There's a storm coming.....

There were two questions I asked Omar before I came to America:

1) Does Ohio get tornadoes?

 I was assured that, while the northern parts of Ohio occasionally get tornadoes, the south of the state (where we are) never gets them because it is too hilly. I felt reassured by this seeing as we live on the first floor and don't have a convenient basement/tornado bunker. So imagine my surprise yesterday when, while sitting outside a local coffee shop, confirming to British stereotypes by complaining how difficult it is to get a proper cup of tea here, an air raid siren goes off, followed by:

"THIS IS A TORNADO WARNING. GET INSIDE IMMEDIATELY"

Hmm......

Anyways, after a little bit of mild alarm and general bemusement among the locals who assured us that this was the first tornado warning that Athens had ever had, it was agreed that there were worse places to be stuck than a coffee shop, even if the tea is rubbish. And is it happens, the 'tornado' was something of a non-event, I'm disappointed to report. Apparently some parts of Athens were seriously damaged, in the places where the tornado 'touched down', but all we saw was some heavy rain and a few gusts of wind. I mean, the rain wasn't even horizontal or anything. So that was that....

.....until we got home and found out there had been a power cut in our part of town. It was mildly entertaining at first, but 20 hours later I'm now in exile at the University (which still has electricity fortunately) and feeling a bit peeved. And we've just found out that we might not quite power back until Sunday night/Monday morning. Woohoo! Good job we have that wind-up torch :-)

But I mentioned earlier that I'd asked Omar *two* questions, the second being:

2) Are there bears in Ohio?

I watch tv, I know what bears are like. They look all cute and whatnot, but they like to eat stuff. And people*. Bears very much fall into the 'spider' category of creatures for me, they are a valuable part of the ecosystem and a vital part of natural diversity and therefore should be protected. But surely we don't need to live in the same 10m sq. area of land?

But I was informed that Ohio doesn't have bears any more, thanks to the efforts of farmers and hunters in the 1800s (I guess once they'd finished scaring off the Native Americans it was time to move on to something else). So I was once again surprised to hear that a black bear was spotted a couple of weeks ago in a Halls of Residence where some of Omar's friends live.

Awww..... doesn't it look hungry? :-) Which isn't surprising, as apparently they eat for up to 20 hours a day (Black bears are back in Ohio!)

While I would usually be in favour of bears running amok in a Halls of Residence, on this occasion it just makes me wonder how far they'll go for a snack?

Anyways, after having having two of my core beliefs about Ohio shattered, I'm starting to wonder what else forms part of this web of lies? ;-)

*This is mostly wild, unfounded speculation on my part, fuelled by too much tv and that Herzog film about the crazy guy who was eaten by bears.