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From Abroad

So, I should probably be asleep (or getting ready to go to sleep), especially with my proclivity for a run every morning, but instead I figured I would discuss a couple of my thoughts about my first full day here (which was SO long!).

Last night they told us they didn’t have heat in the hostels (dorms). Okay, I though, no big deal… Hong Kong is a sub-tropical climate. WRONG. I almost froze to death. Never again am I taking heat for granted. 46 degrees, one little blanket, and no heat. I ended up sleeping under my winter coat most of the night and still being cold. I have another blanket and a mattress pad for my wooden block of a bed so hopefully tonight’s sleep will be much more pleasurable.

We had a day-long orientation today… pretty much like WVU’s orientation for the most part. The US Consulate came and spoke to us after our Cantonese class (which I can tell is going to be just about as successful as Italian classes were for me… great haha) about what to do if we lose our passport, if we go to the hospital, about how the visit American citizens in prison in a foreign country once a quarter and can’t really do anything to get you out of jail…

Afterwards a local student took a group of us to dinner at this Thai place in town. We all kind of ordered different things and tried a little bit of everything. We had a traditional Chinese lunch today (which is so different from Americanized Chinese food) and you just put everything on a turn-table and get what you want with your chopsticks.

Culture shock hasn’t really hit yet and I’m not sure why. Maybe because Hong Kong is kind of like any Chinatown-esque place in America? Maybe I have done enough traveling I’m not affected like I used to be? Or maybe it just hasn’t hit yet because we’ve only been in town (which is still considerably larger than Morgantown… the University here is considerably smaller and this town is considered the countryside!).

No pictures yet, trying to let everything sit in and settle first.

It hasn’t even been a week since I left Morgantown, but so much has happened already. Between going to DC to get my Visa, a ten-hour international flight, getting accustomed to a city with over ten million people, and starting intensive Portuguese classes, life has been moving fast. I am finally starting to settle into this new experience yet still can’t help cracking a smile every now and then when I stop to think just how wonderful this opportunity is.

I was very stressed when I finally got through the Rio de Janeiro airport, but as soon as I got out, took a look at this beautiful city, and caught the breeze of the coastal air, I was ecstatic. Being in Rio de Janeiro is simply wonderful.

I had some doubts last year when thinking about study abroad and where to go; I didn’t know if it would make sense to study jazz outside of the US, the birthplace of the genre. In hindsight, I could not imagine a better option for me. One of the first jazz albums I ever listened to was Getz/Gilberto (I highly recommend it), the album that typified the bossa nova craze, and the origin of the hit Girl from Ipanema. Now, I am in the very birthplace of this music, and I have even eaten in the Garota de Ipanema restaurant, in which Antonio Carlos Jobim wrote that very song, inspired by an enticing woman on the beaches of Ipanema (they are incredibly inspiring).

The city is incredibly beautiful, as I hope you see from my pictures. Please enjoy and there will be many more to come.

A beautiful waterfall at a park inside the city (Interesting note: Rio has the largest urban gardens in the world, which really contribute to the city’s charm).

A beautiful view of the city from the top of one of the university buildings.

There’s some really striking graffiti in the city; I’ve been quite entranced by it.

Pictures from a trip to the Botanical Garden with fellow exchange students.

The footprints of renowned Brazilian soccer player Pele.

Some views of downtown Rio.

The amazing vistas atop a mountain overlooking the city.

Paz (peace),
Colin

Hey guys… I’m back and excited to be blogging about my semester exchange at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. I’m glad I am blogging again because I wanted to make a wrap-up post about my month in Italy but never really got around to it haha.

Anyway, yesterday I went to Morgantown to say goodbye to most of my friends from home that go to WVU as well as my sorority sisters and my assorted other WVU friends. Yesterday was a hard day! It finally hit me about Wednesday that I’m leaving for over four months… which, in theory, isn’t very long.. it’s only a semester… but it is 1/8th of my college career.

I had most of my packing done until I came to my grandparents (since I am again flying out of Pittsburgh) and not only accumulated things for my trip I thought I needed to stock up on (ie little things like cold medicine, Clif Bars (I LIVED off them in Italy), and toothpaste) as well as a couple new pairs of shoes and all the clothes I ordered that I was having shipped here because I didn’t think they would be in Beckley in time.

