tomy-abroad

second part of the US/Canada trip

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 10:18:00 +0000

After our visit of the Algonquin Provincial Park, we went to the 30'000 Island Coast at the Georgian Bay. Unfortunately, we were 3 days too early - boat cruises were only offered after June 1st... so sad... so we decided to visit Killbear Provincial Park to get at least a little the impression of the Islands.
The day after we drove north in direction to Sudbury through a rought but very beautiful landscape. Sudbury was an industrial town which produces 95% of the world's Nickel. Therefore, we decided to do a tour through a mine. Otherwise the town did not offer much more, so we drove further to Sault Ste Marie. Back in the US we visited Mackinaw Island - an island only for pedestrians and bikes... no cars! It was very impressive and picturesque, especially due to the awesome weather. The next stop was Munising at Lake Superior where we took a boat cruise to the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Due to the different metals in the rock, they show many different colors. Together with the shallow water it produced a great color play.
The next day was rainy - 24h... and we spent the day relaxing and drove south go Greenbay. During the last days we covered Door county in Wisconsin and visited Milwaukee: We made a tour through the Miller Brewery and visited the Harley Davidson Powertrain production site. In order have a great last evening, we went again to Ruth's Chris for a great peace of filet: this was a perfect end of our holiday and gave us the energy for the flight back home ;-)

I realy hope you enjoyed my blog with stories and experiences from Minneapolis and our holidays. The blog will not be updated that regularely as before, since I go back to my daily life, which is a little less exciting that being abroad :-)

first part of US/Canada trip...

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Fri, 25 May 2007 01:49:00 +0000

It has already been quite a while since I left Minneapolis...

Carole and I started in Chicago where we spent the first three days of our vacation. I invited her to the Cité restaurant on the Lake Shore Tower where we enjoyed a delicious dinner on the 70th floor with view of downtown during dusk. We then went to Michigan City where we spent time in an Outlet Mall - I did already my shopping so it was her turn ;-). In Detroit we visited the African American History Museum which was absolutely great! Detroit did not offer much more and a planned tour through the F-150 Ford Truck factory did not work out since it was already sold out that morning... bummer! Nevertheless, we enjoyed american Car culture by watching a movie at a drive-in cinema. Next, we crossed the boarder to Canada and went on to te Niagara Falls. They are just great and very impressive. The following day we went over Niagara On the Lake to Toronto where we stayed at the Sheraton - Thanks to Hotwire for 59 USD instead of 209 USD :-) well, we enjoyed the jacuzzi, steam room and the pool :-) Toronto is pretty neat, especially the old part. After this two day stay in Toronto, we travelled alongside Lake Ontario to Kingston where we spent the night in a shabby motel... just the opposite of the room at the Sheraton ;-). The day after, we travelled alongside the Lawrence River on the 1000 Island Parkway - just great Canadian landscape... until we reached Ottawa, Canada's Capital. It is a cute city that offers everything in walking distance. We spent the last two days of our journey at the Algonquin Provincial Park at Bartlett Lodge - a beautiful Lodge withing the Park. It was a little above our budget, but the food (5 courses each night :-) ) and the spectacular location was worth it!

Today, we are in Barrie and relax a little. The remaining days will lead us to the 30'000 Island shore at Georgian Bay up to Sudbury and west to Sault Ste Marie where we enter the US again. After a visit to the Pictured Rock National Lakeshore we will drive south to Milwaukee and finally back to Chicago...

I uploaded a few pictures and I hope you enjoy (for facebook users; please see orginial post on my blog)....

the end....

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Tue, 15 May 2007 00:17:00 +0000

last day in Minneapolis...

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Mon, 14 May 2007 23:23:00 +0000

Well, after almost 4.5 month my time is over here in Minneapolis. The city has turned very green in the last few weeks and it is a little sad that I have to leave... nevertheless, I am also looking forward...

Therefore, here some things I am really going to miss:

- Dinkytown with its coffeeshops, bars, restaurants...
- All the great people I met and I spent time with...
- being part of one of the biggest US campuses...
- Bottled beer for 1 USD!
- everyday specials in food or drinks all week...
- the infrastructure at Carlson...
- the nature in the west of the US...
- the variety of restaurants and bars around a campus of 45'000 people...
- the young city (because of its students)
- good waiter and waitresses...
- affordable and delicious meet...
- no taxes on clothes...

