First day of school the day after...

I had slept eight hours in the last two nights before last night. My original plan was to go to bed early! Being faced with a wild party in my appartment I decided to get drunk to fall asleep easily. It got pretty out of control with a double appartment party here and next door. Hopefully, the next weekend is gonna be different...


Nice afterparty surprise in the morning when preparing breakfast...

Sleep is a rare good, privacy too! Welcome to On-Campus Housing!

Before coming to UConn I was somewhat concerned about getting healthy and retiring sleep. Not only because I share a small room with a stranger a longer period for the first time. But my sleep is generally interfered by small disruptions and I usually wake up with the first signs of daylight! Some of my blog's readers know how it feel's to share the bed with me - source of restlessness . However, feeling prepared for that new sleep environment, I put on my sleeping mask and my ear plugs and went early to bed last night to retire from the excess the night before. In the mid of the night, I woke up. Three girls stood  in my room asking me what I was doing. Somewhat dazed and confused I said that I was sleeping. After a while I realized that this girls were Shannon my neighbor and Kathryn and Kaitlyn, two friend's from australia. No strangers in my room. All right! Ladies, I still don't understand what was the purpose of your appearance. However, I was awake. So I put on some clothes, went into the living room meeting the girls and my roommates there and played wodka roulette! My roommates told me, I really thought they were kidding me, that there was another girl in my room before too! They said her name is Anna and that she is the only American among the exchange students. I had talked with her once some days ago. People just come into my room while I am sleeping! What the fuck is going on here?

But one thing for sure: I WILL TAKE REVENGE FOR THAT! :)

American Sunday

I missed the big party last night. My australian companions were too afraid of Irene's arrival. So we went to my place again hung out, drank a lot and listened to music till four in the morning. Szymon was so drunk that I had to put him into my bed. Who bet on my blackout was right. I have a little one. I don't remember how I got into my bed. All I know is that I woke up in the morning having Szymon next to me. We didn't spooning nor we were naked. Szymon felt awfull refusing even breakfast. The poor boy did a 40 minutes walk home through the rain facing the absence of electricity when he arrived there. Fuck you, Irene! 

I was more lucky. I spent a great meat & fun sunday afternoon with my roommates. We hung out in the living room, had some self made chicken wings and ham, drunk some bear and watched television. I like!

Participation & Observation

The campus is now pretty crowded. Most of the students are moving in these days. The parking slots in front of my residence hall Charter Oaks, deserted for one whole week, look like that now...

Among the cars there are a lot of hot rides. Indeed, Americans really have partiality for cars...

Sitting at my desk writing these lines, I am listening to the bouncing beats of 50 Cent's In da Club blasting out from the huge music system in the living room. My american roomates moved in today. They have brought with them TV's, a XBox, a drinking roulette, a barbecue and a lot of other stuff. They are nice guys and they have cars. That's good for me! Steve and Bobby seem to be real party kids and laid back. So I am sure we gonna have a good time together.

The school start party marathon started last night. Having a quite night of retirement yesterday, I will take part today. Long planned, I hope that Irene won't destroy my plans showing her bad rainy face before the night. However, I feel excited, but also afraid of getting mad. In the last days I was thinking often about how it feels and what it means to be a student here. Although the semester still didn't start really, it is apparent that life here is pretty possessive. The european lifestyle of individualism doesn't seem to exist here. If it is the big family barbecue with approximately 1000 people yesterday, the watching of the soccer game today, or just being in the appartment with my roomates - collectivism marks the main pattern of orientation. This idea is so strong that there is no other choice as participation. Student now, Husky Forever!

Nevertheless, something resists within me and will always resist. I feel it is the german liability to musing, which avoid my complete adaptation here. This part of my personality feels like being in a inner immigration. However, it's influence is small fortunately, probably because this environment doesn't provide a real option. Being a crank would cause isolation. That's not the way things work here. I am in the country of the go-getters. So I just jump in at the deep end as a participant observer/observing participant. I am excited to see how I will manage this tension especially at the big party tonight. I have my camera with me trying to catch impressions of an american student party! So there's a lot at stack. I know me and some of you know me probably too. Regarding the experience, the odds are high that I get lost tonight. I would bet on my blackout! :) However, I promised my mum to be a goody boy. We will see...

Community Standards

After my arrival on sunday, the orientation week started with a great adventure on monday afternoon. Three yellow school busses picked us up  (nearly 150 students) bringing us to Wal-Mart, where we bought stuff for our rooms: SHOPPING FEVER! The return was a complete mass or rather a tetris task. Each of us had bought a lot carrying his stuff in huge plastic bags or cases. The whole bus was full with shit and I stuck in my seat! But it was pretty funny...

Having survived the busodyssey, later on we met with 50 people of our group in front of someone's residence hanging out on the grass with some beers. The fun was over soon when the residence security person's asked all of us to go. The guys who arranged the meeting were lucky. They just got a warning. However, the crowd moved on seeking for a new place to stay because drinking is absolutely forbidden on the campus. I suggested to go my place with my pretty big living room. So I had  between 20 and 30 people in my appartment. But everything went well without damages, a mess and even no real trouble. I even not only managed to smooth the security women, but make them to like. Appreaciating my honestness and my promise to make sure things wouldn't get out of control, I had a really nice conversation of one hour with them and Steve and Szymon. The women felt entertained and enjoyed themselves. I also got to know the residence student assistant of my building, who sent me even greetings out of a car. I could remember a few names of the people I had, but they all remembered mine. This was a real social networking night for me and a big fun...

