Happy New Year's Eve!!

Happy New Year!

I just realized that the new year has already begun in Germany...It's a pitty that I've missed it but I was cooking Miraculi with Henry in the kitchen :-) It's really weird to go online on facebook and see all those comments and posts about the new year while we still have daylight and sunshine here in California. Oh and by the way; no there aren't any fireworks during New Years Eve in America :-/ It's against the law so it's a little bit lame because fireworks and New Year's Eve belong together like Easter and eggs to me..

At this point, I wanna take some time and look back what I've experienced this year and also wanna take a look forward to what's gonna happen next year,2011.
In january, I didnt go to university because I've just finished my "Schulpraktikum" (teaching assistant) at the Leibniz Gymnasium in Rottweil.So basicially I just chilled at home, helped my parents and played some basketball. Then in february, I finished my job as a teacher at the Freie Waldorfschue in Frommern and I had to grade students for the first time in my life. It took me longer than I thought because I wanted to make sure that everybody gets the grade he/she deserves..but it was a really interesting experience to be "on the other side" and see how it is to be a teacher. It's more work than some of you might think ;)
At the end of february, my chemistry lab (AC-F Prakitkum) started, and I worked two weeks nearly the whole day in the lab. Then in March, I started my other chem lab (OC-F) and I spent another two weeks in the lab in order to finish it. Especially during my organic chemistry lab time, I got to know new people which, as it turned out later, are really friendly and cool: It's my homeboy Fabi and that girl Juli..I had a lot of fun during my chem lab and with them, I really enjoyed the time! Thanks guys! I hope to see them when I'm back in Germany and maybe I can have a fun night with Fabi again ;)
In april,my summer semester started and I had to run many errands for my upcoming semester abroad in America...It was a lot of work but so far it definitely paid off and I'm glad that everything worked out the way I wanted it to happen :-) Oh and I also wanna mention that I've met a few new cool people at my swimming class for my sports studies, especially the guys Stefan and Andy!!Oh my god, it was so funny with them and I really had a good time with them :-) As a matter of fact, Stefan went abroad to Mexico,Guadalajara when I was about to go to America so we both spend some time abroad together, and sometimes he was the only guy who was online on facebook while all my other German friends were sleeping in bed :-) So I've told him about the differences between Germany and America, and he told me the same, just with Mexico instead of the US. I dont know if you'll ever read this Andy but I hope that you and your family are well and that we'll be able to play some tennis or basketball next year in Nusplingen ;) And maybe we can also talk about politics ;) "Lokalpolitik"

And then I went abroad. Bye bye Germany, Hello America!
Who would have thought that one day, I'll be able to lay in the sun on December 31st and take a sunbath?! Who whould have thought that I'll meet a crip gang member at a house party one day? Who whould have thought that I'll be the only white guy on the basketball court one day?Who would have thought that I'll buy "my" first own car in America?That I'll change my first tire in America?Who would have though that I'll bake my first German cookies in American? Who would have thought that I'll do this and that in America? ;) I really experienced so many new things here but I cannot write all of them down. Some of them are just for a small circle, or just for my family :-)
Oh and then I met this asian guy here who I went to San Diego and San Francisco with! And then I met this belizean gurl who I helped to overcome her fear of water..at least a lil bit ;)..then I met this jamaican chick who invited me to celebrate Christmas with her..thank you! and then I met this (spanish) gurl who isnt really Spanish but she knows what I mean..and she thinks more than she'll let me know..and I met so many other cool people at my school!
Especially "se oser Germans" at Dominguez Hills were friendly and cool! I remember that one roadtrip to Las Vegas with that boy from Hechingen ;) I think he had s0me fun on the way to Las Vegas.....oh and there was this kid who can shoot from the other side of the basketball court and still make the 3pointers...Ok I exaggerate a little bit but everybody who plays against him knows what I'm talking about :-) He also works at the weight room so I can always go there even though I'm not a student anymore at CSUDH :-) Thanks William!

All in all, It's crazy how much I saw,leanred and experienced during this year...But it was not only me who did a lot this year. My sister, for example, came back from Mexico this year, my brother went, among other things, to China, my other brother and my sister went backpacking together in Europe. And there was this australian/english girl who finally went back to Germany but then it was time for me to leave the country..Well, I'll see you next year I think ;)

I also have a New Year's resolution for America: Try to use less plastic bags in your supermarkets!! In know that you can recycle them but I doubt that anybody does it..

2011 will hopefully also be an interesting and informative year for me again,and I really hope that I'll see some of my American friends back here in Germany...But for now, I'm looking forward to the first highlight of this year; my trip to Hawaii with my parents!!! As a matter of fact, my parents will arrive in three days and then we'll probably drive to see the Grand Canyon in Arizona before we go to Hawaii...But before that, I'll spend some time with my daddy at the Staples Center and see Lebron James and company in action!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR AGAIN FELLOWS :-)

Merry Christmas!

