Thanksgiving-weekend in Manhattan

Equipped with the address and phone number of my couchsurfing-hosts (check out www.couchsurfing.com) and some google-maps, I headed off to the big city on Wednesday and hoped to survive until the other exchange students arrived the day later ;-)
"New York, what a city! I thought London was big but Manhatten beats it all." I totally agree with Stef's statement about the city that never sleeps.
I arrived on Wednesday evening at Stephen and Bill's house west of central park and spent the first evening there with a french couchsurfing couple eating italian dinner (Stephen is a great cook), drinking wine, listening to music (that's brother Bill's business) and chatting about various things.
For Thursday morning, they had organized tickets for the macy's parade, a huge commercial event that is supposed to start off and boost the christmas shopping season. In the afternoon, they invited us to their family's thanksgiving dinner with a huge turkey, which was delicious and a great experience.
After coming back to Manhattan, Albert from Spain and I met the other exchange students (who stayed in an expensive hotel (elitist students from bocconi ;-) ) at times square.
The next two days, we explored Manhattan: Central park, top of Rockefeller center with spectacular view, Brooklyn Bridge, Financial District, the United Nation, Ground zero, Chinatown and the staten island ferry to see the statue of liberty were just some highlights to mention here.
On the last evening we've seen the Broadway Musical show Mary Poppins.
You just must have been to New York! I highly recommend Stephen and Bill's place to stay: When they were younger (they're more than 50 now), they've been travelling to a lot of countries (all over Europe and Latin America) mostly by hitchhiking, which why they still like being couchsurfing hosts and having international people around.
So, this was my last city-trip during my stay in Minneapolis and the 3 last weeks will be less exciting: final projects and exams are approaching, which will keep me busy. It's anyway better to stay inside and study at the moment because it got quite cold here ;-)
P.S.: Well, Raphaello, hope you are pleased by this report, hope you will set up your own blog about your exchange semester in spring to keep us updated..
P.P.S.: I've heard that the Music Windband Oberurnen had a good concert, hope you found someone being the latest going home, I'll be the one next year again ;-)

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New York

I'm going New York over Thanksgiving, probably the last journey before the final exams and my return to Switzerland. Take care of the snow in Elm, have a good weekend!

Minnesota Thunder vs. LA Galaxy

On November 11, we went to the Metrodome hoping to enjoy a good soccer game and to see which team will win the Minnesota copa trophy. However, the teams played on a very low level, Beckham was just standing around (and still assisted for a goal) and the Minnesota Thunder lost 3-2 after penalty kicks.
For women it was a bit more interesting: First, they could get free sample-perfumes and more importantly, Beckham took his shirt off (fortunately, we already left the stadium that time..)
lesson learned: never go to see a soccer game in the US ;-)

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Something for my Italian friends ;-)

Keep snowing Glarnerland

When I see this picture, I'm already looking forward to snowboarding in Elm!
Yet first, enjoy the beginning of Fasnacht (11/11) and make a big mark in your diary on Thursday 31st January: Schmudo Oberurnen, "tierisch, wild und duräknallt"!

Back from San Francisco

Thursday evening until Sunday night in San Francisco, what a good decision to spend some days there and escape the cold weather in Minneapolis! We were 9 exchange students: 5 Italians, 1 Spanish, 1 German, Johannes from Liechtenstein and me. It's no wonder we went for Italian dinner a couple of times ;-)
We rent a bike and rode over the Golden Gate Bridge, went to Alcatraz, climbed the hills several times and had a lot of fun together.
So far, I would say that San Francisco is the only city I could imagine living in. With the bay, the pacific, big parks and hills, the city provides everything you need and still isn't too crowded or polluted.
And yes, while we were riding on the Golden Gate Bridge, Stef called me and told me that he was going to stay the weekend there too. Hence, we went out together on Saturday evening ;-) By the way, it's hard to find a parking lot in San Francisco (people sometimes fight for them and even destroy side-view-mirrors), for details ask Stefan..

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Halloween

It's pumpkin time in the US: People are dressing up for Halloween. Men are usually a bit more creative, girls just wear even less than they do during the rest of the year.. Halloween is just taken as another opportunity to make party, we've already been celebrating last weekend, quite extensively ;-) Unfortunately, I couldn't join today's party because I had some assignments and papers to work on which are due soon.. well, people who know me might argue that partying on one evening should always be possible regardless of the workload. Yeah, I agree but there will be a longer weekend very soon ;-) Basically, I'm flying to San Francisco with other exchange students tomorrow and won't be back until Monday morning (I hope they won't arrest me in Alcatraz) ;-)
Enjoy your weekend too! By the way, we don't have to incorporate Halloween in our culture, Oberurner Fasnacht is still out of reach!
Comment on some pictures: I didn't know that people dress up for the weekend before Halloween. So , I got this hunter costume from my american buddies. Hunter without weapon, felt somehow like military soldier just equipped with clarinet ;-) They told me I was a honey-hunter, but as usual, I set the priorities differently and ended up beer-hunting (or bear-hunting, the typo would be appropriate this time..) and with a little hangover next morning/noon.
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