Allow me to show you a few photos from a museum I went to.
WARNING: it’s not your typical museum.
There were rodents riding deer.
And horses.
Twin albino squirrels cruisin’ in their trendy hot pink Barbie car.
A wide-eyed squirrel wearing a straw sombrero while puffing a cigar.
You can never have too many dead stuffed squirrels! Here are some more. This time donning hula skirts, seemingly dancing under a, uh, “Topless Girlie Show” tent.
You guessed it. More twin albino squirrels. This time driving a fire chief motorcycle while–[wait for it]–standing up.
Okay, I think you’ve seen enough squirrels for now. How about a big-mouthed, sharp-toothed fish?
Or a football throwing, red sweater wearing badger to celebrate Wisconsin’s trip to the Rose Bowl?
So what’d you think? Cool? Weird? Interesting? Freaky?
You may just be thinking, “What WAS that?”
Leave me a comment below and let me know your reaction! Next week, my blog post will explain the story behind these taxidermied characters.
It sounds like the start of a bad joke. Or maybe some kind of social experiment.
It kind of was. The five of us were the grad student/postdoc(s) from UW-Madison who traveled together to Holland for the Wageningen Entrepreneurial Boot Camp. You guessed it; I’m the journalist. There was plenty of friendly badgering (apparently following people around with a videocamera isn’t commonplace in the engineering program), but we survived the social experiment in the end. All kidding aside, the trip was a blast.
Here are some highlights from our time in Holland:
Global Entrepreneurship Week
The boot camp coincided with Global Entrepreneurship Week, which Wageningen celebrated with a range of events on campus. We kicked off the week at the grand opening. Check out this video with scenes from the first event:
We also listened to entrepreneurs in the life sciences at a lecture series. And then on the last night, we rocked out at a benefit festival for the Organic Africa Pavilion at the BioFach. The first band played “big band” music, while the second was a cover band that played songs from bands like Rancid and Green Day. Every few songs the other U.S. students and I would have a “Oh my gosh, this is so middle school!” moment, which always makes you feel super cool.
Group Business Pitches
The focal point of the boot camp was developing a business idea and pitching it to real investors at the end of the week. Before the boot camp, we took a 140-question competency test to gain a better understanding of ourselves and what kind of personality traits we bring to the entrepreneurial table.
On the first day we each received a 69-page personality analysis based on the test. If you want to get to know yourself, reading 69 pages about your personality is a great first step. Seriously.
They put us into groups that we would pitch the business idea with and I cannot say enough good things about my group. It was a blast to work with them and somehow I ended up laughing hysterically every time we met. That’s not to say we didn’t accomplish a ton throughout the week.
Wageningen
Although we spent a good percentage of the week in the hotel at sessions, we did get out and wander the city a few times. Wageningen has such a relaxed feeling and the “downtown” area looks like a storybook. The holiday street decorations made it even more sparkly. We went to the Saturday market and the produce/cheese/meat/bread/everything looked phenomenally good. I know, I know. I talk about food a lot.
Sinterklaas
Our hotel in Wageningen had an extra perk. It was also the House of Sinterklaas, the Dutch version of Santa Claus. Throughout the week, about 6,000 kids came to the hotel to meet Sinterklaas and give him their wish list. I even got to sit on Sinterklaas’ lap, after which we sang Jingle Bells.
As part of the House of Sinterklaas, they decorated 12 rooms with festive decorations and games for the kids. There was one game that I thought was fantastic. It’s a life-size, horse version of the board game, Operation! How innovatively cool is that.
Amsterdam
We took a train to Amsterdam and spent our last day exploring. Perhaps the highlight of our day was stumbling upon a political protest. Jalal and I were walking along, looking for a tram, and within a few seconds there were thousands of people around us. Make that 20,000 people. The person in front of me was five inches from my face and I couldn’t move an inch without invading someone else’s personal space.
A band started playing and they were pretty good so we were content enjoying the tunes, not that we would’ve been able to weave out of the crowd anyways. After the music stopped, a guy started talking really motivationally. Well, it sounded motivational. It was all in Dutch, so we had no idea was going on.
The main guy: Something something something.
The crowd’s response: AHHHHH.
Main guy: Something something something.
Crowd: AHHHHHHH.
All of this excitement was so exhilarating. It would be even more exhilirating if we actually knew what was so exhilirating. So Jalal asked the lady next to us what was going on.
“We’re protesting the government cutting culture,” she informed us.
Cutting culture seemed like a pretty good reason to yell.