First of all, Merry Christmas 2 everybody! I know that it's already over but here in the US we celebrated Christmas yesterday so I'm not too late with writing my blog.

I celebrated Christmas with Alison's family and it was, just like Thanksgiving, a family feast and we also had great food for dinner :-) But before we started eating, we formed a circle and we took each other's hands and then, the oldest woman of the family started to give a speech; she said that there was one death and two murders recently in this big family so we shouldnt take things for granted...and we should be glad about every day which we could spend here on Mother Earth. It was somehow like a prayer because some of the people around me quietly said "amen" every now and then during her speech. It was an interesting experience, that's for sure.

So today, December 26th, I woke up, watched the Clippers vs Phoenix game and then I ran a few errands. One of them was to finally call Leonhard Hieber's relative in Long Beach, and as I am used to by the Hieber family, his relative turned out also to be friendly and welcoming :-) I think I'll visit her family next week and perhaps have lunch with them- I'm already excited!!

Another exciting thing is that my friend Taurius (nickname Terry) came back earlier today which means that I'll finally be able again to work out at my school because he has the keys for the gym and the weight room. Believe me guys, I'm really happy about that because I couldnt really work out the last couple of days....and besides, it also rained a lot the last week so I'm glad about the opportunity to use the gym at the school :-)

Basicially, the last couple of days were a little but boring because school is already over ( I got 6 As and one C !) and most of my friends went back home 2 their families during Christmas time.
But fortunaltely, New Years Eve isnt far away and then my parents will come soon in january! :-) I'm especially looking forward to out trip to Hawaii...I cant wait to see the sun again and lay at the beach :-)

Oh and yes, it is weird to celebrate Christmas without going 2 the church at 6/7pm on December 24th and without having snow!! Actually, we had 19-20 degrees and sunshine on Christmas Eve which doesnt feel like winter at all! Crazy!

Here are a few new words which I learned during the last couple of days:
1.) to mitigate sth =etw. abschwächen, lindern,mäßigen
2.) detrimental= nachteillig,schäflich für
3.) meekly=kleinlaut
4.) glum=mürrisch, verdireßlich
5.) curb= Bordstein
6.) dork= Depp,Idiot
7.) to pummel=auf jd. einprügeln, einschlagen
8.) to bedevil= jdn, be/verhexen, plagen,quälen
9.) to become infatuated with so/sth= sich in jmdn. vernarren

And two more words which you hear/need in everyday's conversations: dandruff=schuppen, band aid=plaster

And here is an interesting article about the differences between Germany and the US:
http://math-www.uni-paderborn.de/~axel/us-d.html

Alright, I added a few random pictures from the last days and I hope that you guys enjoyed your holidays and that you have a good time!

Peace,

Flo (with the Marines)

Thanksgiving/Trip to San Francisco

Hi folks,

I finally found the time and the motivation to write about my last trip to San Francisco with Henry :-). We went during the Thanksgiving break and we were away for 6 days, visiting 4-5 cities altogether. We also drove around 960 miles during that trip; in average, every American drive around 800 something miles during the Thanksgiving break! Crazy, what?! 800 miles= nearly 1300 kilometers, and that every year. But it was worth driving that far, I can tell you!
We spent Thanksgiving with a Japanese family which Henry knows really well. In the beginning I was a little bit afraid of going to an unknown family to join them in celebrating a family fest but my fears weren't justified; The family was so welcoming, hospitable, and warm-hearted so that it only took me a couple of minutes to get really comfortable around them. And then came the food.Hmmmm yummy in my tummy haha it was really delicious; the turkey, the mashed potatoes, the salads, the stuffing for the turkey...everything tasted really really well!
After Thanksgiving, we continued driving up north in order to reach San Francisco. It is true that it is significantly colder in SF than in LA but still we were lucky so it rained only during one day (saturday) and the rest of the days were just sunny :-)
San Francisco itself is very different from LA; the houses look differently, there are more trees and everything appears to be greener and more lush (that's probably due to the different weather conditions).
In SF, we vistited the Fisherman's Wharf, went to see the Golden Gate Bridge (yay, I finally felt like a real tourist),lombard street, and finally we saw the island Alcatraz but unfortunately we couldn't book a tour for it because it was already sold out in advance :-(
Tip: If you ever go to San Francisco, book the tour in advance! We didnt expect it to be sold out because right now is off-season but still it was very busy.
On the way to San Francisco, we took the famous scenic route 1 which was really beautiful but it takes you a long time because most of the time you cannot drive faster than 50 miles per hour. On the way back, we took the 5 which is a little bit more inland (east) and sometimes you can drive up to 70 mph (normal speed limit: 65 mph) so on the way back we were a lot faster than on the way to it. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the mountatin/hill we drove up (Henry do you?) but it was the first time when I experienced hail in California! I can only remember that we were about 4000+ feet high at around 11 o'clock pm and it suddenly started to hail...Believe me guys, during this moment, I was really glad that I've bought new tires :-)