The next day we heard endless speeches from several offices and services about campus rules, correct behaviour and husky student creeds which reminded us all the rules we had broken in the last night. It is good to that so many people take care of the exchange students. However, I can't hear anymore the word "help". Indeed, all these offices help in a emergency case. Nevertheless help also ciphers a bulk of highly regulated obligations and restrictions. Citing the agent of the office for community who talked about the dangers of alcohol and drug use: "We want to help students. We are not the bad guys." The tone of a lot speekers were basically moralistic. I felt my conscience shaking, whenever the officer of the Connecticut police department with his emphatic voice said: "This is a crime!"
I am excited to see how students will respect the strict campus rules during the semester...

Pleasantville

I live now at the University of Connecticut. This campus is huge, but full of contradictions or rather a lot of advantages and disadvantages. Pretty comparable with a american suburb, the place is composed of

many settlements with row houses, endless backstone buildings and perfect looking lawns. Cleaniness and order creats a smug and artificial atmosphere, which makes me feel like living in pleasantville. This is changing already and will be over when the arrivals of the american students at the weekend resurrect the campus. However, on the other hand it is a really beautiful area regarding nature and vegetation. There are not only a lot of great spots on the campus like the amazing lakes. The whole campus is surrounded by forests, which provide silence and enable a deep breathe. As soon as I have a bike I will take a ride through the marvelous woods. As the shot below indicates, although it is pretty fuzzy, I met even some deers on my way...

Goodbye New York

After waking up yesterday morning somewhat hangovered I went to Union Square to buy a pair of sneaker. Being bored and exhausted from shopping I decided to chill out outside for a while having a game with one of these chess playing guys. There are many of them and they play at Union Square everyday for a donation of three bucks. It was fun although I lost.





In the late afternoon I arrived "home". The building where Ed lives has a great neighborhood, friendly and closley connected. Next door works a German photograph from Munich who lives with this wife and two kids here. When you walk along the hall you see many open doors where people practicing music, doing art or business. Children play under supervision of their parents in the hall or residents hang around smoking a cigarette. It is a really lovely atmosphere. So I met Chris and Caroline yesterday in the hall. We smoked a cigarette, forget the time chatting and hung out at the roof later on. I am a little bit sad to leave that place. It is really cool and just beautiful...

In the late evening I met Alex and we went out with a friend of him in a bar in Williamsbourg. The photo below express my shock treatment. We were dancing  when I suddenly perceived the shrill voice of Nena singing 99  ballons. Everyone around freaked out while I was completely overchallenged with a song where I usually would leave the dancefloor. I did and repeated the treatment two more times haha...The evening with Alex, Nick and Collin was great. We were holding the sides laughing almost the whole time.

Now I am heading to UConn. Goodbye New York. See you again in autaumn!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl_e7UW-bz8

Manhattan II

Yesterday I took the subway uptown and went out at 145th street in Harlem. I walked downtown along St. Nicolas Avenue, made stop there for a short gasketball game with some boys,  and moved on across Malcom X Boulevard to Central Park. Harlem is a really nice area. The many backstone buildings, the wide streets with a big trees aside and the comfortable stairways of the brick row houses create the familar atmosphere of a neighborhood. Compared to the drubness in some area's of Brooklyn with it's ruinous industrial buildings I immediately felt home in Harlem.

At the Northeast Entrance of Central Park I was faced with the Duke Ellington Memorial. The "Duke", his nickname because of his noble manner of orchestrating, was one of the central representatives of Harlem's rise in the 1920's when Jazz started it's triumph march conquering the globus. The popularity of Jazz fed the black people with a new self-confidence and proudness of their culture. Harlem was the center of that movement.
Central Park is an unbelievable green oasis surrounded in the mid of endless skycrapers. Going on small paths the nearly complete silence  made me forget for a while that I am in NYC. It was a discovery where I got lost on my way and had to take a extra walk.

After two hours of a somewhat exhausting walk I arrived at the Met. Haha, yes, the next big thing in the every tourists's sights plan. I have never seen so many tourists, concentrated at one place, before since I am in New York. In fact, that is the museum mile. However, in Met I visited the second floor with the big collection of classical paintings. The visit of a museum is usually pretty overwhelming. One get in and see a endless number of paintings or whatever. What stays in mind is usually nothing else than the fact having been in the museum. That is why I tried to focus my attention to the pieces that really catched my eye. I want to mention at least two of them. "The silver turee" of Chardin; a still life that express elements of food AND chase. Secondly, "The calmaddy children" of Sir Thomas Lawrence, which made me getting lost in the eyes of the girl; the most vivid glance ever expressed painterly.

