The Ultimate American Experience - Advance Notice

I have now looked at the UT stadium many times, every time I walked over the campus. And even though I am not terribly interested in any kind of sport and all that is connected to the almost fanatic following of one sports team or another, the stadium seems to embody an artifact of immense importance. With the sun setting on this mild and gentle October evening, the stadium's ranks which tower into the blue sky resemble the ruins of the Roman Colosseum.

And as I look up at the hige walls I completely forget that actually I am only looking at tons of brick and masses of cement. For a moment there, these walls seem to be the most impressive thing I have ever seen. With every step I take, my view changes. Leaves and tree branches form an ever changing mosaic and pattern, vanishing from my visual gaze as stars appear and bats race over the early night sky. The sound of crickets and the occasional police siren far away make me feel so small in presence of the stadium that appears to represent the essence of American college life and popular culture. As important as the Colosseum has been in ancient times, as important is the UT football stadium to its students and fans in the region.

I know I now feel hopelessly romantic and it might sound crazy, but the campus is an incredibly beautiful place, more so during the night than during the day, and I am very proud to have the chance to be a part of this.

Next weekend I will be attending a game to see the stadium fulfill its destiny.

Louisa, Jessi and Bruce on Tour - Part 2

Today's trip:

Fredricksburg!

Tanja, Louisa and I went to Fredricksburg to see one of the German towns in Texas. And it was soo much fun! Fredricksbrgr is just perfect for shopping. So that's mostly what we did... And we grabbed lunch in the German Brewery. Yeah, it almost felt like home :)

On the way to Fredricksburg we got to know the country and its people: in a Dairy Queen in Johnson City, just 20 miles outside of Fredricksburg, the locals didn't know what "coffee" is. They offered frozen coffe and some pumpkin-slush-coffee-sugar-with-caramel-and-whipped-cream. Confronted with the tired question "Regular coffee...?" they just didn't know what to say, shrugged and looked away. Of course Tanja, Louisa and I then had to discuss in German whether to stay there and have some of that pumpkin-slush-coffe-sugar-with-caramel-and-whipped-cream-stuff or just keep on driving until we found a nice li'l coffe shop. We sooo are big town girls... So we left, got in our humongous Bruce and drove on. Then we stopped at a neat little gas station, got the worst coffee of our lives, found out what the locasl really eat and got on the road again.

When we arrived in Fredricksburg it started raining all the time. But that's okay, we spent our time shopping most of the time, anyways.

Louisa, Jessi and Bruce on Tour - Part 1

Today my friend Louisa arrived. Thus, the next week is going to be AWESOME!

The adventure already started on my way to the airport. Should have been an easy ride, I looked my bus connections up on the internet. But you know me, easy just doesn't work for me. I took the wrong bus. Or, more specifically: the right bus, but in the wrong direction. It was one of those routes that have the same bus stop because they make a loop and overlap for a while. And I even asked the bus driver if he's going to the airport. And I could sware he said airport and nodded. Well, I pretty soon found out that he was not going to the airport. At the sign that pointed ahead for the airport, he took a left turn and made his way back to the city. So I took a bus plan and got off the bus. In the middle of nowhere. I was standing in a neighborhood that looked even crappier than Riverside. I walked to the bus stop on the other side of the street to get back. A nice Hispanic man mowing his lawn wished me a good day, smiling underneath his gigantomanic mustache. I almost didn't see that because I was staring at his cowboy-hat. I smiled back and sat down at the bus stop, directly in front of his fence. No bus came. But I guess I could have gone with any car hunkin' their horns... I looked at the plan and the next bus would not come until 40 minutes later. I wouldn't make it in time to pick Louisa up from the airport. So I went to the Hispanic man and asked him if he had the number of a taxi company. He didn't speak English. Just my luck. "Taxi? Nooo, nooooo" (*shrug*) and then he pointed at a blue pick-up truck that just made its way along the road. I went over there. A smiling man of color, probably 60 years old or so, was sitting in the truck. He didn't have the number of a taxi company, but he didn't have anything to do that day so he would drive me to the airport.

Is that nice or what? So Bobby drove me to the airport. And he invited me to give him a call anytome I'd be in the neighborhood (never again!) and that he'd like to take me out to have seafood... Thanks, Bobby!

Then I picked up Louisa from the airport. There, the next adventure was awaiting us: We could pick out our rental car. They were out of Economy-Class cars, so we got an upgrade. And we had five cars to chose from: an eggshell colored PT Cruiser, a golden Honda, a black Dodge Avenger!! and two red Chrysler something"s that we didn't even notice anymore after having seen the huge Dodge! Well, the decision was an easy one, now we had to think about a name for that car.

This is what we expected to get:

And this is what we got! Introducing: Bruce!

Ask a Librarian

This country really stands out because of its technical and serviceable advances that make interpersonal interaction almost unnecessary. Talk about amazon.com, any other kind of internet shopping. Who goes out and buys stuff if you can let it be shipped to you? All you have to do is move a couple of fingers!
But here comes an innovation, that is awesome just as well as totally necessary for students: "IM a librarian" of UT, IM standing for Instant Messanger just as much as... well, I am. Great! It's a program that you can open from a computer anywhere, as long as you log in with your student ID code and password, and then it opens a messager window. So you can chat with a UT librarian if you have questions concerning research, where to find a book and how to get to a newspaper or journal article etc. This is so great! I have seen people do it in the library, sitting only a couple steps away from the information desk. And while I think that that might be a little overdoing it, I think the concept itself is very helpful and saves a lot of time!

Also, here you can request books from the people who checked them out, even before they have to give them back. So if a professor, grad student or TA has a book checked out for close to half a year, you can request it. He or she'll get an email, telling him or her to give the book back before, so that I can have it real quick. You can't keep it for very long, then, but still, you have it and can use it! That's just great. Having experienced professors check out books for a year with no chance to get it back from them, I was close to desparation because my paper needed to get done but I didn't have any chance of getting the literature I needed.

So, dear Uni Essen: This is how you could do things! This is how academia works efficiently. This is a REAL university!!

I love this. So now I'm going to request a book from some random person. Just for fun. Because I can.

Question of the day

What is this? These little ball-like objects in the tree? I really have no clue. It's about the size of a fist. Is it a bird's nest? (hah, thinking of a former friend, mistaking mistletoes for crow's nests. She was really convinced that that's where crows live. And sleep. Hilarious...) Or some kind of biological parasite? A plant? Is it indeed a mistletoe? I don't know, I am still learning about flora and fauna in this place. So please, tell me!! Always open for suggestions, here!