So all in all, the trip was really good and I'm glad that we took enough time to go up north because there are so many things to see on the way to it (example: Hearst castle; the only castle I've seen so far here in America and i'm sure it's unique). We also took many cool pictures which yall can see when I'm back in Germany =)

Back to college life: This week and next week we have finals which means that you write your last exam in your subjects. Today I had my yoga exam (yes,hahaha...) and tomorrow I'll have my natural disasters exam, and next week I'll have my Spanish and History exams. In other words, I'm pretty busy with studying for my exams and playing basketball (like always =) ). Today we had again a little bit over 72 degrees, which equals 21-22 degrees celsius, and it is so weird to celebrate Christmas, listen to Christmas songs in the malls, and talk about Christmas presents when it is sunny and warm outside...It just does not seem to be right. My biological clock tells me that something is wrong =)

I just hope that you guys back in Germany, and other cold parts of the world, don't freeze to death and please drive safely on those snowy roads...I know what it feels like to slide and slip on a snow-covered road and to have an accident. Just slow down a little bit and calculate more time for if you wanna go somewhere.

That being said, I look forward to my American Christmas experience and a warm and sunny December and I hope that I'll continue getting A's in my exams...;)

Flo (picture to the right: Nusplingen, the center of the world, haha! Next to Moscow, Madrid, Detroit...)

An interesting week

Quite some time has passed since I've written my last bloq entry so I wanna keep you up-to date with the latest news from American and my life there. So here we go:

There were mid-term elections all over in the United States and (unfortunately), the Republicans have (re)-gained much power, especially in the House of Representatives. Many people are concerned about that, including my flatmate, because Obama has less power now and it's getting harder for him to implement new laws and changing America's structure. However, a Democrat won the election for the governor and will replace Arnold Schwarzennegger next year in january or feburary (by the way, I'm wonderin what he will do next after his political career: Does he still want to be active in politics or not?!)

Anyways, in the meantime I blocked my toilet for the third or fourth time here in America but this time I couldn't fix the problem (thank God that I've worked at a sewage plant before ;)..) so my roommate had to call a plumber to solve the problem. So when I tried to flush the toilet, there was too much pressure in the pipeline and I think there must be a leak/hole in it because on the first floor, water dripped down from the ceiling, just next to the kitchen table. Hmm Yummy! :-)
Fortunately, the plumber fixed the problem and guess what- it wasn't me :-) It wasn't my fault..there was some kind of moisturizer tissue in the pipe which I have never used before in my whole life..It was from the woman who lived in my room before, so I'm innocent.

Yesterday I went to the first basketball college game of the season! Yay! We played gainst Hawaii State and we won easily..hawaii played really bad so it wasn't a close game. I know that not everybody who ready my blog knows this so I wanna mention it real quick again, also as a short reminder for the other people who might know this: In college basketball games, you only play 2 halves a 20 minutes and the shot clock is 35 seconds. So sometimes it takes a long time for one team to finish a play designed by the coach and a player shoots the ball in the very last seconds... I asked many people at my school why there are different rules for college games but so far nowbody could gave me a satisfying answer.

Oh any by the way, I just checked upon my "old" German wikipedia article (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumpsoles) and I realised that someone added some information to it :-) It's really cool to see how one's own article, planted like a seed in the soil, suddenly "grows" and becomes bigger and bigger..I think I will write another one, or add some information to existing ones, in the near future. In America they call that "giving back to the community",lol :-)

Next week will be Thanksgiving which means that I have to finish my term paper (Hausarbeit) for my history of the US class, and then I'll be free as a bird and I'll go to San Fransisco with Henry for Thanksgiving :-) We're invited to come over to a Japanese family which Henry knows well so we'll probably have a real American Thanksgiving dinner :-) I'll let u know how the turkey tasted ;)

Alors,

have a good day !

PS: Americans can't write my name properly lol :-)

Time flies!

