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My last week in Binghamton is over. I will be leaving in 3 hrs. Mike is gonna pick us up on his way from New Jersey to Buffalo.

I woke up pretty early today despite the fact that I went to bed at around 4am because we spent our last night at Muhammads smoking Shisha and drinking Martini.
Slighty hungover but more or less satisfied because I am able to close my backpack and it does not exceed the 23kg limitation.
You wanna see some nice pictures from the hike we did on Wednesday in the Robert H. Treman State Park?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_H._Treman_State_Park

Sure you do!
Here you go:

and these are from last night:

Bienvenido a Miami

What is there to say after coming back from vacation in Miami except: I miss the sun and I want to go back! Seriously? I loved it. I have to admit, though, that I have never seen so many fake boobs, silicon lips and made noses in my lifetime. BAM! You were not even able to look away. Sometimes I had to move out of the way just for some one else's boobs. Everywhere! I shit you not.

This sums it up quiet nicely:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener/37-reasons-miami-is-the-best-and-weirdest-city-in-the-us

But also the cars. Holy shit. I loved every single one of them. Cars so expensive you won't believe it and the
people in them. Hilarious! I felt so out of place, so foreign, so much given away in my otherness by my naturalness and white skin. It almost felt like I was protesting (although even if I wanted to fit in, concerning the skin tone that is, I would not be able to, since my 'brown' is not even on their color palette) against their body cult.

SPF 70 protected me againt skin damage. But on the first day I forgot to put it on my feet. The result is quiet visible in this lovely picture of me an Katharina strolling around at night (and also proof, that SPF 70 is really necessary for me). Man beachte bitte den wunderbaren Farbverlauf.

This happended while we were doing this:

Basically that is all we did. Doing stuff at the beach. I finally got around to do some reading. Fun reading. Books that I chose and that I am genuinely interested in.
This is my book of choice right now:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/03/living-thinking-looking-hustvedt-review
I love it and highly recommend it for those of you interested in a mix of neurosciences and the humanities and arts.

Miami was a fun place. I spare you all the boring details of how the sun was always shining and the temperature never went lower than 25 degrees Celcius and how nice the Ocean Drive was at night. bla bla bla. Instead I just show you some pictures.

Next to us even the waste bin looks glamorous.

While we were in Miami it snowed in Binghamton. Snow!
Now we are back and it's 24 degrees and sunny. Alles richtig gemacht würde ich mal sagen.

Now just one more final week until we all (excecpt Sina, since she's leaving for good on Saturday) leave for Buffalo and then Canada next Friday.
At the end of May I'll be leaving for Ecuador from Toronto to visit Paula and her family. It's impossible for me to tell you in words how much I am looking forward to that.

 ok, reality check
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUUfMzhGc_E

and good bye!

Miami und der ganze Rest.

Since I am writing a lot I got used to the American standard paper format called letter and now all of a sudden A4 looks weird to me... just like the other day when I had a 0.5l bottle in my hand and it looked so small and not, well, normal. I guess this is a sign that I am assimilating pretty well and the things that I found to be different from home now seem more like 'home' to me.

Now that the semester is almost over – not even two more weeks left – I think about how it will be not living here anymore. The last couple of weeks nothing special happened, I guess daily life set it and I feel more and more comfortable with the life here in Binghamton. But then again: it's almost over.

We had a dinnerparty in our backyard this Saturday, we invited all of our friends and everyone brought something special from their country of origin (the Germans made Milchreis with Appelmus und Zimt und Zucker und dazu Bratkartoffeln), since most of our friends have an international background. That's something I really like, you meet native speakers but most of the time their family originated from another country to the US – you get to hear so many interesting (family) stories and realize Germany is kind of boring when it comes to multicultural ethnicity.

I'm going to miss the language(s), the openness, the kindness and interest of the people I encountered. Our house (although I found out, that we have mice) with it's spaciousness and green backyard as well as the classes I am taking with some of the weirdest people, but at the same time smartest, I've ever met.

The longer I stay here the harder it gets to imagine a life differently. 

But before it's time to say good-bye to Binghamton I will do some travelling.

