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!

Midyear Meeting, Louisville

It has been already some weeks ago, but I think it still might be interesting for y’all to see what happened during my CIEE midyear meeting in Louisville on March 6 and 7.

So the first thing that is worth mentioning about this meeting is that even though it is called a midyear meeting it actually is NOT a midyear meeting. Midyear of our program was sometime in January and the temperature in Kentucky at that time was somewhere around negative 10 degrees (Fahrenheit!) and we had an ice storm that was pretty nasty. So our Local Coordinators wisely decided to postpone that whole thing until the weather was a little more merciful thereby accepting the fact that it wouldn’t be a true midyear meeting any more…

So anyways our meeting was in March and our Local Coordinator Stephanie Weber took us there; us that’s Raed from Tunisia, Nick from Bangladesh and Ann-Kathrin from Germany. Oh yeah and me, of course, I am from Germany, too (for everyone how has still trouble figuring that one out). The location of the meeting was the illustrious Galt House a hotel right on the Ohio waterfront in downtown Louisville and so in the morning of Friday, March 6 we were allowed to skip school and made our way to Louisville.

The city of Louisville, named after one of that whole bunch of French kings whose name was Louis (I think it was Louis 14 but I wouldn’t bet a penny on it) is the largest city of Kentucky, having a population of about 550 000. It’s most famous for its Kentucky Derby the big thoroughbred horse race on the first Saturday of May that starts the US Triple Crown racing season. The city is also located on the Ohio River and the industrial heart of Kentucky while many Kentuckians see the cultural heart of the state in Lexington. The city lies on the utmost edge of the state and the land on the opposite side of the River already belongs to Indiana. But

enough of dry facts!

We were pretty much the first people to get to Louisville and so we checked in and with quite a gaze enjoyed the spaciousness of our suites. Finally everyone else got there to and we started having very long conversations with our friends whom we had not seen for the last couple months about pretty much everything important – and unimportant.

Our first stop was already a favorite for me: Lunch. And it got even better for since my arrival in August I had been desperately trying to visit KFC or Kentucky Fried Chicken after all I figured it would be a shame to live in Kentucky for almost an entire year without ever eating at KFC. And so, even though several people had warned me of the rather dubious quality of the food at the first, but not last, fast food restaurant that emerged from Kentucky I lined up for KFC. I got myself a classical chicken sandwich and that one was actually pretty good, a little salty, but besides that I liked it and just got my love of fried chicken confirmed.

After lunch we went to the “Louisville Slugger Museum” a factory with a museum where they produce “sluggers”, baseball bats, in a very traditional and exact way. It was very interesting to watch how out of a massive block of ash wood or maple wood in just a few minutes a perfect bat was created. And after all I even learned a little more about baseball but still I think that it is one of the weirdest sports that you can encounter in the US, the only thing that I pretty much know about it is that you have to hit the ball, drop the bat and run. It was still interesting though and I even briefly considered buying a real, big sized baseball bat, however more for the fun of it than for playing. But when I heard of all the challenges that such a “deadly weapon” poses to the average air-traveler I put my plans aside. In front of the museum a massive, ginormous baseball bat invites everyone for posing and we took a pretty neat group picture there, then we went back to the hotel.

After a short hangout and room distribution at the hotel we went back on the streets and went to Fourth Street Live, the notorious entertainment area of Louisville that, according to our indigenous guide, became impossible to visit after 8 p.m. Fortunately it was prior to 8 and so we could have some fun looking around and then went to the Hardrock Café where we not only got a great dinner with excellent burgers but also saw some impressive Elvis Presley and Ringo Starr clothes and a guitar that looked more like a machine gun than a music instrument.

Finally after a lot of fun and laughing we went back to the hotel where we had long and interesting conversations about our experiences as exchange students, gave each other advice and just talked about a lot of things that affect exchange students in one or the other way.