But enough about higher culture. On my way back to Brooklyn I made some errands despite facing the emerging bad thunderstorm. When I wanted to leave the book store it suddenly began to rain badly. The lashing rain turned the streets and sidewalks into ripping rivers. Brave as I am, I decided to plunge into the rain...30 seconds later I was completely soaked. What a odd day. First I got sunburnt and later soaked.

Last night I went out for the first time. I visited the grass roots bar in the lower east side meeting some friends of Alex there. It was an interesting experience to take part in american pub conversation. It is loud yelling with cross over talking. After three beers things ran better. The higlight of this bar is the dukebox, which allows guests to choose the music. For one buck you pick four songs. Really cool idea! And it looks like a hell machine, doesn't it? Actually the highlight of the evening occured when this girl said I would look like Jude Law. That's kind of cool as I need not to introduce myself anymore as the german slut aeh stud.

Later on I moved on alone to Fat Cat Jazzclub. Some people had recommened that place. Well, the club was pretty empty, people mostly busy with playing pool, dart or tabletennis. But the music was great, especially in the morning when some guys jam sessioned spontaneously. The music was awesome, smoothy and laid-back.
Besides I played chess against a semi-professional dude. Having a ELO-ranking about 2000 he defeated me badly with glock. Without glock I reached a draw. Bars in New York stop selling alcohol at 4 in the morning. Being in very good party spirits I was disappointed of course. But actually it avoided me to screw things up. For now... :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xomhEvsuwg 

Manhattan

Today I had my first longer stay in Manhattan. Leaving the subway at 14th street, I started my walk along 5th avenue downtown to the Washington Square Park. It is a nice small park in Greenwich Village. When I arrived there in park's center at the fountain the sun had been begun to shine lovely and I was highly delighted about the unexpected warmth and brightness. That was a turning point at this day. Moreover I met four street musicians, who did a great jazz jam session there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1UTzpzgyIc

Direct next to Washington Square Park is the library of the NYU with access only for NYU students. However, I had a short view onto the entrance hall. The floor with classic shiny black and white tiles, marmor walls and long metallic stairs in front of a huge wall of big windows make the hall noble and unique. Compared to that the Grimm Center's entrance area is simple and boring. Maybe this comparison is not fair. Indeed, the hall's imposingness display the exclusiveness and prestigeousness which is characterstic for NYU's self-conception. However, I wasn't possible to catch the hall with a shot. The hall is  just too big.

In the New Museum of Modern Art at Bowery I visited the exhibition "ostalgy". Presenting different artworks like videos, photos, collages and sculptures of nearly 50 artists, the exhibition give various insights about how art was related to to the socialistic policital regime and  the ways it expressed the people's life in the Sowjet Union. The paintings of Sergey Zarva made a lot of impression to me. Combining Realism and Expressionism, he presents deformed faces with mutant obscureness, which display people's former self beyond surface purity and order.

Walking along Bowery downtown  I moved on to Chinatown. Being tired of the exhibition, I bought some food, chilled down at a playing field somewhere in Chinatown and took a nap. On my way to the subway station East Broadway, I suddenly realized that the East River still have been just a short track away. So I went to the riverside and made a nice shots of the Manhattan Bridge and Manhattans Skyline with Brooklyn Bridge...

New York is a really huge enjoyment for the eyes. Where ever you look you see something stunning and exciting!

First impressions of Brooklyn

Today I made some errands - most important one the buy of my digital camera. After dinner I climbed to the roof of the building where I stay these days. Unfortunately I had already to leave five minutes after my arrival there with Alex. Bad Luck. So I could just make one shot of Manhattan's night panorama. I add shots of the building and flat where I live.

However, not too bad. Instead Alex gave me a short lecture about how music of The Beatles became influenced by drugs and experimental efforts in the late 60's. Songs like "Revolver", "You want to give me your money or especially "I want you" display experimental madness that is quite similar to Pink Floyd. Listen to the guitar...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4CzqrPZtXk

Arrival at New York at night

I arrived at Newark Airport at 9 pm. My friend couldn't catch me up because he stuck in Manhattan's traffic. A fire had been broken out and the firemen blocked three streets. Unexpected incidents - that is New York I guess. So I took the train to Penn Station. I found myself directly next to Madison Square Garden when the guys picked me up. Stunning. The drive with the care from Penn Station to Brooklyn had been taking forever. Through Chinatown we went along fifth avenue, this amazing skycraper which stood brightly and quietly like a cathredale in the night, in front of us, to bowery over Williamsbourg Bridge right to Brooklyn. The streets were empty and I imagined a night cruise with the bike. But I had no camera with me.

In Brooklyn we had dinner at kellog's diner - the first american diner in my life. Hungry like a wolf I had the best Burger and Fries ever.

The first person I met in New York talked german to me. When I was outside in front of the diner for a cigarette I asked a girl for lighter. Surprised about her response "Nein" we began to chat with each other. She is from Ireland and asked me to teach her german for her grammar examinatios next friday. She offered to pay 15 dollars per hour.  First night in america, first job offer! I will see what comes out of that as she was drunk and seemed to me kind of fucked up and rude.

I got out now to buy a camera. Next post will be with fotos...

Cheers,
Lars