Wow, the last 10 days went by really fast...I just brought Martin&David back to the airport and their flight leaves in approximately 2 hours :-)

The last 10 days were crazy, but in a good way, of course :-) They arrived on Wednesday last week and when I picked them up at the airport they were really tired and had a jetlag so I just took them to the hot tub so that we could all relax a lil bit :-)
The next day, we went to Knotts Berry (or Scary) Farm which is an amusement park not far away from my home. You just have to the take the 91 West and it's about 30 mins away. I don't know if I told you guys before but I'm a little but scared of roller coasters and heights but Dave,Alison and Martin persuaded me to go on every ride with them :-) They even "convinced" me to go on the freefall tower, and believe me, my palms were moistly..but I wasn't the only one who was nervous, Alison was also scared un poquito. Sometimes, I hate peer pressure :-)
Anyways, we had a lot of fun during that night and it was cool to go and see all the scary mazes (labyrinth)...the actors alwasy scared Alison the most just because she is a girl...thhat was funny :-)

So for the weekend we picked up Florian Wulf, another international exchange student from Hechingen, and we did a roadtrip to the famous LAS VEGAS, or also called Sin City. I can really understand now why it is called Sin City: There is (legal) prostitution, gambling,parties,alcohol...whatever you want, they have it. It's pure hedonism in this city but that's why it is so much fun :-) It's amazing if you go there for one weekend but I can't imagine living there my whole life or even working there. This would be too (partying) much to handle.
So we left Vegas at 4 am in the morning on Sunday and Martin drove all the way back to Las Vegas within 4,5h while everybody else was sleeping in the car. Thanks once again Martin :-)
As soon as we've arrived back home, we went to the supermarket, bought some groceries and made breakfast. I think the breakfast is the best meal here in America because it's the only meal during the day when I don't eat fast food..sad but true :-(
Anyway, we slept for two hours and then we drove on the 110 North to the famous Staples Center to see the LA Clippers play against the Dallas Mavericks!!!
Unfortunately, the Clippers lost the game considerably against Dallas, and our successful German Wunderkind did not play that well either during this afternoon. However, it was a great experience and we enoyed it so much so that we decided to see another NBA game, namely the game between the Clippers and the Oklahoma Thunder. This game, which took place Wednesday night, was a little bit more interesting because the Clippers played better and in the end they actually won the game!!! ( As a matter of fact, this was the first victory for the the LA Clippers so far in this season)

The weather was really really good during Monday till Friday so for most of the time we just did stuff outside or we played basketball (or watched it at night, that is :-) ). For example, we went to Hermosa Beach on Tuesday where Dave enjoyed the high,strong waves. It was fun to actually be able to go into the ocean again without being to cold or freezing afterwards. I think we had around 30-40 degrees Celcius everyday...yes, you guys back in Germany (or PV) are allowed to be jealous now :-)

I have about 2,5 weeks before my next trip with Henry to San Francisco, so now it's time to focus on school again, study Spanish,and write a term paper for my history class. And it's also time to immerse myself in the English language again. I spoke enough German the last 10 days.
Having said this, here is a common saying/proverb in English: "Out of sight, out of mind". I think this one is easy to remember since it is so similar to the German equivalent.
There is also a similar one in Spanish but I forgot this one..I'll look it up for you.

Have a nice weekend, and I wish Dave&Martin a good and safe flight back home!

Flo

Why men have to earn more money than women

Good morning my dear readers,

Today I'm gonna address the topic why it is, at least in my opinion, fair that men earn a little bit more money than women when they perform the same job. Let me explain why.

First of all, don't get me wrong and think "what the hell is HE talking about?!..we live in the 21st century with emancipation and equal rights etc etc..". Well listen to this: Did u ever go out clubbing somewhere and did u notice that most of the time the women don't need to pay for the cover? Did u notice that men sometimes have to pay the double price just because they are MEN?? It never happened to me before in Germany but here in the US, especially Hollywood, men always have to pay more which is not fair ;) What reason justifies this discrimination??
Besides, when the girls are pretty or when they war a short dress they not only get in for free but sometimes they can also jump the queue /(or cut the line for my American readers ;) ).

And then there is also this thing called "dating"...Who pays for the dinner? The man...who pays for the cinema? The man..Who invites the girl for a drink? The man...
In this regard, I think we're still a lil bit-old fashioned ;)..I suggest that we should do it sometimes the other way round, like in Usher's song trading places: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_7EKr5a82k&ob=av2e

I hope u can open the video..I know it's sometimes a little bit problematic to watch videos on youtube in Germany. Anyways, tell me what you think about my opinion ;)

So last week I went to a thing called Midnight Madness which was the "inofficial" start of the basketball season! Yahooo :-) The gym was crowded (approximately 500 ppl) and there was also a dj, a dunk contest, and a three-point shootout. Check out the pictures to get a good impression of the event. Funnily, during the event, the dj played a few good songs and suddenly everybody went on the basketball court and started dancing...somehow all the black people know a common dance because everybody did and knew the same dance moves. It's just amazing if 100-200 people are in sync and do the same moves :-) Something like this could never ever happen in Germany. We are too serious and shy to do something like that :-)


Oh, by the way, I nearly forgot to mention that Dave and Martin are going to visit me in one week!!! Yay, I'm really looking forward it..We're gonna have an awesome good time! The first thing we're gonna do is go to Las Vegas for the weekend ;) I'll keep you up-to date and upload a few pictures as soon as we're there. But work before pleasure, which means that I have to study for my Spanish exam next Monday but after that I can fully enjoy the time with them.

