I have no idea how this happened, but yesterday was my “one-month-in-America-day”. I apologize for not posting earlier; I know I promised I would – but the last few weeks were just crazy.
I arrived in America 32 days ago and since then a lot has happened. I visited Oklahoma City for two days, moved to Stillwater, explored OSU, went to Dallas and Six Flags, celebrated my 22nd birthday, went out to the bars (I love being over 21!) and house parties, classes started – but most important: I met so many great people.
Everybody is so nice (thank you Southern Hospitality!) and helpful here and I can’t believe that a month has already passed – I still haven’t fully realized that this beautiful campus is going to be my home for the next year:
I will try to post more
frequently from now on, so make sure to check back ;)
This is going to be my last post for this semester. I just wanted to wish y'all good luck for your KGP - we can do this!!
Many of you might know that I won't be around for the next two semesters - I'm going to go back to the States in August in order to study at Oklahoma State University as an exchange student. I'm really excited about it and can't wait for August to be here but am also sad that I won't be able to spend the next semesters with you guys - some of you have become really good friends of mine.
I'm sure you've realized by now that I really enjoy blogging. That's why I've decided to keep my blog going during my two semesters abroad - so make sure to check back! :)
As you all know we had our “Culture Presentation Days” last week and are now supposed to write a post about which presentations we saw – so let’s get started!
Here is a list of all the presentations I saw:
Things you might not know about San Francisco and the Bay area (by Marina Margeta)
Two More for Mount Rushmore (by Katharina Pelich)
Danger of Society Threat Groups in American Prisons (by Livia Perschy)
Monty Roberts: An extraordinary communicator (by Melanie Wimmer)
America as a Nation of Narcissism (by Maria Dorner)
Does Race Still Matter in the US? (by Lisa Ziermann)
Ellen DeGeneres – a Modern Woman and her Influence on America (by Joey Schreilechner)
Sacagawea: Her Claim to Fame (by Bianca Stadler)
Newgrange – a treasure of Art (by Anita Bhatti)
Psychiatry in Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s (by Diana Skof)
Beyond Riverdance – A glimpse inside the World of Irish Dance (by Katharina Luttenberger)
I saw eight presentations about the USA and three about Ireland and have to say that all of them were great – congratulations guys!
It was a really interesting day and I learned a lot. Anyway, the bigger the choice, the harder it is to choose – and in the end I chose these presentations for my KGP for the following reasons:
1. Things you might not know about San Francisco and the Bay area
I have been to the West coast before and visited San Francisco for three days – and absolutely loved it. While studying the facts about this area I'll be able to think back to my own trip – what more can I wish for?
2. Danger of Society Threat Groups in American Prisons
I’ve never really thought about this issue before but Livia really whetted my appetite and I’d like to get to know this topic better.
3. America as a Nation of Narcissism
I absolutely agreed with pretty much everything Maria said and am really interested in this topic.
4. Does Race Still Matter in the US?
Since I lived with an American black family for a year this topic is especially important to me. We are in the 21st Century and in my opinion racism should not exist anymore (or actually should never have existed at all!!). We are all the same, no matter what skin color we have, which religion we believe in or where we come from. Sadly not everybody thinks like that.
5. Ellen DeGeneres – a Modern Woman and her Influence on America
I absolutely LOVE Ellen DeGeneres. I’ve been watching her show for quite some time now and just can’t get enough. For that reason I’m really looking forward to learning more about her life and how she influences not only America, but the whole world.
I hope those of you who watched my presentation yesterday liked it. I'm sorry if I was talking too fast - I tend to do that when I'm really excited about a topic ;)
I'm going to write a longer post about the ten presentations I saw after my Russian Exam tomorrow.
Anyway, I saw a post on FB today which is definitely worth knowing about - feel free to spread the word, the more people know about it, the better!
As many of you might know, child abduction is a really big problem not only in the USA but also in Europe. Here's a little story which has probably saved a boy's life:
In the USA a stranger walked up to an eight-year-old boy and told him that something happened to his mom and that she sent him to pick up her son. The little boy just asked: “What’s the password?” When the stranger looked confused and tried to figure out what he meant the boy took his chance and ran away as fast as he could. He and his mom had agreed on a password which she would give the person who picks up her son in case something happened to her.
It’s so simple – but this might have saved the boy's life!
Most of us don’t have own children yet. But we have sisters, brothers, cousins, acquaintances – by spreading this message we can make the world a little bit safer for our little ones!
1. Visit the harbor Just look at the pictures and I’m sure you know why you should pay it a visit:
2. Walk “The Freedom Trail”
The Freedom Trail is a 2,5 mile long walk. If you follow the trail you will see many of Boston’s interesting sights, such as:
Boston Common
The Old State House
Faneuil Hall
Hanover Street (Little Italy)
Paul Revere House
Old North Church
USS Constitution
Monument Square and Bunker Hill Monument
You can book a tour but I recommend just downloading the map from the Internet (http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/maps/pdfs/boston-nps-map.pdf) and following the trail with the map. Most hotels also offer free maps, so if you don’t have a printer just ask for one at the check-in desk.