I’m really excited for Hong Kong weather, minus the smog, which I am a little anxious about. Especially being a runner, I hope it doesn’t affect me! It is supposed to be 70 degrees in Hong Kong on Friday and I think in the low teens in Morgantown!! I chose the spring to study abroad because a) my classes are all block scheduling and this is the only time I could do it and b) I HATE Morgantown winters. I drove through a nice blizzard last night on my way home and would be content to not see snow again for several years.

I have also been preparing by doing lots of American things. I have travelled to Europe twice and I really don’t get homesick, but I get America-sick. I start missing little American things we take for granted… but I think I’m well-prepared and Hong Kong is one of the biggest cities in the world (even though I’ll be outside the main city, Central) so I think I will be okay! English is also one of Hong Kong’s official languages, so I have that going for me too!

I’m off to finish packing alterations and you’ll hear from me in a couple days when I arrive in Hong Kong! Ciao!

Three new bloggers are joining the site for the spring semester. The first, Cassandra Pisone, is a familiar face. This is her second stint as a WVU blogger. Her first was during the Disegno Italia program last summer. Follow along this semester as she studies as an exchange student at Lingnan University in Hong Kong.

Our other new bloggers are taking us to two new countries for Blogging from Abroad: Brazil and Denmark. Colin Wood has escaped winter in the northern hemisphere and is studying in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as part of the Music Alive! exchange program. He will document his time there through videos and photos.

Molly Roush will join the site later this month when she heads to Denmark for the semester.

As always, please feel free to leave comments for our new and continuing bloggers!

Silent night, holy night…

We sang this carol in yesterday’s Christmas mess that I attended. Singing this was very nice, not only because it is a beautiful piece of music but it comes from Austria.

In Oberndorf, a town at the Salzach River, not far from where I grew up the local priest Joseph Mohr faced a problem on 1818’s Christmas Eve. The organ did not work but he had to carry out a mess. So he asked the organist, Franz Xaver Gruber to create a melody for Christmas lyrics he Mohr composed two years earlier.

And within this very Christmas Eve’s afternoon he composed the world’s most famous Christmas carol. Nowadays it is translated into 300 different languages or dialects and hence sung all over the world.

This video shows an Austrian boy’s choir, singing the original lyrics that are now almost 200 years old.

Stille Nacht

I wish you all a very merry Christmas or “Frohe Weihnachten” as we say in Austria.

While writing these lines, I’m right now sitting in an Chevy Pick-Up Truck heading back to Morgantown. It’s raining heavily for hours now, the window wipers make a horrible noise and I am actually being late for my own farewell party? at least, Modest Mouse keeps my mood up.

Colin (who is actually steering the truck, you know him from earlier posts) and I went to Mooresville, NC. This city is not only home to dozens of NASCAR racing teams, but also USA headquarter of the Weinig Group. This is a German company building machinery for the wood industry. Colin’s master thesis deals with utilization of low grade lumber by the means of fingerjointing and that’s exactly what we were up to, earlier this day.

On the way southwards, we stopped at new river gorge. It was really worth seeing it. What a bridge.

Fingerjointing is nothing more than milling a zig-zag-pattern in the on end at a board and joining it with another board with exactly the same grooves. If you apply some glue, you can easily achieve a very good bonding. Now, this Weining Group build pretty decent devices who do this almost automatically. And since Colin had a lot to fingerjoin he was glad that he could do it at their facility.

Not the very best, but a good example of a fingerjoint. This one is unfortunately a bit misaligned but you can see the tines.

Therefore we took a university truck, filled it with wood and headed south. Unfortunately we had the wettest weather imaginable, especially on the way back. After a night in a random business traveller hotel we processed the boards, filled the truck now with 8 ft long planks and headed north again. The weather was heavy rain alternating with exceptionally heavy rain and storm gusts.

This is the machine we made the joints with. A very decent device, made in Germany. I am acutally playing with the thougt of applying for a job at this company… Ah, we’ll see.

