pres.umptuo.us

The food in Iowa City, or at least in downtown Iowa City, is atrocious.

Well, not so bad that it’s unbearable, but bland and mediocre so that choosing a place to eat is more like choosing between dying by electrocution or lethal injection.

Two restaurant advisories: Stay away from Z’Marik Noodle Cafe next to Prairie Lights, and make sure to brave the walk out to Aoeshe on Gilbert, a Japanese/Korean/Chinese restaurant. In most cases, Asian food in Iowa would be suicide, but this place was surprisingly good and definitely the best place I’ve eaten at during my stay here in Iowa.

Of course there are still a lot of restaurants to visit, but my experience so far has not been pleasing. I’m close to resorting to the fast food chains for reliable and cheap food.

The Elevenses lecture today was by poet Michael Carey, entitled “Reading and Writing the Land.” It ended up being more of a reading than a presentation on the topic, but still very entertaining, and this from someone who isn’t the biggest fan of poetry.

Carey was very entertaining and never bored with his time on stage, but the best part came at the end when he opened it up to questions. Carey himself is from New York, born in Queens, raised in New Jersey, and yet moved out to Iowa and became a farmer. When it came time for questions, people were just asking him about agriculture and nothing about writing. “What kind of beans do you grow?” “How do you get rid of weeds?” “How much topsoil do you have?” All these city folk asking a poet farmer for advice on their gardens.

I checked out two used bookstores today — Northside Books on Linn and Market, and Murphy Brookfield on Gilbert. I found books that appealed to me at both of them, yet didn’t make any purchases cause I’m not quite sure how to take them home with me. In the end I imagine I’m just gonna break down and end up bringing home some extra luggage with me.

Workshop today had us discussing “Heat” by Joyce Carol Oates (Highly recommended. I need to go back and reread it now after the discussion in class.). The in-class exercise revolved around “The Wizard Postponed” by Borges, and this time I’m actually fairly happy with the ending I wrote. Will upload all my writings later on.

Weather is supposed to get warmer tomorrow. I hate hot weather.