Iowans will tell you that conversations among the natives tend to revolve around daily weather, especially for those Hawkeyes that work on a farm. The weather determines when farmers can plant their crops. This morning I was able to wake up to the peaceful sound of pouring rain and a displeasuring groan from the farmers whom I am staying with. Unfortunately the weather in Iowa has prohibited anxious farmers, such as my host, from beginning their planting. While I could sense some restlessness throughout the house, the weather did not impede me from learning about the history of Iowa.

The journey started off with all six students and our teacher, HN, hopping into a car and driving to Des Moines. While HN was busy being critical of a work sign attached to the back of a truck ahead of us, we were busy brushing up on our Henry Wallace family history in hopes of avoiding any possible embarrassment upon our arrival at The Wallace Centers of Iowa. After learning about the accused “communist” Vice President Henry A. Wallace, I was disappointed to see that a politician that showed backbone in politics was fired because he was honest with the power brokers. Instead of being glorified as a true “man of the people,” Wallace was betrayed by an ailing President Roosevelt. FDR originally chose Wallace as his running mate, despite the numerous complaints from the head of the Democratic party, due to Mr. Wallace’s popularity among rank and file citizens. When President Roosevelt ran again in 1944, instead of facing the criticism from his party heads again, FDR chose to replace Wallace with a “safer” option in Harry Truman. Wallace’s replacement Truman would later fire him for making a controversial speech that President Truman himself had previously approved. Fortunately, the end of his Washington career did not stop Mr. Wallace from being able to make many other contributions to society with his numerous writings and work on chicken breeding.

The contributions that Mr. Wallace and his family provided Iowa led our group to investigate who else contributed to Iowa’s history. We stumbled upon a museum called “Pride of Iowa,” believing we would be able to further our education of Iowa upon entering. Unfortunately, the museum was focused around the “glory” of the state’s high school sport teams rather than the history of the state. After briefly taking a tour around what felt to be a high school coach’s trophy room, HN and I found a Dance Dance Revolution interactive video game and proceeded to have a dance off. Luckily the screen mistakenly indicated he “won” our dance off, meaning he would have no extra incentive to fail me in this course.

Dancing, among other activities, left our group hungry and tired, and our group once again piled back into the car to head back to the farmhouse. After enjoying the company of our house patrons at the dinner table, we headed into the barn to watch a documentary based around the benefits of a whole foods, plant-based diet had over a “Western” diet. A “Western” diet is one that promotes eating animal meat and milk over vegetables and produce, resulting in a higher cholesterol count and a higher probability of heart disease. Our group was shocked and a bit disarrayed by how our “main” source of protein and calcium in meat and milk was not as healthy as the “Got Milk” ads had originally suggested. After discussing the health risks that a bad diet could present, our class retired back into the house to enjoy a piece of cake with a whipped cream topping. Ironically this type of meal had the ingredients, dairy, that the movie had advised us to remove from our diet. I never realized how sweet the taste of irony was until tonight.