Monty in the USA

The beginning of september was filled with cultural surprise when we went to a concert that had been arranged by students at the school of music and drama. The place we went to, Aycock auditorium, had just been rebuild and had grand opening. A lot of good pieces were played during the evening, such as Choral Fantasy, Op. 80 by Beethoven, The Stars and Stripes Forever by John Philip Sousa and Divertimento in D major, K. 136, “Salzburg Symphony No. 1″ by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

It didn’t take long time after this event until we started to plan a trip to Atlanta. The weekend 19th to 21st of September was scheduled for Atlanta and we travelled there by rental cars and stayed at a hostel. One of the exchange students, Emil from Norway, had his 25th birthday on Saturday and we celebrated it extra much! Below you see a picture of me with the World Trade Center in the background.

We were planning of seeing the World of Coca Cola in the beginning but ended up getting lost. So after a while we found the correct directions to the World of Coca Cola but passed CNN first. So of course, we went there first, got ourselves a guided tour around the studio, how they broadcast the news, a historical overview, and much more. Below you see a picture with all exchange students that went with us from University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Time is something you don’t have much of when you are visiting a new city. So we were off pretty quickly to the World of Coca Cola and it was one of the most interesting things I have been to. It was so much fun learning about the history and especially fun when we started to sample all the different coca cola products. Below you first see me outside the Coca Cola store and a picture with the Coca Cola teddy bear.

Before entering the World of Coca Cola we managed to buy a combo ticket that gave us access to the biggest aquarium in USA, Georgia Aquarium with its nearly 8 million gallon (31 million liters) of water.

The happiness  was huge in Atlanta. Driving a car there is on the other hand a different story, but fortunately the entire trip went well. A piece of advice is to rent a minivan if you are a lot of people going. The hostel we stayed at is called Atlanta International Hostel and cost $40 for two nights. The trip, which by the way took 7 hours in each direction, landed on $50 round-trip. Amazing trip!

Something I looked forward ever since I landed in USA was to listen what Barack Obama had to say. On the 27th of September he visited Greensboro where he held a speech. About 20,000 came to downtown Greensboro and listened to him. With my luck, I managed to get to the front to get some good pictures. Sara, another exchange student from Växjö university, managed to shake hands with him! Wonder if she has washed her hands after that..

Personally I thought he was a little bit incongruous on some points, especially on the issue of Iraq. When I was at the International Congress of Psychology in berlin during July 2008 I managed to listen to Barack Obama since he was there during one of those days. In Berlin he emphasized the importance of more soldiers to Iraq and that Germany should help out on this issue, something that the German crowd did not agree on. But in Greensboro he said how important it is to take back the American soldiers from Iraq. I guess one’s speech change depending on what crowd you are addressing.

Finally, an event that doesn’t occur in many people’s life: skydiving. The first time I did this was in San Francisco during March 2008; which was the beginning of my new addiction. The 28th of September about 21 students, American and international, went to South Carolina and jumped from 14,000 feet. Below, you see the entire group with Jeremy, myself and Maiya at the front point. The second picture, from left to right: Jake, myself, Leonie and Roisin!

Before we did the actual skydiving I managed to get a short video of the environment and how people were feeling. Below you can see what happened before the jump and then my actual skydive jump.

Before skydiving: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNU0kkKP5v0
Actual skydiving: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w32TXPtWiuM

I have to admit that this skydive was a bit different than the one I did in San Francisco. This was at 14,000 feet (4,5 km) while the one in San Francisco was at 10,000 (3,3 km) and you could feel the difference. During October a lot of crazy stuff will happen and has happened. On the 5th of October I turned 25 years and the party was the best one so far in my life. On the 18th to the 21st of October we will travel to Washington DC. and at the end of the month it’s Halloween!

Never give up on something that you can’t go a day without thinking about.

Lots of love,
Monty

My first post since I arrived to Greensboro. Seriously, I can’t describe in any way how many impressions that have passed through my mind these two weeks that I have been here. I have been active like a Duracell rabbit on Speed. The first couple of days were just spent to information meetings and breaking the ice between people. I truly love the group dynamic between the international students. We’re like a big family, taking care of each other, having fun together, and making sure every moment counts.

Last weekend was spent in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The drive took about 5-6 hours and the weather there was purely amazing. Below a picture of Vania (a student from Mexiko), myself, and my roommate Jeremy from USA light (i.e., Canada) before we took off to Myrtle Beach.

The first thing we did once we got to Myrtle Beach was, yes you guessed it, going to the beach and swim for a little while. The water was so warm, but too salty. I had a lot of fun. Later that evening we went to Broadway which is a big adventure/shopping/attraction mixed park.

It was action every second we were there and fortunately for us it was labour day on Monday so they arranged a lot of extra events. Below is a picture of my roommate, Drury (coordinator for incoming exchange students), and myself.

Below, The Fantastic 4!

After dinner at Hard Rock Café which by the way was REALLY good, we went around the park. Next up, myself outside the aquarium.

The night ended by going to a KISS concert who happened to be there.

Just kidding, this picture was from a coffee store at the park. The night actually ended by watching fireworks and having a couple of drinks.

Next day, Sunday, we started off pretty late. I wish I got up earlier, but I woke up at 11 am and after some time we went to Hard Rock Park, which is an attraction park. The first thing I wanted to take the biggest roller coaster called Led Zeppelin - The Ride. I really started to like the music which you will hear in the video of the ride. View the ride at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMeZDCFeWlA

After that we went and took a couple of pictures.

The international UNCG surfing team!

And finally the robot scene!

Before the day continued I couldn’t stop myself from mountain climbing.

I love it, especially since I feel I have the magical eye and technique for it. Most people climb systematically and organized, I climb creatively and dynamically. Like a string that flows into the sea!

Before the highlight of the evening, we finished our trip to the park by going to medieval times which was such a crazy adventure and experience. I have only seen it on Cable Guy with Jim Carey but now I got to experience it.

Finally, the highlight of the evening. Yours truly, deejaying for the international students at club Myst. It took me about 5-10 minutes to convince the deejay to let me flip the cds. Before I put my electronic/house music it was all about hiphop/rap. As soon I started to play the music people where jumping, screaming, being happy and any other positive word you can come up with. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of myself when I did it but I know other people have.

Last but not least, the trip back to Greensboro.

It’s been amazing days and something tells me that the adventures will continue once I get to North Carolina (NC) which will be next Monday. On Saturday I am leaving with my former roommate Dave to Milwaukee for a day or two and then back to Chicago to fly to Greensboro in NC.

Last weekend was just a blast. Usually Sundays are boring but we, myself and three crazy guys, turn it to a great time. We started off by hiking the bluff and the view over La Crosse was incredibly once we reached the top. This is something I definitely should have done during Spring 2008. Better late than never.

Then it was time for more fun, Go-kart and mini golf.

And during the racing I managed to slam right into Bryan, the guy in the green t-shirt.

Once this was done, we went for mini golfing which I really enjoyed.

Loved the weather and the sunset.

Finally, we ended up in McDonald’s where most of the fun occurred. When we wanted to order, everyone was polite and said things like “Hi, I would like to have a …” but Bader, the guy with the hat on the picture above, went to the cashier and said in a funny aggressive voice “CHEESEBURGER!!!!”. Damn, I laughed so much I almost cried. But I guess he was just a little bit nervous because of his language proficiency limitations.

Before I went to sleep I couldn’t resist to order a cologne I sampled at Valley View Mall earlier that day. So I put an order on Calvin Klein - Man, which smells like candy. Love it!

We ended the night by hanging out and playing xbox. Did someone say that Sundays are boring?