In Princeton, WV, we stopped by to meet Robert Kincaid, President of Accurate Millworks Inc., a company producing wooden shutter components. Colin interviewed him to learn about the economic background of fingerjointing (a technique used by Accurate Millworks).

When we were done with this interview the watch showed 5pm. Unfortu nately we thought, that we’ll be back at around 6pm so I invited friends for a farewell party at our home. So, this party is starting in exactly one hour and we are right now in – just a second, need to ask Colin – he say’s he doesn’t really know where we are, a few miles from I-79. The map tells me, we’re right now not far from Hookersville.

So… I am going to be late to my own party – embarrassing, isn’t it? Thanks to my new laptop and a battery life of about 6 hours, I can take the opportunity and tell you about my last days in Morgantown. Final went well (thanks to fortunate choice of courses, I only had one), all my courses are over. I will write another post wrapping up my MoTown experiences on- and off-campus later.

My flat mate Eric has his convocation on Sunday. We’re invited to attend this event and I’m looking very forward to that. In Austria graduation (getting the bachelor degree) is nothing special – we just go to the dean’s office and get a confirmation, that’s it. But getting the master degree (which is the Diplom-Ingenieur – engineer’s diploma) is a very big thing.

Addendum: Since Eric successfully graduated today, I am glad to congratulate to this major achievement. And I can blog another nice picture ; )

Anyway – after convocation we might go with Eric’s family back to Washington and rent a car there, or go with Eric northbound (maybe Vermont), to be honest, we don’t know yet, depends even a bit on the weather. In the meantime we made it to I-79, still it is raining as strong as all day, brrr?

Our next big goal is New Year’s Eve in New York City. We already booked a hostel room there and – believe me – we’re looking very forward to go there. It’ll be even nicer, since we’re going to meet there a friend from the BOKU, Helmut, who’s going to start his semester abroad in the United States right when we leaving. He will be in Atlanta, though, and I hope he will write a blog, too.

Okay, we’re just passing Exit 79/Burnsville (I’m a pretty slow writer, when it comes to English) and I am ending the last post of my blog during the regular semester. There’s a lot different if you make a semester abroad. Not only food tastes different, you’re constantly meeting people from places you didn’t even know they existed; not only you’ll visit more cities in a few month than ever before; not only that you’re living in a different time zone. I am absolutely positive, that I was living in a different time speed? The last month just flew by and a hardly can believe it’s already almost over!

Hey folks! Sorry for my long absence at the blog – I was on my longed for Thanksgiving trip. We had nine days and wanted to cover as much as possible. And we did: Niagara Falls, Toronto, Kingston, Montreal, Washington DC, Fallingwater and Pittsburgh! If you want to know exactly what we did there, I need to refer to my German blog: http://hannes-in-america.blogspot.com!

About a month ago Lorenza and Giulia (two exchange students from Italy) as well as Doris and me were discussing what we wanted to do for Thankgsgiving. Since all of us already spent some hundred bucks in flight we thought about renting a car and make a roadtrip. This should save us some money (if we were succesful will be unveiled a the end of this post). We wanted to start on Friday and Doris and me had to be back in Washington on Wednesday, the 26th. Of course we wanted to cover as much as possible and so we decided for the following route:

This should allow us to see Niagara Falls, Toronto and Montral within 6 days. Again, I uploaded some pictures to illustrate our journey and hope you enjoy reading about it.

I-79 north for five hours. That is pretty much all you have to do to see the Niagara Falls. And all you students in Morgantown who’ve never been there before: let me tell you, it’s worth it.

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We arrived there in the evening and just had a short stop before we proceeded to our couchsurfing host who was situated in St. Catherines, just 15 min away. On the next morning we went back to the falls, found a surprisingly cheap parking spot for the day (only 5$) and enjoyed this wonder of nature in the daylight.
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You can not only see those cascading waters from above, but take a journey behind the falls, too. It was awesome to hear, see and actually feel the power of the Niagara Falls. And we’ve been there in the wintertime – it has to be even more impressing in the sommer, when twice as much water is travelling down 150 feet free fall.
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After this unforgettable experience we entered our rental car (a Kia Spectra) again an drove northbound, heading to Toronto. Again, we found a couchsurfing host for the night. Unfortunately we hade to learn, that it can happen that the same address occurs in two different places in Toronto. If you don’t doublecheck the zipcode (and I didn’t) chances are good the you find the right address but the wrong house. We found a one story house in a quite, one-story-house neighborhood whereas we were supposed to end up in a 39-floor building in downtown Toronto.