So, tell me, who in this room is going to Miami? Uhum, thaaaat would be me.

Initially Sina and I planned on going to Montreal but then the bus is really expensive so Sina looked up places that we could fly to with that money... she came up with Miami. It took me about five minutes to decide between yes and yes. Flight and hostel are already booked and summer dresses and sunscreen bought.

After Miami I will visit an old friend, Danny, whom I met while working on the Kibbuz in Israel, in Columbus, Ohio. I'm excited to see him again and also to see another part of the US. I am playing with the thought (is that really an expression or should I stop translating literally from German into English?) of going to Chicago after Columbus, but I am not sure about that yet. We'll see.

I'll be back in Binghamton at some point to go camping with Riva, Katharina and some other friends of ours up in Canada (here:
http://media01.bigblackbag.net/27406/portfolio_media/lwsm_halliburton_2009_1068.jpg).
Aaaand if everything turns out the way I am planning now, I'll be visiting Paula in Ecuador. Das Beste zum Schluss.

That's all there is for now.

Ah, but! A picture I wanted to show you for a long time, but I was always too lazy to take it.

seen in the window of the dry cleaner around the corner.



You have to take care of your stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac


xxx Astrid

Same old, same old. Or maybe not.

Things that changed after coming back from spring break:

1. The weather. Holy crap! Away with winter boots, gloves and extra layers of clothing. In addition to that I noticed, that as soon as the sun comes out and the temperatures rises, it means summer. I stopped wondering about all the women dressed in hotpants and flipflops. My grandma would say: put some clothes on or you'll get sick!

2. Our moca pot is finally working! One day I woke up and the house smelled like fresh coffee. Which was out of the ordinary, since we didn't have a working coffee machine. So I thought. When I went downstairs to find out where this wonderfull aroma came from I found a note from Riva on the kitchen table which said, that she fixed the neglected moca pot and that it now works fine. I could not have been happier.

3. Time is flying so fast, I have no idea where it went. I am reading and researching for the papers I have to write until the end of classes. Which is ok, I will manage. Although I knew I was right, when I wrote that I would be spending time inside the library once the weather would be getting better.

4. I had a blue screen on my laptop for the first time. Which made me realise I don't have have any backup whatsoever. Bought an external hard drive and now I just keep my fingers crossed that my Toshi will last until I finished writing those papers. Could you do that, too?

Other than that, nothing much is going on in Binghamton. Although I went out dancing for the first time since I got here. To a gay bar - I had a blast. Amy Whinehouse was performing. Her shoulders slightly bigger and her legs stronger than I would have expected them to be...

Just yesterday we went to Pete's birthday party, which was fun. Tequila and rum and sombreros and muchachos and chicas and fake coke made out of sugar and flour. Pete got a cheesecake (which Riva and Sina made by themselves) and was quiet happy about it.

Please check out the large amount of cash (feel free to zoom in on my left boob) that I made selling coke during the night. I bought a mexican dinosaur with it. It was totally worth it.

Business as usual.

And because I know how much you like looking at pictures, here are some more from spring break:

 While strolling around in Manhattan, Riva and I found this place where they sell puppies. Although they are ridiculously cute, they are held in way too smal cubicles and are only able to walk freely once in the morning in the shop before it opens.

 The New York Public Library.

 Philly.

 Washington D.C nice and sunny.

 

Washington not so nice and rainy.

Just because: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4l3w_electric-six-gay-bar_music#.UWsM20qZaSo

and this, because I think everyone should listen to this gem at least once in their life:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hujgnX9Koo

abrazos y besos - Astrid

Uff... where to start?

Spring Break was over way too quickly. I had an amazing time during the last couple of days, met awesome people and walked what felt like a hundred miles.
Riva, Sina, Muhammad and I travelled a distance of 814 miles together. Stopping first in New York City, then Philadelphia and ended our trip in Washington D.C.