Have a good time and don't forget to put your winter tires on in Germany haha :-)

Flo

PS: Who can tell me what that picture represents/stands for? One hint: I took it in Hollywood...

Weekend in San Diego

Hi!Wassup everybody?

I know it has been a long time since I've posted something new on my blog (I'm sorry) but I was pretty busy the last two weeks...so what did I do? There is so much 2 do here...

ALright, so last weekend I went to San Diego with Henry and we visited the San Diego Zoo, the San Diego Wild Park (Safari), we went to visit a giant aircraft carrier (USS Midway)and of course, we also went to the beach in Coronado Island. It was a busy weekend but everything worked out pretty well; we got up at around 8 o'clock every day but unfortunately we couldn't go to Tijuana because a woman from my university didnt sign my visa because she was sick and therefore not able to help me. Maybe I'll drive to San Diego again one day and visit Tijuana but everybody told me (even my Spanish teacher) that I shouldnt go there because it's a lil bit dangerous, and because it takes you a long time 2 get back into the States. First things first, I wanna write about the San Diego Zoo: It's really cool! It is huge, has many animals, especially from Africa, and it takes you about 4 hours to see the whole zoo. Compared to the Australian Zoo, it#s different because if focuses more on the animals from Africa whereas the Austrlian Zoo focuses more on reptiles like snakes etc.

Nevertheless, it was pretty cool but I have to admit that the San Diego Wild Park is even better. It's a north-east of San Diego and the nature there reminded me a little bit of the nature in south Spain or France..everything is so dry and brown. The cool thing about the Safari is that the animals aren't enclosed like in a zoo..I mean eventually there is some kind of fence to make sure that the animals cant run away but the habitat is stunningly big!
The people who founded the safari wanted to make sure that the animals feel like being in in nature and that they have enough space to walk and run around. Interestingly, both the Zoo and the Safari are also one of the biggest breeding stations in the US and they try to save and breed endangered species..Thats pretty cool, the even try in vitro fertilization and it worked out before :-)
Besides, I learnt a few useful expressions during my trip with Henry (thanks!).Here they are:
-better be safe than sorry
- it holds you over (e.g. a drink or a snack)
- outlet (steckdose)
- The straw that broke the camel's back (thx professor galant)
- and a few more :-)

He also showed me where the emergency brake is in my car and a few other useful things- what I wanna say is that it is useful/convient if you have a "local" with you on a trip :-)


Moreover, I met a cool person, a musician, at the hostel in San Diego who produces and makes hip hop tracks...It's kind of funny when you meet people who have their own videos :-) But you can form your own opinion: http://www.myspace.com/aktiveyoshi

Apart from all the travelling I'm pretty busy taking care of my homework, and I also have to study quite a lot for all the exams..For example, I had my midterm exam in History of the US yesterday, and I had another Spanish exam last week, and then I have another exam in two weeks in Natural Disasters...Well, as you can see, I don't idle away my time :-)
And I also started to date a girl from my school..I met her in my History class and she is really friendly and intersting&beautiful so I spent a lot of my time with her ;) Her name is Neera and she's african-american (in other words, she's black) and I think we're officially together now..lol I hope that doesnt change in the near future ;)

School is easy here; so far I've only got A's and I hope that I it's going to stay this way :-) But I have to say that I have to put more and more effort into my Spanish class every week because it starts to get more challenging- Hopefully I'll be able to speak a few sentences at the end of the semester...

The weather is still nice and warm here; I've only experienced two days of rain so far so it's cool :-)
By the way, did u know that republicans think that global warming is not caused by mankind? As a scientist, I can only shake my about about this attitude but it's really an issue here and we're going to talk about global warming next week in my Natural Disasters class..

Bueno...Have a good time and enjoy the pictures!

Best,

Flo

110+degrees

Oh boy,

I don't know what suddenly happened to the weather but we had at least 110 degree today which equals around 44 degrees or so...I tell you, I never experienced such a hot today before in my life!
It's crazy, I tell you..everything seems 2 boil and everybody moves slow-but still I went playing basketball in the gym hehe. Well, the Californian weather finally kept its promises I think :-)

Anyway, I've got some news for you: So this weekend I'll go to the world cyber games ( see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Cyber_Games for more information on this topic) which is like the Olympic Games for computer games. It's a lil bit nerdy but... I grew up with Starcraft and you have 2 keep it real in California ;) I think it's going to be an interesting experience since I never went to such a kind of "sports competition" before! I'll tell you how it was next week!