On the other hand, I am also looking forward to:

- See finally Carole again and travelling around the Great Lakes...
- Opening the door of my new apartment that I have unfortunately not seen yet...
- Starting a new job...
- The Swiss public transportation system (bus and train) with smooth roads without wholes ;-)
- hanging out with my friends and organizing a grill party at my new place...
- not having to study anymore for exams... not writing papers for the U...
- a cup of Nespresso coffee...
- coming back to Florida in August ;-)
- much more...

To sum up; I very much enjoyed it here in Minneapolis. The city is great - not too big not too small and it offers all you need and people are very friendly. Furthermore, you are very quickly out in the nature and this makes it very enjoyable.

I will be back sometimes...

Minnehaha Falls and Fort Snelling....

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Sun, 13 May 2007 15:46:00 +0000

On Saturday, Bulscu (a student from Rumania) and I visited the Minnehaha Falls and Fort Snelling south of downtown.
The falls are located close to the estuary of the Minnehaha river into the Mississippi. They are about 20 meters in hight and are very nicely located close to Minnehaha park. So on that nice Saturday a lot of people were in the park picnicing or just enjoying the nice weather.

After walking around a little, we then went to the Fort Snelling. The Fort was once the northern-most outpost of the US (for further information see this link). It is build on the bluffs above the Mississippi and the Minnesota Rivers. As a visitor you could tour around the Fort and at every interesting spot there were people in their 1820s clothes and roles withing the Fort. They were telling you how life was and one could also ask questions about the life and situation around that time. It was very interesting to hear about the history of the soldiers and the life of the people living at that time. Also, we learned a lot about the indigenous people's life at the time when the US army arrived in the Midwest.

Here you go with a movie about the loading and firing of a canon - very cool!

St. Anthony's Main and Stone Arch Bridge...

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Sun, 13 May 2007 15:39:00 +0000

On Friday I made it to St. Antony's Main - a very nice place across downtown at the Mississippi. It offers a few bars and restaurants to sit outside as well as newly build lofts. They turned a lot of old mill buildings into costly lofts recently.
I walked alongside the heritage trail and also crossed the old stone arch bridge where once the train came from the east to its final destination in Minneapolis. Today, the bridge is a pedetstrian bridge and a nice spot to overlook the St. Antony Falls. These falls were the originally the end of the passage on the Mississippi, since it was impossible to overcome them in their original shape. So, Minneapolis has basically started here due to the need to unload the ships...
Nowadays, there is a big lock and the falls are streamlined... it's sad, since they looked pretty nice in their original shape (see picture).

Sculpture Garden, Lake Calhoun and Uptown...

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Fri, 11 May 2007 04:44:00 +0000

Today was the warmest day so far this year; 30 Degrees Celsius or 86 Fahrenheit... blue sky and just awesome sunshine from early in the morning until late into the night.
First I had lunch with a partner of the Transaction Advisory from E&Y in Minneapolis... this was kind of cool, since I got his contact over my roommate's boss who joined us on Friday in downtown for a couple of beers...
After that I returned home, changed into shorts and t-shirt and took the bus downtown again to browse throught the market at the Nicolet Mall. I walked to the Loring Park where the famous Spoonbridge is. After that I took the bus to Lake Calhoun where I enjoyed the sun laying in the grass. There are a few nice places where you can play beach volleyball, beaches or parks to take a sunbath - just an invitation to relax. About an hour later I walked almost all around Lake Calhoun to Uptown, where I enjoyed an iced frappuchino from Starbucks - what a refreshment.

After this very nice trip, I returned to downtown where I was looking for Phil a homeless guy I met two weeks ago. After that I found him, I went home and returned with two bags of clothes he could use. I also invited him spontaneously for dinner... I think he liked it. He told me a little out of his life and how he ended up on the street... was kind of sad, especially when I thought about how much luck I had and how much better my situation is. well, he was very greatful for the clothes and made his way home to his sleeping place in order to share the stuff with his friend.

funny and amusing things :-)

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Wed, 09 May 2007 02:41:00 +0000

Here are some funny things I have encountered over the last 4.5 months... enjoy with the caption underneath each picture...

Goodbuy lunch, BBQ and soccer game...