We also explored the hotel a little more and hung out at one of the Lounges till like one in the morning until we finally went to get at least a little sleep.

The next morning we went to see the Frazier Collection of Arms. Hosted in one of the pretty historic buildings of downtown Louisville (some of the few buildings here that are actually dating back further than the 1950s) the museum gave an impressive look at the history of Britain on one floor (with original arms from the British Royal Armory) and an even more impressive one at the history of the settling of the US with original Winchester guns, Colts that were actually built by Mr. Colt and guns formerly owned by people as famous as George Washington and Theodore Roosevelt. Another highlight were two guns that belonged to Colonel George Armstrong Custer, the notorious and brutal U.S. Army leader who found a sudden and unexpected death when the Sioux around Sitting Bull destroyed his entire army at the famous battle of Little Big Horn.

After this excursion into US and British history we went back to today’s world to have lunch at a very nice little Italian pizza place almost next door. The food was great and it helped at least a little to handle the fact that the meeting was already over and after everyone had filled their stomachs with pizza, pasta and chocolate cake we told each other good bye and went on our way home.

It was a beautiful day and because Stephanie had to do some other business in Lexington she wanted to get there last and drop of the two other boys at their homes south of Lexington first. So we didn’t go back the straight way on the Parkway as we came but we took a sort of semi-circle-like approach going south first, then turning east and finally turning north. The way was as long as the term describing it but it didn’t bother me, the weather was great, the sun shining I was in good company and got to see some more of the wonderful Kentucky countryside that was just revived by the first days of spring.

And then, all of a sudden, Stephanie asked, do you want to stop at the Jim Beam distillery? At first I didn’t believe what I heard, did she really mean the famous Jim Beam Kentucky Bourbon distillery that produced products that even my buddies in Germany knew (all too well). As it turned out she did, right of the road there was the world headquarter and largest factory of Jim Beam and of course we DID stop. There was even a very nice visitor center there, they showed an informative movie and after that we could even see one of the huge warehouses with all the Whiskey barrels. Of course we couldn’t buy anything but still we almost got drunk from the smell alone. And finally we even saw the original mansion of the owner’s family a nice southern style home that invoked dreams in me of life in the rolling Kentucky countryside with nothing to worry about than whether you were going to have very old Bourbon for dinner or just old Bourbon – ah sweet life. As I later said to Stephanie that stop made my day – and it really did.

After a lot of more driving I finally got home to Lexington, spring was just everywhere and I really enjoyed myself at my home \but still part of me was stuck on that ranch in the Kentucky countryside…

New York 3

It took me like forever, but here is the final part of my New York report.

Sunday, 02.15.09

After another good night sleep and a good breakfast in the morning we checked out at the hotel and loaded all our baggage on the bus. Then we went back into the city. This third day was the one with the most flexibility in the program and because all the girls on our trip (which were like for fifths of the entire group) were screaming to go shopping again that was what we did.

We saw the huge and very famous Macy’s store, the “biggest store in the world” as a huge poster on a wall claimed and also many other stores of world-famous brands such as Lacoste, Louis Vuitton or Gucci. But also for our budget there were many places to go and so most of us were carrying some kind of bag when we met again two hours later.

This shopping tour was followed by another “adventure” if you want to call it that way: We rode the New York subway, it we rode it actually for quite a while and even had to change the line until we got to our next spot: The MET short for Metropolitan Museum of Art, famous throughout the world for its immense collections of international and American art.

The great thing about American museums is that they are free. Well, almost. Donations of visitors are usual, but for as little as one Dollar we could get in. That meant, of course, that the museum was very crowded but still we got to see some great pieces of art. Unfortunately we didn’t have a whole lot of time and so we pretty much just got a glimpse on a small part of the museum, but still it was very impressive and just encouraged me in my plans to come back one day – with more time at hand.

