Iowa.

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Hello there! ⍟ 

Here I am again. 
So it became official that I’d go to Iowa, although the city isn’t clear yet. First let me say, I’m doing this exchange year to go out of this small (or so I thought) town. Now I’ll go to a state whose biggest town has over 100.000 less population than my hometown which I seriously thought was small. The population of Bielefeld is 323.395 and from Des Moines (the capital and biggest city) it’s 203.433. Iowa is a famer state; it’s rural, small and old-fashioned.
You understand that it clearly wasn’t my dream destination.

It didn’t even have to be California.
I wanted to go to somewhere at the sea, somewhere modern and open, creative and multicultural. Yes, my dream would’ve been San Francisco but I already knew that wasn't going to happen, so I was telling myself to be happy with whatever I got even if it wasn't some place like California. That my friend goes to New Jersey and another guy from our exchange goes to Florida doesn’t really make me feel better though. 

So when I got the information, I was kind of disappointed. But when I got over my short depression I looked it up in the internet because I literally knew nothing about Iowa. Of course there was various information about its farming, how Iowa is the biggest corn and soy bean manufacturer and stuff like that. But I wanted to know more about it, about the people living there, if they were conservative and very strictly religious or more open-minded.

And then I thought that every place has it's own values.
That means that on the first look it might not seem so interesting and it doesn’t have the same charm as the bigger states and cities, but if you give it a chance and look at it without being biased, you can see a pristine way of the American life, pure and welcoming people and a simple but nice way of living.

I really hope that I can do that. I’m still a little uncertain about it, because whenever I think about my friend in New Jersey or the guy in Florida, it feels a little unfair to have gotten the less exciting state Iowa. I had the same conditions in this exchange as them, so why didn’t I get New Jersey? I guess I shouldn’t think that, but I just can’t help it. I know I have to accept it and come to terms with it since I can’t change it anymore. It becomes easier with the time though!

And it’s not about where you go to, it’s about the people there. 
So, we’ll see. I really hope that it isn’t too bad and that the people are nice, and not too conservative.

And hey you know what? 
Ashton Kutcher is from Iowa! Look at this cute video of him talking about Iowa, it kinda helps and gives me some motivation.

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Alright, that’s it for now, hopefully my mood will get better during the next days. Stay tuned!

Bye ⍟