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Mon, 07 May 2007 13:34:00 +0000

All exchange students met last Friday for a last lunch with the exchange coordinator. In the evening there was a BBQ with Globe, the International Student Association of Carlson School. Due to the beginning thunderstorms we had to stay inside and the BBQ turned into a catered event :-( yet it was fun to see everyone a last time and to exchange a few words with everyone's mentor...

In the afternoon - between the lunch and the BBQ - I attended the soccer game "First year MBA againgst Second Year MBA". Again, the weather did not work in favour of us... so the playground was wet and in a pretty bad condition... I don't know when there was someone who took care of the lwan the last time. It seemed to have been quite a while...
Well, we (First year MBA) went ahead pretty quickly ahead with 2:0... Our team comprised two Turkish, a French, an Indian, a Japanese and some US Students... After a lead 3:2, we finally lost in the last 10 minutes with 3:5... Bummer!

Trip to Chicago...

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 16:36:00 +0000

I spent the days from last Wednesday to Saturday in Chicago together with my Godmother Yvonne and her husband Markus. Since I did not find a good deal on Priceline, I stayed at the Hostel in the Loop, whereas Yvonne and Markus were at the Hyatt. :-( But the Hostelling International was a great location: Clean, modern and very central in the loop - it was even voted the best big hostel in the world! So if you decide to visit Chicago on your own, check it out!
It was rainy the first day, so we decided to go shopping in the Outlet Mall in Aurora. After a long shopping trip we returned to Downtown and went to Wilfire. There I ate a Trio of the filet with different crusts... it was awesome.
The next two days we toured around Downtown and also went to the Navy Pier where we watched a Imax movie due to the rainy weather. The second of the two days was sunnier, so we went up the Hancock Tower to the observatory to enjoy the view and the skyline of Chicago - the gold coast, the Loop and the Navy Pier. We then walked alongside the coast line to the Grand Park. This took quite a while and was over 5km long... So we were pretty exhausted once we enjoyed the sunny weather on the lawn with a sandwich and something cold to drink.
On the last evening we went to Ruth's Chris, a very well reputated Steak house... and guess, yes we ate filet again :-) that was probably the best filet I have ever had. ... 12 ounces (340 grams) and tender like nothing else... (seebthe pictures). After that we visited the Blue Chicago, a very well known Blues bar with live music every night. A band played great Blues and also performed some songs with a female singer that had a great voice...
On Saturday afternoon, I had to get back to the airport for my flight back to Minneapolis... so the four days in Chicago passed very quickly and we had a great time together... I am already looking forward to going back in two weeks, where I will meet Carole again... :-)

Kayaking on the Chain of Lakes...

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 15:58:00 +0000

A couple of guys went kayaking last Sunday on the chain of lakes close to downtown Minneapolis. It was a lot of fun, since I have never tried it so far.
Jennie and Annie lead the trip from the Center for Outdoor Activities. They instructed us with the basic techniques and safety procedures in case we flip over. After that we started at Cedar Lake and made our way through Lake of the Isles to Lake Calhoun. It was pretty windy on Lake Calhoun with pretty big waves... a lot of fun!
We stopped at a little beach on Lake Calhoun to eat lunch. After that the expected thunderstorm/rain was getting closer so the trip leaders decided to turn and paddle back. Well, the trip was therefore a little shorter than expected but still very enjoyable. Even though you can barely see it on the pictures, the trees are turning green right now. So it was a pretty day outside where we have seen also turtles, gees and other birds. Wecould even see the skyline from the lake which was awesome.

Here you go with a couple of pictures...

bomb threat after Virgina Tech shooting...

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 12:12:00 +0000

After the shocking incident at Virgina Tech on Monday, a couple of Universities received bomb threats on Tuesday. There was also a threat at the UofM on Wednesday, after which 7 buildings got evacuated. Luckily, these buildings were all on the other side of the Mississippi. So our classes took place as usual. It is still kind of desturbing, that there are other people who try to make a hoax out of this... Nevertheless, I am happy that the UofM takes it seriously.

Today, there will also be a memorial event for the students at Virgina Tech. I think the whole student community is mourning and feels also very sad about the event in Blacksbourg.

Al's Breakfast and trip to St. Paul...

