For my 4th of July break I went to Iowa with some of my friends. There's not much to say about it other than: corn, cows, and green. That's pretty much it. Yup, yup.

I did really enjoy experiencing a bit of farm life for the weekend, and I went a little photo-crazy. No lie, even after I deleted a bunch of the "crappy ones," I had almost 600 pictures on my memory card (from 3 days).

So, I thought I'd share a few of my favorites with you lovely Xangans, just so you can see what I was up to. After all, everyone needs to have a photoblog every once in a while, right? People like to look at stuff just as much as they like to read (if not more). And also, so you can be impressed by my amazing photography skillz!

Baxster... their old, fat beagle. It was love at first site.

Muddy creeks, bridges, and dust. All in vast quantities in Iowa.

Breanna

Ash... girl looks like a freaking super model!

Silo... with ivy. Epic.

Chainsaw. Yesss!

Fields of wildflowers.

Ash again, with Baxster. I think she was attempting to brush him.

Aly and Baxster!

Milking the cow. I didn't participate. Someone had to document.

We were playing peek-a-boo. This cutie was my buddy.

Vandalizing the bridge. Shhhhhh.

For the record... I'm not left-handed. The picture just worked better that way.

So... we found this abandoned farm. It was the most amazing place to take pictures. One thing I didn't understand: piles of old stoves? WHAT?

Broken down cars...

The obligatory Jenah and Breanna photo. This is actually one of the only ones in which we both look pretty good. lol

I don't even know about this one. We were just doing a lot of randomness.

Aly!

This little guy was hiding, so it was hard to get a shot, but I tried. And actually, when we first saw it, it scared the CRAP out of us. Because we weren't expecting living things to be behind the door...

Just kind of an experimental thing.

Cows! I swear, they were coming right at us. Vicious beasts.

Reflections are always fun.

Sunset...

4th of July... you gotta have fireworks!

Alright... that's all I got. I narrowed down my 600 to a few pictures just for you guys! So, comment away. Criticize, appreciate, make fun of, whatever floats your boat. You guys rock!

 Pieces_of_a_Melody

Survey 1 [for people who are not Christians]

 So, I went to a mosque today as a part of my World Religions class (hence the head-covering in my new profile picture). It was quite the interesting experience. I feel like I learned a lot and cleared up a lot of misconceptions.

First, I'd like to note that I'm glad I'm not a Muslim, simply for the reason of the clothes they have to wear! It wouldn't be so bad in the winter, but in the summer when it's 90 degrees out and super humid, wearing longsleeves, long skirts, and a head coving is NOT fun. Not to mention the fact that tradition requires Muslim women to wear 7 layers! HOLY CRAP! That would be terrible. I was just wearing enough to look modest for the mosque, I can't imagine wearing all that too!

Second, I think this visit cleared up a lot of misconceptions about Muslims and Islam. It seems to me that the West (especially America) has portrayed such a twisted view of Muslim people. And please, don't get me wrong, I am NOT prejudiced at all, I'm really not; I just feel like the media has presented me with an incorrect view of these people. Meeting the Imam and talking to him really cleared up a lot of things for me. I'm glad I had this opportunity.

I also realized the many similarities Islam has to Christianity. I never realized that so many of the beliefs we hold are the same or similar. Obviously, we are still majorly different religions. And a lot of the main points of our religions are different, but there are a lot of things we can agree on.

Over all, I really loved the experience. I only wish I could have visited during an actual service. I would have liked to see it.

Pieces_of_a_Melody