Wednesday, May 27th 2009 – The Grand Great Gatsby Gala

Last Wednesday our English classroom at Lafayette was transformed into a 1920s party ground and we celebrated the end of the school year – and our final project – with a truly grand party in honor of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s modern classic: “The Great Gatsby”. To read more about the Great Gatsby click here – just this much should be said here: it is a wonderful novel and absolute must for anyone who wants to experience the essence of American literature.

As any fashionable and good 1920s party should our party offered an entire buffet of food, some of it straight adopted from the 1920s. We also had high end entertainment with several shows, plays, silent movies and of course dancing lessons.

But enough of talking, just go ahead and turn back the time yourself to see, hear and feel the “Roaring Twenties”. 

Our servers - all dressed in classic black and white...

... and our buffet, with Coca Cola and original Dirt Cake - 1920s speciality that tastes way better than the name would suggest.

The first performance of the day: a very humorous and poetical summary of the novel.

Next my group performed a reenactment of a short but dramatic scene at the climax of the book when both men, Gatsby and Tom Buchanan fight for their love Daisy. Here: The great Gatsby (Wood van Meter, left) and Tom Buchanan (Tobias Bitzer, right) in fierce opposition. Nick Carraway starred by Tyler Stahl (far left) can just watch helplessly. 

 

Tom begging his sweet Daisy not to leave. Is he going to be the tragically defeated husband? ...

... No! The end of the story: Tom victorious and Gatsby - devasted.

 

 

Our team of actors (from left to right): Bethany Kirk, Tyler Stahl, Katelyn Yohe, Tobias Bitzer (Wood van Meter is missing).

Me with my English teacher Mrs. Brown - thank you so much for a great year!

Saturday, May 23rd 2009 – A trip to Mammoth Cave

Last Saturday I went on another trip together with my local coordinator Stephanie and two other exchange students: Raed from Tunisia and Nick from Bangladesh. After spending the night at Stephanie’s farm in Casey County we left in the morning for Mammoth Cave close to Glasgow, KY, which is a United States National Park and the longest cave in the world, it is also a United Nations Natural Sanctuary and a truly interesting place to visit. 

 

But before we got to the cave we had yet another highlight on our tour of Kentucky: We stopped in the little town of Hodgenville, Kentucky, where some 200 years ago, on February 12^th 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born in a one room log cabin on Sinking Spring Farm. Most people usually connect Illinois, or maybe Indiana with Lincoln, however, he was a Kentucky native and is supposed to have said once: “I, too, am a Kentuckian.” So of course, as visitors to Kentucky, we had hardly any other choice then to visit his memorial in now La Rue County. The memorial was constructed in the early 1900s and features a rebuilt Log Cabin enclosed by a monumental temple similar to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.

 

After exploring the memorial and this impressing historical experience in blistering hot May sun we moved on to Mammoth Cave (thankfully we had AC at 86 degrees). The cave is a major visiting spot for tourists from places as far as China and India and when we got there the area was already quit crowded. Yet, despite our large sized group we had a pleasing tour through the cave which was especially welcome to us since the temperature inside the cave was some 30 degrees lower than on the outside.

 

After touring the cave we wandered around the outskirts of the Mammoth Cave National Park for a bit to get back warmed up, then we started back home for Lexington ending our day trip with a delicious – and nutritious- dinner at Rafferty’s. 

 I

Prom at Lafayette

Yesterday, May 9, 2009, I had my long awaited Prom at Lafayette High School. For the American teenager Prom is THE event of their High School Career, sometimes of their entire life. Girls spend hours at hairstylists, make up studios and of course picking and putting on their dress. Boys have to wear a tuxedo with either a vest or a cummerbund. As you can see the event is very formal and as mentioned it has enormous importance, many await it for years and start planning months in advance. I didn’t go that far, but as an exchange student experiencing the United States of course I had to participate in this time-honored tradition.

Together with my date Heepke I h had a wonderful time - we met at 6 p.m. and I finally got home at 2.30 a.m. the next morning, or something like that. Here's a brief outline of our activities and of course PICTURES - a more elaborate report will follow at a later date.

1. After dressing all up at home my host parents took me to Heepke's house, where I met her parents - and her of course.

2. Together we drove to Ashland, the estate of Henry Clay in the heart of Lexington. The area has a wonderful park where we all took our pictures. Many more people were there, too, and we met some friends.

3. At Ashland we left our parents and went to a restaurant in downtown Lexington, called the Metropol, where we - Heepke, two of her friends and me - had a delicious dinner.

4. When we had eaten it was about 9.30 p.m. - officially prom starts at nine but no one shows up till about 9.30, so when we got there at 9.50 we were just right.

5. Till Midnight we stayed at Prom, danced, looked at everybody else's dresses and tuxes and enjoyed ourselves a lot.

6. At Midnight Prom was over and we went to a After Party, where we sat together with some friends and ended that wonderful day in a relaxed mood.

