Today completes Week 2 in the capital city, and it seems to be less and less like Iowa as the time goes on.
I started the week wallowing about not being in Des Moines for World Pork Expo, and it didn't really stop as the week went on. Luckily, Walton Webcasting broadcasted the shows and sales, which is what occupied most of my lunch break and evenings. Seeing pigs, even through a computer screen gave me a small sense of being back home and being a part of expo. Unfortunately, I will admit it was not near as fun as actually being at the real deal but it was better than nothing and with some legends of the industry commentating, I learned way more about the history of pork production than I would've had I been sitting ringside.
Since Monday was the 72nd anniversary of D-Day I decided to take a walk to the WWII monument after I got off work. This particular memorial is one of my absolute favorites. I appreciate how it combines the pillars and fountains to symbolize how the war was fought. There were a lot of wreaths and flowers at the memorial for D-Day from survivors and other veterans not even from the US which was truly a humbling experience. After walking around and taking pictures I sat by the fountains for about 20 minutes and just took in the world around me.
Nothing too exciting for work this week, except Friday I ventured out of the office for a seminar at the Ag Committee Office about food traceability. The seminar was put on by the Global Food Traceability Center and focused on the need for a better traceability system within the US. It kind of made me mad that over half of the audience didn't even stay until the end of the seminar, and it was only an hour long. Like as much as consumers complain about where their food comes from, they don't seem to take advantage of opportunities to ask questions or learn about how to make their concerns better. The seminar itself was pretty vanilla and didn't even talk about GMO labeling or Country of Origin Labeling, so it definitely wasn't too heated of a discussion for me.
On Saturday my roommate Tayler and I took the metro to the Mall to visit the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Although it was extremely crowded, it was still neat and a good way to enjoy the weekend out of the DC heat. We saw it all: taxidermy animals, ancient human remains, dinosaur fossils, and lots of rocks and gems. My personal favorite was the Hope Diamond, even though we had to push and shove our way to get a view (East Coast people can be savages).
Sunday was my day to catch up on life that included a walk to the grocery store. I'm going to be honest, I miss Hyvee...a lot. Grocery stores in the city put a lot of emphasis on marketing ploys and price. I walked in and tried to find conventional, normal bananas. Well, their produce aisle had so many giant "Save on Organic" arrows everywhere I honestly don't know what kind of bananas I got, but they were definitely more expensive than when I buy them in Iowa. As I wandered down more aisles I was bombarded by an insane amount of "Gluten Free" cards by products that would obviously (at least to me) never contain gluten such as tea bags, raisins, applesauce and a lot more. Ironically those products were th store's brand and always more expensive that the others. At HyVee and Fareway it's almost always the opposite: the store brand products are cheaper than the brand name stuff. Don't even get me started about the meat options. Let's just say there was no conventionally raised meat that I found and waaayyyy overpriced. I'm talking $7/lb. for ground beef and bacon. The highest I have ever seen bacon for in Iowa was just over $5/lb. I left the store completely astonished how uneducated the consumers are in this city to pay an insane amount of money on marketing ploys. Unfortunately, I don't think this grocery store was an isolated case, which means I have a lot more grocery shopping headaches to look forward to this summer.
I started the week wallowing about not being in Des Moines for World Pork Expo, and it didn't really stop as the week went on. Luckily, Walton Webcasting broadcasted the shows and sales, which is what occupied most of my lunch break and evenings. Seeing pigs, even through a computer screen gave me a small sense of being back home and being a part of expo. Unfortunately, I will admit it was not near as fun as actually being at the real deal but it was better than nothing and with some legends of the industry commentating, I learned way more about the history of pork production than I would've had I been sitting ringside.
Since Monday was the 72nd anniversary of D-Day I decided to take a walk to the WWII monument after I got off work. This particular memorial is one of my absolute favorites. I appreciate how it combines the pillars and fountains to symbolize how the war was fought. There were a lot of wreaths and flowers at the memorial for D-Day from survivors and other veterans not even from the US which was truly a humbling experience. After walking around and taking pictures I sat by the fountains for about 20 minutes and just took in the world around me.
Nothing too exciting for work this week, except Friday I ventured out of the office for a seminar at the Ag Committee Office about food traceability. The seminar was put on by the Global Food Traceability Center and focused on the need for a better traceability system within the US. It kind of made me mad that over half of the audience didn't even stay until the end of the seminar, and it was only an hour long. Like as much as consumers complain about where their food comes from, they don't seem to take advantage of opportunities to ask questions or learn about how to make their concerns better. The seminar itself was pretty vanilla and didn't even talk about GMO labeling or Country of Origin Labeling, so it definitely wasn't too heated of a discussion for me.
On Saturday my roommate Tayler and I took the metro to the Mall to visit the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Although it was extremely crowded, it was still neat and a good way to enjoy the weekend out of the DC heat. We saw it all: taxidermy animals, ancient human remains, dinosaur fossils, and lots of rocks and gems. My personal favorite was the Hope Diamond, even though we had to push and shove our way to get a view (East Coast people can be savages).
Sunday was my day to catch up on life that included a walk to the grocery store. I'm going to be honest, I miss Hyvee...a lot. Grocery stores in the city put a lot of emphasis on marketing ploys and price. I walked in and tried to find conventional, normal bananas. Well, their produce aisle had so many giant "Save on Organic" arrows everywhere I honestly don't know what kind of bananas I got, but they were definitely more expensive than when I buy them in Iowa. As I wandered down more aisles I was bombarded by an insane amount of "Gluten Free" cards by products that would obviously (at least to me) never contain gluten such as tea bags, raisins, applesauce and a lot more. Ironically those products were th store's brand and always more expensive that the others. At HyVee and Fareway it's almost always the opposite: the store brand products are cheaper than the brand name stuff. Don't even get me started about the meat options. Let's just say there was no conventionally raised meat that I found and waaayyyy overpriced. I'm talking $7/lb. for ground beef and bacon. The highest I have ever seen bacon for in Iowa was just over $5/lb. I left the store completely astonished how uneducated the consumers are in this city to pay an insane amount of money on marketing ploys. Unfortunately, I don't think this grocery store was an isolated case, which means I have a lot more grocery shopping headaches to look forward to this summer.