Storm Chasing

So, contrary to the title of this blog, I have not in fact done any storm chasing (you can breathe easy again). However, as perhaps the news has told you, there has been some tornado activity. For us, it happened last Tuesday. The weather has said there would be a thunder storm, which only materialized in the evening. I was on my way to class when I asked Whitney if this was tornado weather (I can never tell) and she said possibly. Then a tornado watch was issued - which means conditions may possibly create a tornado. While in class, that changed to a tornado warning which means funnels have been spotted in the area. I later learned that at night warnings are issued more easily because it is more difficult to see funnels. Shortly after the warning, people were told to go to storm shelters. Tabor events were cancelled (including basketball games and dorm events). My class was in a storm shelter so we kept on making things (it was pottery class) while the winds raged on and hail came and thunder and lighting was constant. And then it all ended. No sirens went off, no tornado touched down in our area. And the excitement was over.
Though the storm excitement was over, some more fun things happened. The day after the tornado drama, my social work policy class went on a field trip to Topeka, the capital city of Kansas. It was National Social Work day in Kansas, so there was a conference in one of the universities in Topeka. It included several social works who spoke on different things - such as health care reform, large scale advocacy, and social policy changes. As well as a member of the republican and democrat policies - they were significantly less interested and basically just told us to write letters to our representatives and vote. In the afternoon, our class got the chance to talk to a Kansas Senator who is the senate majority leader here in Kansas which was really exciting. He gave us 45 minutes to just ask a bunch of questions about how policies are changing, how it may impact us, and what we should do to help our communities/clients deal with the inevitable cuts in social programs. It was a great experience and great to have a senator take so much time with us.

Me at the Kansas Capitol Building

To cap off the week, the weather became fantastic and seeing as spring is beginning, we did some gardening! If you remember from my previous post with house pictures in it, we have two garden beds on either side of our front porch. We discovered that each of them are lined with peonies which should bloom in May. We also found some flowers called Naked Ladies growing in our backyard and transplanted them to the front. and we planted some daises along that house in the back of the garden bed. We have not tackled the back yard yet, but we did discover that we have a blueberry tree! Needless to say, we are very excited for all the possible things we can do with blueberries...and I was naturally saddened by the fact that they will bloom while I am back in Canada.
Anyways, it was a very exciting week here in Kansas. And in two weeks it will be spring break! Definitely looking forward to it! Spring break plans are coming together...I tell you all in a little bit!