New York was of course overwhelming. Taking the bus to Port Authority is like being sucked in by this huge mass of skyscrapers and people and houses and cars and smells. New York sucks you in, spits you out with soooo many unforgettable impressions - good and bad - experiences, things you've seen, heard and smelled. I am always at awe at the diversion of cultures the city carries and keeps alive.
The food, the food! We went to eat Carribean food, I never once in my life had yams braised in honey - so sweet I needed a time out. I had Bagel with cream cheese from a corner Deli and it was heaven!
I walked around a lot, had coffee often and just took the city in. I was kind of relieved to not feel the pressure of doing the touristy things, since I did that, when I went in 2009. This time the city felt somewhat more relaxed, maybe because I felt so, too.
But some things I did not want to miss, like the Times Square, or the New York Public Library for example. I did spend way too much money on clothes, though. Spring will see a fashionable Astrid.

We departed for Philly, where a very nice couple, Cara and Haider, and their couches were awaiting us. Philadelphia is nice, but it was good that we only planned one and a half days for it. A full day is more than enough to discover the most important parts.
Personally I found it to be not so charming. I went there without any expectations at all and found it to be quiet rough. It's not very beautiful and for the first time I really saw the gap between poor and rich. A lot of people were begging for money and at some points I felt unsafe. (This may be due to the guy that got peppersprayed in the Starbucks where I was enjoying my coffee). In the end I was glad we left Philadelphia because I could feel myself getting paranoid and checking for my purse all the time and trying to avoid standing too close to strangers on the subway.
Cara and Haider lived a little outside of the city centre and showed us around in their neighbourhood. We went to a bar called 'loco pez' where we had awesome tacos and tortillas with locally brewed beer. It was a fun night.

The most fun part about Philly was the Magical Garden. We walked there expecting an actual garden only to find this:

We left for Washington early in the morning. There we crashed the couches of Glen, who is a very interesting character. He's the son of a former UN-Embassador, which means he's basically been everywhere in the world. He was an awesome host. He owns one of the oldest houses of the city, right in the city centre, so all the important sights were in walking distance. We had a whole floor of the house to ourselfs, which was like staying in a hotel.

Washington D.C is very interesting.
I was overwhelmed by how big everything in the city actually is (and then the White House sooo tiny). We went to the Capitol, walked the Mall to the end with its Monument and also saw the Jefferson Memorial.

Everything is monumental and huge! All of a sudden I felt so tiny next to all those buildings. The Americans certainly know how to make you feel insignificant.
Of course the city was full of tourists which was mainly due to the ongoing Cherry Blossom Festival. While we were in the city very little trees were in bloom. :(

But we had 17 degree Celcius and I got my first sunburn and we had coffee outside of the cafe and were able to sit in a t-shirt! That really felt like being on a holiday. (I apologize for my white skin hurting your eyes :D )

Next to all the important political buildings Washington is full of Museums (I had actually no idea about that and was kind of surprised after I found out).
Since I am in the States I went to the National Museum for American History to get some more information about this country. Unfortunately more than half of the museum was closed because of renovation. I was able to see the part about food and how the relationship between US Americans and food has changed over the centuries.
And I saw the original kitchen of Julia Child! I was so happy. For those of you, who don't know who she is, you must see this movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjvJHsJD8ic
You can actually see the kitchen in the movie. Ah, well I'm getting too excited. It's just a kitchen. But still I was happy that I made the discovery.
Here is one thing I found amusing:

Washington is a very clean and kind of sterile city. It felt to me as if it was built just 20 years go and constantly being kept clean for the tourists to feel comfortable. The homeless people are even given blankets by the city so they don't freeze to death. It was a totally different from Philadelphia.
And no, I did not see Obama or Michelle :/ but we had a great time anyways.

Now I am back in Bínghamton. Back to life, back to reality. Five more weeks of University left and snow is still falling. It makes it a little easier for me to bear that I know you guys are also still suffering from ice and cold as well.

So what to do?
Listen to this: http://www.killbodyeatsoul.net/music/fruehling.zip 
and go check out this http://www.killbodyeatsoul.net/ as well and be prepared to spend some time idling.
Thanks, Christian for this really awesome Spring Soundtrack.

I might post some more pictures during the week. So stay tuned.
Astrid

Montréal est un rêve

Only pictures for a change. Credit for most of the pictures goes to Riva, my incredibly talented roommate :)