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 04:35:00 +0000

Last Sunday I got up early after 6 hours of sleep to enjoy the sunny and warm spring day outside. First, I walked 150 yards to Al's Breakfast in Dinkytown where I enjoyed a great american breakfast; a short stack of blueberry pancakes, scrumbled eggs with tomato, swiss and basil and a side portion of bacon and wheat toast.
The restaurant is reportedly the narrowest full service restaurant with seating... there are 14 seats lined up at a counter. It is funny, since I was there 10 minutes before opening (9am on Sunday) and there were already two people waiting... the line up then got longer until the opening (see pictures). I also got to know Marcia and Michael who invited me sponteanously for the breakfast, just because it is a special thing to eat at Al's and since I am a foreign exchange student... Something funny which has to be noted is that if people leave and others are waiting behind the seats, you may have to move with the food in order to make it possible for the new guests to sit next to each other... really funny tough!

In St. Paul I walked around Harriet Island to enjoy the Mississippi and the Skyline. Then I discovered the rather sleepy downtown and made my way up to the huge cathedral. A chirch service was in progress when I entered so I did not take any pictures from inside. But I have to say it is a big and very nice cathedral. Around the area of the cathedral, you can also find some very nice streets with colorful houses. After discovering the neighbourhood I went sponteanously to the Historical Museum of Minnesota to discover a little the state's past. I read a lot about the natives and immigration into the state during the last 150 years, and I even saw a picture of Dred Scott who once stayed at Fort Snelling and started a famous supreme court case regarding slavery (regards to Dr. Drolshammer and his class about American Law Culture). After that visit I enjoyed the sunny day in front of the State Capitol and almost slept... it was an awesome spring day - I hope it stays like that!

Twins territory...

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 16:38:00 +0000

Last Monday we went to the Twins - Yankees baseball game here in Minneapolis at the Metrodome. So we took the bus after classes from Carlson School (two stops!) to the stadium. People were already mingeling in front of the stadium as I know it from Europe, but no fanatic fans were visible ;-) What suprised me was that we were allowed to drink beer outside in front of the stadium! New manners here in the US ;-) they finally get a bit closer to Europe... hihi ;-)

So Duc, Ivan and I checked out the food stands; first we ate a burger or a corn dog, accompanied with a beer. We then discovered roasted turkey leg... like a chicken leg but about 3 to 4 times bigger... so we had to try it... (see pictures below)... it was great but also filling. Well, that wasn't the last thing we ate on that day.
We then started to watch the game when the Yankees made two homeruns in the first two innings. Rather disappointing for us as "Twins fans"... Although our team had a bad start people were still cheering for the Twins. So the game was pretty interesting, and it got even better when we decided to go on with beer and food :-)

After 2.5 hours we lost 8:2 but we also enjoyed a great atmosphere at the Metrodome. By the way the Metrodome holds 48'000 people max and is supported by an air-inflated roof. So there is overpressure in the stadium; we were literally blown out of the Stadium when we left!!! You can actually very well see the Metrodome on Earth Google... check out the flag in the sidebar.

Once on the bus back to the west bank, we decided to go to Bullwinkles for another beer and chicken wings (25cent a piece ;-) ). We ended the evening with Honey beer and barbecue chicken wings... awesome!

highest quality of life in Zurich...

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 05:28:00 +0000

Well, this post is from a real Swiss guy currently living abroad for anyone who might want to consider coming to Europe and visit Switzerland, or who is considering studying or working in Switzerland.

Mercer Consulting has been studying the quality of life for 251 cities accross the globe, and Zurich (biggest city in Switzerland) has again won the first place in this study and Geneva ranked second and my favourity city Vancouver third... in another study from the Economist, Switzerland ranks second concerning quality of life...

Here you go with some pictures of Zurich and a link to the Tourism site.

soccer intramurals update...

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 16:52:00 +0000

It is high time that I posted something from our intramural soccer league. We have played 7 games, of which we won 2, tied 1 and lost 4. The last game next Tuesday will be against the leader of our group - so I don't believe that we will win or qualifly for the play offs... last time we played the pharmacy team we lost 7:2...

The game on last Tuesday was pretty tight, but we finally won 5:4. This time I even scored three goals - must be the new Puma soccer shoes that I have bought ;-)

Looking back, the intramural league was great fun and I am impressed especially by our girls in the team: they play very well. It was also cool to meet people outside of Carlson School... throught that you could also get the feeling of beloning to the whole campus and the UofM community.

