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…
No comments:
Post a Comment