The weekend after the world cyber games, I'm going to San Diego with a friend of mine, called Henry (I think I mentioned that before). We wanna see the city, maybe Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, and also Tijuana-I'm excited!! I hope that the boarder patrol police will let me back in :-)

Yeah and then it's already october and basketball season starts...but before I start enjoying the NBA games I need to take care of mine homework...I got a lot today and I need to study for Spanish, Natural Disasters etc...Alwasys busy, I can tell you...

this picture of the caterpillar reminds me of my childhood :-)

In case you want to listen 2 American music (especially hip hop) then you could listen to power 106:http://www.power106.com/other/listenlive/index.html

Girls = Ninas. I always knew it...


It's now 8 pm and it's still unbelievably warm..crazy, you can't imagine it if you didnt experience it.

Enjoy the (random) pictures,

Flo

PS: I nearly forgot to mention that Americans love to celebrate and imitate the German Oktoberfest. As a matter of fact, I have a tent close to my house with German music and beer and an entertainer called "Heino"...It's feels kinda weird to be in America ans heard&see the people celebrate it :-) Bdesides, you can already buy things/decorations for Halloween in the supermarkets (see the picture taken in Target)

Venice Beach

Hi everybody,

yesterday I went to Venice (no, not the Venice in Italy but the Venice in Los Angeles..) and I saw the famous Venice Beach where our friend, "neighbour", bodybuilder and governor Arnold Schwarzennegger got famous...Some people also call it the "muscle beach" because apparently everybody works out at this beach,and there are many bars where you can (even without a gym) get in shape :-). Besides, this is the place where many famous bodybuilders work(ed) out and where they flexed their muscles :-)..crazy!

Believe me, I've been to many different gyms in my life but I never went to a gym which is outdoors AND at the same time close to the beach..It's unbelievably!!And if you then add the Californian sunshine to your picture in your head then you'll get nearly the same amazing impression I got when I went there !Just imagine you are walking on the street close to the beach and the only things you see are people doing sports (basketball, tennis, skateboard, running). That's what I call a healthy California!

But the best thing for me, as a basketball player and coach, is the fact that you can find the best streetball on the westcoast in Venice Beach. Wikipedia puts it this way:

"The basketball courts in Venice are renowned across the country for their high level of streetball; numerous NBA players developed their games or recruited on these courts.

In my opinion, that's the place to be if you love to play ball (and to improve one's game). It's just a piece of trivia but And1's first mixtape was partly recorded in Venice Beach, I think ;)

Furthermore, you are probably wondering by now why this city is called Venice when it has nothing in common with the Venice in Italy...wait a second! Is has something in common and guess what it is...;)! It is the canals which you can find in both cities..unfortunately, most of the canals got drained in the past but you can still see 6 canals nowadays in the "artifical" Venice. Sadly enough, I couldn't visit them on sunday because it was already too late butI'll definitely go to Venice again and then I want to take a few pictures of those canals..(remeber:the stress is on the second syllable, unlike the German word Kanal)

Speaking of the English (or American) language, who knows what
a) a booty call ...or...
b) toot it and boot it

means? It's just slang but I heard both words quite often here; especially the second one because the radio plays this song all the time...*stupid hip hop radio* :-). By the way, don't get the wrong impression of me since both words have a sexual background...It's just that hip hop and rap songs deal with this topic like all the time ;)

Another piece of trivia ,which I just learnt today in my Spanish class, is that in German, we say "ein blaues Auge" when someone gets beaten up by somebody else...in English it's a" black eye" and in Spanish its a "ojo morade" which means purple eye...It's interesting to see how cultures differ even in such tiny, unimportant things :-)

Anyway, I also wanted to add some earnest criticism about the US to his blog entry because so far I have only praised America and the things I've experienced. Don't get me wrong, I love being here and I think it's wonderful but there are a few things which bother me a lil bit. I don't want to talk about the fact that American cars are way too big and use too much gas but I wanted to mention a thing which probably not everybody knows back home . Firstly, if you go shopping in the US then you'll get nearly for every two (or three) items another plastic bag! You can do the math for yourself: Everytime I go shopping, I get easily nearly 5 to 6 bags which I all throw out after I placed my stuff in the fridge( because you get new ones every time you go shopping). It was exactly the same thing in Australia and I don't understand why they (also) do this here in the US because it only pollutes the environement and it's also expensive for the supermark to purchase so many bags. Secondly, I really like the American sports system with the high school and college sports teams because it's strongly competetive but think about this: The average American student enters college at the age of 17 or 18 and stays normally three years there to get the bachelor degree (at this time, he/she is 20 or 21). Let's assume that this person wants to get his master's degree which takes another three years to achieve this goal. By this time, most of the students are done with school and they are "only" 23 or 24 years old. You may think that this is really good because they are still young but the downside of this system is that these students don't have a chance/possibility to get into a sports club like we do! They can't just join a soccer team, a tennis team or something else like that because it does not really exist in the US. After college, you can only go to the gym by yourself or you can go for a run but you can't really participate in sports like basketball, soccer, volleyball and so on because everything focuses on doing sports in a school or a college.