Right behind the MET is Central Park, New York’s famous green heart and a great place to hang out and forget the rush and speed of the city for a while. We walked through the park, enjoyed the view on the little lakes and the landscaping from a nice tower-like structure and chased a squirrel along the way. After some very pleasing twenty-odd minutes we reached the other end and another famous NYC spot: The place where John Lennon was shot in 1980 and the Dakota hotel where he had lived before. Still the room where he lived is owned by Yoko Ono and she never turns of the lights in memorial of John. There is also in Central Park a small memorial that we visited.

On our way to the bus we passed some more very interesting buildings – and got almost killed by an especially crazy cab driver. Then, right in front of the famous New York Plaza Hotel, we boarded our bus which took us back to Times Square. On the way we drove some time on 5th Avenue, where all the luxury shops of the world fashion brands are located. It was cool to “feel the glamour”

When we got to Times Square it already started to become dark and so the illuminated stores and buildings with all the advertisements looked even more fantastic. We had some time that we could use for shopping and so we visited several really cool stores. First we went to the M&Ms Store, a whole two floor store that sells nothing else but M&Ms, the chocolate candy and all kinds of fan articles around them. You could get like 40 different sorts of candy and even things like M&Ms T-shirts. It was pretty incredible.

Understandably we were done with chocolate for the moment and so we neglected the equally big Hershey’s store and went straight to Toys R Us, but it wasn’t just a regular Toys R US, nothing is regular on Times Square; it was a huge, 4 floor building with and entire ferry wheel inside. We actually considered riding it but the line was too long for our taste and so we left the store again and went to the Virgin Records Mega Store right next door. I, as a German, was especially pleased to discover that the building that held the store was named, in bold letters, “Bertelsmann Building”. Germany on Times Square – yeaah!! Finally we crossed the street, which is an adventurous thing to do just by itself and went to Hard Rock Café, where I did some T-shirts shopping, also we visited the MTV store, where we encountered some pretty cool hats that inspired us to a little change in personality. (-;

Finally, after seeing so much consume, we were ready to eat and so we risked our lives again and went to Planet Hollywood, another famous restaurant on Times Square, all focused on the Movie Industry for dinner. The food was pretty good and inside they had an exhibit of items that had been used in movies, then they were hosting Twilight and so we could see Bella’s (or however that girl’s called) dress, for example.

After this delicious last meal in NYC it was almost time to board the bus and return to Lexington, but one last thing was still missing: Our group picture of course! And so, while our bus driver was already waiting impatiently, fearing to get pulled over by some cop, we were all smile as bright as we could to outshine the advertisement lights at least a little bit. After that picture was taken we all boarded the bus, told Big Apple good bye and started our long way home.

Overwhelmed by all those impressions most of us quickly fell asleep or, like me, enjoyed the movies that where playing. Of course they were all somehow connected to New York, first we watched “Sleepless in Seattle” which is, as the name says (NOT) at least partly sat in New York and later “Big Daddy” which is only set in New York. After those two movies really everyone was asleep, and when we woke up at 7.00 in the morning, we were already back in Kentucky,and a great trip was over.

New York 2

Here’s the second part of my New York report.

Saturday, 02.14.09

After a good night slip and a nutritious breakfast the bus took us back into the city. He dropped us off pretty much right in front of Ground Zero. The spot where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center stood till their destruction on September 11, 2001 is a huge construction area today. One day the newly built Freedom Tower will stand on this place but right now there is not much more visible than the foundations and an enormous hole. Everyone was of course very touched by seeing this place which is so busy now but is still a remainder of the tragedy that happened here more than 7 years ago. We also heard a guide telling a group a story of what had happened on that day. It sounded quiet convincing but our teacher pointed out to us that most victims still refuse to speak of that day and that he might just be a good actor…

Finally we left the site and went to a store called Century 21. This store is not very well-known by tourists BUT it should be. It is an outlet store of the New York fashion shows and offers designer clothes for unbelievable prices (Versace Shirts for 50$ for example) of course everyone bought at least a little something but (fortunately or unfortunately I don’t know what’s applicable) we didn’t have the time to do a lot of shopping – and spending.