Anyway, about an hour later we arrived at the right spot and, man, surprise surprise. Our host Zoe lives in a brandnew appartment “tower” with parking garage, lobby and even a concierge. Not the average couchsurfing experience : ) Zoe offered rare combination of an upscale flat and an unbelievably generous and open personality. It was a pleasure to stay there. And later this night it got even better when we discovered that the penthouses in the top floor were not yet finished, not locked and hence a great opportunity to shoot a great picture of a great city.
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Here a picture of the four students of us, Zoe and her dog. By the way – it is a great example for the distortion of an image if you use low focal lenght (low zoom) – my face is actually not twice as big as Giulia’s ; )
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No sightseeing in Toronto without the CN-Tower. Incredible.
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This evening we left Toronto for Kingston. Denise – a good friend of ours from Vienna – is staying for an exchange semester at the local university. Although it was officially not allowed to host people in the rooms, nobody seemed to care and we slept well in the dorm room. Kingston was a perfect break since it is situated perfectly between Toronto and our next goal Montreal. And if you ever drive on that road, consider to make a short detour on the Thousand-Islands-Parkway. I admit, that the end of November is prolly not the best season to visit this beatiful piece of land, still I had to opportunity to take a picture full of atmosphere as you can see above.
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Montreal… hmm. After all we heard about this city we decided to spend two nights there and only one in Toronto. I wish we would’ve done it the other way around. I mean I liked Montreal and it is worth a visit, though I was a little disappointed due to three reasons. First, Americans love Montreal for it’s European attitude. I agree it IS quite European and I was reminded on France or England when I walked through the streets. Still this is nothing thrilling for me. Second is the end of November definetely not a good time to visit Montreal – half of the shops and restaurants in the Old Motreal were closed and there were hardly any people on the streets. Third, the weather was the worst you can imagine – cold, windy and raining. Anyway – the picture shows Lorenza, Giulia and Doris and you can even see the Olympic Center in the background.

Due to the mist we spent our second day completely in the underground. In every other city I know this would be hardly intersting, but Montreal has a unique subsurface shopping “world”. Hundreds of shops and restaurants in several downtown buildings are connected by underground walkways. We hiked across downtown Montreal without stepping outside even once – unbelievable.

Early next day we drove back to the United States. Lorenza and Giulia planned to spend Thanksgiving in Boston and New York so I delivered them to the Greyhound bus stop in Albany. Doris and me traveled further directly to Washington DC. We were invited at Eric Jaesches family for Thanksgiving. And not just Doris and me, but also my father. He managed to book a flight that brought him to Dulles this very evening. So we had a little family reunion. But since my father was very tired due to the long flight and I was very tired due to the long drive (800 miles in 12 hours straight), so we had a good night’s sleep.
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The Thanksgiving day itself started with a tour through the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum. My father as well as Doris and me enjoyed this interesting collection of aviation very much. And guess what… I took the opportunity to make some nice pictures : ) just like aboves from the fasted aircraft ever, the Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird.
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...or what do you think abour this one. The astronout is floodlight so brightly and the background so dark that it even seems it’s levitating in the free space.

Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of the feist itself but let me tell you, that is was delicious, generous and we enjoyed it soo much to be able to participate at this very american experience.
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Black Friday. Instead of going shopping we planned to see some museums and exhibition in Washington DC. Unfortunately we were not the only ones who decided to do so. But after we eventually found a parking spot, we could see some of those sights, most Europeans only know from TV. And we started with good old Albert : )
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... the Lincoln Memorial close by…
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...an from a little further away.
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As I mentioned earlier, I grew up on a farm in Salzburg. My parents are still operating it, keeping a livestock of around 200 goats. Still my father is a very interested and knowledgeable person. Considered that he learned English only in elementary school, 35 years ago, it is astonishing how well he still speaks it, allowing him to have conversation without any big problems – respect.

