Travels
I recently travelled close to 3,000 miles across the Midwest. I checked out the mighty northern town of Chicago, the slightly more mellow Madison, and then headed into the South - Arkansas to be precise, which was definitely a different cultural experience than anywhere else I've been.
Madison is a delightful town. I had never been there before, but I had a great time. It's a college town, and this is summertime so most of the college students were on hiatus, which means I was expecting to get a watered down version of Madison. But still it was good times. College towns tend to have their identities engulfed if they don't have something else solid to present to the rest of the world. I live near one of the bigger college towns in the US - Boulder - and Boulder would definitely be a poor place to visit if it didn't have its own unique character and flavor quite irrespective of the University of Colorado campus that dominates the southern half of town. Madison may or may not be a cool place to live. I'll have to check it out sometime during the school year.
Arkansas. Wow, what a crazy place. I visited the northeastern corner of Arkansas for about 24 hours and it was intense. I had never seen a cypress tree before and they might be the second coolest tree I've ever seen. (The redwoods of California will always be number one.) Cypress trees have a beauty and grandeur that reminds me of a Japanese woodblock print. They are solid in their barkless sky-reaching trunks, yet their delicate branches reach out in an aesthetic symmetry that is breathtaking. So yeah, the coolest thing about Arkansas was the cypress trees. I saw cotton fields and a cotton warehouse which was completely fascinating given the history of cotton in shaping this country. My host announced that in the South cotton is still king, and the racial divides that have haunted our country since its inception are still as strong as ever. I wasn't around long enough to confirm this, but Arkansas was definitely the South with all its charm and dark history. I would have liked to visit Memphis. Maybe another time.
Kansas sucks.
Madison is a delightful town. I had never been there before, but I had a great time. It's a college town, and this is summertime so most of the college students were on hiatus, which means I was expecting to get a watered down version of Madison. But still it was good times. College towns tend to have their identities engulfed if they don't have something else solid to present to the rest of the world. I live near one of the bigger college towns in the US - Boulder - and Boulder would definitely be a poor place to visit if it didn't have its own unique character and flavor quite irrespective of the University of Colorado campus that dominates the southern half of town. Madison may or may not be a cool place to live. I'll have to check it out sometime during the school year.
Arkansas. Wow, what a crazy place. I visited the northeastern corner of Arkansas for about 24 hours and it was intense. I had never seen a cypress tree before and they might be the second coolest tree I've ever seen. (The redwoods of California will always be number one.) Cypress trees have a beauty and grandeur that reminds me of a Japanese woodblock print. They are solid in their barkless sky-reaching trunks, yet their delicate branches reach out in an aesthetic symmetry that is breathtaking. So yeah, the coolest thing about Arkansas was the cypress trees. I saw cotton fields and a cotton warehouse which was completely fascinating given the history of cotton in shaping this country. My host announced that in the South cotton is still king, and the racial divides that have haunted our country since its inception are still as strong as ever. I wasn't around long enough to confirm this, but Arkansas was definitely the South with all its charm and dark history. I would have liked to visit Memphis. Maybe another time.
Kansas sucks.
posted by MP at 10:00 PM
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