Spring Break - Buffalo, St. Patrick's Day Parade, NHL and Niagara Falls (Week 29)

I spent the first 2 days of the spring break in Buffalo and Niagara. I departed at Friday at about 11am from Huntington with a Greyhound bus and arrived late at about 11pm in Buffalo, NY. As it was really late, I didn't do anything then - I just went to the hostel I stayed in and went to bed. Unfortunately, the walls were not really thick and I could hear all the noise from the club next to our hostel - but after some time I could fall asleep. The next day, I just wanted to look around in Buffalo, see the city and the NHL-game at the evening. But it came better than I could ever expect. I asked at the front desk, what I should see in the city and the girl behind the desk told me that there was a St. Patrick's Day parade going on that day. Just when I wanted to leave the hostel, I met a girl from Bavaria, Germany. After a short talk, she decided also to go to the parade. We first went to a military park (it should be a military museum on a ship), but unfortunately it was closed that day and we could only see it from the outside.

After we looked around a little bit, we left for the parade. A short walk later, we arrived at the intersection, where the parade should begin - but we were almost one hour too early there. But it wasn't a big problem, there was already a lot going on - the people at the houses made pre-parties with barbecue and beer. We just got a beer from a store on the street of the parade and just waited at the side of the street for the parade to begin. And then something unexpected happened, the owner of the house we were standing close to just invited us to have some of their hot dogs, tacos in a bag and Guinness beer. We gladly accepted the offer and had nice conversations with the family and their friends. After some time passed, the parade began and it was really nice to watch all the green dressed people and to listen to some doodling Irish people. After the parade, we also got invited to celebrate the St. Patrick's Day with the family in their house and we had some typical drinks for St. Patrick's Day. We drank a "car bomb" - a Guinness beer where you drop a shot of Jameson whiskey and Baileys into it - that was very good. We also went to an Irish Pub afterwards and we got even driven back to our hostel.

After we rested about an hour in our hostel, we went to the NHL game (we both had tickets for the game, which was just pure accident) of the Buffalo Sabres vs. the New York Rangers. 19070 people attended the game and it was just a great experience. The Rangers won with 2 - 0, I saw one power play, and one empty net goal, and also typically a fight of two players. The atmosphere was also really great and I will never forget this intense game :).

After the game we decided to go to the birthplace of the Buffalo Chicken Wings - a bar called "Anchor Bar". We had their Chicken Wings together with a Honey Brown Beer which was just delicious.

At the next day I went as planned to the Niagara Falls. I went by bus there, which took about one hour. First, I watched the Falls, which are about 53 meters (176 ft) high, from the American side and then I also went to the Canadian side, where you have a much better view of both of the falls - the American and the Horseshoe Falls. At the Canadian side there is also a really active district, where there is a lot going on and I had a good time there. I left at about 8:30pm back to Buffalo and caught the bus to New York City at 12:30 and went over night to NYC.

And right now I am sitting at the Times Square writing this blog post and I'm hoping that my time here will be just as good as it was in Buffalo/Niagara!

Week 29 - Midterms and Intramural Racquetball Champion

As I leave on Friday in the morning (and miss one class and one quiz) I have to post the weekly update today on Thursday. This week was all about midterms - on Monday I had my software engineering exam, on Tuesday I had digital image processing as well as 3d game development and on Wednesday I had my cyber security midterm exam. All of them went quite well - I already have the result for digital image processing and I'm totally okay with it (84/100).

Besides taking these exams and studying for it, I went climbing on Sunday and Wednesday. On Tuesday I should have my last racquetball game of the racquetball tournament, but my adversary did not show up -> so as I won all my other games I won the tournament now :).

Furthermore, I also went again to the Boxing Body Beatdown which is every Wednesday and we had our first soccer game on Thursday. I also went to Fat Patty's on Tuesday, went to Jake's on Wednesday and I'll also go out again to Fat Patty's today.

AND NOW: SPRING-BREAK, I AM COMING :D!!!!

Week 28 - Poker Night, International Party and Preparation for Midterm Exams

Again one week passed and I can say that it was an eventful and fun week. On Monday we went to the "Herd Talent Show" where 8 Marshall students performed various acts from singing to dancing. On Tuesday after I went climbing I had my second game of the Intramural racquetball tournament and I won it - so now I'm in the playoffs :). On the next day, I only had one class as one of our professors wasn't at the university that day and at the evening and night it snowed a lot - so classes on Thursday and on Friday got canceled :D. So the first free snow day had to get celebrated with a new run in the snow with only swimming wear and shoes. I also went climbing that day and we also played soccer on a field that was covered with 15-20cm snow which was really fun. At night we borrowed a poker suitcase and played poker with about 12 players which was also really nice.

On Friday after working on a few assignments in the morning, I went climbing again - and I completed a 5.10b route the first time :). Afterwards we played again snow soccer and at night we had again one of the International Student Organization parties (Unfortunately this time I don't have any pictures).

As I have 4 exams on the first 3 days of the next week I had (have) to study the whole weekend for my midterms... But after I complete these exams I'll go on my spring break trip to Buffalo, Niagara and New York and therefore I have something to look forward to :D.