It was a wonderful day and the pictures will just prove it, everybody who comes to the US from abroad should experience Prom - it is a great, unique experience as distinctly American as Burgers, Cadillac and the Statue of Liberty.

A weekend in mid-April

It has already been a while, but this weekend in mid April was a very busy and interesting one: As one of my band comrades put it when I told him about it: “You did more in a weekend than I do in a year!” And indeed it felt a little like it. Here’s a little overview over my numerous and often very interesting activities.

Friday, 04-17-09

Yes, the business started already on Friday afternoon. The weather was gorgeous and I got to enjoy it for a while, till my host-grandma, as I call her – my hostdad’s mum – picked me up. We went straight from Lafayette to my “hostaunts”, where every Friday afternoon the family comes together to catch up with the latest news. A very nice habit as I thought and indeed it was very enjoyable; and with Pepsi and Ham and Cheese sandwiches I had a great time.

Around six we went from the aunts to downtown Lexington thereby passing the new UK coach’s 2.5 million Dollar Mansion on Richmond Road. It was impressive. This evening was completely devoted to art: Every few months Lexington organizes an event called the “Gallery Hop” at which all the art galleries open their doors and welcome interested folks for free art and appetizers. We went to see one of my classmates perform a Musical Hit – it was very well done. Also we looked at some arts done by students, some works were just incredible considering that they were done by people younger than myself. We also went to another art gallery and met some friends there, overall it was very pleasant.

Finally William had to be put down and we started for home, but the day was far from over for me. I had promised one of my friends to show up at his performance at Battle of the Bands, a student band contest at Lafayette. And so I had no choice but to go there, even though my head was already aching and I wasn’t exactly in the mood for hard rock. I pretty much got blown away by the music and especially the loudness and didn’t hang around too long – I pretty much left right after my buddy was done playing figuring that this had been enough suffering for my usually so stoic soul.

On the way back home we had to stop at Mc Donald’s drive through and I had to get some fries, a Big Mac and soda which I all consumed on the way home or at home while listening to my hostdad’s (his name’s Greg by the way) more moderate Rock music. Sitting comfortably on the couch I slowly recovered and an Ice cold Ale 8 did the rest. After a good night’s rest I’d be ready for new enterprises in the morning…

Saturday, 04-18-09

Getting up around 9.30 I still had some time for breakfast and a shower left before the hurry of the day started.

First I went with Greg to the Hair Salon and got a very necessary haircut (it was after all only the second one since I’d been here), we also went shopping but I pretty much only got some flowers, but more about that later.

Back home, we did a quick wardrobe change for the next event – something I had been waiting for quite some time: We, my hostmum (Susan), Greg and I went to Keeneland, the local horse racing course.

There was already a big amount of traffic going towards the race course and the entrance was completely full of people, after all we’re in Kentucky, where horse racing is THE sport. We got into the stadium just in time to see the first race start – it was an amazing thing to watch, not only how fast the horses were racing along the track, but also how excited and passionate the crowds were cheering for “their” horse (or rather the horse they’d bet on) to win. After this first taste I was ready to bet some money as well – or to let Greg bet the money for me since gambling is illegal for minors in Kentucky. So we went to see the horses for the next race being presented in an area in front of the stadium specifically designed for this purpose. Based on my first impressions and without much further consideration I picked two horses to come in first and second (there’s a special term for that which I don’t remember right now) then went on the visitor’s podium to watch “my” horses. –

Of course I didn’t win, but I did fairly well and got excited enough to bet some more. First I tried some Kentucky Burgoo though, a kind of stew and Kentucky specialty which is always served at horse races, it was pretty good! After that I bet on another race and I would have won a whole bunch of money (like 80$) but because of some unfortunate mistake when we were placing the bet we didn’t actually place it, and so there was no money. Nevertheless it was a great experience that just made me want more and I consoled myself fairly easily about the fact that I didn’t win, just by looking at all the women’s hats.

The later afternoon I spent at my Prom Date’s house meeting her parents and talking with them about Germany since they had emigrated from there a couple years ago. It was a very pleasant experience and gave me an opportunity to freshen up my German a little. The evening was rather unspectacularly spent with a very dry and dull Latin translation nothing worth wile of further mentioning.

Sunday though still deserves some lines in this report, even though the weather alone wouldn’t justify any report of this nasty and rainy day at all. This Sunday I went on a trip with some other exchange students and my local coordinator Stephanie.