Crowd (plus Jalal and Kelliann): AHHHHHHHH.
The End To Be Continued
Stay tuned, as Holland will be seeing me again soon. I will be studying at Wageningen next semester to finish my MA degree. I can guarantee there will be more blogging then!
Traveling has a lot of perks. New people! New scenery! New food!
Let’s savor that last one. Food. Here is a list of my favorite cuisine from Holland.
Cheese: Where do I start. It’s good. Really good. These artisan cheeses are just packed with flavor. If airport security would’ve allowed, I would’ve stacked a few wheels of cheese in my suitcase.
Waffle: This is such a sweet treat. The waffle is not too crunchy but not too soft. The melted chocolate is warm and smooth and sweeter than sugar.
Stroopwaffles: People put them on top of their coffee cup so the caramel in the center softens. I’m not a coffee-drinker, so I put one on a cup of hot chocolate and it was divine.
Fish: I ate a lot of it.
.
Croissants: I had three croissants for breakfast every morning, in addition to bacon, sausage, eggs, fruit, and bread (I take breakfast pretty seriously). I accessorized my croissants with cheese, hazelnut spread, or jam.
Are you burnt out? Feeling down? Do you need to rewind? Rejuvenate?
You could get a massage. Or go hiking.
Or what about… cow hugging?
Last week I was in the Netherlands for an entrepreneurship boot camp. Somebody mentioned cow hugging while talking about Dutch agri-tourism and I thought they were joking around.
Ha. Cow hugging. Good one.
U.S. farmers may find it just as hard to believe as I did that people actually pay money to hug cows. Sure, I’ve wrapped my arms around my beef cattle before but I never thought of it as “cow hugging,” aka an organized, profitable activity.
It turns out cow hugging is real. Real, as in people are paying 47.5 euros per person for three hours of cow time. That’s about $63.50.
$21 an hour. Smart business!
Cow hugging is petting zoo meets meditation. I can definitely attest to the calming effect petting a cow brings. Think of how many times you’ve seen small children curled up with cows at county fairs or other shows. Most cows are gentle and maternalistic; they make us feel safe and protected.
If you think about it, cow hugging is really a win-win-win.
It’s a win for the consumer that learns about agriculture while enjoying a relaxing break.
It’s a win for the farmer that compliments his/her milk check with a low-cost agri-tourism venture.
It’s a win for the cow that doesn’t mind the extra attention.
So the big question is, would you pay to hug a cow? Take my poll below!
When I was growing up in Virginia, my sister and I did the lemonade stand thing once or twice (aka the archetypal American adolescent entrepreneurial project).
Then we moved to a farm in rural Wisconsin. Forget squeezing lemons and dumping in sugar. I had an even better product: eggs.
My gramma gave me 10 chickens to kick off my new rural life. In the morning, I trotted outside to pick up eggs and put them in cartons for my dad to take and sell at work (yea, I had my own sales rep). My flock grew to 50 chickens, which meant I could fill even more egg cartons. I made a little money, probably enough to buy a Tamagotchi or something.
In 2001, a barn fire caused by old electricity wiped out the chicken coop and every single one of my chickens. It honestly was devastating. I stayed home from school and when I came back the next day, some boy had the nerve to ask me, “How’s that fried chicken?” Middle school boys are so insensitive.
Fast forward a few years and my interest in entrepreneurship has been rejuvenated. In June, I attended the Wisconsin Entrepreneurial Boot Camp, an intense crash course in entrepreneurship for UW-Madison grad students. UW Business School has this great relationship with Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Some of their students come to the UW boot camp in the summer, and some UW students go to their boot camp in the fall.
"A" marks the spot. That's where Wageningen University is located.
I’m one of five UW students headed to the Netherlands next week to participate in their boot camp and I could not be more thrilled about it. If you have any doubts about my absolute excitement, consult with my friends who have been hearing about this for the last two months and putting up with statuses like this:
Or like this:
Needless to say, I get really excited about awesome opportunities.
So what does this have to do with agriculture and conservation? Everything. Wageningen University is known for education and innovation in the life sciences and natural resources. I’ll be interacting with Dutch students and entrepreneurs in these agriculture-related fields throughout the week and I anticipate learning a ton from this international perspective. I can’t wait to share stories with you when I’m back!
For a lot of middle and high school kids, talking to a reporter is like talking to the police.
They’re guarded and on their toes. They don’t really know what you want from them, so instead they’ll just give you really short answers and sheepishly giggle.
“How did you like the session?”
“It was good.”
“How so?”
