Monty

November month has offered quite a few adventures. Now that we are getting closer to the end of this semester I start to feel how fast everything has gone but still I also feel that I have done quite a few things. In the beginning of November, probably before, some of the Finnish girls planned a trip to some cabins at Bryson City and Great Smokey Mountains. Of course, there were a lot of people who were interested, including myself. During the weekend of 7-9 November about 30 international students took off to the cabins. While we were there, we celebrated Rasmus 24th birthday!

The international students at Great Smokey Mountains.

Directly after this event, I went to San Francisco with Leonie, a Dutch girl from Dutchland, to discover new parts of the city. I was there before during Spring 2008 when I studied at University of Wisconsin - La Crosse. The best thing about this trip is it was for free; that is to say I had managed to earn enough points (or miles) with American Airlines that allowed me to get a roundtrip ticket for free. While we were there, we managed to visit Alcatraz (2nd time for me), go around in downtown and walk over the Golden Gate bridge.

On our way to Alcatraz with San Francisco City in the background.

On Alcatraz with the Golden Gate bridge in the background.

The trip took almost 7-8 hours with layovers in Dallas and Los Angeles. After being there between 12-15 November it was time to come back home to Greensboro. A lot of studies was waiting for me once I got back. During these past couple of months I have wondered why the education is so quantitative and the simple answer is tradition. This is how things have been in the past. Quite a few students to whom I have spoken to, both American and internationals, have said that you lose a lot of quality by this setup in education. However, I have to say that the class Social and Personality Development is amazing fun and educational.

Exactly 10 days later we began to pack our travel bags again to head off to The Big Apple - New York City! Most international students went with the bus there, which lasted about 12 hours, but because of my back problems I decided to take the flight there. In the beginning we were only 3 people going by flight there but in the end we were 15 in total that took the same flight. We left early morning at 6:30 am from our neighbour airport Raleigh/Durham International Airport and arrived at 8:00 am in a rainy New York.

Our first stop was of course Time Square were we picked up our New York Passs which gave us access to several big attractions including The Statue of Liberty, The Empire State Building, The Metropolitan Museum, and many more.

Our next big stop was The Statue of Liberty.

While we were in New York we managed to see Macy’s parade which is supposed to be a really famous and interesting event to see. We had to wake up pretty early on the 27th of November in order to get good “seats” or “spots”. The parade lasted several hours but we (Leonie, Rasmus, and myself) were only there for 1-2 hours before we continued our trip around the city. We did of course more things than what I have mentioned here. Last day we went up to The Empire State Building and the view over Manhattan was just amazing.

For this trip I managed to put together a movie which can be viewed at the following address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWVo-wpKVrg

Love and respect,
Monty

Life is too important to be taken seriously. This is what October month have taught me from all of the events that occurred; my 25th birthday, the trip to Charlotte and NFL (National Football League), and finally the trip to Washington DC. The month started quite good with an amazing birthday party. Time marches on by when you have fun and fun I had on the 5th of October. I was surprised by congratulation cards which everyone had signed, a birthday cake, balloons, and a lot of other things. A picture of the birthday cake I was treated with.

Never thought so many people would show up on my party but we were at least over 30-40 people in the same floor. It was hard to squeeze everyone into one picture but we managed to get a lot of people in it.

Then it was time for school work and other things related. I really enjoy the American classrooms, but it is sometimes too boring for my part and especially for other students as well when the lecturer can not facilitate a developing climate in the classrooms. I consider myself to be a social person and very talkative in the classrooms because I am investing time and money when I am there. Therefore I would like to get as much as possible with me when I leave each session. However, from my experience at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse and here I have realized that most students just take notes, memorize it, go through with exams and that’s it. This is not education and learning according to me. This is something I will avoid in my future as a teacher.

Now that I have lived in a shared room during 3 months I can without a doubt say it’s been an amazing experience so far. There are of course pros and cons with sharing a room, but I consider that the pros weigh more heavily than the cons.

The next big event occurred the day after my birthday when we went to our neighbor city Charlotte to watch NFL between Kansas City Chiefs and Carolina Panthers. This was my first “football” match and I did not know anything about the rules or how you played this sport. Fortunately for me I was sitting next to Drury, an employee of the International Program Center, and he explained everything in detail for me.It was an enjoyable, relaxing, and educational day for me. Below you see the Bank of America Colosseum where the match occurred with the skyline of Charlotte in the background.

Barely two weeks later we started to pack our bags to travel with 60 other international students to the capital of USA, Washington DC. We took the bus there which lasted about 6 hours with breaks in between. We stayed at Hostelling International which was pretty close to downtown and the biggest attractions. The transport and hostel cost together about $200 so it was a pretty cheap price for the experiences you get. Already the first day me together with other people started to go around the city and our first stop was the Washington Monument.

Other places we managed to visit with our trip were: The Lincoln Memorial, The Korean Veteran Memorial, The Jefferson Memorial, The White House, Pentagon, China Town, The Capitol, The Library of Congress, The Supreme Court, Allington Cemetery and JFK’s grav, Iowa Jima Memorial, World War II Memorial, Georgetown, and J. Edgar Hoover FBI building.

One important and interesting place we visited on our last day was Capitol Hill, the government building. In order to get in you have to be there early in the morning, around 8 am. The best thing about this is that the tickets are for free. However, the security check took forever. Below, Capitol Hill.

I really wish that I could stop time right now, it’s too much fun here. However, life marches on and you have to follow it. I have experienced so many thing in a short time, but the fun is not over yet. November is so far the most crazy months of them all, in the beginning of the month we went to Great Smokey Mountains, to discover the American nature, relax from school and be with other international students. After that I went to San Francisco for a couple of days and finally next week, during Thanksgiving, I am heading to New York with the international students. More about this in the next update.

Lots of love,
Monty

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