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