NBA

Last Saturday I went to watch my first NBA basketball game ever. The Portland Trailblazers were playing against the Washington Wizards. From what I heard this was not a topnotch game, so I was able to concentrate more on the shows during the breaks. :) I uploaded some pictures to give you an impression. The game was fun and I definitely would love to watch another (more important) match of the Trailblazers. However, I have to say that I missed a bit of the "fan culture" which is celebrated in the German soccer league. Where was all the "Shalalalalalahlalah"? And honestly I would be irritated as a basketball player if my fans are shouting "Chalupa" (which refers to some dish from Taco Bell) when the team gets close to scoring 100. ;)

NBA Portland Trailblaser vs Washington Wizards

Inauguration

I’m sure everybody of you had the chance to see at least some parts of the Inauguration yesterday. For my part I only watched the oath and maybe 5 minutes of Obama’s speech due to technical problems with my internet connection. And the little piece I saw was through a German website and they directly translated it into German. I have to say that I favour Obama’s voice over the translator’s one. It was a big day and my impression was that everybody around me was relieved and happy that Bush is finally gone. My landlord even invited everybody to join in for an Inauguration party with Democrats cupcakes and Presidential punch. Maybe I should take into consideration to organize a party in September and offer some Chancellor punch. ;) To end this little post I would like to share my favourite picture of the day with you.

Source: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/01/20/article-1124043-031F41BF000005DC-321_468x550.jpg

Day at the gorge

The weather this weekend was so beautiful that we had to take a break from studying. Mike Shall offered Bettina and me to take us out for a little trip to the gorge. The Columbia River gorge is a canyon through which the Columbia River flows. It is partially forming the border between the state of Washington and Oregon and it is famous for the wind coming through it. Naturally we had the chance to enjoy this “wind” (I put it in quotation marks, because in my opinion it was rather a storm that day.). To give you an impression of how strong the wind was, I will give you a short description of different scenes at the Vista House: all the cars parking there were shaking; a man got out of the car and his glasses were immediately blown away; a man had to hold his 6 year old kid, because it was nearly blown away; and on our way back to the car, we actually had to grab the handrail and pull ourselves towards the car. We had a great time and the view was surreal. I tried to capture it with my camera, but it is not even close to reality. After this little adventure Mike took us on a quieter tour along the river shore and showed us different water falls, a fish hatchery, a dam. We finished the afternoon with a little hike towards another waterfall. It was a great day and a great change for a day.

The Gorge

Returning to Portland & A new term starts

Back to Portland the new term has already started and it promises to become an exciting term with statistics and two accounting classes. ;) To make a change for all the numbers, I’m having an ethics class and I signed up for an interesting new class which PSU is offering in conjunction with Mercy Corps (a big NGO with their headquarters in Portland). The first week I was busy in getting used to studying again. ;) And I was working a bit on my apartment to make it more comfortable. Yes, I was at Ikea and of course spent more money than I expected to. But I would say it was worth it.

Christmas at home & Portland in snow

On 16th December I finally started my trip back home! I was so looking forward to see my family, friends and Sören again. I had two and a half weeks back in Germany and used the time to be a bit all over the place. The first few days I spent in Nuremberg with Sören. Over Christmas I actually stayed at my parents’ home close to Karlsruhe. On 26th December I left to Hamburg and stayed at Sörens’ place till we went to Sylt to spend New Years Eve there. I had a great break and enjoyed being back home and see some of the people again. After a wonderful break I packed my suitcase full with chocolate (I’m sorry to say that, but you just cannot get good chocolate in the US) and souvenirs and flew back to Portland.

First term is over

Beginning of December we did it! We finished our first term and after the busy last couple of weeks we deserved a good party. You know the reportedly motto of business students: Work hard, party hard! So we all went to Anna’s house to celebrate the end of the term and Adrian’s birthday (see pictures).

Anna's and Adrian's Party

Thanksgiving Invitation

I was lucky enough to experience my first American Thanksgiving. I was invited to a good friend’s house to spend the day with his wife and their families. It was a lot of delicious food and good wine. Unfortunately I (as always) forget my camera, so I can not show the pictures of the delicious turkey we had, but be sure I ate so much turkey on that and the following day (you have to finish the leftovers) that I won’t be able to eat turkey till the next Thanksgiving.

Day at the beach

Some time in November we actually managed to take the day off of studying and spent a wonderful day at the beach. We had blue sky and it was so warm that we could even walk along the beach with our sweaters on. And then everybody keeps on talking about the rain in Portland. ;) I attached some pictures of the day.

Cannon Beach

Election party

I know it has been a long time and by now all the euphoria about Barack Obama being elected has long give way to a more realistic view on the difficult tasks Obama will face as soon as he is in office. However, I still would like to give you a short look back on what I actually did on election night and about the impression I got. It was the first time ever that I went on an election party. I’m usually used to follow the election results in front of a TV while doing some other stuff. This time I was drawn by the excitement of the people around me. Already following the campaign was something new to me. Compared to that campaigning in Germany is really boring. As I showed you on one of my pictures, could you imagine finding Merkel or Steinmeier outfits to buy in stores? However, I have to say that the debates in Germany seem to be more fun, because the candidates Obama and McCain were usually quite nice to each other (at least during the debates). Anyways I wanted to see how the Americans are spending the election night on such an historical election. I ended up attending two parties, so I can tell you that I had enough of celebration on that night. Most impressing to me was just to see how happy and relieved especially here in Portland (traditionally democratic) the people were once Obama was announced as the president elected. It was clearly a historical moment and I was glad I could experience it. When Obama held his speech I’m sure a lot of the people around me were close to or actually crying. I added some pictures of the election night in the Random pictures album. Unfortunately the quality is not that good.

Random