“It was fun.”
You get the idea.
And then there are the Alexis. Interviewing is no big deal for Alexis, a student at Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences (CHSAS). She’s been in FFA for four years and honed her speaking skills through the prepared public speaking CDE.
CHSAS Principal William Hook, CHSAS students Alexis and Mahmoud, and Eli’s Cheesecake’s Marc and Maureen Schulman pose with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at the 83rd National FFA Convention in Indianapolis.
I know there are many outstanding leaders in FFA, but I can’t help but think that the education CHSAS offers these students is something more than a typical public education.
For one, it’s the only agricultural school in Chicago. Many of the students, like Alexis, had no idea what agriculture was before going to CHSAS. She says it’s a really alarming sight, driving on the south side of Chicago and all of a sudden seeing a farm.
“You drive past it and you look and you’re like ‘Wow, that’s amazing!’ Literally, parents think that all the time,” she said.
Alexis said it was the hands-on nature of the school that sealed the deal. And her parents, both teachers, knew that it wasn’t just agricultural knowledge she’d be receiving. Through involvement in FFA, she’d receive leadership training, too.
So when urban kids like Alexis come to national convention and interact with farm kids, is it easy to make friends? Alexis said they haven’t had the same experiences as farm kids, but the “FFA bond” prevails.
“It’s a little hard at first, but when you meet somebody and you’re nice, you can get right on past that. The FFA spirit is always there.”
That got me thinking. If some urban students are just as excited about agriculture as rural students, maybe we just need to give all students the opportunity to explore agriculture, if they choose to. Should there be an agricultural science high school like CHSAS in every city? Please take my poll below and tell me what you think!
And speaking of agricultural education, this happens to be the first week for #AgEduChat. This Twitter dialogue will take place on Sunday from 7-8 pm EST. The first topic will be the struggles of beginning teachers. If you have questions you’d like to submit, you can direct message them to @AgEduChat. And thanks to @DrewBender and @sollmana for starting #AgEduChat!
Steno notebook? Check. AP Style Book? Check. Professional grown-up clothes? Check.
Flashback to 8 am last Monday morning and I was psyched for my fourth year working in the National FFA Convention Newsroom in Indianapolis. The National FFA Organization is an agricultural education organization for middle and high school students. I was a member of the Bangor FFA Chapter in high school and going back to national convention is such a refreshing break…
The fun staff I get to work with. The enthusiastic members I get to interview. The 6 hour trip I get to drive.
Well, not so thrilled about the drive. But with some good jams and hot chocolate, I can do anything.
The drive from Madison to Chicago was relatively uneventful. In 3 hours flat, I made it to the doorstep of fellow newsroom crew member Dustin Petty. After we tossed his luggage into my car and walked around the block once, we were on our way.
Instead of taking the direct route on I-65, we decided beforehand that we would be young and adventurous. We’d take 57 and stop in Kankakee (Kanka-what?) to see an Abe Lincoln statue, then go east to Lafayette and stop at the Crescent Moon Cheesecake Co (I found this restaurant on Urban Spoon beforehand). Planning ahead is good, right?
Wrong.
We got lost in K-Town (we stopped trying to pronounce Kankakee after the 7th wrong turn), so we stopped at a gas station to ask where we could find Abe. The woman behind the counter gave me the “You are such a tourist” look proceeded by the “I have no idea what you’re talking about” look.
Girl please. I’m pretty sure there are only so many giant Abe Lincoln statues around here.
But that’s okay. We’ll keep looking. We backtracked on 57 until I whipped my arm out and shouted “Abe Lincoln!”
Worth it? Meh.
But boy were we looking forward to that cheesecake restaurant. Eminem, Backstreet Boys, and TV theme songs kept us entertained as we drove to Lafayette through the backroads of rural America. Time-consuming, yes, but it was a reminder of why we love FFA: we believe in the future of agriculture.
When we got there, we drove around looking for the cheesecake joint. The address led us to a parking lot. We called the phone number. Disconnected. Of course. After 40 minutes of aimless searching, we made the executive decision that the place was nonexistant and somebody made it up just to vex cheesecake aficionados like ourselves. We grumpily settled for frozen custard.
We arrived in Indy 6 hours after we left Chicago (that’s 9 hours after I left Madison). It’s supposed to take 6 hours total.
That’s my national FFA convention travel story. Now I want to hear yours! Leave a comment or tweet me and tell me a funny travel story, where you stopped along the way, or any other national convention-related travel mishaps!
And stay tuned for more national FFA convention posts!
