Week 35 - ISO Party, Walking in Heels and Karaoke

It's again time for a short update after this quite eventful week is over. On Tuesday we went to a free show of the BBC Orchestra, which was quite nice and afterwards, we went to Jake's for a Karaoke night. I had to sing "Hollaback Girl" from Gwen Stefani because of a lost bet and it was just awful, because I didn't really know the song (and I cannot sing :). Of course, almost all of the others also sung and so it became a funny night.

On Thursday Matheus and I went to an event called "Walk a mile in her shoes". A lot of people walked a mile in heels and Matheus and I also participated. It was a walk against sexual assault and walking in the heels went better than expected as I didn't break my ankles :D.

On Friday there was the last party of the International Student Organization at Margharitas. That was of course a mandatory event for our group and I'm kind of sad now because the semester is almost over.

On Saturday I went to a fundraising event for Autism. We had dinner there and gambled Black Jack, Roulette, and Crabs with fake money. We would have become rich, if it would have been real money :). At the night we also had another party at a friend's house with a lot of people which was also really nice.

I also finished my traveling plans for after the semester. I'll go to Washington, D.C again, then to Lancaster where I will see the Amish. After that I'll go to Philadelphia, Boston and spend a few more days in New York City, before I'll catch my flight back to Austria on the 20th of May. I am looking forward to this, because I'll see my family and friends again in Austria, but it is also a little bit sad now, because I've made so many good friends here...

Week 34 - Beauty and the Beast Musical, Walmart Trolleys and Whitewater Rafting

Another week has passed and it's time for the next blog post. Now the semester goes into the final stage - there are only 3 more weeks until the end of the semester, so right now I have to make sure that everything is set for the final exams and project presentations.

On Tuesday, a few international students and I went to the free musical "The Beauty and the Beast" in the Keith Albee theater in Huntington (the normal tickets would be around 80$). It was a nice musical and I also took a few pictures (and got some from other people):

On Wednesday, we had again a poker night and this time we played with money - and I was lucky enough to win 10 dollars :). On Friday, we went to Walmart and wanted to try the American lifestyle. We tried to drive with the electronic trollies, they have there. I think they are just hilarious and the best thing is they beep like a truck when you go back with them. Unfortunately, it did not last long and some employee of Walmart came to me and asked me if I am disabled and told me to drive the trolley back... After we bought some stuff in Walmart we went out and also made a race with a normal trolley (our Fast and Furious 8 :D).

On Saturday, I had the highlight of the week. Another student and I went on a whitewater rafting trip organized by the recreation center of the university. We went to the New River Gorge, which is about 2 hours away by car and rafted for about 4 hours on the second oldest river on earth. It was really nice, the river had almost too much water, so that we could not do it (it was 10 feet (3 meters) above the normal level - and at 12 feet you have to do another route).

After I came back (at around 8:30pm) we also went out to Sharkey's. The next day I had to do some work for the university and at night we went out again as it was the end of the Greek Week and there was the block party at the fraternities.

Week 33 - ISO Party and Nice Weather

After the Cleveland-Trip I first had to catch up with some work for my classes. So from Monday to Thursday I got up early and went to the library to complete some assignments and other stuff. I also played tennis on Monday, went climbing on Tuesday and Thursday and we had another volleyball game on Wednesday - we lost again, but this time it was a little bit unlucky... The weather overall gets now a lot warmer. We are having a really April like weather now - either it is really warm and sunny or it is raining, and that can switch within a few minutes. But still it is so nice to be able to go running outside and do other activities again.

On Friday I went for a run with a friend from the university and we had our third International Student Organization Party. I wore my Lederhose, because I made an arrangement with a girl from Turkmenistan, that if I wear it she will wear a traditional Turkmenistan dress.

As the weather was really nice on Saturday, we rent bikes from the rec center and went to Ritter park, which is about 15 minutes away from the campus by bike. There we did sunbathing and played Frisbee and I got a little bit sunburned. At night we had another party at an American friend's house.

On Sunday I slept until noon and then went outside to study for my Spanish exam that I'll have on Monday. The weather was again awesome and I and my running buddy will go for another run.

Trip to Cleveland and the Niagara Falls

12 other international students and I traveled to Cleveland for a weekend trip from Friday to Sunday. We left at about 12:00 on Friday as it took us longer than expected to get the 3 cars, because of a changed policy of the car rental company. After a 5 hours drive we arrived at Friday evening in a small town about 15 miles (24 km) from Cleveland. We rested for a bit and then went to have dinner in Cleveland at a Turkish restaurant.

On Saturday, we spontaneously decided to go to the Niagara Falls, as all of the others haven't been there yet and it is only a 3 hours drive from Cleveland. We left at about 11am from the hotel, had an awesome drive there :) and spent the day at Niagara. It was nice to see the falls again and this time I also could see them at night when there are lights projected at the falls. Furthermore, we had dinner at the famous Hard Rock Cafe and I had a delicious burger.

On Sunday, we first went to a park that's on the Lake Erie, the fourth biggest lake of the states, spent some time there and then went to downtown, where we walked a bit around, had lunch and then we went to the NBA game of the Cleveland Cavaliers vs. the Chicago Bulls (basketball). The game was good and Americans just know how to make it an overall good experience with a lot of show acts in the breaks and time outs. After the game we went to have Korean dinner and then we drove back and arrived at around 4 in the morning.