I am very glad that he took the time to visit me. He’s not only a very busy farmer but also currently running for mayor in my hometown Seekirchen. So I really appreciated his visit and hope I could show him some interesting apects of the States.
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Finally I have to say Thank You to family Jaeschke, again. They hosted us for three nights in there beatiful home close to Washington. They shared breakfast and dinnertable with us, supplied us with great advice and hints and even allowed us to participate in the familiy’s Thanksgiving meal. We greatly appreciated that and hope we can give back this hospitality if you ever visit us in Austria.

So this was our Thanksgiving trip. Costed us around 90$ for transportation, since we shared the car and gas expenses by four. Accomodation was free everywhere since we couchsurfed again : )

Weekend of Fun

Spanish Riding School
As an Agricultural major, I figured that since I am in Vienna it would be a shame for me to not go to the Famous Spanish Riding School. So my fellow colleague, Abbie Green (A Horse Science Major from England) went to a show at the Spanish Riding School. The Lipizzan horses are a breed of horses that start out black in color. Then as they age, they transition to a bright white. They are very beautiful animals that can do some very interesting tricks- for lack of a better word. Abbie and I were on the 2nd level looking down. The show was very well choreographed. At the end of a 2 hour show there were still spots in the arena that had never been touched. Alas, we were not allowed to take pictures during the show, but I did get some pictures of the beautiful riding hall.

Mauthausen
On Saturday morning, I traveled with the Erasmus Student Network to a place outside of Linz, Österreich. Mauthausen, is a town that was a former Nazi concentration camp from 1938-1945. Most of the concentration camps in Europe have been destroyed, but Mauthausen is well preserved as a memorial for those who suffered in the concentration camps. It was quite heart wrenching experience seeing photos, memorabilia, and listening to stories by our guide. I walked through the small bunkers that thousands of people where put in, the gas chambers, showers, and incinerators that were all used during WWII.

Nussknacker Ballet
Sunday, after the quieting trip to Mauthausen, I enjoyed a ballet with my some friends from my church here. Again I was not able to take photos during the Ballet, but I took several mental pictures. I have determined that “The Nut Cracker” is one of those things that everyone knows, but doesn’t know. We have all heard of it, but most people can’t tell you the entire story line. So of the fifteen people that were there with me- none of them could give me a definitive answer as to what The Nutt Cracker was about- we made some good assumptions though. So I watched the ballet without prior knowledge, but I enjoyed it none the less. We were in standing because that was the cheapest, only €1.50!! Standing room was at the very top and it was good because I could see all the choreographed patterns and color coordination. Thankfully, I was able to sit on the steps for a good portion of the show. Otherwise, I don’t think I could have stood for 2 hours. I love that there is so much to do in one city.

Skating
I can do it?
One of the unique things about being an international student is that you are not bound to a tight schedule. It is a lot like being a kid again, because you are in an environment where new to all of it. It has been interested for me to go from a very structured and busy life in the States- to a life where I wake up in the morning and don’t have a set schedule of what must get done for the day. A classic example of this occurred the Monday following my fun filled weekend. I went to class from 9-11am and afterwards I meet up with my fellow native speakers Jess & Abbie. We went to do some shopping and then just decided to go ice skating. I have only been skating one time in my life (about a year ago) and that required about 5 people to help me. I told Abbie and Jess that I couldn’t skate on my own and I don’t think they realized the severity of my statement until we got on the ice.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Kellen

Ni How! [Hello in Mandarin-the language they speak in mainland China, which is different from Cantonese(the language they speak in Hong Kong)]

Since being in Hong Kong, I have been very fortunate to be able to travel a few places in Asia. Towards the beginning of my arrival in Hong Kong I got to go to mainland China. It’s funny because Shenzen (an area in mainland China) is just about a 30 minute bus ride away from my university. However, I need a visa to actually enter mainland China. The visa takes a few weeks to get and costs around $100US. This is also for a one time entry to mainland China. It’s actually very weird because I could just take the bus and hang out in China for a few days, but unfortunately I would be paying a lot to do this.