It's not like in Germany where you can still do track and field at the age of 45 or 46 in a club, and I think that's sad because most of the students don't make it into a professional team in their sport.

Think about it and tell me your opinion.

Best,

Flo

El gusto es mio

El gusto es mio,
to write a new blog entry for you guys back in Germany (and maybe other parts of America).

You have probably been wondering what I am doing all the time!Well, first of all, I'm fine and I'm doing good (gramatically speaking this is an error, I know, but that's just what everybody says here!Languages are vivid and change all the time!).



There are way to many cars in America..this is just one of the parking lots in front of my school..

I am pretty busy all the time; I have to take care of my homework for my classes (yes, even as a foreign exchange student you need 2 do homework :-( ); I have to go to the language lab and practice my Spanish and of corse, I also HAVE TO go to the gym everyday and play basketball :-)

My basketball class is Mondays and Wednesdays,and it is always from 12.00 until 12.50pm but then I also have another class, called intramurals, which is on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the same time, and we also just play basketball :-)

As a summary, America honored [for ena:honour] its promise to to give me plenty of opportunities to play basketball all the time and everywhere. Thank you! :-)

Aaah, by the way, I nearly forgot to mention that Dave and Martin (Scheuring) are going to visit me during Halloween!!! I think it's gonna be a great time for us and I'm quite sure that we'll have a lot of fun together in Los Angeles. Here is an excerpt from our programme:

1.) Halloween party in Hollywood, Los Angeles on October 31st
2.) Sixflags (massive amusement park with many crazy rides)
3.) Knott's scary farm...
4.) Maybe going to shooting ranch
5.) Maybe San Fransisco/Las Vegas/San Diego
6.) LA Lakers game
7.) and much much more :-)

As you can see, there is a lot to do in and around Los Angeles..My plan for the upcoming weekend(s) is/are to see some things around LA..Maybe I'll go to Santa Barbara and visit this apparently magnificent city! Supposedly, there is also a good winery over there which you should visit when you are travel to this city...

Moreover,tThere is also another friend (Henry) who is going to visit me in October. I met him at hermosa beach during my first week in La ,and we'll go together to San Diego!! I'm already excited about the San Diego Zoo and the city itsef..

I just want to mention one more thing before i finish me blog entry for today: I'm really glad that I have the chance to see and experience America, and I wanna thank my parents for this unique opportunity! Not everybody has the chance to go abroad and I fully appreciate it...

Have a good week!Nos vemos!





And don't forget: Jesus saves from Hell, so you better start praying soon ;) Welcome to America...

Flo or Flowrider (my nickname here in America since nobody knows the name Florian) :-)

Hollywood

Hello everybody,

today was a good day: I slept in, then I went to the basketball court just next to my house and afterwards I went with Liam (another exchange student from Leincester, England) to Hollywood!

The pick-up game at the Veterans Park was really good; I made some good plays and I also scored quite a few baskets. I think I earned my teammates' respect :-) It#s not that easy when you're the only white boy on the basketball court and when they don't know you...In the beginning they don't pass you the ball so you have to show them that you can acutally play basketball, and that it is a good decision to pass the ball to me ;)

I also managed to dunk the basketball this afternoon which kind of impressed my teammates :-). You know the saying: White people can't dunk/jump ;). But don't get me wrong, I didn't dunk the ball during our game; I just tried it during a break. Here's a picture of the guys I played with: By the way, the guy on the right hand side it 16 years old and he was also able to dunk the basketball....and he also nearly made it with two hands :-)

After my game I went home quickly and took a shower, and then I picked up Liam in order to go to Hollywood. We met a friend of him there who showed us around (thanks Joel!). It was really cool, we drove on the famous Sunset Boulevard, we vistited the famous grauman's chinese theatre and of course, we also took a look at the Hollywood sign and the Walk of Fame. Unfortunately, it was really smoggy today so you couldn't really see the sign well. I think I'll have to drive up to Hollywood again and try to take a better picture. I think that the Grauman's chinese theatre is one of the oldest cinemas in Los Angeles but I have to do some research about it before I can provide u some useful information about it. I just know that it is really famous (and therefore worth seeing).

