Climate Change and Unfamiliar Things

We arrived in late fall, I would guess in the

month of November 1976. We all experienced our first colds and

snowfalls. I would put a cup of water out during the night, and the

next morning it was in the form of ice. Now that was really "cool" in

my understanding what being "cool" was. If we had to rely on

evolutionary processes, we could not have grown a fur coat fast

enough to ward off freezing to death.

Military personnel acted as guards to keep law and order for us

rowdy boys. They introduced us to snow ball fights. I remember

one time we creamed them so bad, that we didn't know when to stop.

We learned not to do that to them again. Sorry guys, we didn't mean

to hurt you.

More chocolate milk please! Here we are introduced to drinking

milk. Everyone fought for the chocolate flavored milk; plain milk

was a last resort. The Asian stable is rice. We know how to have a

"rice" day, every day--not just some days. Well, Arkansas is a

rice growing state as I later learned. But the way Americans fix rice

is not anywhere close to how we like our rice. Burnt bread? Toast?

Jelly? Heaters used as toasters? Sitting to take one's ease?

We like squatting much better. We all needed potty training, at

least I did anyway. Every knob, switch, and lever are becoming
inquisitive objects.

For evening entertainments, buses would come around and pick

up those who would like to go. They took us out of the base

to a church building, I would assume. They had puppet shows,

ventriloquists, and movies. Of course everything was foreign to us.
I don't think it was every evening, maybe twice a week. When they
brought us back to our barracks, there would be deer along the road
and in soccer fields. I never saw a deer in Asia, I know we had them too.

Rabbits were everywhere. I'm sure that they were hunted for meat

to grill. Stones to throw at them were the best weapons we had.

Didn't know the method of shaking salt on their tails to catch them.

One evening a group of people wanted to go on a hike out into the

woods. We were stopped by the guards. Maybe they

thought that we would escape back to Asia, or they were afraid

we might get lost, or simply we are not allowed to leave the
premises. I think it was the latter. I was disappointed myself.
We insisted, they insisted, and they prevailed.

English classes were open for people who wanted to learn. I must

have learned a few words myself. I probably didn't apply myself to
the learning of the language like I should have. Our stay in Arkansas

was short. I would guess it was less than a month before our group was

summoned to come to Iowa. By saying group, I mean the four families
that had been together all this time.