Now getting back on track, I went to mainland China for a week with some of my friends that I have met in Hong Kong. We went to Shanghai and Beijing. It was definitely an experience. Mainland China is very different from Hong Kong. The people are still very nice, but it seemed that they had less manners. My time there was unforgettable though. We only had a few days in each part of China, so we had to pack in as much as possible in those few precious days. However, when you hear that there are millions of people in China and it is always crowded, well that is not a lie. We arrived in Shanghai wanting to go to the museums, climb the Pearl (one of the largest towers in the world), and visit a few other key tourist areas in Shanghai. Unfortunately, this was a public holiday when we arrived. Therefore, not only were we traveling, but everyone else in China decided to travel as well. The streets were packed with people. You had to wait in line just to walk on the sidewalks.

Our day of seeing the sites turned into walking around Shanghai finding something that didn’t have a 3 hour line. It turned out to be a lot of fun, but it taught me to never travel when everyone else in China is traveling. Shanghai was definitely very different from Beijing. Shanghai is where I got to try some crazy street food, finally climbed the Pearl, and just walked around experiencing the busy life of a local. However, Beijing was where I truly enjoyed myself.

Beijing is where I got to walk through the Forbidden City, try Scorpion and silk worm (yikes!), see the Olympic Stadium, and hike the Great Wall of China! These were some of my best memories. I must admit that eating the unusual foods was perhaps one of my favorite moments. Scorpion tasted just like a crunchy piece of chicken, but silk warm can’t even be described. However, let me just say that it was by far the worst thing I have ever eaten in my life!

The Great Wall of China may have been by far my favorite memory in China. My friends and I didn’t just go to the touristy part of the wall where there are actual stairs and you walk out, take a few pictures, and then turn around saying you have “climbed the Great Wall”. No, we actually “climbed” the Great Wall of China. It was a four hour hike on parts of the wall that didn’t even have stairs. We were basically walking up a wall and hoping not to fall back.

Another memory that is really quite amusing is feeling like a movie star while in China. This is probably the closest I will ever get to feeling famous. Since it was a public holiday when we were traveling, many of those traveling around China are from parts that rarely see “white people”. Therefore, my friends and I would be walking and random people would come up to us and ask to get a picture with us. There would be points where we couldn’t even walk because so many people just kept asking to get pictures with us. It seemed that after one person came up then other people would see this commotion and figure they could get a picture as well. It was very funny at times and then quite frustrating at others. Mainly because we only a limited amount of time and when we wanted to actually see things then people would just be snapping pictures and stopping us. Wow, it was probably one of the most unique events I’ve ever encountered. I can see now why famous people go a little crazy. They can never have a real life when people are stopping them every five seconds. We had fun with it though and just soaked it all in as much as we could.

China was a trip that will stick in my mind forever.Unfortunately, there is so much that I could talk about and so many pictures to show. China is truly an amazing and unique place. It has so much history and life to offer. Here are just a few of the hundreds of pictures I took during my trip to China.

The water cube from the 2008 Olympics in Beijing
The bird’s nest from the Olympics
A traditional hot pot meal in Beijing
(You would have raw food and then cook it in a huge soup pot…very yummy!)
Yes, they even have a Hooters in China…we had to go and get pictures!
My friends and I attending a traditional tea ceremony
All of the kids in China loved getting their pictures taken
At Tiananmen Square in Beijing
The Forbidden City in Beijing
Yuyuan Gardens in Shanghai
Dressing up in traditional clothes in Shanghai
Climbing the Great Wall of China in Beijing

The American Tradition carries on! Even in the heart of Europe, there are still plenty of Americans and non Americans that love the idea of celebrating Thanksgiving. The students from my church here cooked a Thanksgiving feast for about 50 people. It was delicious and having turkey was super special in this land of ‘Wursts’ and other various pork products.
Off the top of my head, some of the countries represented were: South Africa, Romania, Austria, Kenya, Indonesia, Hungry, Philippines, Australia, England, Canada, Switzerland, and others. From the States we had: Texas, Indiana, Maine, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, Alaska, Washington, and West Virginia! It was also comforting for my family that I was able to have Thanksgiving with friends. For me, it was awesome to get to share in the American Tradition with people from so many other countries. After the great feast we went around the room and all shared one thing we were thankful for.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Kellen