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.