Since the fieldhouse is pretty big and the picture did turn out to be to dark, I decided to post a short movie: unfortunately you won't see anyone scoring...

Paria Canyon - 38 miles hike, 3000 miles drive (!)

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 02:12:00 +0000

I finally found some time to write about our trip to Paria Canyon. It was an awesome trip with a couple of funny moments and some new things about US culture that I did not know before... but back to March 9th....
On that Friday the whole group met at the Center for Outdoor Activity to load the Van with the group gear and the personal backpacks (almost everything was provided). we then drove about 24 hours from Minneapolis to Kanab, UT... here you go with a map: The distance of 1530 miles corresponds to the distance on the road (not air!) from Winterthur to Gribraltar plus 200 kilometers into Africa :-) A nice short road trip though!

Once in Kanab, we unpacked all the stuff and splited the food, gas stoves, one tent and the pans. We set up camp at the entrance of Paria Canyon, called White house. We then prepared our first meal: Hobo - vegetables and meat with a little oil, salt and pepper and wrapped in aluminium foil. It was awesome (see pictures)!
The next morning we started our trip with a backback of about 35-40 pounds each. Well, my shoes wouldn't get dry until the very last day when we went home again... yep, we walked throught the canyon. That meant in the riverbed or alongside the riverbed. First the canyon was wide open and not deep, but this started to change with the second day. The second night we spent on a little hill close to Buckskin Gulch. This was awesome; total silence during the night between two step walls and a clear sky above... We then went on the next and the following day and got to the deepest point of the canyon where the walls are probably 400-500 feet high (see pictures to get a sense). Along the way we also filtered water from springs into the bladders and our bottles. In the middle of our hike, we stopped and took a side valley up to Wrather Arch - a huge arch (see Dan standing at the bottom of the arch). The last day was pretty much outside of the canyon again; the landscape opened up and it was mainly flat (if we had not taken some detours ;-) ) We arrived at Lees Ferry on Thursday at noon and we were all exhausted - everyone was longing for a cold drink and something sweet to eat. We went back with the Van to the Coral Sand Dunes State Park campground, where we could shower for the first time after 6 days :-). We ended the hiking week with a feast (I got to know S'more) and a last night outside under the sky where you can see the milky way and several shooting stars.
The next morning, we headed back in direction to Minneapolis, not directly though. We stopped at Bryce Canyon for a quick look - back again for me after three years! :-) After this amazing stop, we headed back north east, crossed Utah, Colorado, the city of Denver, Nebraska, Iowa and finally Minnesota. We passed an amazing landscape in Utah, the Rockies in Colorado, flat and neverending Nebraska (sorry, but there was nothing - and I mean realy nothing but flat and dry land), and a snow stom in Iowa before we got back to Minneaoplis after 24 hours...

Some sidemarks:

- we hiked 38 miles (60.8 km)...
- the weather was awesome: up to 25 degrees celsius, the nights were cold but ok in the sleeping bag or the tent...
- I got to know s'more, hobo...
- I learned what it means to be mooned - from a guy in another car and inside the van (upon request I will post the video ;-) )...
- I don't know if I have ever managed not to shower for 6 days...
- I am happy that I was not sued for sexual harassment...
- luckily it was still to cold for rattle snakes and scorpions...
- only Sean's heel hurt and Matt's flat feet ;-)
- everyone did stink...
- we saw a mormon family... funny though!
- Road trips are fun, driving half across the continent is not as bad and boring as it seems...
- I enriched my vocabulary with sophisticated words: queef
- coffee is essential on a tip like this...
- it also works abroad: one week without alcohol

Hey buddies - thanks for this amazing week out in the nature! See you on facebook...

St. Patrick's day...

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 16:18:00 +0000

Saturday was St.Patrick's day and this is a rather big party-day for the Americans... --> roots to the Irish :-)
So we went out last Saturday at the Irish Pub Blarney's in Dinkytown (about 200 meters from my apartment)... which is great for tottering home :-)

So the pub was already packed at around 10pm when we got there... everyone was wearing at least some green clothes. People were partying and a band was playing great sound. So it was a funny evening with friends. Unfortunately, I left my camera at home - lazy me! I checked the homepage of Blarney's and so far they do not have any pictures of this event... dam it! But I tell you - this was an awesome night!
The also organized a Pub Crawl - where about 50-80 people go from pub to pub in green shirts. After an hour they leave with a bus to the next place and so on... I did not know about that unfortunately... that would have been even better!