3. Discover Boston’s parks
Boston has so many beautiful parks – two of them are “Boston Common” and “Public Garden”. There are many restaurants around those parks, so if I were you I’d just grab some take-away lunch and enjoy it in one of the parks.
4. Visit Harvard
If you get off the Subway at “Harvard” you will see young people walking around with hats offering tours through Harvard University. Usually I prefer to explore a place by myself without a tour guide – but because the campus is so huge taking a tour was the best decision ever. Our tour guide was a student at Harvard himself. He showed us around campus and gave us not only background information about the University, but also told us funny stories about (famous) people who attended Harvard – totally worth the 10$!
5. Go to a Red Sox Game
Even if you are not into baseball, going to Fenway Park and seeing a Red Sox Game is an absolutely must. Tickets start at 20$, so it’s definitely affordable and totally worth the money – it’s such an awesome feeling to watch one of THE most famous baseball teams and the atmosphere is just amazing.
You should totally add Boston to your "must-go-to-list" if you haven't been there yet. If you have, let me know how you liked it! :)
I hope you are enjoying your Easter break? I definitely am, although I'm pretty annoyed that it's snowing again.. Anyway, what to do on such cold, snowy and nasty days? Of course, watch a good movie! At least that's what I always do.
Have you heard of the movie "Argo"? It's definitely worth watching!
The thriller is based on a true story and is about the Iran hostage crisis, during which 52 Americans were kidnapped and held hostage for 444 days because an Islamist student group took over the American Embassy in Tehran, Iran. The movie tells the story of Tony Mendez (played by Ben Affleck) and how he and some other CIA Agents rescued 6 U.S. diplomats, who previously escaped from the American Embassy and now have to hide in the home of Ken Taylor, the Canadian ambassador.
Since I'm bad in explaining here's the official trailer:
The movie was nominated seven times at the Academy Awards and won three of them. It also won 2 out of 5 nominations at the Golden Globes, another one at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and also won Best Film, Best Editing and Best Director at the 66th British Academy Film Awards.
After watching the movie you'll agree that it definitely deserves all of those awards. It is thrilling and dramatic, but at the same time quite funny. Here are some of my favorite quotes:
"John Chambers: So you want to come to Hollywood and act like a big shot without actually doing anything? Tony Mendez: Yeah. John Chambers: You'll fit right in."
"Joe Stafford: You really believe your little story's gonna make a difference when there's a gun to our heads? Tony Mendez: I think my story's the only thing between you and a gun to your head."
"John Chambers: Target audience will hate it. Tony Mendez: Who's the target audience? John Chambers: People with eyes."
"John Chambers: How about 'The Horses of Achilles'? Lester Siegel: No good. Nobody does Westerns anymore. John Chambers: It's ancient Troy. Lester Siegel: If it's got horses in it, it's a Western."
"Adam Engell: So, what we like for this are bicycles. We've identified back roads from the Chemaran District. Cars are off the table because of the road blocks. Jon Bates: We wait until the weather clears up, then deliver the six bikes and provide them with maps to the Turkish border. Adam Engell: We have intelligence they can ride bicycles or we're prepared to send in somebody to teach them. Tony Mendez: Or you could just send in training wheels and meet them at the border with Gatorade."
If you have already seen it let me know what you think about it, if not: You know what to do! ;)
as you all know we got a bunch of questions about food, restaurants, diets, vegetarianism - well, the list goes on forever. Since I couldn't decide which one I should blog about I simply combined the following two:
What kinds of international cuisine do you like?
What is your favorite restaurant and why?
I don't want to bore you with my favorite international cuisine too much but I have to say that I'm in love with burgers. No, not the disgusting, fatty burgers you get at McDonalds for 1€ - but the good ones, which you can get at one of my favorite American restaurants here in Graz: Granola.
Granola offers American as well as Austrian/German food and its address is Bahnhofgürtel 89, which is just opposite of the main railroad station in Graz. Their prices are just right (about 8€ for a burger + fries) and you really get something for your money.
You can go there for breakfast, lunch, dinner or drinks but also to get a good cup of coffee and enjoy one of their delicious cupcakes or cheesecakes.
Give it a try and let me know how you liked it. Until then: Enjoy your meal!! :)
As you all know yesterday was THE most important sporting event in the USA – it was Super Bowl Sunday! The 47th Super Bowl took place in New Orleans, where the Baltimore Ravens played against the San Francisco 49ers (and we all know where that name comes from ;))
Baltimore defeated San Francisco 34 to 31 and this year’s Super Bowl MVP is the Ravens QB Joe Flacco. For those of you who were not able to watch it, here is a short video with some of this year's highlights (including some touchdowns and the power outage):
Before I went to the USA I put "going to a Football Game" on my To-Do List. I remember the day of my first Football Game as if it was yesterday – me sitting in this huuuuge stadium, having no clue about what was going on. I tried to understand the rules before I went there and read a lot about them on the internet – but I just couldn’t figure them out. Luckily a friend of us was with us, who was really into Football and after him explaining the rules to us what felt like 1000 times we finally got it – and since that moment I've absolutely loved Football. Anyway, since I am really really bad in explaining, I’m not even trying to write the rules down and explain them to you. Instead I would like to show you some of my favorite commercials from yesterday’s Super Ball – which are as entertaining as the game itself ;)
There are so many other great videos - you can find pretty much all of them on YouTube :) Did anyone of you guys watch the Super Bowl? Who were you cheering for?