So all in all it was a really good day today :-) I have to finish my entry now because my first class tomorrow will be at 9 am in the morning (Yoga...;) ) and I still want to take a look at few Spanish words which I should revise...

With this in mind, have a good day and appreciate the fact that you can witness my wonderful experiences in Los Angeles :-)

Flo

The first week of school is over!

What an exciting week! I can't believe that it is already over-just wooooosh :-)

So what did I do? Well, first, I finally bought a car...It's a Toyota Camry XLE from 1994 and its looks like the the picture of the right hand side.
Second, I went to school/university and I can tell you that it reminded me a little bit of school back home: Every student has his/her own chair with a small little desk in fron of it. But then, the atmosphere in the class is really relaxed and easygoing so i think I'll be doing fine in my classes.
Speaking of courses, I think it might be interesting for u to know what I'm studying in America. The classes are called "natural disasters, history of the us, beginning spanish" and I#m also enrolled in five other activity classes like basketball, baseball, yoga and so on.
So far, I really like it and I think it's going to be a great time during the semester. Besides, I don't think that I'll regret my decision to live off-campus. I've already seen many apartments now on-campus, and I think for the amount of money I pay for my shared townhouse I'm away better off because I pay exactly the same price like a person whos stays in a single room but I have things like a own bathroom, a pool in front of the house etc etc. :-)

In a lecture, there are normally about 30+ students in a room but compared to Germany that's really a low number of students.Somehow the school does not have really big lecture halls..maybe it's because the school isn't big enough.

Ok what else did I do this week that is worth writing about? Oh, I nearly forgot to mention that I was also busy doing typical "housewife jobs" ( I hope that this term doesn't sound sexist to some of my readers..) like doing the laundry ,cooking,cleaning and go shopping..And I also have to do some stuff (*remark from the author: sometimes this stuff is also called homework but that#s just a more sophisticated way to describe it) for uni like revising my Spanish vocabulary or reading a few pages in my history book. So far, it is not really a lot to do but I think this will change during the next few weeks..

And by the way, I overcame my fear of doing a backflip...into the water ;) It took me some time to do it but those 11-year-old kids at the swimming pool at my school just motivated and they also arouse my competition spirit ;). I think most of you guys know what I'm talking about (felix:mc, ena:tennis, alex:basketball and so on).



So the picture to the right and the picture to the left were both taken @ Manhattan beach yesterday. I especially like the pier and the way the street ends in the pier...I think it is really pictueresque :-)

I think that was it for the last week and I wish everybody at home a good old-fashioned contorversial discussion about Sarrazin's new book..;) As far as I can tell, there's apparently a lot going on about this man. It is just interesting to see how different cultures are: I think in America, nobody would care (or give a f***) about his statements, actually I think it would rather be mild comapred to the things some Republicans say here but that's just the way it is. You can also put your own two cent's in it about this topic-feel free to comment.

Have a great monday morning! Tomorros is labor day in America, a public holiday, which means that there are no classes tomorrow. Therefore, I'll probably go on a trip to Hollywood and the Walk of Fame.

Cheers, Flo

News News News

Hellooooooo,

I've got much news for you- for example, that I finally have found a place to stay! It's a townhouse and I share the house with a woman called Andrea who is 39 years old but looks like she's in her late twenties. Acutally I wanted to insert a picture of her at this point but somehow i can't upload the pictures from my cell phone right now...aaarg :-/

Anyways, the house is really nice and safe (gated community) and there is also a spa and a pool included in the community which is really awesome :-) I can go to the spa whenever I want to which is really great! I think it paid it off for me to wait a lil bit longer but then make the right decision about the housing.

So this week I'll probably buy a car so that I don't have to call my friends all the time and so that I can be independent. At this point, I really want to thank Anika Long for her patience and her hospitality and for everything else she did for me...She helped me with many things and she was a very pleasant, altough sometimes intelecutally challenging, person to be around with. THANK YOU ANIKA!!! And yes, you're welcome for the flowers :-P

School will start tomorrow so I'm really excited about my first classes which are baseball, basketball and beginning Spanish I! I'm really looking forward to learning another language...(let's see how long this feeling lasts :-P ). I have to admit that it was sometimes hard to study English and French in school but now I'm proud that I can speak several languages. It's just a wonderful thing to speak several lanuages and it's always easier to get to know people if you speak their native tongue.
There's a joke which says: " If you speak several languages, then you're probably European; if you speak two languages then you'll be Canadian but if you speak only one language than you're American"

:-)

I think I found a way to upload the newest picture on my pc...here you go, I hope you like them! I love the sunshine state :-), did I mention that before?!





dmack, my basketball buddy

Me in the spa :-)













My new room