The End

I left Bowling Green early this morning. After a stressful exam week (exams, moving out of the apartment, ...) the BG experience is over. I spent my last night at BG's bars with my roommates Branden and Jason. After the bars Dave picked me up and drove me to Detroit. Thanks a lot, Dave! Two hours on a plane and I was in Boston. Chris and Claire took me to the movies tonight. We watched a German movie with subtitles (lives of others). I guess that will help me with my transition from English to German. Either tomorrow or on Monday I'm going Maine. First stop is Greene, Maine to meet Jim and Naomi (my American host parents for the past 7 years) and the JED's my source of alternative political views. On Thursday or Friday I'll be going to U-Maine to meet my former roommate George and the rest of the New England gang, Justin, Keith, and hopefully Brian, that studied in Salzburg two years ago.

Well that's probably my last update before I return home. In 10 days I'll be leaving the US and return home. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again and to sit down to have a good old Stiegl.

Take care everyone and see you soon

World News: Austria and Germany unite to conquer Canada!

After having been in the US for 9 months and living only about two hours away from the Canadian border it was time for a visit to Canada. Can't go home not having been to Canada, right? So I joined forces with Conni to rent a car and to go on a roadtrip to Toronto.

The bridge to Canada!

We were off for a good start except that the weather wasn't really playing along. We thought we would have a place to crash in Canada, which we found through couchsurfing.com. Unfortunately our contact changed his mind last minute and just ignored our phone calls. Well, whatever, that's not gonna screw with our high spirits. Once we got to Toronto we went to an Internet cafe to find a hostel and after a couple of phone calls we got on our way to our shelter for the next two nights. In Toronto they love to put up “don't make a right turn”, “don't make a left turn” signs at intersections and I sure made a right turn onto a street were I wasn't supposed to just to be waved down by a Canadian Law Enforcement Officer. Damn, I swear I didn't see any sign. Anyway, I got a ticket, which I was told was less than usual because we weren't from there ... bla bla bla ..., and the final remark was: Are you planning on coming back anytime soon? Then just don't pay it. Why did she write me a ticket in the first place anyway if she tells me to just ignore it, arrjghghahgh???!!?!?!?!? On your way to the hostel we drove through the bar and club district which was filled with Canadian police on foot, in cars, on horses, and on bikes. They were everywhere, just waiting to give me another ticket. Our hostel turned out to be pretty nice but time being a factor we took off to the bars right away. After downing a couple of beers (see pic) we went back to the hostel to mooch another beer before falling into our bunk beds.

Mmmhhh, beer!!!

You gotta keep it clean!

The next day was reserved for sightseeing. What do you do when you don't know a city and what to do there? You get on a bus tour. Good thing considering the low temperatures and the occasional snow we had an Saturday. The only problem was that we had to wait forever before the bus picked us up; at least my beanie (for all German speakers: a Haubm) kept me warm. The tour was OK and I believe we saw every major sports stadium in Toronto. After that we went to check out Chinatown, which is a very vibrant place and a good place to get cheap food.

Mmmhh, me love bananas!

Next step bar crawl with other people from the hostel. First stop at a bar to watch the end of a hockey game (Toronto Maple Leafs won against the Canadians). Canadians love hockey, in case you didn't know, especially when their team is winning. After hitting up another bar we went to a club. With little cash on hand I decided to start a tab. Now I know why I always avoided starting a credit card tab at bars: 96 Canadian $ before tip (at least Conni and I are sharing the bill). Well, I guess going on vacation just has to be expensive.

That was me with Conni before I saw the credit card bill. Still smiling!

After eating one of the hottest (spicy) wraps I've ever had, and I have had some hot shit before, we went to bed to be well rested for our trip to the Niagara falls. We weren't exactly well rested the next day but we still got on our way. The falls were pretty impressive but the weather just sucked.

Who is that cool dude? Oh it's meeeeee!!!!!

After taking pictures and checking out the souvenir store we were heading towards the US boarder and then towards Buffalo. Buffalo, home of the Buffalo Bills Football Team, was a ghost town. I don't know if it was because of Easter Sunday or whatever, but this city was dead. After driving around for a little we got outta there with the final destination Bowling Green. When I took over the wheel I actually fell asleep for a split of a second after I had been driving for a while, luckily nothing happened and we stopped at a gas station with a restaurant to get some coffee. Pure culture shock. That restaurant was the weirdest ...I don't even now how to really put it or explain it... place I've ever seen. We seemed to have landed in a different universe and the fact that Conni and I were comparatively young to most of the other people there and were also speaking in German didn't help. After downing some coffee and a nice piece of apple pie we took off again (feeling a little relieved to get out of there but definitely one experience richer). No pictures though, I think it might have been a little dangerous to take pictures of the locals;-) We finally made it back to Bowling Green save and sound.

Now I have less than five weeks left in the US. In two weeks school is over and exam week starts and on the 5^th of May I'm heading East to visit some friends in Boston and Maine.

Take care ya'll, see you soon!

The End is near!

In about two months I'll be returning home to good ol' Austria. Ready for a new Football season and some student parties in Salzburg. Talking about Football. I went to the BG Football walk-on tryouts about three weeks ago. It was a great experience but I didn't make it into the second round of the tryouts. I guess I have to work more on my speed. I started working out again after my Spring Break no sports week in order to add one or two more pounds and to get ready for the football season back home.

