Finding Menomonie

Week 1: Does the civic and work environment meet your expectations? Why or why not?

I have always been enthusiastic about learning. I enjoyed going to school when I was young and even in recent years, I have admittedly acted a lot like this on the first day of classes:

Perhaps if you asked me mid-semester if I still felt the same way, I would call you crazy. However, each new semester has presented me with the opportunity to grow as both a student and an individual. I appreciate the excitement and freshness of new beginnings and endeavors. My journey to Menomonie, WI was just that - a new endeavor.

Where's all the cheese?

I can summarize what I expected to see when I entered Wisconsin for the first time in one short word: cheese. Despite having family that has lived in Wisconsin for my whole life, cheese was all that I knew about this midwestern state. I expected cheese sales on the side of the road, free cheese samples are the grocery store, cheese head hats like the ones I see on TV—cheese and cheese everywhere.

Blue-Green what?

Week 1: Does the civic and work environment meet your expectations? Why or why not? 

The biggest shock upon arrival was how beautiful the lake appeared.  I saw none of the Blue-Green Algae that was apparently the talk of the town, instead I saw a beautiful lake surrounded by trees and green space. I was then told that it is only a matter of time until the lake becomes one of the most unpleasant aspects of the town.  

Welcome to Lake Menomin: Home of Blue-Green Algae

As our first blog assignment, the 10 LAKES REU students were asked to share our getting started and settling in experiences. Specifically, we were asked to answer the question, "Does the civic and work environment meet your expectations?"

To answer this question blatantly, no.

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What is "tilling?"

Week 1 Blog Topic

Each week we will be asking our students to write to a specific topic. The topic for Week 1 is "Getting started and settling in."

We've invited 10 students from across the US: big cities and small towns - Menomonie, Wisconsin is similar to other places, but very different than others. What did they expect? Was the actual place different than what they thought? We'll be asking the students to share their thoughts using this guiding question:

"Does the civic and work environment meet your expectations? Why or why not?"

Let the games begin!

The REU students have arrived and we enjoyed an epic game of Kubb along with a getting-to-know-you BBQ. Monday we hand out laptops, get paperwork finalized, and an orientation to the town and research.