guten morgen, good night
it´s 2.10am and i just finished my homework. YEAH, THAT´S FUN!!!!!
wasses sonst noch so zu berichten gibt...aaaaaaaaalso: öhm, mh, da gibts so viel, da weiß ich gar nicht, wo ich anfangen soll.... wie wärs mit einem purdue-tagesablauf?! gute idee!! --> aufstehen, (evt. frühstücken), uni, hausaufgaben, uni, hausaufgaben, mittagessen, uni, hausaufgaben, hausaufgaben, abendessen, hausaufgaben, gym (wenn noch zeit), hausaufgaben oder ärgern, dass nix mehr zu tun ist, hausaufgaben, schlafen (ab und zu), aufstehen, uni, hausaufgaben,....,walmart supercenter. cool, gell?!
aber am samstag waren wir in chicago, das war super!! nur meine schuhwahl war nicht ganz so die optimalste für schnee :)
in einer bar (wo´s heiße schokolade in biertulpen gibt) mit der schönsten aussicht über die stadt
und im hintergrund al capones schatzkammer ;)und wir haben auch spaß, so isses ja nicht!! :) abwechslung bringt das wetter! jeden tag anders, damit es uns auch nicht langweilig wird hier...
achso ja, falls es noch jemanden interessiert, wies hier aussieht: die uni ist riesig und mit allem ausgestattet, was man sich nur vorstellen kann. RIIIIIIIIIIIIIESIGE gym zum beispiel!! aber am besten ist die infrastruktur und alles, was service bedeutet, die lehre ist in karlsruhe besser. oder sagen wir so: ich mag das karlsruher system lieber. ist zwar theoretischer, aber dafür auch tiefer.
ansonsten gibts fastfood neben mcdonalds, tacobell, arby´s, whatever, und der nächste supermarkt ist ne halbe stunde mitm bus weg.
joah, viel mehr gibts nicht zu berichten.... AUSSER: I´m connected to the internet again!! so please keep me away from homework and send me mails or chat to me or call me via skype!!! :)
have a good day!! (ui, heute abend ist das callout von den purdue fliegern - spannung in sicht!!)
Unileben
Heute hat der harte Unialltag angefangen; es ist 11.15pm und ich sitze immer noch mit Daniel in der Uni und mache Hausaufgaben! Allerdings ist das hier ein nobelst ausgestatteter Raum mit bequemen holzverzierten Sesseln, Teppich, Ölgemälden von altehrwürdigen Herren an der Wand, einem Steinkamin, einer goldenen Standuhr und großen alten Fenstern und Flügeltüren. Da lässt es sich bequem aushalten:) Ende in Sicht? Mh, sieht schlecht aus... außer wir finden ganz schnell 4 Artikel aus einer Fachzeitschrift, in der eine erfolgreiche Anwendung der Operations Research Applications in der Forst- oder Ölindustrie beschrieben wird, anhand derer wir kurze Absätze über problem solving und die mighty applications von OR schreiben können.
achja: Der Winter hat hier auch Einzug gehalten, erster Tag mit viel Schnee. (Nachdem es gestern T-shirt Wetter war.)
back to work, I wanna go home!!!
Purdue University, II - new place, new life
besuuuuuuuch!! - silvester on the hudson
christmas in nyc and nj
Just in time on christmas eve I came back to South Orange. After all that blinky and shiny Christmas decoration next to palm trees it was time to admire it in an environment that has more Christmas-like temperatures. I got a perfect christmas present! That Christmas eve, the package of my parents that we had already thought as being lost on its long way arrived. Juhu! Christmas eve itself i spent with some interns in Manhatten. one of them is living there and we had a nice christmas dinner - a mixture of indian and dutch cuisine. andy, rene and me then left to attend a midnight mess. originally, we wanted to go to St Patrick´s (the once in a lifetime opportunity...) but -sit down!- to enter St Patrick´s on Christmas you need to get tickets in advance...! the next time we might have a look at ticketmaster.com. unlike at home the streets are full of people on christmas eve. of course, most of them around the rock. and it´s kind of a strange feeling to wait in a dirty subway station on christmas... anyway, we went up to 84th Street to another Catholic midnight mess. they had wonderful musicians and a good preaching. although i hardly managed to stay awaken considering the 2 hours of sleep the night before.
On Christmas Day, I was invited to the vice president´s family for an American Christmas dinner. He has two daughters and a son, and besides me some more family members and friends were invited. There was a huge buffet (all cooked by himself) and probably food for the next two years. Very delicious! and a lot of fun! The whole house was decorated, Christmas carols in the background and somehow I found that special christmas peace.
Some images of American Christmas:
between the palm trees in Key West
Iselin, New Jersey
Texan ice cowboy in Dallas
new york city 
and finally, the one and only: the rockefeller christmas tree
florida roadtrip - welcome to miami!
FLORIDA - HOME OF THE SUNSHINEthe day after the end of my internship (12/17) i got up early, packed my stuff and drove to the airport to enter a plane (that i almost missed :)) heading towards Daytona Beach.