Our next location was already waiting and just over the street. It was the World Financial Center, an entirely new complex where many world famous financial companies have their dependences or even headquarters. So we got to see Merrill Lynch for example or American Express, names that the whole world knows and here was their heart. However there wasn’t a lot going on there, it was Saturday morning and the banking crisis was showing results, too. The upscale shops in the center were empty and most people were tourists like us, the mood was, of course, not really good either.

So we left that place fairly quickly and went to have lunch. Afterwards we went on just a few blocks down the street to Battery Park. This place is the outermost end of the island right on the banks of the Hudson. After some airport style bag checks we could board our ferry that would take us first to Liberty and than to Ellis Island.

We could already see her from far off: The statue of Liberty. There she was, as we had all seen her on pictures hundreds of times, in reality. It was so unreal and still we were there. We set foot on the island and we stood right under the statue, there are of course pictures to proof that. And yet, it was so unbelievable, I was in New York City, I was on Liberty Island, if someone had told me that only three weeks earlier I would have called him crazy! Sometimes life is just miraculous!

We walked around Liberty Island and enjoyed the great views. The NYC skyline on the one side, next to it Brooklyn Bridge and on the other side the wide open Hudson going towards the Atlantic and crossed by a gigantic Suspension Bridge. Right in front of the bridge a big container carrier that reminded me that NYC was after all also a big port city.
Finally it was time to leave the island again. The ferry took us to Ellis Island and for a time that was, of course, not sufficient, we looked around the buildings of Ellis Island which had been the gateway to America for hundreds of thousands of immigrants during the 1800s and early 1900s. But even though the whole structure was well preserved and many pictures and texts explained the process that the immigrants had to go through I could not really imagine what it must have looked like a hundred years ago, this too, seemed so unreal to me.

When we returned to Battery Park we had some time to shop around at the many souvenir and concession stands and so I bought a NYC panorama picture and some T-Shirts then the bus picked us up and took us to Chinatown.

New York’s Chinatown is famous all over the world as the place to get any kind of designer purse you desire, and more. We first walked down Mott Street, the central street, the wrong way and so way so the Fish vendors, selling there still moving fish in plastic bags or the meet vendors who sold grilled ducks which had still their heads on. It wasn’t really a pleasant view. Finally we found what all the girls had been waiting for: The purse vendors and after visiting an entire series of backrooms and bargaining like Dagobert Duck we got them plenty of Gucci, Luis Vuitton, Versace and DG purses. In fact the bus was literally stuffed with purses.
This was the pleasant part.
Unfortunately some of our girls had thought it a good idea to follow three massive, 6’6’’ black guys who were telling them of some good deal purses. Well, it wasn’t. They got striped off their iPhone and their money. Bad move!

After everyone had lost their money (some had got more some less for it). We went to little Italy, which is pretty much right around the corner from Chinatown, to have dinner. We ate at Puglia’s the food was great and we even had a singer playing and singing some old Italian-American songs that put us back into the 1920s and 1930s. The feeling of Al Capone and Mafia was in the air it was so great.

When we left the restaurant it was already dark outside and that made our last program point even better than it would have been anyway: We went to the Empire State Building and went up to the Sky Deck. Here, too, it seemed like we went back somewhere to the 1930s.

The view from the top of the skyscraper was exceptional. All the lights of NYC brightened the night and the other skyscrapers looked great, too. Down there the life was rushing and never ending and up on top it was so peaceful and calm. And after all it was Valentine’s Day today and so we were reminded of the movie “Sleepless in Seattle” and it was very romantic. Some of the people in our group even witnessed a proposal, and of course she said yes.

When we finally went back down and the bus took us back to New Jersey, everyone was having their own thoughts, it was a great day…