed, ate good Hawaiian food, attended Stake Conference on Maui, and met some funny people.

In all, I loved it. I forgot what day of the week it was, didn't care about my grades being posted, and forgot 98% of everything I learned this past school year. :) If you are looking to go somewhere on vacation with your husband/wife, let me know, I found some cool spots.

Here are some pictures.




I jumped off this cliff, it's much taller than this looks.

I'll post more later!

Jordan