After Stephanie had picked up me and some other exchange students – from Tunisia, Thailand and another one from Germany – we first stopped at the best Donut bakery in town, where I sponsored a dozen donuts, which kept us fairly well fed until we reached our first stop: Berea

Berea is a little town in central Kentucky most renowned for its College that teaches students in all kinds of practical arts and craftsmanship. At an artisan market just off I-75 we got a first taste of the Berea offerings and a very nice choice of Kentucky products. The prices were a little on the high end and so I ended up buying only some Ale 8 suckers which feature the original taste of THE Kentucky soft drink but are easier to transport.

Later we went to downtown Berea where we saw some more stores and spent some more money. We gazed at the traditional quilt art of the area and also visited the historic Boone Tavern, however, we didn’t eat there.

Since we still had time after a short lunch we decided to go another hour farther South and to see the renowned Cumberland falls, also known as the Niagara of the South. They are some 60 or so feet high waterfalls and the only ones in the western hemisphere where one can see a moon bow, a rainbow with moon light. Of course since we got there during the day there was no moon bow. The falls were very impressive and pretty anyway and the whole area just gave us a very nice taste of rural South Central Kentucky – I liked, I guess I’m just the rural kind of guy.

On our way back home we stopped in Corbin, KY. Where more than five decades ago Col. Harlan Sanders, then only Harlan Sanders and a gas pumper on the local road, opened his first restaurant of a soon to be empire: Kentucky Fried Chicken. After taking the commemorative pictures and visiting the little museum, we did, what makes the most sense to do when visiting the first KFC: We ate, and, boy, it was good.

From there we concluded that we had seen enough for today, it was getting late and so we went on our way back home. After enjoying the Kentucky countryside some more we were welcomed back to Lexington “The horse capital of the world”.

A great day was over, and we even got some sunshine at the very end and had just learned again: Kentucky is a great place to live and there are many things to explore – you just have to go out and look for them.

My new surroundings

Two weeks ago from today I moved to my new home, still in Lexington but in another neighborhood. It is a very nice place to live, not only the family is great but also the house and the neighborhood itself as the following pictures will easily proof to you.


Our house...


... and our street: we live on a quiet, dead end street with not much traffic going on.


The view from the backdeck is fantastic: Right behind our house there are some really big houses, and I mean really big houses: three full stories. Can you see how tiny the white car on the right of the house looks?


The view more from a distance, it's a pretty new neighborhood, about 4 to 5 years old.


Dusk over the neighborhood, the deep hanging clouds reflect the red sunlight and create a beautiful scenery. Not only on the houses...


... but even more on the rolling hills of Central Kentucky. Just right outside the window of my room. Ain't that pretty?

CBYX meeting in Indianapolis

Just yesterday I went to a very interesting meeting: Four members of the Bundestag (the German parliament) had come to the United States to meet with members of the CBYX program (my exchange program) to talk about experiences, good things and problems that had to be resolved. The meeting was organized by the German Consulate General and held in Indianapolis, IN. My hostfamily had to work and was therefore not able to come but fortunately I could get a ride with the hostfamily of another German exchange student of the same program who also lives in Lexington. The ride was very nice, about 3 hours and I got to see one more state where I had not been before. Overall I have been to 10 states now; I’m collecting them pretty quickly! Finally we arrived in Indianapolis; we didn’t have to wait long till the meeting started.

After a good lunch with some delicious cake for dessert we had several hours of constructive talk with the members of the parliament, so did our host parents who had accompanied most of us to the meeting. Many students told of great experiences and were very happy with their year but some others told stories which were very scary and frightening and those in particular just proved to me again that, even though I might have some problems, overall I am having good experiences and there are no real reasons to complain.

The best thing about the meeting (even better than the food) was that I could meet with some of my friends from the exchange program again whom I had not seen since I had arrived in Kentucky in August, that was just great and of course very emotional. The time was far too short to do all the talking that we would have liked to do but we will meet again at the end of the year, and hopefully we will than have more time.

After some very interesting, happy and exciting hours, it was time to go back down south to Kentucky and we could get some more impressions of the Indiana countryside (No.1 flat as a pancake; No.2 farms, farms, farms). The beautiful spring weather just contributed to a great day that truly enhanced my spring break.

Spring in Kentucky

Just about a week ago spring was starting to be around here in Kentucky – sure we had had some nice days before that, but with temperatures around 20+ degrees Celsius spring is definitely here now and so last week I went on a little exploration tour in the neighborhood to capture the signs of the coming spring. And to make my dear family and friends in Germany or elsewhere a little jealous for I’ve heard that their weather is a little less pleasant. Some pictures now to give you an impression what spring in Kentucky is like:

In the backyard of our neighbors I spotted the first blooming tree ...

and in front of our house I found already a blooming rhododendron .

Just across the street the first big blooming tree, looks great, doesn't it?

A little down the road: A blooming magnolia, how beautiful!

I went on a short walk and on my way back I even detected the first green - on some bushes just a few houses away from where I live: Spring is finally here, and it's wonderful here in Kentucky!