I wish St. Patrick Day would be that big an event in Switzerland as it is here!

back from spring break - pictures follow later...

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 03:29:00 +0000

I returned yesterday from an awesome week in Utah/Arizona in Paria Canyon. I will post another post within the next week and as soon as I have all pictures from the other participants.
Attached you find some pictures of the international food competition of the full time MBA program at the MBA lounge. It took place just before spring break (on the day the university was shut down due to bad weather) and was a great opportunity to try different international food styles... unfortunately, I only new it a couple of days in advance... otherwise I would have tried to compete with "Alplermakkaroni" or "Fondue" :-) but I am sure I would not have had a chance to win ;-)

off for spring break...

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 23:33:00 +0000

Tomorrow I will go to a backpacking and hiking trip to Paria Canyon, close to Grand Canyon. We will hike and camp in or close to the canyon. Weather is doing fine so far and it looks as if we will have a great week. I have also added a google earth flag for the canyon.

...opening show of the game

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 16:29:00 +0000

Here you go with a taste of the opening show. The movie was taken with my digital cam... so the quality could be better... you could see wolves on the screen and exhilerating sound surounded the movie.

Timberwolves - Utah Jazz....

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 15:12:00 +0000

Sorry for the delay in posting, but I had to finish my master thesis. This was very important, since I have to hand it in next Monday... and a friend in Switzerland (Heiner - the great) :-) will hand it in for me - thanks again!
So back to the title topic: Last Saturday we went to the NBA game Timberwolves - Utah Jazz at the Target Center in Minneapolis downtown. Utah is currently the fourth in the Western Conference and the Timerwolves rank eleventh. This situation was then also present on the field: The Timberwolves made so many mistakes... it was sometimes unbelievable. And by the way; basketball on TV is much more interesting than live in the stadium - it seems much faster and more ambitious on TV. So a couple of minutes before the end of the game, people started to leave the seats and go home! Five minutes left, and the stadium was almost empty - what a shame! We stayed although the Timberwolves finally lost 83-109.
Afterwards, we went to the Local pub (an irish pub in downtown), and I took the chance to take some pictures. We drunk beer and ate great food: 5 burgers for 5.99 USD! ...and the burgers were awesome. Fritz (Austrian - alias burger king) ate all five, I was full after three of them!

See sidebar for additional earth google flags.

some impressions of the latest storm...

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 20:36:00 +0000

Ok, the strom is over and the Midwest was hit pretty hard. The University even closed on Thursday afternoon... according to my room mate that has never happened during the last couple of years. On TV they even talked about the heaviest snow fall over one weekend in 10 years... so as you can see from the pictures, it was a lot of snow. Meanwhile, the weather is better and it was even very pretty with the blue sky and all the snow covered landscape. I put some impresssions online, I hope you enjoy.

Especially watch the piles along the street - it's a pain getting on and off the buses. And it is even worse now that the snow is melting...

severe weather again...

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:11:00 +0000

Last weekend a big snow strom crossed the midwest, resulting in 500 flight cancellation in Chicago and at least a foot of snow Minneapolis. So far so good - winter is nice here and not like currently in Europe :-) we have plenty of snow, just no real ski slopes like we do in Switzerland...
Since yesterday afternoon, another snow storm is crossing Minnesota and they expect another 14 inches of snow. Right now it is heavily snowing and it looks like somewhere in a ski ressort outside. Also check out the weather forcast in the sidebar to see the details.

The weather here was anyways crazy this winter: December was way to warm and one of the warmest winter month here, in January we faced the longest consecutive period in days with temperature below zero Fahrenheit and last week we got the first snow storm so far...

So, nothing for people that like warm weather or sunshine :-)

new google earth flags...

noreply@blogger.com (Tomy) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 20:47:00 +0000

I added some google earth flags form my trip to Greensboro. Check it out on the right sidebar...
Furthermore, I also uploaded a video I took out of the car before I went back to the airport. It shows a medium road from the highway towards my former apartment.