FREE!! There, Benni and Flo picked me up, we somehow managed to fill up the white Focus with our luggage AND us and entered the highway on our first miles of the big trip on the road....
DAY 1Daytona Beach is the beach where you are allowed to drive on with your car that we OF COURSE did. (Bosch doesn´t have to know ;)) However, that is the only attraction of Daytona Beach and since the sunshine was out of home we made our way along the coast down to Cocoa Beach where we stayed in a neat resort - and a two room suite after we had discovered that our cheap room was under construction... first 0815-night: Jakuzzi and swimming pool under the stars! (17th of DEC!) we also discovered Ron John´s Surf Shop....
Benni & the new stylish waveboardDAY 2Breakfast on the trunk deck ("oh no, the food is protected by the plastic foil when I cut it" ...) and then Kennedy Space Center. On the way we saw an alligator just besides the road! YES, a REAL one!! Pure wildlife..!! Flo and me ran out of the car to take some pictures. that, the state troopers didn´t like... two police cars and a big announcement through the speakers: "GO BACK TO YOUR CAR!!!" damn, big trooper is watching you everywhere! In a national wildlife park just south of the KSC we met some flamingoes and some more birds. but it got dark pretty soon (the usual race against the darkness) and we went on to Fort Pierce. A small (not even) town we just chose as destination because it seemed to be a convenient starting point for the next day. there´s nothing going on and we had to make several lovable u-turns to find our resort. 0815-night number 2: jakuzzi and swimming pool (this time including beer provided by the hotel manager) under the night sky... (19th of DECEMBER!)
breakfast on the trunk deck
the alligator
Benni, me & Flo, the fancy ones, at Kennedy Space Center...
...and "normal" in the wildlife park DAY 3next destination: Lake Okeechobee. (by rain.) the way was cool (a little jungle feeling), the lake was disappointing. West Palm Beach was the place to have lunch(sushi und tuna at the ocean). there are some quite nice houses over there - oceanview on both sides. who´s going to buy one??:) Because we thought there was still room for more tighteness in our white Focus (to go straight, just turn the wheel... but that won´t prevent it from shaking) we went shopping in a huge outlet near Fort Lauderdale after. It is said that FL is one of THE spring break locations. Consequently we thought there might be some party going on. that´s what we thought... empty streets everywhere. finally, we found a dance club and went in. well, it´s true that women danced there but i was the only female in the whole thing that had clothes on... so no party in FL ;) (alternatively, we could have gotten tatoos in one of the 30 tatoo shops next to our -actually quite good- hotel)
DAY 4we passed miami to hit our next destination: the Everglades. Unfortunately, we didn´t have time to stay there longer - it would have been big fun to camp and to make a larger hiking tour than the short walks we did!! The night we stayed in Key Largo, right on one of the first keys. Diner was delicious fresh dolphin fish. yummy!! since it was really expensive we shared one dish. Later on, we went to Arby´s to get some burgers against the hunger ;D 0815-night no3: Jakuzzi and swimming pool (with waterfall) surrounded by palm trees...
Everglades I
Everglades IIDAY 5the morning: a canoo trip through the mangroves of the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. the guys had to paddle and i was the guide ;) that´s why we got stuck in a dead end water channel... no, i have to admit i did it on purpose *g* it was really hard getting out of it again but the most fun :) the goal of the day was to watch the sunset in Key West. On the way (beautiful clear water!!!!) we took the oscar award winning movie "the coconut massacre" and relaxed a bit on the beach. I´m not sure if wwe actually arrived in Key West on time because it was a bit cloudy, but as the NASA slogan goes: Failure is not an option! So we voted for mission accomplished. :) ...and admired the southern most christmas tree... at night we reached our last location for this trip: south beach, miami. Welcome to Miami!
the hotel was pure luxury! however, what sucked about it was that they charge you for everything. As the receptionist said, too: welcome to Miami..!:)
stucked between the mangroves...;)
on the keys
the Southern most Christmas tree with fish decorationDAY 6Benni stole the car to drive back to Charleston, South Carolina. And Flo and me took the bus to be set off somewhere anywhere. we made our way to little havanna worriing about the soon coming darkness and the not available buses... so kept on walking absorbing the city. later, we counted the kms. the estimation is about 20km for that day. at night we went out to a bar in South Beach with live Latin American music. Crazy, crazy people down there! It´s glamour, craziness, and somehow tolerance and freedom. but at some stage it seemed to be rather the outer appearance than to be real deep. at least that was my impression. nevertheless, ´south beach is the mekka for going out. and the clubs and bars know it... high dress-code and upper level cover charges.
DAY 7the day of South Beach. and the last one of this trip, too :(
South Beach I
South Beach IIDAY 8flying back into the cold...
the most stressful two weeks i ever had and the end of my internship...
in einer bar (wo´s heiße schokolade in biertulpen gibt) mit der schönsten aussicht über die stadt
und im hintergrund al capones schatzkammer ;)