Last week our homework was to write a paragraph about "The most _____ place I have ever been is _______". First I wanted to write about NYC, because as you may know I'm totally in love with the city that never sleeps, but decided against it, because I thought the adjectives "amazing or impressive" would probably be chosen by other students as well. Instead I wrote about the hottest place I've ever been to: Death Valley National Park.
Death Valley: An awfully hot but interesting place The most broiling place I have ever been is Death Valley National Park, California. After living in North Carolina for more than a year I had actually been used to hot weather, since in summer the average temperature was about 90° F. But even so I was not prepared for the sizzling hot temperatures which awaited us at the National Park. In fact it was so hot, that a sign at the entrance said that we must not turn on the air-conditioning, because our car would overheat and most likely break down if we do. Since we did not want to be stranded in the middle of a blazing hot desert we turned it off and Death Valley greeted us with 75° at 7.30 am. While we visited the Sand Dunes and Zabriskie Point temperatures had risen to 90 degrees and were still increasing. Around 2 pm we ended up at the deepest point of North America, where with 120° temperatures were at their peak. After six hours of hot air and drinking more than one Gallon of water each we were ready to leave the “the natural sauna”, as I like to call it. Although Death Valley lives up to its name it is definitely worth a visit. However, I have never appreciated the cool air of a hotel’s air-conditioning as much as I did after the cruelly hot temperatures we experienced at the hottest place of the USA.
Alright guys, are you ready for the last 14 days of my journey? After Sacramento we continued our trip through California:
Yosemite National Park, August 28th to August 29th
Around noon we arrived at our hotel, left our stuff there and then went to Yosemite National Park.
Sequoia National Park, August 29th to August 30th
The following day our journey led us to one of the most astonishing places I’ve ever been to – I’d never felt so small in my whole life:
Death Valley, August 30th to September 1st
On August 31st we went to the hottest place I’ve ever been to: Death Valley National Park. Temperatures went up to 120°F (~ 49°C) and a sign at the entrance said something like “you must not turn on the AC, because your car will most likely break down if you do”. Since we were not too excited about being stranded in the middle of a dessert we did not turn on the AC – and without drinking more than one Galleon (about 4l) of water we would probably not have made it through the day. But it was totally worth it, Death Valley was amazing.
Since we were super tired because of the exhausting day in the dessert we went to bed pretty early and were all looking forward to the following day. Why? First of all we were going to LAS VEGAS and second it was my 21st BIRTHDAY :D
After sleeping what felt like 20 minutes I suddenly woke up, because I heard people singing and as soon as I opened my eyes I saw candles and my friends singing happy Birthday to me – they are the best! You have to know that I’m always super confused when I wake up and so the first thing I asked was “what time is it? Is it already in the morning?” – well I guess you know what time it was – of course it was midnight ;) We were having a midnight snack with my favorite cake (Red Velvet, yummyyyy!!! :D) and then went back to bed. Annika, Tine, Kathi & Luise: Thank you guys again for this surprise, you are amazing!! :)
September 1st to September 4th
In the morning we left our hotel and were off to Las Vegas! Once we arrived there we went shopping for the evening – and since I was already 21 by then I went into a liquor store to legally buy my first bottle of alcohol in the States. When I went to the cash register I was ready to show my ID – and the guy didn’t even want to see it!! I was about to say “hey, I just turned 21, can you please ask me for my ID?!!” but decided against it..Anyway, I had a great birthday and we didn’t even lose all our money there ;)
Unfortunately Luise’s and Kathi's time with us was already over and on September 2ndLuise flew back to Raleigh and one day later Kathi flew back to Austria. Now only Tine, Annika and I were left. We stayed one more day in Vegas and then continued our journey to Utah.
September 4th to September 6th: Bryce Canyon
September 6th to September 8th: Grand Canyon
Friends of us had told us that the most amazing thing you can do is to watch the sunrise at Grand Canyon, and they were right. On September 7th we left our hotel around 4am and arrived at Grand Canyon National Park around 5.30 in the morning. We spent pretty much all day there and then went back to the hotel - it was more than impressive.
September 8th to September 10th: San Diego
After 27 days of traveling our so called “Travel month” was over. It was the best journey ever, we saw so many different places, experienced things I’d never dreamed of and just had a wonderful time.
Thank you girls for this amazing month, it would not have been the same without you!