My Spring Break planing was last minute once again and I therefore didn't make it down to Florida. Instead of driving or flying to Florida I made two roadtrips. The first one with Rob to Chicago and the second one to St. Louis, Missouri. I spent my first weekend in Chicago enjoying a beautiful view from the observatory of the Sears Tower. We also visited the science museum in Chicago which had a body world exhibition (creepy but very interesting). After relaxing in BG for two days and catching up on some needed sleep I rented a car. Since St. Louis is a eight hour drive I decided to stay in Indianapolis for a night. Indianapolis is a fairly nice city with a bunch of civil war and world war museums that don't charge admission. The next day I went on to St. Louis but not without a stop at the Indianapolis speedway. Exploring the race track on a bus is not really a high speed adventure but I guess it's the closest one can get. Another four hours later I arrived at the UMSL campus (University of St. Louis Missouri) where I met up with my Austrian high school buddy Franz Maier who studies there for a semester. On Friday Franz and I cooked a Austrian dinner for the other international students that he hangs out with (a very nice group). We prepared Schnitzel or at least tried to. They didn't really turn out the way we wanted to. At least I was able to come up with a delicious Kaiserschmarrn (the only true Austrian dish I know how to do well). It turned out better than I had expected and the honor of the Austrian cuisine was restored. On Saturday I did some St. Louis sightseeing including the City Museum. I'm just going to say it involved crawling through and climbing up artificial caves and tunnels and metal constructions. After a houseparty on Saturday night I started my almost nine hour roadtrip back home. The endless cornfields and the absence of any kind of elevation in that part of the country as well as the 65 to 70 mph speed limits (which I broke by at least 10 mph most of the time) didn't make the trip any easier. After about four hours of driving I took a half hour nap in front of a fast food restaurant. With newly gained strength I started driving again. Backed up by several coups of coffee I was able to return to BG save and sound just to start reading for a quiz that was scheduled for Monday. Well that was my little Spring adventure.

Now the routine of going to class and working out has caught up with me again. With the exception of St. Patrick's Day yesterday. BG's bars were crowed and everyone was drinking plenty of green beer. Some bars actually opened at 5:30 am. I didn't make it to the bars until about 10:30 am but that was early enough. After a recovering late afternoon nap (yes I love to nap) I started a new trip to the bars. All I can say is: No more green beer pleeeeeease.

Well that's my March update. Longer than usual. Probably because its 2:30 in the Morning and I still don't wanna go to bed.

Take care everyone

PS: If you're wondering why I'm not posting any pics I can give you an easy explanation. I still haven't managed to get a digital camera and when I was finally looking into getting one I had to find out that buying one online is definitely the cheaper way than getting one in a store. It was of course too late to order one for my trip by the time I had this enlightenment. Yep, last minute is not necessarily always the best way to go. Hopefully I can manage to get some pics form Franz's friends.

It's February!

Time is passing by and the day I'll return home is getting closer and closer. Oh, by the way, I'll fly home on the 16th May. It has been bitterly cold the last couple of weeks and I mean coooooold. It, however, got a little warmer lately. Today BG had to canceled classes due to a snowstorm that we are having despite the warmer temperatures, juhuuuuuu. Branden and I seized the moment and went out to dig a igloo into a huge pile of snow.

BG hasn't changed much since I came home from the California trip, except the cold temperatures. I have been to Helga's toga party, which was the end for a week of massive alcohol consumption. Conni had two friends from Austria visiting (Lukas and Rupert) and I had to show them that I can still drink like an Austrian.

Rob and I playing beer pong

I also got my hair cut as you can probably see on the picture. Conni talked me into it and Jenn did cut it. I was a little worried in the beginnig (I was whining all the way through), but it turned out better than I thought. I'm also working on my belly, California took its toll, but no worries it's getting better.

I have pretty cool classes this semester. Two political science courses (both really good) and two geography courses (also very interesting). I decided not to take any grad courses this semester, but those undergrad courses involve a lot of work as well.

The biggest bummer this month was Branden's car. I was able to use Branden's 1994 VW Jetta since he is not allowed to drive right now. I got insurance and was really happy unitl the breaks started leaking. Now the car is parked outside, waiting to be fixed (the mechanic is to expensive and getting it to Sandusky where we could fix it ourselves is hard without breaks). Well, back to not having a car again.

Well, I guess that's my little update for now.

Take care ya'll

"J"

Party with Branden!

Wow, I'm actually starting to post on a more regular basis. Branden is one of my roomies and last Sunday we had an after hour party at his friend's place. He somehow got hold of a digi cam and made a couple of pictures.

The cool ones: Branden and Meeee (yeah, I like to pose a little;)

Conni and Branden (they love to discuss major issues on a Sunday night) and Meeeeee

Take it easy

"J"

PS: Sorry for the abundant use of anymore in my last blog, I wasn't aware of it until I read the already published post, I'll try not to say anymore anymore.

The problem with my pants!

In LA Conni made me aware that my pants (especially my Carhartt pants) are getting a little too short for my legs. Don't worry I'm not growing anymore, at least not in height. The problem is that my pants aren't that baggy anymore after all my workouts and my fast food diet. So I can't pull them down that far anymore. I guess I have to go out and get new pants sooner or later.

Picture evidence from LA

Thanks for the help Conni!!!!

Good bye Michael and Erich!

They are gone! Michael and Erich went back home to Austria. They tried really hard not to get on their flight back home (they missed there flight from Toledo to Detroit), but in the end there was no way out. Thanks for the good times guys. See you back home.

The whole gang. Meeeee, Dave (representing England), Mike, Conni, Helga, and Erich.

The Austrian Connection!


"J", Michael, Erich, Helga in LA.

Viva Las Vegas!

Happy New Year Shoot Out!
Happy New Year bitches!!!!!!!